Category: Media

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.

You can read the full article here: https://fortune.com/2024/07/22/joe-biden-2024-election-exit-corporate-america-leadership-kamala-harris/

Note: There may be a paywall to reach the article.

As the post-COVID workplace evolves, the pendulum is swinging between two extremes. On one side, many employers are requiring more in-person attendance with the belief that returning to the office improves productivity. On the other side, some companies allow permanent remote work as a way to attract talent.

Crain’s Forum
Rather than dwelling in the extremes, the way to manage today can probably be found in the middle. With self-reflection, input from colleagues and a genuine desire to foster balance, managers can decide what makes the most sense for their teams — based on people’s roles, the team’s priorities and goals, and how work gets done at the company.

In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, Harry shares his opinion on how to try and strike a balance between being “nice” and “too nice” at work:
How nice should you be at work? We’ve supposedly moved on from the era of the militaristic chief executive who barks orders and threats. Most of us agree: We don’t like jerks . Be kind, we implore our kids. Then we get to the office. We’ve got direct reports to rally, colleagues in other departments to convince and bosses who claim they want honest feedback. Speak with hesitation and you’re ignored. Handle your team with kid gloves and you’re a pushover, not a force to be reckoned with.