One Important Job: Preparing Your Team to Lead Without You

We all heard the big news last week that Steve Jobs has resigned as Apple’s CEO and that Tim Cook, their former COO, will take over as CEO.

I’m sure a million questions went through all of our heads as we heard the somewhat surprising news. However, I doubt the news was a surprise to Jobs and Apple’s board. It has been widely reported that Jobs had built a very strong bench of leaders who clearly understood his vision.

The news of Jobs’ stepping down should force many of us to think about our own succession plan. While we don’t run or maybe even work in a company as large as Apple, it doesn’t change the fact that we too should have a succession plan in place.

What’s your plan if you should suddenly be unable to lead tomorrow? (more…)

I should probably start this post by admitting that I am not a huge NASCAR fan. However my husband and youngest daughter are, and I wasn’t about to miss out on our family time, so on Saturday I humored them both by taking part in the Charlotte Motor Speedway experience.  My favorite parts of the race were the start, the wrecks, and the finish. The in-between lap racing didn’t really hold my attention.

We had pit passes, so prior to the race we got to go down and check out everything going on in the pits. It was neat to be that close to where the chaotic action would soon be taking place. Most of the team’s pits were basically the same. Then we came to Kevin Harvick’s pit of the RCR team. There I saw something that really caught my attention. (more…)