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One of the most un-intuitive rules of leadership is that you have to make yourself replaceable. My bosses all know because I always tell them, “if I get hit by

by crmd 4y ago

One of the most un-intuitive rules of leadership is that you have to make yourself replaceable. My bosses all know because I always tell them, “if I get hit by a bus, put A in charge of X, promote B to Y, give C to Z”. On every major project you need at least one ambitious junior engineer who’s been identified as having leadership potential shadowing you and learning the business inside out, who aspires to your job. If you’re doing cool work these assignments are more valuable than gold to the young people, and they earn you a lifetime of friendship, loyalty and appreciation from them and their managers. This is how you get to retire in old age as a beloved, valued individual contributor. If you ignore the leadership part of being a principal engineer and don’t do this, others will do it for you at the worst possible time and you will get fucked.

JustSomeNobody 4y ago
> One of the most un-intuitive rules of leadership is that you have to make yourself replaceable. It's called succession planning. You can't go anywhere unless you have people who can do your job when you leave.
- lostlogin 4y ago
  > You can't go anywhere unless you have people who can do your job when you leave. Or when you want a 5 week holiday. It’s all very well having a nice leave allocation, but you have to be able to use it.
NikolaNovak 4y ago
My long-time mentor had a spin on the idea: "The day you start a new role/job/position, look for and start training your replacement". The core notion is similar: it's not good for you OR your team/company/client, if you are a single-point-of-failure, irreplaceable contributor. And my mentor's spin puts a "selfish" take on it which allows some people to ingest it better - you'll never be able to take the next opportunity, if you have not left behind a working system for your current role. note: none of this is to say that ageism doesn't exist or that toxic / misguided work cultures don't exist. By all accounts, I would not personally want to work in an Elon Musk company, though I understand those that do. But if I have a super-high performer who is THE ONLY person who can move the needle on a number of high-value projects and is working 70hrs a week to accomplish that... that is a MASSIVE risk to the team and company, and needs to be addressed somehow.
bumby 4y ago
I think the sticky wicket here is that the author did not feel like they were part of the succession planning and were somewhat blindsided by it. I agree he probably should have been proactive in making sure someone can step in his role. But also his management should have kept him in the loop and, ideally, playing a fundamental role in selecting his successors. None of that seemed to happen, so it seemed like bad leadership all around.
- q1w2 4y ago
  Maybe. I always take these stories with a grain of salt. The author demonstrates a lot of emotion in his post, so it's hard to know the truth with only one side of the story.

by crmd 4y ago

JustSomeNobody 4y ago

> One of the most un-intuitive rules of leadership is that you have to make yourself replaceable. It's called succession planning. You can't go anywhere unless you have people who can do your job when you leave.

lostlogin 4y ago
> You can't go anywhere unless you have people who can do your job when you leave. Or when you want a 5 week holiday. It’s all very well having a nice leave allocation, but you have to be able to use it.

NikolaNovak 4y ago

My long-time mentor had a spin on the idea: "The day you start a new role/job/position, look for and start training your replacement". The core notion is similar: it's not good for you OR your team/company/client, if you are a single-point-of-failure, irreplaceable contributor. And my mentor's spin puts a "selfish" take on it which allows some people to ingest it better - you'll never be able to take the next opportunity, if you have not left behind a working system for your current role. note: none of this is to say that ageism doesn't exist or that toxic / misguided work cultures don't exist. By all accounts, I would not personally want to work in an Elon Musk company, though I understand those that do. But if I have a super-high performer who is THE ONLY person who can move the needle on a number of high-value projects and is working 70hrs a week to accomplish that... that is a MASSIVE risk to the team and company, and needs to be addressed somehow.

bumby 4y ago

I think the sticky wicket here is that the author did not feel like they were part of the succession planning and were somewhat blindsided by it. I agree he probably should have been proactive in making sure someone can step in his role. But also his management should have kept him in the loop and, ideally, playing a fundamental role in selecting his successors. None of that seemed to happen, so it seemed like bad leadership all around.

q1w2 4y ago
Maybe. I always take these stories with a grain of salt. The author demonstrates a lot of emotion in his post, so it's hard to know the truth with only one side of the story.