When is it time to replace yourself?

When there's nothing left to do? When the investors are paid back? When you are bored? According to Federated Media's founder, John Battelle, when the day to day operations would be better be served by another leader. It's really that simple. Battelle sat down with Vator TV's Bambi Francisco to talk about his decision, the state of online advertising and to share his view of the road ahead.

Now...a little more context, John Battelle is an icon in the new media world. A thoughtful and well liked creative exec, John was a co-founding editor at Wired, founder of the Industry Standard and is the author of The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture. In his role as founder and chairman of Federated, John has raised 57.5 million and did sales sales of 40 million last year.

Given John's accomplishments and success is it easier for him to step aside from a firm still on its way to proving itself?

Is it easier for people to trust his judgment?

Clearly..his answer is smart. "When the firm would be better served by someone else". Could a rookie CEO make that statement without people being suspect? Would a less accomplished CEO walk away looking less than?

I happen to see John's self-awareness and desire to do the right thing for his team to be very impressive. At the same time it's fun to examine the standards we place on our execs.

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com