Search
When I reflect on the gradual emergence of next-generation leadership, I prefer not to focus on titles or succession charts. Instead, I encourage next-generation leaders to consider a question more basic yet far more powerful.
Do people genuinely want to follow you?
It's a question I frequently find myself asking many CEOs and controlling owners. Their next-gen professionals are executing, showing up, managing complexity, and taking a great deal of pressure off the founder. They've steadily become critical to the firm's success.
- To the founder, these individuals are true next-gen leaders.
- To their teammates, however, they're just other people who are executing. And as we all know, there's a tremendous difference between execution and leadership.
Most next-gen leaders have cut their teeth in a culture where certain behaviors have been reinforced. They've learned from the people who hired and mentored them what works and how decisions are made. And that's by no means a bad thing. It's just how organizations work.
The leadership that grows a firm from ten to fifty employees, however, is very different from the leadership needed to grow from fifty to a hundred. At that size, followership becomes more important than execution.
Marshall Goldsmith has described this phenomenon well in his book What Got You Here Won't Get You There. Korn Ferry has also studied it from a practical perspective. Their research on effective transitions for next-gen leaders found that more than 80% of leaders fail to transition effectively into followership roles the first time. The reason isn't a lack of skills. It's influence -- which helps explain why they found that improving personal qualities can increase team engagement by more than 40%.
The difference between competence and influence defines the realm of followership.
The next generation no longer has to ask, "Can I be a leader?" Instead, the question becomes, "Will people choose to follow me?" Mentors and founders face the same question. "Are you developing someone to lead the firm into the future, or someone who can flawlessly execute within the current system?" To answer these questions properly, a well-defined structure and process are needed.
How to Declare the Type of Leader You Intend to Become
This is where the process begins, and it's where many next-generation leaders spend too little time. Before followership can be evaluated, a leader must have a clear sense of who he or she is becoming. Not the role they currently hold, nor the role someone else has assigned to them, but the leader he or she intends to become.
Mentorship is critical at this phase. Founders and controlling owners should contribute to the process by sharing their perspectives on the organization's future direction and the leadership requirements those changes will necessitate. Next-generation leaders must also contribute by sharing their perspectives on their individual strengths, tendencies, and growth opportunities.
This dialogue helps clarify which skills and abilities are currently possessed and which need to be developed. If not understood, the process can quickly become disorganized and turn into a personal critique rather than a growth opportunity.
Why Assess Followership with Three Sources of Input
A proper assessment always includes three fundamental components.
- A self-assessment.
- Feedback from a larger group. Peers, cross-functional team members, and others who interact with the leader in different circumstances often provide insights that are not apparent in one-on-one feedback.
- Feedback from direct reports or a manager (depending on the leader's position). This group has witnessed the individual's consistent leadership behavior, making them the most exposed.
When next-generation leaders bring all three components of feedback together and mentors facilitate the process without filtering or rescuing, the dialogue becomes more meaningful. This enables leaders to move from opinion to data and from instinct to insights. To help solidify the assessment, ClientWise recommends using the following seven fundamental questions to help your organization focus on followership rather than leadership style:
- Do people trust the leader's intentions?
- Do people feel heard before decisions are made?
- Do people experience growth and development when around the leader?
- Do people see accountability when things go wrong?
- Do people feel like the leader is advocating for them, even when they're not around?
- Do people understand what the leader expects of them?
- And lastly, would people want to work for the leader again?
Mentors will realize that these seven questions facilitate a common language -- a language which helps eliminate ambiguity and allows the organization to focus on followership, which directly influences scale.
How to Design a Focused Development Plan
No value is created solely through assessment. Value is created by thoughtfully synthesizing self-assessment, feedback, and direct input into a clear development plan. This step turns leadership development into an actionable process.
- The plan must be specific;
- It must include opportunities to gain influence, not authority;
- It must provide chances to work with others, not control others; and
- It must present situations to test decision-making, communication, and trust building.
Mentors bring considerable value to the process in this phase. They help the next-generation leader identify the right leadership opportunities, the right risks to take, and the right moments to step forward or step back. When both the mentor and the next-generation leader have the same data, the development process better aligns with the firm's future rather than with its current challenges and pressures.
Lastly, another point is worth noting. The leadership development plan should be shared with others. By sharing it with the individuals who provided feedback, the leader increases their credibility and demonstrates a genuine commitment to the development process.
Execution is always necessary. Without it, a firm cannot exist. But followership allows a firm to transcend its founders and endure through future generations. For the next-generation leader, this process provides clarity. For the mentors and founders, it's a disciplined approach to developing leadership skills without relying on instinct.
Because when a leader incorporates all three elements -- self-assessment, multi-source feedback, and development design -- they gain a comprehensive view they can use to confidently build and direct the firm's future.
Coaching Questions From This Article
-
Even if your next-gen leaders are executing flawlessly and easing the pressure on your shoulders, consider whether their teammates would actively choose to follow them based solely on their influence rather than their title. If not, what actions can you take to help build that followership?
-
The leadership style that successfully grew your firm to its current size likely won't get you to the next level of growth. Are you mentoring your successors to flawlessly execute within your current system, or are you intentionally building their capacity to drive team engagement and build trust?
-
When evaluating your 'bench strength,' are you relying on gut instinct or assessing unfiltered data and feedback? What process can you put in place to gather information from peers and direct reports about the ultimate metric: Would they willingly work for this person again?
