The author, dressed as Rey for Halloween alongside two Jedis and an R2D2

The final movie in the Star Wars saga, the Rise of Skywalker, is coming out soon. Regardless of your feelings on the sequels, prequels, or even the original movies, Star Wars contains a number of leadership lessons. Here are my top three takeaways from watching countless hours of Star Wars with my boys.

1. Grow your influence by empowering others.

Say what you will about Senator Palpatine / the Emperor, but the Sith Lord knows how to stay in power. Palpatine illustrates the central tenets of Rosabeth Moss Kanter’s classic “Power Failure in Leadership Circuits,” namely that when we empower others, we grow our own influence. Palpatine grows his influence by cultivating and mentoring others. He empowers the Trade Federation to create conflict on Naboo, while advising Queen Amidala. He leverages these relationships to become Supreme Chancellor of the Republic.

Of course, Palpatine’s most famous protege is Darth Vader. He entrusts him to build the Death Star and track down the rebels. After Vader’s demise, Palpatine taps Kylo Ren to capture Rey, the new Jedi threat. Through mentoring rising stars across the galaxy, Palpatine manages to stay influential during a number of tumultuous periods.

How can it work for you? You don’t have to be a dark Sith Lord to use this tactic. Cultivate your network by finding out what makes people tick and find ways to help them achieve their goals. Give your subordinates enough autonomy to learn from their mistakes.

2. Coercion will get you nowhere.

As powerful as Emperor is, Darth Vader seems destined to surpass him, at least for a time. Unfortunately, Vader’s subordinates obey him mostly out of fear of having their larynxes crushed. As we see, fear doesn’t motivate employees to put forth their best performance. The second Death Star appears years behind schedule and tracking down the Millenium Falcon becomes an impossible task.

As a side note, do Empire minions work 24-7? The Death Star doesn’t seem to offer much work-life balance to subjects of the Empire. I’d rather be a smuggler like Han Solo. At least you can stop off after work for a drink with friends.

How can it work for you? We know that coercion is the least effective form of power. Maybe you’re not literally crushing throats, but do you hint at your ability to fire, demote, or take away the best work from your employees? Even offering rewards can hint at your ability to take them away. Try using personal sources of power. This can look like bringing your expertise into a conversation, relying on your network to help you promote a particular point of view, or appealing to your team’s values and desires in their work. Also, give your employees a break. Overwork leads to burnout – or unfinished Death Stars.

3. Invest in succession planning

The Star Wars story is essentially all about succession planning. Who will lead the Empire? Who will lead the Republic? Who will be the next Queen of Naboo? Who will be the next Jedi to bring balance to the Force? Whether light or dark, everyone in the Star Wars galaxy is seeking out new talent to lead the next generation.

How can it work for you? Are you seeking out and cultivating the next generation of talent? Just as in Star Wars, they may currently be in unexpected locations. Your next CEO might be wasting away in your organization’s Tatooine. And if you see rising stars as a threat, remember that by cultivating and empowering others we grow our influence. It’s rare that we forget our mentors and sponsors who have helped us along the way. The rising star you mentor today could be the leader who brings you back for one last battle to save the Republic.

May the Force Be With You!

While this is a healthy thing to think about, I suggest that you need “succession preparation” more than you need “succession planning.”  In large corporations, succession planning is about identifying, developing, and evaluating potential CEOs over a period of years.  This is usually not possible or even ideal in a nonprofit.  But you should do “succession preparation.”

Three key elements of succession preparation are:

1. An Emergency Transition Plan in the event that the CEO is incapacitated for a significant period of time.  Which person or persons would take on the CEO’s responsibilities during this interim period?  Have they been trained on what to do?  Do they have at least some relationship with key stakeholders so they could take on these responsibilities?  All too often, CEOs hold a lot of information only in their heads.  You need to get this written down.  And you might want emergency plans for other key staff.

2. Cross Training for all staff.  Here is the test.  Every person on your staff should be able to take a two week vacation to Bora Bora with no email or phone access.  While they are gone, someone else should have been cross-trained to be able to perform their essential functions.

3. Professional Development Plans for all staff.  An organization can be more resilient through staff transitions when all staff are continually improving their skills and talents.

