Develop or Replace?: 7 Guiding Questions to Consider
June 20, 2024
At some point in every leader's career, they are faced with the question of whether to invest in the development of a team member who sits in a key role, or to part ways with that person and replace them. Sometimes we invest too long. Sometimes we replace too quickly. And while there is no magic formula to follow to ensure we get it right every time, there are some questions that can assist us along the way.
The following 7 questions came to mind recently during a coaching conversation with a CEO struggling with exactly this decision. I first read these a few years ago in the book Beyond Entrepreneurship 2.0 by Jim Collins and Bill Lazier (2020).
Whether these prove timely today, or are a resource to tuck away until needed in the future, I hope they provide some assistance when you, too, are faced with the decision to develop or replace.
Question #1: Are you beginning to lose other people by keeping this person in the seat?
The best people want to work with the best people, and if they sense chronic tolerance for mediocre performance in key seats, they might begin to vote with their feet. Worse, if you tolerate high-performing people who behave contrary to your stated core values, the true believers will begin to lose heart and become cynical, and some will leave. There’s no better way to destroy a great culture than to retain people in key sets who fail to perform or run roughshod over the company’s core values.
Question #2: Do you have a values problem, a will problem, or a skills problem?
If someone in a key seat behaves consistently or flagrantly contrary to the core values of the enterprise, the best leaders replace them. If someone passionately embraces the core values of the enterprise and also has the indomitable will to do whatever it takes to master his or her seat, you can be more patient before reaching a decision to replace them in that seat. The hardest call comes with the question of will. Does the person lack (or has the person lost) the will to develop to meet the demands of the seat? If not, can you ignite their will? Great leaders never underestimate how much people can grow but they also know that growth depends on the humility and relentless will to improve. (Credit for the values-will-skills framework goes to the late Dale Gifford of Hewitt Associates who taught it to me).
Question #3: What’s the person’s relationship to the window and the mirror?
The right people in the seats display window-and-mirror maturity. When things go well, the right people point out the window, giving credit to factors other than themselves; they shine a light on other people who contributed to the success and take little credit themselves. And when things go awry, they don’t blame circumstances or other people for setbacks and failures; they point in the mirror and say. “I am responsible.” People who look in the mirror – who always ask, “What could I have done better? What did I miss?” – will grow. People who always point out the window to explain away problems or affix blame elsewhere will be stunted in their growth.
Question #4: Does the person see work as a job or a responsibility?
The right people in key seats understand that they don’t have “jobs’; they have responsibilities. They grasp the difference between their tasks list and their true responsibilities, A great doctor doesn’t merely have the “job” of performing procedures but embraces the responsibility for the health of the patient. A great coach doesn’t merely have the “job” of preparing workouts but embraces responsibility for building his or her players into better people. A great teacher doesn’t merely have the “job” of being in the classroom from 8am to 3pm but embraces responsibility for every child’s learning. Every person in a key seat has a broader responsibility than a task list, and the right people never hide behind “I got the tasks done” as an excuse for failing to deliver on the broader responsibility.
Question #5: Has your confidence in the person gone up or down in the past year?
Just as a company’s stock price rises or falls as investors gain or lose confidence in the company’s growth and performance, confidence in a person also rises or falls based on his or her growth and performance. The critical variable is the trajectory of that confidence over time. When someone says, “Got it!” do you increasingly set your worries aside or do you increasingly feel the need to follow up?
Question #6: Do you have a bus problem or a seat problem?
Sometimes you might have a right person on the bus but in the wrong seat. You might have put the person in a seat misaligned with his or her capabilities or temperament. Or perhaps – and this happens frequently in high-growth companies – the demands of the seat might have grown to outstrip the capabilities of the person in that seat.
Question #7: How would you feel if the person quit?
If secretly relieved, then you might have already concluded that he or she is a wrong person on the bus. If genuinely distraught, then you might well believe that he or she is still a right person on the bus.