Aug 14, 2013 | Blog

The Greatest Leadership Principle – Raising Up the Next Guy, Part 1

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A search of respected blogs and periodicals about leadership reveals a largely cohesive group of characteristics that most experts agree a person should possess if they want to gain recognition as a great leader. For example, most agree that leaders must have vision. They must communicate clearly and often. They must admit their faults, delegate, share the glory, and relate to their employees on a personal level.

 

But, what is the most important leadership principle, the one that stands out, head and shoulders above the rest? I believe it is ‘raising up the next guy’: coming alongside your lieutenant (or lieutenants) and instructing them how to do what you as their leader do every day, preparing them to maintain or even exceed the high expectations you have set for yourself and for your organization. It is a high calling, and one that even the best leaders sometimes shy away from, for various reasons.

 

Below are three of the most common reasons:

 

  • Some leaders don’t raise up the next guy for fear of being forgotten.
    Last year, Profiles International hired a fellow named Jason to work in our Marketing department. Jason’s first real job out of college was for a nonprofit in Virginia. He traveled the country with six other recent graduates, raising money for missionary and humanitarian efforts overseas. They worked, they played, they saw the world, they drove around in a big silver Prevost bus that easily spent twice as much time in the shop as it did on the road. It was fun; it was also exhausting. After five years there, Jason’s time as leader was clearly up, and luckily, there was another bright-eyed graduate in line behind him to take his place. Jason had expected a grand farewell for time served; but while the team and the company’s leaders were congratulatory, that big bus kept on rolling. It was the nature of the beast (coincidentally, their nickname for the bus) – they had to keep moving to keep the donations coming in. If he had even one more drop of adrenaline in his system, Jason might have made a desperate, last-minute plea to stay on…but, fortunately for them (and for him), Jason was too tired to mount a case.
    • The lesson: Fear of being forgotten can cause a leader to stay past their expiration date.
  • Some leaders don’t raise up the next guy for fear of being revealed.
    Conversely, some leaders fail to raise up the next guy(s) because they’re afraid of being revealed. A coworker at Profiles – we’ll call him “John” – once confided in me that his previous employer had confessed that he was incapable of teaching John how to do what he did, even though the former employer was quite adept at his job. Over time, John noticed that his former employer was a little more protective of “his spot” than some other leaders he had known and observed, and that his old boss always had a ready excuse for why his second-tier guys like John weren’t hitting the ball out of the park (“Jill’s not ready,” “Jack’s got a lot going on right now,” “Alice is a touch too young still, but she has potential”). I surmised that part of John’s former employer’s reluctance to raise up the next guy was a fear of failure: if his second-tier guys got their shot and missed, he would be held responsible for not training them properly. Astute observers are able to tell that failures immediately after your departure are still yours; it is your responsibility to prepare them to lead in your absence.
    • The lesson: Fear of being revealed can cause a leader to hold on too tightly to the reins of power, or to make excuses for why they are too important to surrender authority.
  • Some leaders don’t raise up the next guy for fear of being surpassed.
    Every one of us possesses some degree of ego. Properly harnessed, ego can drive hard work and innovation. Unharnessed, ego can turn even the most gifted leader into a micromanaging, big-footing, glass-ceiling-building monster, especially if the next guy in line behind them is especially driven, talented, or connected. In this case, the leader’s ego won’t allow for the next guy to potentially trump his accomplishments, even if it’s in the best interests of the organization.
    • The lesson: Fear of being surpassed can cause a leader to keep the next guy down, instead of raise him up.

These are just a few reasons why some leaders might balk at the idea of raising up the next guy. As you can see, these reasons almost always involve a level of fear or insecurity in the leader themselves. In Part 2 of The Greatest Leadership Principle, we’ll examine the three reasons why confident, secure leaders invest in raising up the next guy, and the benefits it brings to them personally and professionally.

 

Joseph “Bud” Haney serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Profiles International. After his baseball career, he worked for an international human resources development company in several executive roles before becoming its president. In addition, he is a coauthor of the best-selling business guide 40 Strategies for Winning in Business and the book, Leadership Charisma, written to help people harness their personal and professional charisma to improve their business and careers.