THE most emotional feature that Apple has launched over the last 5 years is photo widgets. The ability to be reminded of your travels whilst in lockdown has been horrible, but being reminded of some fun night out with an old friend and to be able to send reconnect has been magical.
Recently I was shown a picture from the 2018 Alibaba investor conference where Jack Ma announced his retirement. I was fortunate in those days to be one of a very small number of sell-side guys invited to this event and hear a speech that I will remember forever.
Today, Alibaba is facing issues from all angles. From government clampdowns to cultural issues that are plaguing the company. But back at that conference, Jack talked about a very powerful management rule that they had at Alibaba and one that all companies should pay attention to. Alibaba had a rule that every manager had to explicitly choose their own successor. It wasn’t optional, it was a mandatory requirement.
Let that sink in for a second. You have to choose your successor and make that known within the company.
I have worked in a few companies. Large corporates and small and large startups. Yet I have never seen this implemented at scale. Why? Firstly, you have to find managers that are comfortable in their own skin, that are egoless. They know their job is to make sure that they hire people better than them and that by doing so better things await them. It means that employees, don’t need to chase titles or jockey for position to be somehow magically chosen to be the boss when the person above them leaves or dies of old age. The successor is given responsibility and shadows their leader which means that succession, when it does come, is smooth. The organization is clear who they can turn to when the leader is out of the office or busy. The organization can focus training and resources on those deputy’s to ensure that they are ready to lead and manage, not just being thrust there one day looking like a deer in headlights and having to learn on the job as so many managers are. They get to put an L plate on whilst learning the ropes.
This is such a powerful management principle but maybe it only works in a growing organisation or one that is regularly opening up job opportunities for its senior team to give the team under them room to breathe and grow and be nurtured. But in that case, the issue is cultural change from the very top, not just a behaviour change in managers.