Week 21:-: Succession: Pass on the baton.

Objective:

•           Get leaders to commit to setting up a plan for ensuring succession and not just success.

You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others. 2 Timothy 2:2

 Congratulations on getting up to this point in your training. We pray and believe that these twenty-one (21) weeks of training, has had a profound impact on your life and leadership. Leadership is a journey rather than a destination, so we dare say, your learning has just began. I don’t know about you but, it is sorry to see countless promising businesses which die because of the shortsightedness of a manager/owner who did not appropriately plan for succession when they were still alive. The true success of a leader lies in his/her ability to pass on the baton of leadership to the next generation. No matter how many businesses you put up and projects you have going on, if you do not effectively plan for succession, your businesses and projects will die when you pass on. Think succession and not just about the successes of today. You may be thinking, “this is not relevant to me as I am still really young and have a lot of time before me!” For starters, no one knows when God is going to call them back. I have seen perfectly healthy young people lie down and never wake up. The second point is, you do not prepare for battle, when the war has already started.  Every servant leader with a vision, must think about passing on the baton to the next generation.

What does it mean to plan for succession?

Planning for succession is the process by which the leader deliberately considers ways in which they can transmit what they have to the next generation, while they are still alive. In practical terms, a gifted pianist for example may consider writing a book and/or training younger people in a bid to ensure that what he/she knows is preserved and passed on to the next generation. Another example is a CEO who identifies various young people with good potential and trains them for different positions in the company in preparation for continuity of anything should go wrong with the incumbents. In both examples, the key is looking at the future and taking the necessary steps now to ensure continuity and good results.

Why should we plan for succession?

Someone said, we need to be concerned about the future because that is where we are all going to spend the rest of our lives. Planning for succession is more than taking an insurance policy, the focus is on continuity. Team members in a relay understand that while starting and finishing well is good, every member on the relay team has to ensure they receive and pass on the baton well. No matter how hard you run, your whole team is disqualified if the last runner gets to the finishing line without the baton. Planning for success ensures continuity of the vision. Some churches in Europe today have become transformed into museums. Somewhere along the line, someone dropped the baton. They may claim a lot of good things that happened in the past but can you honestly say they were/are successful? Your success as a Servant Leader is defined also by your ability to handover the baton to the next generation.

How should we plan for succession?

In the Holy Bible, we see how Jesus takes some time out to pray and the next day he starts the process of selecting disciples. These are men he would spend three years with, investing in them and preparing them to later on carry the vision beyond the limits of the small country in which He was physically present on Earth. There is a lot we can learn from our Lord’s model which includes:

1. Talk to God about it. The most important thing you would want to do to ensure you are selecting the right person/people to work with is prayer. Some parents handed churches and/or businesses to their children and other family member who were ill equipped to continue in the same spirit. Their lack of discernment let to the demise of what they may have spent their whole lives building. The Bible recounts how the prophet Samuel went to select a second King for Israel. He was moved by the looks and stature of David’s brothers, thinking surely one of them was God’s choice. God however was looking more at David, the shepherd who was much younger, but had the kind of disposition God needed for Israel’s next king. Imagine for a minute that Samuel was not discerning. Israel would have ended with the wrong king.
2. Take time to train and pray for those that should carry on the vision. Once you have identified the person/people who should carry on the vision, spare no effort to provide them with all the training and mentoring needed. Competence does not grow on trees. You need to pay the price today in order to reap a bountiful harvest tomorrow. You may not be there when they actually do what you mentored them on but your legacy will speak for you.

Preparing for succession is more than either writing a will or taking an insurance policy. These are both nice to have but most importantly think tomorrow, think continuity. All you may be to do is to write books while others may be called to do more. In whatever way you feel led to  pass on the baton, let God guide you in your choice of people to work with.

Week 21 Assignment

1. What is your life mission?
2. Do you have a succession plan n place?
3. How can you ensure the continuity of your vision?
4. Write a brief summary of what you learned this week and explain why it is important for all leaders. Post on your blog and share the link in your group.

Extra

Thank you for being part of this training and God bless you.