20 How Do I Conclude Leadership?

Paul wasn’t sure what to make of his leadership tenure, as he prepared to step down. In some ways, Paul knew that he was leaving the organization in better condition than when he had assumed its leadership. In other ways, though, Paul suspected that the organization was more vulnerable and challenged than before. Paul had, of course, done everything within his power to lead the organization onward and upward, and leave it in the best shape that he could. But Paul knew that he hadn’t been perfect. And he knew that times and circumstances had tested the organization deeply while he was at its helm. Paul just hoped that he could transition out of leadership gracefully, leaving his successor with as few deep and imminent challenges as possible. Paul wanted to make a good end of it. 

Conclusion

How you finish in leadership can mean just as much or more as how you start in leadership. Make a good conclusion to your leadership. Your leadership legacy, to the extent that you care about it, depends on how you finish in leadership, not how you start. How you feel about your leadership and remember your leadership also depends in large part on how you conclude your leadership. The enduring good quality of the relationships you formed while leading can also depend on how you end your leadership. How you conclude your leadership can also influence your next leadership opportunity and your personal and professional reputation and relationships. How you conclude your leadership can also affect your income and benefits, to the extent that your organization may have ways in which to recognize and reward your good leadership service. You have several good reasons to make a good conclusion to your leadership. Make every effort to do so, whether you feel like it or not. 

Conditions

The conditions under which a leader concludes a term of leadership can vary widely. The leader may have little control over those conditions. Leadership can end on a high note or low note, leaving the organization on the upswing or on the downturn, flush with finances and good reputation or in peril because starved of cash and goodwill. When the time comes for the leader to leave, external or internal circumstances beyond the leader’s credit may have catapulted the organization to its heights, or internal or external circumstances beyond the leader’s control may have dragged the organization down to its depths. The leader may also feel great about the leader’s performance, the organization’s support, and the organization’s future, or may alternatively feel like a failure for lack of support from a failing organization. No matter. The leader should still make as good a conclusion of the leadership term as possible. Leaders don’t burn things down as they leave. Leadership is an organizational and public trust, not a personal vendetta. Beware anything other than your best character and intentions as you prepare to conclude your leadership. End on a good note, as far as you possibly can. 

Retirement

Retirement may be the way that most leaders would prefer to end their leadership tenure, especially leadership of a large and successful organization. Who wouldn’t want to end a leadership career at their own choice and, to a degree, on their own terms? Retirement generally means that one has accomplished everything that one set out to do or, if not that, then that one has insufficient time, energy, and attention to accomplish anything more. Retirement is like a happy exhaustion. May that happy choice be the conclusion to your leadership. If so, then share your satisfaction and honor with the organization that supported you. Make your retirement a celebration not of your leadership term but of the organization’s successes on your fortunate watch. Accept what honor your organization bestows on you as its retiring leader, but turn that honor quickly back to the organization and its members enabling your leadership. A leader’s voluntary retirement is a gift, not a right.

Termination

Termination is not the way that a leader would generally prefer to conclude leadership, but sometimes it’s not the leader’s choice. In highly competitive fields and sectors, termination is the standard end of a leader’s term, inevitable sooner or later. Average leadership terms in competitive fields and on competitive teams can be as short as a couple or few years, with the frequent unsuccessful leadership terms in those fields and on those teams even shorter, at just a year or a few months. Go into such a leadership position with your eyes open. Know the average and shorter leadership durations, so that you can see the handwriting on the wall and better anticipate your own term’s end. Don’t rue and resent a leadership termination in a competitive field where terminations are common. Instead, celebrate that you had your chance. Take from the experience what you can, and leave good relationships behind to the extent that you are able. Listen respectfully to what those who terminated your leadership say that you did wrong. Don’t argue, once the organization has made the decision. Exit with grace. Who knows but that the organization may soon call upon you to return? 

Resignation

Leaders sometimes resign under one form or another of duress, rather than enjoy the grace of retiring from leadership or suffer the ignominy of leadership termination. Resignation may be appropriate for personal reasons, like illness, injury, disability, or similar events occurring to a dependent family member needing the leader’s attention and care. In those instances, the leader may reasonably expect the organization’s full support. If that’s your situation, disclose confidentially to your board or other individual or entity responsible for your employment the frank grounds for your resignation, so that you get that due support. Work out together both the terms and conditions of your resignation, as favorable on compensation and benefit terms as the organization can allow, and how the organization will communicate the grounds for your resignation. Be sure that you are satisfied with that communication because it can affect your reputation and relationships. If, instead, your resignation is due to leadership conditions, exhaust negotiations for better conditions before resigning. Get mentor and supporter help with those negotiations as necessary. The organization may prefer to accommodate and retain you over seeing you depart. In any case, whether your organization is pushing you out the door and your resignation is one step ahead of termination or not, keep your communications gracious and merciful. Don’t make anything harder or worse for the organization you once served or for its members, no matter how hard or bad they made it for you. 

