Building a Legacy: Developing Next-Generation Leaders

After working for years to build a successful business, it’s natural to want to see it continue under new leadership in the future. What’s the best way to help up-and-coming team members develop the leadership skills they need to help the company succeed today and to take on ownership roles tomorrow?

Oak Street Funding asked leadership expert Sarah Turner, President at Lumino Leadership, to create a video addressing that question. In it, she shares actionable, common-sense strategies for developing talent. Here are some highlights from her informative video.

⚡At a Glance: Developing Next-Gen Leaders

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• • Spot future leaders by looking for adaptability, emotional intelligence, resilience, innovation, and tech adoption.
• • Build successors with a broad “stadium view” of the business, not just role-specific expertise.
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  Develop leadership skills early through cross-functional work, coaching, and mentoring.
• •Normalize failure to build confidence, resilience, and faster learning.
• •Prioritize emotional intelligence and self-awareness to strengthen leadership credibility.
  
  

What Does a Future Leader Look Like?

To recognize talent, Turner recommends looking for characteristics that indicate an individual is committed to - and good at - keeping up with the ever-increasing rate of change in the world. Look for team members who excel at thinking upstream and who are willing to embrace technology to the fullest.

Future leaders will demonstrate high levels of emotional intelligence (motivation, self-awareness, empathy, and active listening) when interacting with other team members and clients. They will also embody resilience by learning from their failures and will have a strong appetite for innovation.

What Skills Should Potential Successors Develop Before Stepping Into Larger Roles?

Turner emphasizes the importance of having what she calls a “stadium view” of the business, where individuals see how all aspects of the firm operate, not just their primary responsibility lanes. “So often, we default to seeing only what’s right in front of us (or how something impacts our work) and we fail to look at the broader impact to other teams, to our customers, or to the organization as a whole, and this skill must be flexed and built over time."

In addition to gaining experience in cross-functional collaboration, Turner recommends that potential leaders learn how to coach and develop others. These skills can be learned early in one’s career, and they’re crucial for the success of a future business owner or leader.

How to Mentor and Empower Emerging Leaders

Many people deal with self-doubt or impostor syndrome at some point, especially early in their careers. Mentors can help aspiring leaders build confidence by getting them comfortable with being uncomfortable. That means pushing them outside their usual areas of success and helping them understand that failure happens. 

Turner stresses the value of normalizing failure. She refers to one company that has Failure Fridays where team members gather to learn from people who extracted value from not having something go as they thought. She points out that leaders should expect and embrace failure. It can make for more resilient team members who are quicker to bounce back from missteps. It can also help keep team members from feeling overwhelmed and burning out.

What Should Aspiring Future Leaders Do Beyond Just Being Good at Their Jobs?

According to Turner, developing emotional intelligence is key. “We’ve all been in a situation where someone said or did something (or didn’t say or do something) that made us see them as less effective. What is often labeled as ‘bad timing’ or ‘poor judgment’ is really just a lack of developed EI.  It can drastically impact your credibility (higher or lower) and is worth building on purpose."

Turner notes that a big part of EI is self-awareness. She refers to a study in which 95% of people believe they are self-aware, but only 10-15% are. As she puts it, “’what we are unaware of, we cannot change,” so “ensuring you have a solid foundation of EI is a #1 in my book."

Looking to the Future

Preparing for the handover of a business isn’t just about getting the highest valuation and setting up the right deal for the sale. It starts long before that, with developing next-generation leaders who will continue the owner’s legacy.