It was my first job straight out of college. I was a trainer at a franchisee center of a popular computer training institute. I was doing really well, and a move to the regional office of the mother company was almost assured. But I became a prisoner of my own success. The move didn’t happen since it was felt that moving me would adversely affect business at the training center. That taught me an important lesson – if you want to grow, you must build your successor.
Giving up control of something is hard. It feels nice to be the go-to person. It also gives one a sense of security. But the trade-off is lost opportunities to grow.
Growth is a painful and scary process. You step out of your comfort zone and plunge into the unknown. But like everything unknown, our fears are exaggerated, and the returns are manifold. As a trainer, I was in a safe space. I knew more than the ones who came to me to learn. Then I was offered a role where I would write textbooks for the next generation of courses. The usual questions ran through my head – What if I fail? Do I know enough to write a textbook? Am I good enough? Will I be found out? These fears coexisted with the excitement of growth and the opportunity to take up a new challenge. Let’s not forget the added incentive of being able to make more money.
The move only became possible after I learned to open my palm and let go. I had begun to handover more classes to my colleagues. I had to learn to trust them more. I had to learn not to undermine them. I had to learn to guide them without being overbearing. I admit, I also learned to enjoy the time it freed up for me.
As I prepared to let go, I made another mistake – I went looking for clones of me. I was looking for a replacement. But each one of us is a sum of our knowledge, education, experiences, and interests. No two people are going to be alike. So, while the replacement may fall short in many areas, they will also bring new perspectives and expertise to the role. So while things were not like they were before, they were definitely different in better ways than we expected.
To summarize, you can only grow if you let others grow. Protecting your turf only ensures that you are trapped on the same turf and letting opportunities pass you by. When you replace one person with another, don’t expect things to remain the same. Each person brings their unique experience to the role and that can lead to unexpected but exciting results.
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