Whether a chief executive or a manager, one of a leader's primary responsibilities is the development of their people.
“You can gauge a CEO's success by whether they have several people in the wings who could immediately take their place if, God forbid, they got hit by a truck or wanted to step down tomorrow,” says Harry Kraemer, a clinical professor of leadership at Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and the former CEO of health care equipment and services company Baxter International.
The same goes for the president of the United States, he says.
After a disastrous debate performance earlier this month, President Joe Biden announced Sunday that he would drop out of the 2024 presidential race. He later endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris in a follow-up post. Despite pressure from top Democrats and donors to step aside, Biden had repeatedly stated he would stay in the race, believing he was the only candidate who could beat Donald Trump in November. His decision to take himself out of the running comes less than a month before the Democratic National Convention in August and less than four months before Election Day, leaving Democrats scrambling to fill the leadership void.
When Biden assumed office in January 2021, he was 78 years old, while Harris was 56. Considering his age, he should have been proactive about succession planning from the beginning, according to Kraemer.
“The right thing to have done then would be to say, ‘One of the main things to achieve in the next four years is making sure my VP has all the visibility, she's well-prepared, and people know who she is so that by the time it's 2024, and I'm 82, everything is set up for her to take the job. That’s leadership principle No. 1: self-awareness, self-reflection, and genuine humility,” he says.
But Biden isn’t alone in neglecting to plan for precisely the scenario in which he finds himself. The private sector, says Kraemer, has many recent boomerang CEOs and corporate leaders who've been clutching onto their positions for decades. “Unfortunately, leaders get used to being at the top and everybody telling them how great they are. They start to believe they’re the only one who can drive the company forward, the only one with the right answer, or, in the political space today, the only one who can beat Trump.”
That kind of thinking could especially backfire for those looking to advance to the C-suite.
Kraemer, now an executive partner at the private equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners, recounts board meetings at Baxter while ascending the corporate ranks. “As I’d walk the board or the executive team through projects, I’d always mention the two or three people below me who worked on them.”
It not only gave those employees visibility to senior members but was a win for Kraemer. When higher-level roles became vacant, he was promoted because the company knew he’d developed several employees who could fill his former position without leaving the company in the lurch. “It’s good to be the best at your job, but you should also be replaceable," he says. "It sounds counterintuitive, but if you’re the best at your job yet with no one to fill your shoes, the company will be inclined to forever keep you there.”
Still, corporate politics are at play—no pun intended. Rising stars don’t want to appear as though they’re gunning for the CEO’s job or are unsatisfied with their current station. Even Harris, who clearly has presidential aspirations, had reiterated her support for Biden’s reelection bid despite a reported behind-the-scenes effort to build her campaign as Biden faced demands to drop out of the race. It’s a delicate and uncomfortable dance for rising executives. Still, Kraemer advises being proactive in showing interest and aptitude when it seems that a big role could soon become available.
“At the end of the day, the only person who's responsible for your development is you. So you’d better be making sure you're getting that visibility and raising your hand to take on new projects, so you’re ready when that higher position opens up,” he says.
Ruth Umoh
ruth.umoh@fortune.com
