Hire Your Replacement

When you hire your replacement, you ensure continuity in the function when you move on through promotion, change of employer, or retirement. This approach means you intentionally recruit outside of your organization, or promote someone within it, to assume your current role while you are still in it.

Targeting someone who is ready to fill your shoes has multiple advantages for you and your organization. Companies often want solid succession plans in place that serve to minimize disturbance when/if key players like yourself are promoted or leave.

By far, the top core competency our clients ask us to recruit for is leadership. Managing a security department and leading one are not the same, and a mature leader focuses on big-picture success vs. solely personal gain. Often, this means hiring and mentoring others to step into more responsible roles like yours.

It also enables you to grow within your company should your department expand and the volume of responsibilities exceed the capacity of one person. Hiring or promoting someone into a replacement-capacity position gives you the freedom to focus on larger, strategic, new opportunities within your organization.

Security leaders routinely consider a wide variety of business continuity concerns and often hire practitioners with siloed capabilities to address specific issues. Instead, consider hiring or promoting someone from within your organization who has a broader view and the potential to grow into your role within a specific time.

Roadblocks to embracing this concept are rooted in fear. Some people may be concerned that hiring their replacement will cause them to be redundant. In fact, strong leaders who work to develop capable successors are often viewed more favorably by their company. You are viewed as a true collaborator focused on organizational resilience.

Others fear loss of control, worrying that their potential replacement may win favor by doing things in a way perceived as better than their performance. Instead, leaders who stock teams with individuals who have the potential to eventually outperform them are viewed more positively than those who keep a stranglehold at all costs.

The time to hire or identify your replacement should be part of your personal and professional strategic plan. Get that person in place long before you are ready to move on. One way to achieve this is to consistently add and develop top-performing team members.

Hiring the best people you can at each step of the way raises the capability and visibility of your team within the organization. With a talent pool like this to choose from, you will be in a great position to find the next “you”.

No one is indispensable. Approach the hiring of your replacement in the spirit of continuous improvement and long-term success, both for your organization and yourself.