Succession: The Shift

Last week I described the trap. The brilliant expert who gets stuck at 'Head of' because the things that made them successful are now the things holding them back.

So how do you get someone out of it?

Most programmes will tell you the answer is skills. Teach them to delegate. To think strategically. To handle the hard conversations. All worth doing. None of it is where the real work sits.

Because this isn't really a skills problem. It's an identity one.

Here's what I mean. For years, this person's sense of who they are has been built on being the expert. The one who knows. The one people come to. That's not their job title; it's their self image. It's how they earn respect and how they know they're worth something.

And you're asking them to loosen their grip on it.

Not the expertise itself, but the need to lead with it. You're asking them to find their worth in something other than having the answer. To be glad when someone else solves the problem, even if they'd have solved it quicker. To add value in a room by asking the right question rather than being the cleverest person in it.

For someone who has always been that person, that's hard. It can genuinely feel like a loss, because in a way it is.

This is why so much leadership training doesn't stick. It hands people new behaviours but never touches the identity underneath. So the first time real pressure hits, they snap straight back. They grab the problem. They dive into the detail. Not because they didn't learn the skill, but because deep down they never stopped being the expert who feels safest doing the work themselves.

Proper transition work goes deeper. It helps them let go of the control they get from being the go-to person. It helps them find a new way to matter, through growing others instead of outperforming them. Just as importantly, it helps them become known as a leader by the people around them, not just the brilliant technician with a bigger title.

That last bit gets overlooked. Some of the shift is about how others see you, not only how you see yourself. Until your peers and your seniors start treating you as a leader, you haven't really made it.

None of this happens on a two-day course. It takes sustained, personal, sometimes uncomfortable work. Usually with someone alongside who'll hold the mirror up when others look away.

Get it right, though, and the change in someone is remarkable.

Next week, I'll show you what that actually looks like. And how you'd know it had truly worked.