You may be the best leader for today, but your company needs the best leaders for tomorrow. What are you doing to ensure your company has the next generation of future leaders ready to lead? As T.D. Jakes says, “Success is not success without a successor.”

According to a PWC CEO study, future leaders need to be adept in the following areas: Agility, Authenticity, and Sustainability

Agility: Anticipate, adapt to, and lead change.

Authenticity: Take a stand on critical issues regardless of what is popular.

Sustainability: Work for bottom-line results while also focusing on the public good.

Here is how you invest your best in developing your future leaders:

Focus on future needs not just past accomplishments. When you select future leaders to develop don’t just look at what has worked in the past. Those you develop must be able to not only survive change, but thrive in change. Look for examples of their ability to do this already, and focus their development on perfecting this skill.

“You’re going to have to have a company that is ready for the next five years where the only constant is rapid change. For that, you need people who can adjust to that change and comprehend the ecosystem” – Ajay Banga, CEO MasterCard, US

Encourage difference of opinions. The ability to drive to a consensus is an important leadership trait. To do that you need to gather the opinions of those involved and work to align them on the vision and plan to accomplish the vision. The very first step in this process is for those involved to have opinions and be willing to support them. A leader should not feel pressure to have every idea, but they do need to formulate their opinion about the end state and be able to develop an opinion after hearing everyone’s ideas. Future leaders should be encouraged to develop and support their own opinions in order to be ready to lead.

“Don’t think about it as when you are ready to leave…think about it as when the next generation is ready to lead.” – John Davis

Provide Exposure.   Learning is not the same as doing, and doing is not the same as living with the results. This is where what you built is measured not just in the short term profits, but the long term impacts both for your company and for others around you. Future leaders need to see this and be seen leading this aspect of their business.

“One of the things we often miss in succession planning is that it should be gradual and thoughtful, with lots of sharing of information and knowledge and perspective, so that it’s almost a non-event when it happens.” – Anne Mulcahy