It’s amazing that this makes all the difference. The difference in one who thinks it was accomplished because of them, or it got done because of their leadership. It’s a fine line but one that junior leaders struggle to identify.

I’ve seen it happen so many times that a new leader, believes that their responsibilities have increased, not grown. That they are responsible for delivering hands on work as well as manage a team, but that isn’t the truth. With a new role in leadership comes attention to ensuring team is successful in your absence not despite it.

Recently, I’ve focused on a new definition for leadership:

Your team is successful when you aren’t there.

This means both in the interim, and long term. When you leave, because you won’t be there one day, will your team be able to survive, let alone, succeed? Will they know where to go? Will someone step up?

If you don’t know who is your replacement, this is the sure sign you have failed a leader. Your goal was to make them successful going forward, and not list out accomplishments of the past. You may have made a good project manager, but you didn’t become a good leader, unless your previous team, your previous company, are flourishing despite your departure.

Being the leader means working on your team to make them grow and succeed, and spending more time doing that than hands on work. I’ve shared this wisdom many times, the best way to know if you’re accomplishing something as a leader, is knowing how your team will succeed without your input. If you don’t work for a day, a week, a month, does the right thing still happen, are there still successful outcomes, are your customers still happy, is the business still successful?

Being expendable is just another way to put this, if you need to be there, then your team by extension needs you and can’t succeed without you. A great way to build up leaders and remove obstacles is preventing anyone from being required for your success. Working at a company and having one star employee that knows everything, you might think must be there for your success. If that’s the case, then you have a problem. I move forward by removing individuals that seek to ensure their position by being irreplaceable. Yes, there are those that are extremely effective, but if they found a new opportunity tomorrow, I would be happy for them, and my team will continue, my organization will flourish, and my business will survive.