Passing It On: Growing Your Future Leaders (19 page)

If I were to die today, there would be not one hiccup in the organization because my successor is already in place. Now I
am training a successor for him. In fact, a group of people is being trained to take over should the need arise. We are looking
at the next generation of leaders after that and mentoring them as well.

Mentoring is continual work. If you do not mentor to produce a successor, you will never expand beyond what you are doing.
If you hold people down, remember you have to stay with them, so you will never move beyond them.
Succession sets you free to achieve greater success. This is why many leaders do not go beyond what they are doing now. They
will not produce successors so they can move on to greater success.

I said earlier that finishing well is more important as a measurement of leadership than starting well. You had a great ministry,
powerful works, a dynamic megachurch, the largest music and dance ministries in the state, and an awesome radio and television
operation, but when you died, a big fight erupted, broke up your church, and ended it all. Did you finish well?

Whether you are a pastor, business leader, or any other kind of professional, you are temporary. The only way to finish well—to
know your legacy will continue—is to mentor and prepare for your transition to a new role in this life or a place in the next
one. Leadership is not a permanent condition. Will you always be the pastor or the CEO, or will you pursue a bigger, grander
vision?

True leaders do not retire. They just go to the next phase. They go from player to coach, and from coach to advisor, from
advisor to owner, from owner to… They just keep moving and evolving. You are bigger than your current position. Do not let
your position trap you and limit your exposure. Train people to take your place so God can expand your territory. If you are
such a great visionary, surely you must see new things, greater challenges in your future. Look toward a new horizon. Get
a new vision. Dream something new. Draw up a fresh ten-year-plan. This assignment is done. It is finished. Find something
better to do. Look forward to even greater things.

Visionary leaders move on because they have something bigger to do.

We are all “temporary.”

O
NE OF THE
fellow trustees of our global leadership organization, Dr. Joshua Turnel Nelson, who passed away some years ago, used to
sit on a stool in my kitchen for hours and talk. He was the former superintendent of the Pentecostal Assemblies of the West
Indies and from Port of Spain, Trinidad. We would discuss all kinds of dreams, and he would teach me so many things and share
his heart with me. I used to keep telling him, “You need to write some of this in books.” We spent hours talking like this,
and then he was gone. He was not old. We still remember him as energetic, running here and there—teaching us. Now he is free
from this earthly state.

Life is that fast. Invest in people. He invested in me. That is why I revere his name and keep his memory alive. He invested
in people. His legacy is in us.

Have you started mentoring your successor? You know that you will die. I discovered something about death. Lately, it has
no respect for age. When I was a child, only old people died—or so I thought. You remember those days. Only old people died.
Now we know anybody can die at any age, so we must be ready to leave the stage at any hour, confident that someone can carry
on in our role.

At the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York City, New York, when the audience boos an “amateur night” contestant, a tap-dancing,
clownish character appears to coax and gently pull the failed performer off the stage. The disappointed amateur quickly accepts
this fate and meekly exits stage left. In
leadership situations, rarely does someone show up to force you off stage. You get to decide. You will have to summon the
judgment and the wisdom to know the hour has come.

“Succession is proudly bowing out, leaving the stage without regrets.”

Make succession decisions before your deathbed. It is too late to think about it then. It is too late to select and train
the right person. It is too late to communicate your desires, too late to let the next leader settle in, and too late to allow
others to get used to the new chief. Select someone while you still have time to mentor, guide, and correct him when he makes
mistakes. Do not choose your successor on your deathbed. That is the wrong place. Choose your successor now even before they
know you are training them. Let the chosen one observe you and learn from you while you are still in your prime, not when
you are too feeble to tell them and show them what they need to know. Bring that person up to speed, make it clear to others
that this one has your blessing, and then let God commission your successor. You will also have time to change your mind if
your choice is an utter failure.

Leaders must know when it is time to leave a position. You will know the right time to leave if you watch for these indications:

•  Leadership is like a party that is getting a little wild. It is better to leave early than to stay too late and have regrets.
In most endeavors, leaders do more damage when they stay too long than when they do not stay long enough. Move on if you detect
any signs that you are holding up the next generation.

•  You might have overstayed your assignment already if that job you once loved is killing you now. When your time is up, the
very thing that you gave your life to will destroy you. Your staff will become restless and plot against you. People will
drop hints about what you cannot do anymore and suggest that you check out some nice retirement communities they discovered.
The board will try to push you out or work around you.

•  If you have overstayed, you will feel pressure from the bottom. Your followers will become very agitated. They will complain
more, question your ability, and challenge your creditability. They no longer see you as a mentor
but as a menace. They begin to despise and resent you as the one preventing them from growing, rather than stimulating and
cultivating their growth.

These are signs that you are overstaying your time. The Bible says there is a season for everything, including “a time to
give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away” (Eccl. 3:6). This may be your season.

Succession is proudly bowing out, leaving the stage without regrets. Succession is moving out of the spotlight back into the
shadows without jealousy. It is not waiting until someone pushes you out of the spotlight or shuts it off while you are still
on stage. Succession is pulling another person into the spotlight while you are still leading.

