When you think of famous Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom names like Clement Attlee, Sir Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George, Margaret Thatcher, and more recently, David Cameron come to mind. Though for most of us who’ve studied or taken an interest in history, the name of Mr. Churchill is always the most familiar thanks to his part in the Second World War. That and his other statesmen accomplishments have earned him the admiration of being one of the most respected, successful and, some say, the greatest Prime Minister of UK. In contrast, however, Prime Minister Anthony Eden didn’t enjoy much approval. In fact you could say he was an unsuccessful successor.
Now there’s of course two sides of Mr. Eden’s story and what he accomplished (or didn’t) during his tenure. But nonetheless, he’s quite unpopular and highly regarded as failing to achieve much. The puzzling part is, however, that he served as Mr. Churchill’s deputy for 15 years prior to becoming the Prime Minister. Makes you wonder how a great leader could breed such an unsuccessful successor?
Challenges of the Current Leader
One of the most important role for a leader, aside from business growth, vision implementation and talent acquisition is to develop capacity within the company. Capacity in the form of strong leadership and succession pipeline. Leaders spend years and even decades developing this talent, grooming, mentoring, nurturing and shaping them into being the best versions of themselves. But sometimes all these efforts fail when it’s time for them to step up and grab the bull by the horns.
And it’s not uncommon for the existing CEO to hand over the reins to their long serving deputy. Just this morning I read about the CEO of Lego planning to appoint Bali Padda, the company’s COO for 14 years, as the next leader of the global toy company. Mr. Padda has worked very closely with the present CEO and isn’t new to the company or the industry. In fact, he was quite instrumental in boosting the company’s profitability in the past decade. So there’s much promise riding on Mr. Padda’s shoulders, though time will tell how well the company will do under his leadership.
Last week, Howard Schultz, CEO and Chairman of Starbucks also announced that he’s stepping down and passing on the mantle to COO, Kevin Johnson. It seems it’s only logical to appoint a successor who’s worked so closely with and has been groomed by the present leader.
What Makes an Unsuccessful Successor?
With all economical and sociopolitical factors remaining constant and not playing a negative role in the successor’s path to achieve glory, there’s little that can go wrong. Well at least in theory. But somehow, things don’t always manifest the way they should and companies and their employees bear the brunt of an unsuccessful successor.
The Loss of Company Vision
Vision often is the challenge that mars a new leader to be known as an unsuccessful successor. Founding and even long serving CEOs who’ve driven a company to newer, broader horizons implement strategies with such clear vision of what they want the company to achieve that it often becomes challenging and difficult for their successors to emulate.
Steve Ballmer replaced Bill Gates as the CEO of Microsoft and in his 14 years reign he tripled the company’s sales. Seems like a successful succession story right? But if you look deeper, Ballmer was a great salesman riding on the glories of existing products and services. In his tenure not much was invested towards future projects, products or services. So while he may have earned the company $78 billion, Microsoft lost out to its competitors in the areas of mobile, cloud and search services. Basically, Ballmer wasn’t able to carry forward the vision that drove Microsoft to greatness. Something Bill Gates was successful at.
Trying to be Undisruptive
New leaders sometimes try to jump onboard a sailing boat and try not to rock it too much. The ideology they employ is that if things are operating and running smoothly, there’s little or no need to disrupt things or change too much. So if you’ve got a tried and tested strategy, formula or even process, there’s no reason to bring about changes. Such leaders will ride the winds and let the company drift calmly. As the saying goes, ‘why try to fix something that’s not broken’.
But, of course, not everything can remain constant. In today’s fast-paced environment where consumer needs and market trends are constantly and rapidly changing, companies and their leaders need to be nimble and quick to manage and handle changes. Failing to do so, could result in your leadership being seen as unsuccessful.
Stepping Out of the Shadow
When taking on a senior leadership position there’s much expectations riding on the incumbent. It’s not easy filling the gap created by a successful leader. You’re in the spotlight by shareholders, employees and all other stakeholders who’re looking at you for guidance and direction. Expectations ride high when you’re in the hottest seat of the company.
That’s why some successors try their utmost to step away from the shadow of their predecessors. They’ll work endlessly to devise new strategies and give the company new purpose and vision. These can be great if the leader can steer the company towards new, greener horizons. However, it can be a nightmare if stepping out of the shadow disrupts the core of the company’s ideology. The new leader may face resistance and decisions could be fatal for the business. And sadly, all that leads to is the leader being branded as an unsuccessful successor.
The new leader, no doubt, has some big shoes to fill, and it’s never a walk in the park. A challenging role it sure is. A demanding situation it definitely is to succeed a respected and successful leader. But if the new leader plays his or her cards right, they may just be able to avoid the title of an unsuccessful successor.
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