Subscribe to Every Post:Who are you grooming today?
A few months ago I began to post several reflections I had during my sabbatical earlier this year. One of those reflections, that I have yet to write about, is in the area of leadership succession. Most people do not engage in succession planning, but when they do, the most conventional approach is to begin developing a succession plan in connection to an exit strategy. In other words, when I feel my time is drawing to a close in my position (either because I am moving on or because I am nearing retirement), I look for a successor to groom who will eventually take my place.
What if, however, I was not thinking about an upcoming exit strategy, but yet I began grooming a successor (or several possible successors) anyway? Would this be unwise or healthy?
Prior to this year, I always assumed I would not begin grooming a successor until there was a “reason” for it. I feel challenged, however, to believe differently about this (both for myself and as a matter of principle for every leader in the church).
We see this practice of succession throughout Scripture: Abraham to Isaac, Isaac to Jacob, Jacob to his twelve sons, Moses to Joshua, Saul to David, David to Solomon, Elijah to Elisha, John the Baptist to Jesus, Jesus to the disciples, and so on. I recently taught on Elijah’s transition to Elisha. What was interesting to me is that God named Elijah’s successor well before Elijah was nearing retirement (well before he developed an exit strategy). In fact, Elijah and Elisha spent ten years together as Elijah groomed Elisha.
What if every leader was engaged in grooming a succesor or potential successors on a continual basis? What would it look like if no one ever stepped down from their position or left it unexpectedly without having someone already waiting in the wings? What if there was a culture of succession within the DNA of everyone in the church?
I am sure many people already have this mentality and are living it out, but for me, this is something that has not been on my radar. I always thought this is something that you think about sometime down the road.
Jesus spent three years developing the greatest succession plan in history: people like us taking his place and filling his shoes. Succession was critical to Jesus’ overall strategy for ministry.
Think about your position of leadership or where you serve. What if you began grooming possible successor now? We don’t know how long we will be on this earth, in our position, or able to lead. One thing we do know, we will all step down from our leadership position at some point. We are all leading on a temporary basis until we hand our leadership over to someone else. This may be 10 weeks or 10 years from now. Regardless of the timing, it seems we will be a little more like Jesus if we are grooming others right now to eventually take our place in the future.