John the Baptist had already told his followers someone greater than him would be coming. One day while he was preaching,
he spotted Jesus approaching. The time was right. John pulled Jesus into the spotlight, introducing Him to the crowd.

John 1:24–31
Now some Pharisees who had been sent questioned him, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor
the Prophet?” “I baptize with water,” John replied, “but
among you stands one you do not know. He is the one who comes after me, the thongs of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.”
This all happened at Bethany on the other side of the Jordan, where John was baptizing. The next day John saw Jesus coming
toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A
man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing
with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.”

Likewise, at God’s urging, Moses put Joshua out front. Some folks want to die in their positions. God essentially says to
us, “No. Be like Moses. He chose Joshua early.” As the Scripture describes it:

Numbers 27:18–23
So the L
ORD
said to Moses, “Take Joshua son of Nun, a man in whom is the spirit, and lay your hand on him.
Have him stand before Eleazar the priest and the entire assembly and commission him in their presence. Give him some of your
authority so the whole Israelite community will obey him. He is to stand before Eleazar the priest, who will obtain decisions
for him by inquiring of the Urim before the L
ORD
. At his command he and the entire community of the Israelites will go out, and at his command they will come in.” Moses did
as the L
ORD
commanded him. He took Joshua and had him stand before Eleazar the priest and the whole assembly. Then he laid his hands
on him and commissioned him, as the L
ORD
instructed through Moses.

God may not come to tell you personally that it is time to go, and He may not show you your successor, but a secure leader
knows the hour is at hand. In Deuteronomy 31, Moses formally bows out, announcing the end of his leadership and proceeding
with the succession plan. By then he is an old man whose abilities are waning. He will not get to the Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 31:1–3
Then Moses went out and spoke these words to all Israel: “I am now a hundred and twenty years old and
I am no longer able to lead you
. The L
ORD
has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ The L
ORD
your God himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will take possession of
their land. Joshua also will cross over ahead of you, as the L
ORD
said.”

This passage shows Moses was conscious that he could no longer lead, and he announced that fact to the people. Imagine saying
that to your department or organization. “I am done here. I am washed up. My time is over. I just cannot do this job anymore.”
That would take a great deal of self-confidence and courage. Moses stood before the people of Israel, letting them know his
time was past and that he had prepared someone to take the lead. In verse 3, Moses transferred his position. He transitioned,
appointing a trained successor.

Moses did not wait for his death to force the situation and allow the people
to fight over his leadership. He presented the leader to them himself. In effect, he says, “This is the one. Be strong. Joshua,
you must go with these people into the land of God.” He is telling Joshua in front of the people, “This is my successor. I
want you to follow him. He will take you to places I have not yet been. I did my part. He will take you to the next phase.”

It is a beautiful succession.

Deuteronomy 31:7
Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you must go with
this people into the land that the L
ORD
swore to their forefathers to give them, and you must divide it among them as their inheritance.”

A few verses later, notice that while Moses chooses his successor, God makes it official.

Deuteronomy 31:14
The L
ORD
said to Moses, “Now the day of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting,
where I will commission him.”
So Moses and Joshua came and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting.

For me, this chapter underscores that God expects you to identify the successor first. What we do today is reverse. We say,
“I will leave it up to the Lord. Let the Lord choose and let Him take over. It is all in God’s hands.”

That might sound righteous, but in reality it is a cop-out. It is both unwise and cowardly. Lay hands on someone while you
are alive. Make your successor your greatest contribution to the future.

Plan your departure, prepare your replacement, then shut up and leave! Get out while you are still at the top of your game.
Leave before you have had a chance to undo all the good that you accomplished, like a gambler who stays at the poker table
long enough to lose everything he had won when the night was young.

Many leaders overstay their welcome and leave bitter memories for things they did late in the game and not the golden memories
of the many triumphs they had earlier in life. Think about someone like Richard Nixon, the former United States president
who held on too long as the Watergate scandal festered and saw everything he had accomplished tainted by the public disclosures
of his role in it.

We have seen many examples of leaders who cling to their offices by preventing or rigging elections and attacking their opponents.
All over the world, dictators prey on challengers to maintain control, often long after they should have stepped down. Some
would rather see their countries in ruins than hand over power. The same is true in many corporations, churches, and families.
A leader’s stubborn refusal to yield strangles out new leadership.

Whenever you leave a position on time, or before time, you will never be blamed for any future failure, but if you overstay
your time, you are at great risk for being blamed for any future failure. History always seems to recall that you should have
allowed another to step in at a certain time. This is why, no matter what happens, we will always admire Nelson Mandela. He
left on time. He is a great example of mentorship and succession. He was not afraid to give up all that power he had. He gave
it up early, declining to seek reelection in 1999 and announcing that he would shift responsibility increasingly to his choice,
Thabo Mbeki.

Great leaders move themselves out of the spotlight, and Mandela is one of the greatest leaders I have met personally. He was
elected president unopposed, handed power on a silver platter by the South Africans. No one could oppose him because he had
earned the right to be trusted. He was president for one term, and then he made a decision to step aside. Everyone was thinking
he was going to be there for twenty years to fix South Africa, but he was not hungry for power. He sought out his replacement.
He began to mentor Mr. Mbeki at his first opportunity.