The ultimate test of leadership is whether the team thrives without you. Start by asking: "If I were unavailable for a month, what would break?" Then systematically fix each answer.
Strong answers cover: documenting institutional knowledge, cross-training team members, gradually delegating critical responsibilities, identifying and developing potential successors, and the bus factor concept. Best candidates discuss how they measure single-point-of-failure risk and systematically reduce it across the team.
Senior leadership maturity indicator. Leaders who make themselves indispensable are actually failing. Those who build capable, independent teams demonstrate the highest form of leadership.