As I’ve often shared, every organization’s growth plan starts with your leadership team. You need a strong, aligned, high-performing team in place to execute on your strategy.

Once you have the right people in place, are you giving them the freedom they need to thrive as leaders? Are you pushing them to think — and act — like CEOs?

A recent Harvard Business Review article examined several companies known for producing highly successful CEOs from their ranks. They identified three distinct practices found in each of the companies — practices that diverged from the common approaches of other similar-size companies. While the HBR article focuses on larger organizations, I think the lessons are applicable to any business with a growth mindset and commitment to employee development.

Here are the three practices:

Give leaders broad authority. CEO-grooming organizations provide their managers with meaningful decision-making authority. Create opportunities where your leaders oversee budgets, people and strategy — mini-companies within your business where the decisions they make have a real impact on the company. HBR’s research showed that highly decisive leaders are 12 times more likely to succeed.
Encourage them to think like CEOs. Push your leaders to mimic the behaviors of the most successful CEOs with a laser focus on metrics and value creation. One of the companies HBR studied, Rohm and Haas, ingrains in its leaders a sense of accountability to five key stakeholders: customers, employees, investors, community and process. The research shows that leaders who engage these 5 “voices” to produce results were twice as likely to be successful CEOs.
Challenge strong performers early with big opportunities. Identify your high-potential managers and send them into unknown areas with minimal support. These bold bets are “career catapults.” They will gain confidence and experience with every challenge given to them.

Of course, this requires CEO commitment. You must be comfortable stepping back and allowing your leaders to fail and succeed on their own. As their leader and mentor, you’re there to help them learn from each opportunity and grow stronger as future CEOs.

Everyone wins in this scenario. Your strongest team members feel empowered. You’re able to back away from micro-managing every aspect of our business. And, most of all, your business benefits from the strengthened leadership infrastructure and that you are preparing the CEOs of the future.