Why Every Great Leader Develops Their Replacement

One of the greatest leadership paradoxes is this: If you're truly successful, someone should be able to take your job.

Yet many leaders spend years making themselves indispensable.

Are you leaving this place better off than when you arrived?

Is there someone on your team ready to step up and assume your leadership role?

Developing others is part of how you develop yourself. Many years ago, I led an HR transformation at a small healthcare facility. We rebuilt the compensation and benefits structure, modernized core processes, and took the HR team from outdated to genuinely capable.

It was time for me to explore larger organizations and test my skills on a greater scale. Fortunately, Sue was ready to step in as the leader of HR. While it was her first time in such a leadership role, she was skilled and confident enough to take the team further than I had.

As we know, transitions aren't always managed well.

I once worked with a administrative leader of Oncology Division at a regional health system who spent fifteen years building a high-performing department. When he announced his retirement, panic followed.

There was no successor.

Six months later, key initiatives stalled, turnover increased, and years of institutional knowledge walked out the door with him. His greatest leadership regret wasn't a failed project.

It was failing to prepare someone to continue the work.

Korn Ferry research shows that organizations that develop their own talent for key leadership roles see measurable gains in employee engagement, retention, and talent attraction. This effort is more than simply anointing the highest-ranked, most tenured person or your preferred choice. It's an intentional and strategic process. If you don't develop your replacement intentionally, progress stalls. And the organization often slides backward. The result is predictable: disrupted teams, stalled initiatives, lost culture, and leaders left holding responsibilities no one else is ready to carry.

READ: A 4-Step Replacement Readiness Model

READ is a framework I use with healthcare leaders to build replacement readiness with discipline, transparency, and practical accountability.

R: Recognize Talent - Who on your team is willing and capable?

Sometimes the high-potential leader is obvious. There are obvious skills and capabilities. They've verbalized and demonstrated a willingness to take on more responsibility. In some organizations, there's a well-developed succession planning process that helps identify high performers and high-potential leaders.

Not everyone desires or is capable of that next-level leader role. As the Chief Nursing Officer, you may already know exactly who has leadership capacity on your team. The harder question is whether they want the responsibility that comes with it. They may not want the burden of leadership. Life circumstances may also interfere. Family needs or illnesses can require attention and energy.

They may believe it's too early or too late in their career to pursue such a role. The opposite may also be true. They are eager to advance but lack the capability or self-awareness to succeed at the next level.

E: Expose Stretch Experiences

There's value in formal learning opportunities, but most people learn best through experience. Stretch assignments should expand capability without simply throwing someone into the deep end. Like learning to swim, the path moves from the shallow end to deeper, more complex challenges. Structure and a coach nearby at each stage matter. Leaders grow by doing, failing, struggling, and adjusting. The best stretch experiences are uncomfortable enough to create growth, but structured enough to include clarity, psychological safety, coaching, and time to debrief what worked and what needs to change.

• Attend an executive or C-suite meeting.

• Present a monthly operational report to executives.

• Manage a portion of the budget aligned with their division.

• Hire and fire employees.

• Drive a key project from design and build to delivery.

• Supervise a team of employees.

• Join a cross-functional project team with enterprise-wide impact.

• Take on interim leader assignments.

A: Accelerate Development

Skill-Based Development

Most job descriptions do a decent job of highlighting the basic skills and responsibilities needed for the role. But that's simply not enough. There's usually a large gap between the written, often antiquated, job description and what's needed to thrive in the role. As the Chief Medical Officer, you've already demonstrated what's needed to thrive in that role.

You know what competencies helped you succeed.

You know what challenges you've overcome.

You know what's needed to take it even further.

Each level demands a new set of skills and competencies, especially if your career path was clinical. Identifying those skills, experiences, and competencies will help you assess the potential internal talent.

