When it comes to leadership, one of the most critical and often overlooked responsibilities is planning for the future of your team or organization. Succession planning is about much more than filling an empty chair—it’s about preparing your team and your organization for the future. You’re not going to lead forever. Whether you’re running a business, managing a team, or leading a family, the time will come when you’ll need to step back and pass the torch. The question is: Will you be ready, and more importantly, will your team be ready?
Succession planning is about building resiliency in your team and ensuring their long-term success. It’s about creating a seamless transition that enables the team to continue to succeed and grow, even when you’re no longer there to guide the way. Effective succession planning will require leadership, planning and a disciplined approach. Let’s talk about some actionable steps for creating a solid succession plan that will keep your team moving forward.
1. Plan Early – Discipline Equals Freedom
The first aspect of succession planning is realizing it is never too early to start. Do not wait until the moment of transition to start planning. In fact, the earlier you can begin assessing, training, and mentoring your team with succession in mind, the better. Not only will it allow you the time needed to make the right decisions, but it will also become a net benefit to your entire team as they become more experienced and confident in their abilities and decision-making. Early planning allows you the freedom to develop future leaders over time, giving them the experience and knowledge they need to succeed.
Discipline in planning leads to freedom in execution. If you’re disciplined in developing leaders today, you’ll have the freedom to make a smooth and successful transition tomorrow. Waiting until the last minute limits your options and increases the risk of failure.
2. Extreme Ownership – Take Responsibility for the Future
The first and most important principle of succession planning is ownership. As a leader, you must own not just the success of the team today, but its success tomorrow. If you aren’t preparing someone to take your place, you’re failing in your role as a leader.
Too many leaders focus only on their current responsibilities or get bogged down in the day-to-day details that they forget to look ahead. They become too focused on the here and now, or they think succession planning is someone else’s problem. It’s not. If you’re in a leadership position, planning for your replacement is your responsibility. Period. No excuses.
It does not matter how much success you had in your role, or the goals your organization achieved with you at the helm, if you did not plan for your departure and prepare your replacement you have failed as a leader. It does not do the organization any good if you depart without passing off your knowledge and expertise to the next generation of leaders.
When I was running the Training Detachment for the West Coast SEAL Teams, I would drive this point home with the leaders we were training for war. I would let them know in no uncertain terms, a large part of their job and, indeed, their responsibility to the SEAL community was to make sure their subordinate leaders were prepared to lead. On the battlefield, a leader can be killed or injured at any moment, and if subordinates are not prepared to step up and fill that role, the results will be disastrous. While the stakes may not be the same, this principle remains the same in business. If you, as a leader, are not training and preparing your replacement, you are preparing for failure. It’s up to you to take ownership of succession planning. The future of the organization depends on it.
3. Decentralized Command – Build Leaders at Every Level
To create a strong succession plan, you need to build leaders at every level of the organization. Succession planning is not just about identifying a single person to replace you; it’s about building a deep bench of capable leaders who are ready to step up when needed. This is the entire theory and purpose of Decentralized Command.
Decentralized command empowers team members to make decisions within their areas of responsibility, which is critical for succession planning. By encouraging team members to think critically, prioritize, and make calls on their own, you’re preparing them to handle higher-stakes decisions when they move into leadership positions. Over time, this regular exposure to decision-making helps potential successors develop the judgment and confidence they’ll need to lead effectively.
When each team member is given ownership of their role, they’re more likely to see themselves as contributors to the overall mission. Decentralized command fosters a culture where individuals don’t just execute tasks but take responsibility for their success. This mindset of ownership is invaluable for succession planning because successors already understand that they are responsible for outcomes, not just for tasks. They’re more prepared to handle the responsibility of a leadership role.
In addition, when command is decentralized, team members are less dependent on a single leader for direction, which is key for succession planning. Should a leader leave, the team doesn’t lose its operational momentum because other team members are already equipped to handle responsibilities and make decisions. This reduces the potential disruption of a transition and creates a team that can adapt and operate independently, a critical trait when new leaders take the helm.
Decentralized command also gives leaders the opportunity to observe how team members respond to responsibility, pressure, and decision-making in real time. By giving members autonomy, you’re able to see who has the initiative, judgment, and resilience to handle more significant responsibilities. This practical insight helps identify those who are best suited for future leadership roles based on their actions, growth and perhaps most importantly how they deal with setbacks and failure.
A final benefit of decentralized command lies in its distribution of responsibilities, the transition of leadership is often less disruptive. Successors are already familiar with key aspects of the role they’ll be stepping into and are likely already involved in decision-making. This continuity reduces the learning curve for new leaders and allows for a smoother handover of responsibilities. In short, decentralized command transforms the team into a leadership incubator, allowing for the organic development of successors and making transitions more seamless. It builds the resilience, accountability, and decision-making prowess necessary for strong leaders, which are foundational to effective succession planning.
