The human resource director was interviewing a job applicant. “Given that you have no experience in this field, you’re asking for an awfully high salary,” she pointed out.
“I suppose so,” replied the applicant, “but think how much harder the work’s going to be if I don’t know anything about it.”
You have chosen talented people for your team. You know that they work and play well with others. Make sure you have ongoing discussions with each of your people individually about their career growth. In many cases, you can find a path of career development within the organization that they want to follow.
Don’t assume everyone wants to climb the corporate ladder. Don’t assume everyone who reports to you wants to do your job if/when you retire or are promoted. Talk to each person about what THEY want. Anticipate where you will have openings in the next five years, and start training your people to fill them now. Invest in them to get them training in technical skills, project management, or leadership.
Delegate to empower people and grow their experience and competence. Don’t feel like you can or should invest in growing a just single successor to take your job when you get promoted. If you grow several people, you have a deep bench of talented people who can lead new revenue areas, start a new business team, or take the helm in an office in a new geographical region. You also don’t have the problem of “all your eggs in one basket” if you choose to grow one person, but that person goes to work at another company, or has a serious health problem, or has a spouse who gets transferred to Tulsa.
(quote source: https://maaw.info/GadgetsandGames/BossJokes.htm)
(image generated by Midjourney)