Negotiation

As just discussed in the prior paragraph, you may have important things to negotiate with your organization surrounding your departure. Once you decide to depart, whether by retirement or resignation, or once you learn from your organization that it is planning your departure, enter into negotiations over the timing, terms, conditions, and announcement of your departure. You may wish to leave sooner or later than the organization plans and may thus need to agree on a departure date and schedule. The organization may owe you past and accrued compensation, whether for regular pay, earned bonuses, vested stock or other ownership interests, or personal or vacation days. You may need continuing health insurance or other extended employment benefits. You may also have intellectual property you created, or furnishings, artwork, or technology that you purchased and regularly use, that you wish to retain. As already indicated above, you may want to include specific grounds in, or exclude specific confidential matters from, the official announcement of your departure. You may even want a specific determination or recommendation letter from the organization, its board, or one of its other members, relative to your professional license, standing, and reputation, or your next employment. Negotiate over any term or condition affecting your personal and professional interests, while expecting the organization to have interests of its own to negotiate.

Succession

The terms, conditions, and communications surrounding your departure are rightly important to you. In your departure, though, you should also recognize and respect the matters that remain important to your organization. The choice, preparation, and orientation of your successor would naturally be the organization’s priority interest related to your departure. Your organization presumably needs a new leader in place. No matter the terms of your departure, cooperate with your organization’s succession planning to the extent you are able and the organization wishes your involvement. You may not have any say in the choice of your successor. Respect the wishes of the board, task force, or other individual or entity choosing your successor as to whether to have your input or not. Do not insert yourself into a selection process from which your organization prefers to exclude you, even if you disagree with the choice. Your successor deserves the best start. The organization needs its new leader to succeed, and you may need the new leader’s support for your own interests. You may have hard feelings over your successor, but if so, don’t project them onto others. Keep them to your confidantes outside of the organization. 

Transition

As you prepare to depart and complete your departure, follow through with all duties right up to the moment of your departure. Do not leave unfinished routine things that you would have addressed if you were remaining in leadership. Leaving your successor with a mess or with the impression that you were careless in your duties can adversely affect your reputation and legacy, harm the organization, and burden its new leader. While going through your last cycles of periodic and special duties, prepare a transition list reflecting everything that you do and the cycles on which you do those things. Organize the list into your various areas of leadership responsibility. Your successor may not follow your list, but your list may greatly aid your successor in picking up the leadership reins and will show your successor and the organization how comprehensive and thorough your work was. Your transition list will also show the organization and your successor how much you care about their success. If the organization and your successor desire it, work patiently and graciously with your successor through an orientation process and period. Make your transition out of the organization, like everything else you did, represent the high quality of your leadership. 

Anticipation

When leaving a leadership position, you should generally have confidentially investigated and planned your next big or small thing in job, career, or life. Don’t reveal unnecessarily to others within your organization that you are preparing to leave. Keep any investigation, plans, and preparation confidential, until you and the organization have announced your impending departure including its timing and grounds. And don’t make any firm commitments as to your next stage in job, career, or life, until after the organization announces your departure. You don’t know what other opportunities may arise with the negotiation over your departure and its announcement, such as to remain with your organization in the same or a different capacity or to accept other offers outside the organization that arise after the announcement of your departure. But have some good ideas of what you’re going to do next. If, instead, you leave before having any tentative plans, you may make your transition longer and more difficult than it could have been. The first day after your departure when you have nothing to do may hit you harder than it otherwise would, if you had something positive to anticipate. 

Reflection

Do you have a clear idea of when you would like your leadership to conclude? What is the condition of your organization now, and what do you anticipate its condition will be then, around the time that you expect to depart? Would you and the organization both be better off moving up or moving back your departure date, relative to the organization’s condition? In other words, should you leave now when times are good, before a downturn? Or instead, should you stay longer to get the organization back on its feet before you leave? How would leaving when you plan to leave affect your legacy, reputation, and relationships? What other interests, outside of when you would like to conclude your leadership, might you need to negotiate with your organization, related to your departure? Does the organization owe  you unpaid but earned compensation, bonuses, or other interests? Do you have personal or intellectual property that you need to remove and retain that the organization might instead claim as its own? What would you prefer the announcement of your departure state? What else might the organization prefer to say about your leaving, that you might not want it to say? Are you in a position to help your successor with the leadership transition? Can you do some things now, at least in the nature of recording what you do and how you do it, that might help your successor, while showing your care for the organization’s success?

Key Points

• How you conclude your leadership is important in several respects.

• Make your organization’s condition the best you can when you leave.

• Negotiate with the organization when deciding to end your leadership.

• Prefer to retire voluntarily from your leadership, going out in grace.

• If instead you face leadership termination, remain as poised as you can.

• If you must resign for personal or workplace reasons, still show grace.

• Aid your successor in leadership, to the extent you can and as desired.

• Help your successor in a smooth leadership transition, as best you can.

• Confidentially investigate and plan for your next phase in life.