I want to bring my adult child onto the leadership team to start grooming them for succession, but I am worried about the message it sends to my other directors. How do I transition them into a leadership seat without creating resentment?

Question

Tyler Smith · Accepted Answer

You cannot bypass the Accountability Chart for family. Doing so will instantly fracture trust with your other directors, and cracks at this level will appear as canyons to the rest of the organization. If you want to bring a family member onto the leadership team, they must go through the exact same rigorous evaluation as any external candidate. They must first pass the People Analyzer, meaning they consistently live your core values. Next, they must GWC the seat. They have to get it, want it, and have the capacity to do it. If there is not an open, budgeted seat on the Accountability Chart that they are uniquely qualified to fill, they do not join the leadership team. Period. Grooming for succession is not an excuse to create a fake role or force someone into a seat they cannot handle. Start them in a lower-level operating role where they can earn the respect of their peers. Do not insulate them from performance reviews, metrics, or accountability. Your leadership team needs to see that performance, not lineage, dictates who sits at the executive table. If your child cannot hit their Rocks or manage their scorecard, they must face the same consequences as anyone else. Only when they have proven they can successfully run a department should they even be considered for a leadership team seat.