I first met her when I was 17. She was a year younger than me and had spent most of her life in St. Louis, Missouri. She was long and lean with a compelling blend of style and grace. She sat quietly but I sensed a great strength waiting to be unleashed. One glance and I knew I had to make her mine.

Who was this amazing beauty that had captured my heart? A mint condition, one owner, 1968 Ford XL Fastback! Stored in the winter, never saw a snowflake and had only 60,000 miles on a powerful 302 small block V-8.

I spent most of my time and much of my money tuning and tweaking her to be a real head-turner. And she was rocket fast! I modified the 302, installed headers and a 3-inch dual exhaust system. If you didn’t see her, you definitely heard her. Ultra light aluminum racing wheels and summer slicks gave her additional agility and speed.

Each October I’d find a junker for $500 to drive through the winter and the “68” would reside safely out of the salt and snow until she awoke each spring with a roar.

We spent four incredible years together.

About two years into our relationship a friend of mine took a liking to her. We’ll call him “Dan”, because that was his name. Dan was 16 and from the “other side of the tracks”, the wealthy side. Every time I’d see him he would say, “Whenever you’re ready, I’ll pay you whatever you want for that car.” In retrospect, I should have paid closer attention to how he spoke about it.

His persistence paid off. Once I made the difficult decision to part ways with her, he was my first call. I threw out a number that would make it worth my while and ease my conscience, assuming he’d balk. He jumped at it!

He gave me the cash, I gave him the keys and signed over the title. They rumbled down the street with my heart and identity still very much attached to “that car”.

Six months later I was attending a Christmas party. Snow and ice glazed cars were nose to tail for two blocks. It was a frigid, blustery winter evening. I parked and embarked on a brisk walk, eyes squinting to protect them from the biting wind and the pelting sleet. I hadn’t gone 100 yards when I was stopped cold in my tracks. A moment frozen in my mind to this day.

There she was. My initial excitement turned to outrage. “What was he thinking driving her in this kind of weather?!?” Upon closer inspection I realized that it still had the summer tires on. The once polished wheels now coated in salt and sand. As I walked around the car my heart broke. The entire front end and passenger side…. Crashed! She had been completely destroyed!

The room was buzzing with holiday cheer and goodwill. I walked in with two clear goals:

1. Find Dan
2. Don’t kill him… in front of witnesses

There he was, joking with a group of friends. As I approached our eyes locked, it was everything in me to not fly across the room and tear him apart. “Hey Jon! Merry Christmas!” he said with that smug eggnog-sipping, car-destroying, identity-crushing grin.

“I saw the car” I said politely, tongue bleeding. “Oh yeah, that. Bummer, right?” Bummer? BUMMER??? Are you kidding me?!?! (Breathe, breathe, don’t punch him in the face, most of these people are from church!)

Mustering all the care and concern I could fake, I asked, “So what happened?”  “We got that first snow last month and I forgot about the summer tires. I had gotten in a fight with my girlfriend so I was mad. I turned onto an entrance ramp way too fast and put it right through a guardrail. It was kinda crazy.”

I queried my former friend, “Wow, too bad. How much to fix her up?” “Fix it?” He said with apparent shock. “I’m just gonna drive it through the winter, junk it in the spring and get something else.” And then he went where no man with any sense should ever go. “Hey man, it’s just an old car, it’s not like it’s worth anything to anyone.”

(Deep inhale, cleansing exhale)

Under the Hood:

Leaders and visionaries, they start companies, develop products, design environments and build organizations. They pour everything they have and everything they are into these endeavors. They find great joy in nurturing dreams into reality, transforming nothing into something. The things they create inspire people, impact communities, influence markets and change the world.

Leaders and visionaries also have a tendency to move on. At some point they are ready for a new adventure, a new environment, a new challenge… a new “sweetheart”.

It’s at this point that “what is” needs to be entrusted to someone else to steward and manage. The selection of new leadership is critical to the continued success of whatever it is we are passing along.

Developing a process in advance is the key to a smooth transition and a solid future for the product, organization, vision even the people you have invested yourself into.

Performance Tuning:

Start Early!

Identify potential leaders within your organization before you need them.

Who are the people on your team that have demonstrated leadership capacity and appear to share your passions regarding mission, vision and values? (That’s not a rhetorical question… make a list!)

Invite potential leaders through personal connection. Tell them exactly what you see in them (be specific) and “call them up” to join you at the leadership table. (Do it! Within the next two weeks!)

Invest in potential leaders by sharing the history of the organization, the successes, the failures and your vision for the future. (Don’t wing it! This is huge!! Think it through, write it out, make it clear and complete.)

Involve potential leaders in the current decision making process. Solicit their perspective on where things could go in the future. (This is where it gets real. At this point your role must begin to decrease. Give them more responsibility, more authority and more ownership. Allow them to make mistakes, help them learn and recover. Celebrate THEIR wins!)

It’s been over 30 years since that bleak winter evening. I never saw Dan or the car again. I’ve owned many cars since then, most of them much nicer by every standard, but “she” will always hold a special place in my heart. If I had shared the history and the future value of “that car” with Dan, he may have done things differently, but I didn’t so he didn’t. As a result it was most likely compacted into a three-foot square and recycled into a snow blower!

If you are a visionary or leader in any capacity, identify, invite, invest in and involve future leaders now and when the time comes for you to move on they will be ready to move in. They will understand and embrace the vision, the history, the future and, most importantly, their role and responsibility in it all.

You can hand them the title and the keys with a great deal of confidence that they are not going to drive it through a guardrail destroying everything you worked for. And if they do drive it through a guardrail… Take a deep breath and move on knowing you did everything you could to ensure success!

Lead Faster!

Jon Wright – Leadfoot Leader