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Business owners are always on the lookout for the next great leader who can help the company thrive into the future, as existing leadership and ownership move toward an elevated role or even retirement.
In most cases, business leaders will look inside the company. This is almost always the best place to find the next leader, as they are familiar, have already proven themselves to be capable in their current job and are dedicated to the company. Identifying people in your organization who you believe to have high potential for leadership can be relatively easy — you likely know who’s doing a great job and whose team responds well to their leadership in their current position. But transitioning a mid-level manager to a business leadership position isn’t a quick decision — it’s a process. Before you elevate the next great leader of your company, you must take the time to mentor them and prepare them for their new role, which will be much different than their existing role.
In his book “Ownership Thinking,” Brad Hams suggests owners and employees have different mentalities and focus on different things. Business owners focus on things like profit, cash flow, risk, competition and employees. Employees, meanwhile, including middle management, think about things like their paycheck, benefits, getting the job done right, job security and their opportunities for growth. Moving from one train of thought to the other is not an easy transition and can create a problem when elevating a new leader from an “employee” mindset to an “ownership” mindset
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