The Metiss Group's Blog

If your direct reports are doing the same job, with the same responsibilities, two years from now, you have not done your job as a leader. Your job is to grow your direct reports and prepare them for added responsibilities or to be moved on. Poor leaders fail to groom their direct reports because they don’t have a succession plan for the activities currently being performed.

What if your direct report suddenly leaves? What is your succession plan? Often leaders neglect this important, not urgent task. Part of your plan for each direct report’s succession should be to have all key job functions documented. Don’t have time? Make it the direct report’s responsibility (maybe one of their quarterly goals) to create the documentation.

Knowing you have a plan should something happen to your direct reports will allow you to further empower them to grow and succeed in their current role or a new one (and allow you to sleep better at night).

Mark McCormack, in his book What They Don’t Teach You at Harvard Business School, tells of a Harvard study conducted between 1979 and 1989. In 1979, the graduates of the MBA program were asked, “Have you set clear, written goals for your future and made plans to accomplish them?” It turned out that only 3% of the graduates had written goals and plans; 13% had goals, but not in writing; and 84% had no specific goals at all.

Ten years later, in 1989, the researchers interviewed the members of that same class again. They found the 13% who had goals that were not in writing were earning twice as much as the 84% of students who had no goals at all. And most surprisingly, they found that the 3% of graduates who had clear, written goals when they left Harvard were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97% of graduates all together. The only difference between the groups was the clarity of the goals they had for themselves when they graduated.

Yes, you read that correctly. The 3% who had clear, written goals earned ten times as much as the 97% who didn’t have clear, written goals. Almost all successful people have goals, and outstanding high achievers have clearly defined written goals. That said, why do so few people actually write out their goals?

Empower your direct reports to write down their goals and you’ll see them become more successful

source: Brian Tracy, Goals!

Most successful leaders we talk to can recall the specific point in their career when one of their bosses took a chance on them.  The leader will typically credit this boss/mentor for having launched their career and greatly appreciated the chance to demonstrate their abilities.

It’s flabbergasting how many of these same leaders today are reluctant to take similar risks with their direct reports.  In all likelihood the boss who took a chance on you had some trepidations but realized you and the organization will be more successful by giving you a chance to grow.  Sure some of these risks don’t payoff, but the learning experience will still pay dividends.

You don’t have to blindly empower your direct reports and hope they deliver.  Establish borders and boundaries for the empowering task.  Be clear about what success looks like and specify the available resources, restrictions, and timeframes.

Remember you might not be where you are today had a leader not taken a risk on you; empower your direct reports, set borders and boundaries, and you’ll both be successful (and someday your direct report will credit you for launching their career).