I was a SOB. Son of Boss…and then the boss. Working with family in the business was hard and one of the most rewarding decades of my life. Do your parents ever send you emails with memes, videos, and politics? Mine, too, except my Dad also sends me business ideas. Here’s one that I asked him to write about. Today, I’m grateful for what my Dad gave me in life, business, leadership, authoring, and love. Thanks, Dad.

When it comes to leadership, it’s easy to get caught up in sports analogies and miss the point. But every once in a while, you can pick up a nugget or two listening to the sports analysts yell at each other on TV and radio.

Recently, the news has been full of the football sign-stealing scandal at Michigan. Whether you root for vicious mammals, seeds, or some other arcane mascot, and ignore the ethical aspects of the situation for now, a learning opportunity popped up from Colin Cowherd, host of The Herd on Fox Sports.

After Michigan beat No. 10 Penn State on the road without Michigan’s coach on the sideline because of a suspension, Cowherd commented, “I respect Jim Harbaugh, the CEO of Michigan football, MORE today than I did before all this ‘sign stealing’ … You are officially a good boss if the company is as good when you’re NOT there” … THAT is a great boss.”

Cowherd goes on to explain, “It’s further proof that college football is about 1. recruiting, 2. building a staff, and 3. building a culture. A+, A+, A+ for Harbaugh.”

So this generates an interesting question: “Is your organization just as good when you’re gone as when you’re there?”

It’s a humbling concept, and one that runs somewhat contrary to the classic view of out-front leadership. Yet, it may well be the secret to organizational excellence. It suggests that value is created when you make yourself less necessary.

There are two things in life where your goal is to make yourself obsolete. One is parenthood.

Ideally, you want your kids to depend on your guidance as they grow until about 18 years of age. Then you want them to tell you, “I’m outta here. I can do this on my own.” Of course, they won’t do that unless you’ve been loosening the reins all along, but that’s a topic for a different day.

The second area where you need to make yourself obsolete is leadership. You want to create an organization where your employees are mini-you’s. Actually, you want them to be better-than-you’s.

Assume you went away to a trade show and decided not to come back for two weeks. Ideally, you want your employees to say something like, “Whatever happened to old Ken? He went on some trip. Did he ever come back? I haven’t seen him around for a while. Oh, well, it doesn’t matter.” You’re nice to have around, but they don’t need you.

Like with Harbaugh, everyone is still performing at an expected (high) level whether you’re there or not. That means you’ve recruited your own right people, built them into a team, and established a culture of performance.

There’s also this aspect of better-than-you. Some leaders are threatened by subordinates who are smarter than they are. Other leaders seek out these types of employees.

They surround themselves with smart people and then keep figuring out ways to challenge and retain them. These leaders aren’t running the business. They’re making sure the business is running well.

To illustrate…In a leadership class, a very successful CEO was asked by the other attendees how he made decisions. He surprised everyone by explaining, “I make all decisions within five minutes. The conversation may last longer, but that’s about how long it takes for me.

“It’s like this: I have really good people running the place. If they come to me with an issue, and within five minutes, I hear a clear statement of the problem, some possible solutions, and a recommendation, then I always say ‘Yes.’ They clearly know what they want to do.

“But if the problem isn’t well-defined, or if they’re waffling about a solution, then I always say ‘No.’ They don’t have a good grasp on the issue. So I send them back to work on the problem further and then get back to me. I may have a suggestion or two, or some to-do’s for them, but that’s about it.

“This has worked out really well for me. Heck, I don’t know what’s going on out there, certainly not in any detail. I’m too far removed these days. They know what’s going on and what needs to be done, better than I do.”

For some leaders, this is a threatening situation. For others, it’s wonderfully freeing. Everything is no longer on just their shoulders.

There’s also a safety/continuity aspect to this.

You’re no longer the only one who can run the place. Face it.

Any time there’s only one person (or no people) who can do an important task in your organization, you’re at risk.

This means that after you get this going for yourself, you need to propagate it throughout your organization. All your leaders need to make sure that they can live without any one person, and that they’re fully tapping into the knowledge and skills of their people. You’ll have a whole cadre of “obsolete” leaders who are now focusing on the big leverage items—recruiting, staff building, and culture.

As this is written, it will be interesting to see how Michigan plays without Harbaugh on the sidelines for the rest of the regular season. How would your team fare? You need to make sure they keep on winning, too.