The Outgoing Leader: Preparing Your Team For Departure
Submitted by James Higginbotham on June 1, 2009 – 5:00 amNo Comment
Eventually, the time will come. You may need to move to a new town. Or, perhaps God is calling you to a new season for you. Whatever the reason, you’ll have to transition out of your leadership role. Your transition may be a smooth one, or a bumpy road with many stumbling blocks. Much of this experience is up to you.Â
Here is a checklist of things you’ll need to tackle as you prepare your team for your departure:
- Inform your staff and team – let your staff and teamknow your desire to leave, your transition plan, and how long you have to conduct the transition. Start with staff, then with their guidance determine when to inform your team. Be sure to let your team know why and that it isn’t anything they did, as some may take it personally
- Ensure your leaders and managers can operate without you around – you may want to test this by taking a week off occasionally and see what happens. Give them some notice that you’re taking a week off and see if things go smooth without your involvement. If not, you have work to do
- Document all procedures - you should already have your procedures documented, but if not now is the time. Make sure everything is up-to-date, simple, and easy to understand
- Plan for plenty of time to transition - we’ll talk more in coming articles about this, but be sure to allocate plenty of time. Bill gates took years to prepare his leadership team before leaving the day-to-day operations to others. You may not be leading Microsoft, but you still need to give everyone some time to deal with the process
- Help your staff find a new leader – your staff will often need your input on who should take over the team. Don’t just find the first person and shove them into it. Spend some time in prayer and consideration of a few candidates. Then, work with your staff to select the right one
Even if you aren’t planning to leave today, review this list and grade yourself on how prepared you are for God’s next calling. It could be tomorrow!
Popularity: 1% []