Annual Evaluations and Development Plans

Annual evaluation and goal-setting processes are widely underused tools for developing future leaders. Every employee and leader deserves clear expectations, success measures, candid feedback, and a practical path for growth. Too often, these processes become dreaded administrative tasks rather than real opportunities to identify and prepare someone for the next level. They should also clarify expectations for employees who are not yet ready for promotion. Leaders sometimes avoid direct conversations, but employees deserve to know whether they are viewed as high or low potential, what options are available, and what specific steps support their desired career path. Clear documentation also protects the organization when promotion decisions are questioned. It also gives your HR partner a stronger record if a promotion decision is later challenged on fairness or bias grounds. No employee should be surprised when the answer is not yet.

Succession Planning

Center for Creative Leadership notes that organizations with clear, future-focused succession strategies drive stronger cultures, smarter innovation, and leadership that thrives for generations. Some leaders rely on informal preferences discussed behind closed doors; others use structured 9-box grids or high-potential reviews, with varying levels of transparency. Regardless of the model's maturity, engage in the process. Make sure your leaders are assessed accurately, have development plans tied to real readiness gaps, and are visible across the executive leadership team.

For example, a physician stepping into a medical director role may need exposure to operating-margin decisions, peer accountability, quality metrics, and physician leadership dynamics before the title changes. The goal is not to preselect a favorite. It is to ensure the right talent is ready when the next opportunity opens.

Formal Leadership Development

Formal programs still matter, even as organizations shift toward skills-based models. Many health systems offer emerging leader programs, eLearning tools such as LinkedIn Learning, conferences, certifications, and tuition support. Larger investments, such as an EMBA, MHA, or nursing master's program, may also strengthen readiness. A CNO preparing a successor before a system merger, for example, may pair formal coursework with enterprise project work, executive presentations, and structured coaching.

An advanced degree does not guarantee executive capability, but it may remain a minimum requirement or market differentiator for some senior roles. It can also build confidence, focus, and executive presence when paired with experience, feedback, and coaching. Formal education should support the development plan; it should not replace real leadership practice. The strongest candidates combine classroom learning with applied accountability and results.

Coaching and Mentoring

It may sound simple to identify and appoint your successor. It requires time, intentionality, and difficult conversations. Coaching is a one-on-one opportunity for honest and difficult conversations. It's an opportunity to challenge your leader to be uncomfortable. Good experiential learning requires structured time to debrief what worked, what didn't, and why. It also gives the leader a more direct space to name and address development gaps.

D: Delegate Responsibility

Strong, effective leaders delegate, stay out of the weeds, build culture, and focus on strategy. Not only is delegation a key element of leadership, but it's also an effective strategy to grow talent. As you prepare to transition out of your role, begin delegating key responsibilities to your team. Shared leadership increases employee engagement and creates opportunities for the stretch experiences mentioned above. It also minimizes the loss of knowledge when a leader resigns or retires. It develops and shares institutional knowledge, which increases sustainability.

What are some potential pitfalls to avoid?

• Don't promise a specific promotion or title. The reality in health systems is that things change. Budgets contract. Structures reorganize. Hiring freezes with little warning.

• Avoid tunnel vision or familiarity bias. It's natural to feel more comfortable with some people than others. Succession is not strictly about personal comfort. It's about the right person for the right role at the right time. I've seen unqualified leaders promoted before they were ready, only to fail and leave within a year.

• Moving too fast. It's worth investing in your leader, but it can also set someone up for failure if moved into a leadership role before he or she is ready. Pace matters. Moving someone too fast is a different kind of failure than moving too slowly.

• Moving too slowly. Because the leadership structure is a pyramid, there are fewer roles at the top. Promotion opportunities are sometimes few and far between. High performers want to advance their careers. If they don't see a path forward here, they will find one somewhere else.

The ultimate test of leadership isn't whether people need you. It's whether they thrive without you.

Long after your title changes and your office is empty, your legacy lives in the leaders you developed.

If this resonates, we'd welcome a conversation.

Visit TrueNorthLeadershipPartners.com.

No pressure. Just a thoughtful discussion with someone who understands your world.

Joe Kenney, M.Ed., SHRM-SCP, ACC

Executive Coach | Human Capital Strategist

True North Leadership Partners