Planning on exiting? Keep your distance.

Succession planning can be problematic. Not just from a logistics standpoint, but also from just how integrated the out-going leader is with the whole enterprise.

Bob Iger and Disney are a great example of how to royally mess it up and do it wrong. Many articles have been written about it, especially a year ago after Bob Iger re-took control of Disney. SNL is looking at the same situation.

Everyone who knows anything about SNL knows Lorne Michaels is the show. Stop. He is the DNA of SNL. The power he wields is why the show is still on the air despite various stretches of low interest based on the output of the show. He turne 80. SNL tuned 50. Lorne has kept pushing off passing the baton, saying once they hit 50 yrs he will. But he hasn't committed to that.

Insiders say the second Lorne steps down, NBC will slash the budget for the show. They haven't yet because...Lorne is Lorne. You don't say "no" to Lorne.

As the head of a business, you may think you want to be the person no one says no to...but the second you step aside, that power dynamic dies and people have been waiting for it to die very patiently. If that happens with SNL, will Lorne come back and take over again - pull a Bob Iger? Bob's successor didn't fail Disney, Bob did in who he picked and groomed.

In business continuity, we talk about how you want to be flexible vs brittle. Power dynamics and personality can weigh heavily on this if the leader has ingrained themselves so much in the product, they are inextricably linked to the success of the product. I don't mean in the way that a Tony Robbins is his whole company. There are ways for the Tony Robbins empire to continue with as much success without him (I even spell it out in my first book, How To Not Kill Your Business).

The Disney and SNL examples are different.

If your business is too much "you" when it shouldn't be, succession planning needs to happen in a very deliberate and conscientious way, way earlier than you want to exit. It's not about your success, it's about the success of the business going forward. That's what people are buying. Don't cut yourself off at the knees in creating a likely failure once you exit. If you think "I can't leave because they'll fail without me!" you are either right because you did too much or wrong because the business is NOT you.

What should Lorne be doing? Preparing the successor he hand picks to be prepared for massive changes from the network. He'd be setting him/her up for failure and stress otherwise.