For more great information on staff transitions, check out resources available through Transition Guides – now a part of Raffa.  Proper "succession preparation" can help your organization “prepare, pivot, & thrive” through transitions and continue making an important Mission Impact.

I hope this does not happen to you or your organization, but it could.  One reason is that many Boards and staff alike are in denial about leadership succession.  They don’t even want to talk about it.  “I just hope I retire from the Board before we have to deal with it,” I have heard some say.

How do you begin to prepare for the inevitable departure of a CEO?

My recommendation is that you encourage your organization to create an “Emergency Succession Plan” of what you would do in the event that your CEO has an unplanned illness that keeps them away from work for ninety days.

The components of that plan would be:

*A list of the key functions of the CEO

*A designation of who on the staff would temporarily take over each of those functions, including who the Interim CEO would be

*A plan to provide those people with the training/education/information so they can carry out these responsibilities

*A clear statement of which staff members will have authority for what

*A list of the most important organization stakeholders, how they will be communicated with regarding the “emergency” situation, and who will maintain relationships with them

It is simply “good business” to be prepared for a possible emergency situation with your CEO. Actually the same is true for other senior staff positions.  Completing these plans will open the door for more expanded conversations about leadership succession.  What will we do when the CEO ultimately retires?  How would we handle that?

Seamlessly handling leadership transitions is a key to organization resilience and making a long term Mission Impact.

*For excellent resources on leadership succession, check out the Transition Guides web site.

Do you have the team you need to implement your strategy?

Far too many nonprofits look at their “Salary” budget line item as static.  “This is all we can afford.  We need to find the best person possible for this amount of money.”

This folks, is NOT being strategic.  Sometimes, a strategy calls for a certain kind of talent on the team.  And oft times, a certain kind of talent may cost more than what you are used to paying.  If so, this is the time to look at reallocating expenses and/or getting creative about revenue generation so you can afford the right talent.

This issue is going to get particularly challenging for Boards during the coming years as many Baby Boomers – who have been significantly underpaid – retire.  If you have an aging CEO then I suggest you do some market research ASAP on what it will cost you to replace her/him when he/she eventually retires (if they can afford to!).  A lot of Boards have been shocked into reality as this has happened in recent years and the Baby Boom retirements have just started.  (The oldest Baby Boomers turned 65 in 2011; those in the Baby Boomer peak year will turn 65 in 2022.)

FYI – this is going to affect more than just the CEO position and it is going to impact more than just salary.  Overall benefit packages are going to have to be rethought as well.

If you want to effectively implement a strategy then you need the talent to do so.  And that is what making a Mission Impact requires.

Is your organization prepared for this?  It might hit you sooner than you think.  A recent study by The Meyer Foundation and CompassPoint, entitled “Daring to Lead” (http://daringtolead.org/) found that 67% of the nonprofit CEOs surveyed said that they plan to leave their jobs within the next five years.

And this is not just an issue for CEOs.  Baby Boomer retirements will hit organizations at many senior levels.  The first Baby Boomers, born in 1946, are turning sixty-five this year.  The retirement wave will start slowly at first, and then cascade upon us.  We had about 3.4 million births in the US in 1946 – an increase of more than 20% from the year before.  That number kept growing until it hit 4 million per year in 1954 and did not fall below that until 1964 – the end of the Boom.  That is a ton of senior leadership in organizations – and vast institutional knowledge – that will be leaving the workplace.

What should you do to prepare?  I suggest you do two important things:

*Talking about the possible departure of a CEO or any leader can be a touchy subject.  I recommend that organizations dip their toes in the water on this topic by making sure they have a well thought out “Emergency Transition” plan what would be implemented when any senior leader unexpectedly cannot perform their duties – either for the short term or long term.  This will get the organization thinking about succession and is simply good business practice.  The people at Transition Guides have a nice template I recommend in their Emergency Succession Planning Workbook (http://www.transitionguides.com/publications).

*Next, and most importantly, invest in the development of your staff team!  This is a difficult thing for some organizations to justify when budgets are so tight, but I will suggest that there has never been a more important time to make sure that you are developing your leadership pipeline.  The younger people on your staff are going to be called upon sooner than you think to step up – and they need developmental opportunities now to help prepare them.

Make sure that your organization will have the leadership it needs to make a Mission Impact in the future by preparing for change and investing in Your Leadership Pipeline.