Ben can look back at a successful career having grown his organization to a medium-sized company. He calls himself a patriarch and faces the next step of his career. He finds himself to be in a transition as he wants to transmit his organization to his followers.

Like many entrepreneurs, he had to face the fact that no one in his family would step into the business. There was no natural transition and he had to find one that would give him satisfaction.

It meant working on two different types of objectives. Those to care for his and his family’s financial future as well as those tied to his desire to see his work continued.

It is the desire to leave a legacy and see that what he created is bigger than himself.

The initial work was to develop a solution. It wasn’t as simple as selling and staying connected for a while. It meant creating a solution allowing for his two types of objectives to be met, that is determining who could follow and find a solution making it financially viable for everyone.

As important as they are, these details of the work quickly become evident. It’s a visible problem making it a normal reaction to search for a solution.

There is, however, a much less visible task in the transition process. It is everything that needs to be done to let go as well as hand over one’s leadership.

To do so he now faces the task of describing his gut understanding of the business as well as the fundamentals he contributed to it. While he has a clear understanding for himself of what he sees as right and what as wrong, he has never taken the time to discover how to describe it, that is, how to translate it into a proper governance system and a shareable picture of what his organization stands for.

Relying on one’s gut understanding makes transitions and leadership depend on the gut remaining available. Stepping into the shared self-reflection opens the door to becoming able to lead without needing to hold one to one’s leadership.