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Secession planning: Are you prepared to let go?
If you own a small to medium-size business and are looking to retire in a few years, you could soon be facing a big problem: When you leave, the value of your company will be greatly diminished because you have not trained your people to do what you do. You say you already have? Good for you. You can read this sitting in the bleachers. For the rest of you, it is time to get on the field of play and do some problem solving. Here’s a story for you:
Several years ago I was coaching a business owner who had built a successful business in graphic art design. His name was Mike, and his business was experiencing explosive growth. He had just completed designing the book cover for a world-famous athlete and he was beside himself. It was all he could do to just keep up with his work. He came to me for some executive coaching. I remember the first thing he said: “I have had clients tell me that when they are in a meeting with me and my team, whenever I leave the room, the value of my business drops in half”. From that comment, I assumed he wanted to become better at delegating and building his people. I was wrong.
After about six weeks, he lost interest. I was puzzled, but as I observed more closely, I realized that he liked the idea of the value of his business dropping in half when he left the room. It was the ego trip he had dreamed of all his life. When I realized this, I backed away, and he reverted to his previous habits and patterns. It wasn’t long before his health began to suffer, and so did his business. He was not able to recover his prosperity.
I learned three lessons in working with Mike:
- Trust in your people
- Delegation is building others, not just distributing the work load.
- If you want your business to enjoy steady, healthy, growth, be prepared to “Let go of what you love”
It takes vision, planning, courage, and discipline…the same qualities you employed to start your business in the first place!