Succession

At some point, you won't be around to lead your agency anymore.

Whether you step back, sell up, help your team take ownership, get taken really ill, die, or get kidnapped by aliens for freaky experiments into why humans choose to do crazy things like start agencies — the handover could come slowly or quickly.

How prepared is your agency for that?

• Do you have a talent pipeline that means you can see leadership successors forming? How could you develop that? Could you gradually give them more control now?

• Is the culture, strategy and purpose deeply embedded, so the agency will continue to be confident in its reasons for being and ways of working? How could you strengthen this?

• Do you have an advisory board to support the CEO and the business?

• Do you have solid processes that mean people know what to do without you supervising every move, or picking up the pieces?

One member of the Agency Senate told us recently:

"Having suffered covid seriously in ICU I have decided to improve on contingency and continuity, and to establish a board who can help manage the agency in the event something should happen to me again."
— Owner of a consultancy agency, Founded 2009, Headcount: 30–74, HQ in Switzerland

This week, reflect on some distant future in which your agency is without you, for whatever reason ('kidnapped by aliens' does make it easier to discuss with people).

Make some notes about what you will do in the next few months to ensure it is prepared. Then action those things, and have a much more relaxed and happy life knowing you're building the business for a long and secure future.

Because great leaders show us that they work not just for the buzz of today, but with thought and commitment to the long term.