The best career move I ever made was making myself replaceable.
Three acquisitions, two promotions, a massive tech project. All because someone below me could step up on day one.
Tim Cook stepped down as Apple CEO last month. John Ternus takes over in September. Twenty-five years at the company. Years of grooming. A board that signed it off unanimously. The handover has been planned in some form since Steve Jobs was still alive.
That’s how the biggest company in the world does succession.
Now think about your team.
If you got promoted next Monday, who does your job? If you got hit by a bus, who picks up the slack? If your company gets acquired and someone shoulder-taps you for a bigger role, can you actually take it, or are you stuck because nobody else can do what you do?
Most managers freeze on those questions. Not because they don’t have good people. Because they’ve never trained anyone to do their job.
Here’s what I learned the hard way.
My company expanded through acquisition. The first time it happened, I was ready to jump on it because I’d already trained the people below me. They could run the day-to-day. I could go and do the new thing. The second time, another acquisition came up, and a manager I’d developed was able to lead it with me supporting from the side. By that point I’d moved into AI and tech, which became a massive part of the business.
None of that happens if I’m sat there doing the same job I was hired to do.
This is the bit most managers miss. You’re not training people up so they can replace you. You’re training them up so you’re free to do whatever comes next. And something always comes next. New project, new market, new technology, a parent goes into hospital, a kid gets sick, a competitor blindsides you. The manager who can step away is the manager who gets called when the new opportunity lands.
The manager who can’t is the one being kept in the same chair because nobody else knows where the bodies are buried.
Three things to do this week.
Pick the part of your job you do best. The bit you’re proud of. The bit your boss probably promoted you for. That’s the bit you need to start handing over first. Not the admin you hate. The good stuff. Because that’s where your bottleneck is. It’s a bit painful in the short-term, but pays off.
Pick one person. Not the whole team. One. Tell them you’re going to spend the next three months teaching them this part of your role. Be honest about why. Most people will be flattered, not threatened.
Put it in the diary. A weekly hour where they shadow you, then do it with you, then do it themselves while you watch. If it’s not in the diary it won’t happen. Management debt always wins against good intentions.
By the way, this is roughly the moment in the email where I’d usually tell you that the smart play is to get your managers trained before you need them, not after. Funnily enough, that’s about to happen.
If you’re nodding at any of this, the Set The Tone Foundation Programme is built for exactly this problem. Reply to this email and we’ll have a chat. The founding cohort starts next week and deadline for signing up is this Friday.
Steve Jobs gave Tim Cook one piece of advice before he died. “Never ask what I would do. Just do the right thing.” Cook has said it was the greatest gift Jobs ever gave him, because it freed him from the trap of trying to be a copy.
The same logic applies one rung down. The point of training your replacement isn’t to find someone who does your job the way you do it. It’s to find someone who can do it their way, well enough that you’re free to go and do what’s next.
Make yourself replaceable.
That’s the move.
Arran
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Arran Russell
Founder, Set The Tone
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