4. Mentorship – Teach, Don’t Just Tell
Developing future leaders requires mentorship, and this goes hand-in-hand with decentralized command. This doesn’t mean just telling people what to do—it means teaching them how to think and lead. A good leader doesn’t just hand down orders; they pass down lessons, experience, and wisdom.
As succession planning requires current leaders to step back, mentorship is a structured way to help mentors feel confident in letting go. By working closely with mentees and seeing their growth firsthand, mentors can feel more comfortable transferring responsibilities and knowledge. This confidence helps smooth the transition, knowing that their successor is ready and capable.
Mentorship also helps embed the organization’s values, mission, and culture into the next generation of leaders. By working closely with a mentor, mentees learn not just what to do but also why the organization operates the way it does, how decisions are aligned with core values, and what the company’s unwritten norms and expectations are. This continuity in culture is key to a smooth leadership transition and helps maintain the organization’s identity.
Mentorship is about spending time with your team, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and helping them grow. It’s about letting them take the lead on important decisions and coaching them through the process. The goal is to transfer your knowledge, skills, and mindset to the next generation of leaders.
5. Check the Ego – It’s Not About You
Succession planning is not about you—it’s about the team. Ego can get in the way of this process if you’re not careful. When leaders are driven by ego, they may feel the need to retain control over certain tasks, projects, or knowledge to assert their value and authority. This mindset can prevent them from delegating responsibilities or sharing critical information, making it difficult for potential successors to gain the necessary skills and experience. The result is a bottleneck: only the current leader has the expertise, leaving successors unprepared.
Succession planning is fundamentally about preparing others to take over. However, a leader’s ego can make it difficult for them to let go of their position or influence. They may fear being “replaced” or no longer being seen as valuable, which leads to hesitancy or outright resistance to a well-prepared transition. This can create a power struggle, delay the succession process, and leave the organization vulnerable if the leader exits unexpectedly.
Ego-driven leaders often foster a culture of dependence, where team members must rely on them for approval or guidance on even routine decisions. This stifles decentralized command and inhibits the growth of independent decision-making skills within the team. When successors lack the opportunity to develop autonomy and confidence, they may struggle to lead effectively if the leader suddenly exits the organization.
In addition, a leader with an inflated ego may feel threatened by the potential of others, unintentionally discouraging team members from taking initiative or innovating. When potential successors don’t feel empowered or encouraged to take on new challenges, their growth is limited. This stifling environment often leads to missed opportunities for team members to develop critical leadership skills, which are essential for a smooth succession.
Ego can also cloud a leader’s ability to objectively evaluate potential successors. Instead of focusing on who genuinely demonstrates the skills, character, and potential needed to succeed in the role, an ego-driven leader may favor those who flatter them or agree with them rather than those who challenge ideas constructively. This bias can lead to the selection of successors who lack the capabilities required to lead effectively, undermining the future success of the team.
Ego can be extremely damaging to succession planning by blocking knowledge transfer, discouraging team initiative, and creating a culture of dependency rather than growth. To build a strong succession plan, leaders must set aside ego, embrace humility, and focus on the development of others. This commitment to preparing the next generation of leaders without the need for validation sets the team and the organization on a sustainable path to future success. If you’re a true leader, your goal should be the long-term success of the team, not your personal legacy. In fact, the only way to ensure you even have a legacy within the organization is by ensuring your experience, insight and lessons learned have been passed to the next generation of leaders.
The Bottom Line: Set Your Team Up to Win Without You
Succession planning is a fundamental responsibility of any leader who truly cares about the long-term success and resilience of their team or organization. It goes beyond the short-sighted goal of simply filling a vacant position; it’s about strategically developing the team to thrive and evolve, even in the absence of current leadership. Effective succession planning requires forward-thinking, deliberate actions, and a commitment to building a foundation that can endure changes seamlessly. Leaders who prioritize succession planning understand that they’re creating a legacy—one that extends their influence and strengthens the organization’s future.In weaving these principles together—planning early, taking ownership of the future, embracing decentralized command, mentoring with purpose, and setting ego aside—leaders create a powerful succession plan that positions their team and organization for enduring success. This approach doesn’t just prepare individuals for future leadership but fosters a resilient, empowered team that’s capable of facing new challenges with confidence and unity. In the end, true leadership is about making oneself replaceable by creating a team that’s strong, adaptable, and ready to carry forward the mission, no matter who is in charge. Let us help you design a leadership development program to build your next generation of leaders.
