Mentor Your Successor with a Clear Vision
Let’s face it. Sharing a vision is tricky. It requires trust and vulnerability in equal parts. It’s easy to be fooled into believing your business vision is best kept safe inside your head. After all, if you share your vision with someone, they might laugh, steal it, or worse, they might not care.
At some point, however, most business owners need someone to care about their vision. How else will they be able to leverage their business to fund their retirement or other dreams? How will they ever be able to convert their sweat equity to finance their future? Ultimately there comes a time when most business owners need someone to catch hold of their vision and carry it forward with the enthusiasm of a quarterback making a game-winning touchdown.
Mentor Your Successor by Sharing Your Vision
Once you’ve identified a person you believe could be your successor, my advice is to share your vision with them. My mentor, Steve Olsen, believed in me even before I believed in myself. One of the first ways he conveyed his belief was by sharing his vision for me. He helped me see the potential I had, long before I saw it myself. He helped me believe in myself and his business.
Something else I learned from Steve was how to be transparent with my successors. Steve modeled transparency in sharing the goings-on of the business with me regularly. He didn’t hide things from me, and in treating me this way, my interest in the company continued to grow. My craving for knowledge skyrocketed as he kept fueling my curiosity with information and opportunity. As a result, my skills and confidence grew in equal measure. I became the one he trusted to run with the ball and build the next winning team.
What’s Your Plan?
What’s your plan to help a successor build the next winning team? Get it clear in your mind and commit to it. And know this: it won’t be easy. There will be setbacks, injuries. and heartache. But with a clear strategy, an intentional mindset, and a shared vision, you’ll be the one sitting in the stands cheering the next team on to great success.
