Successful Leadership Transition Doesn’t Just Happen, It Takes Proactive Pre and Post Steps
Leadership transition is a high stakes game—the way it’s executed can positively or negatively affect an organization’s future for literally decades. So why not knock it out of the park?!
As a past emerging leader who wanted to become CEO, and a former CEO who wanted to successfully transition my organization, I am passionate about assisting organizations in thoughtful pre- and post-transition planning. I like to consider the new CEO or executive’s first day as the start of a leadership transition, but preparing for the most effective leadership transition starts long before this.
I’ve developed 5 proactive steps for the current CEO to take before the transition. Following that are 5 deliberate steps to be taken by the new CEO after the transition occurs.
5 Pre-Leadership Transition Steps for the Current CEO
1. Start Early
You almost can’t start this process too early. Here are some of the benefits of beginning a leadership succession plan early:
Your high performing employees stay because you’ve identified a potential future opportunity they want to work toward.
You can accelerate your leadership succession plan if an opportunity comes along that you can’t refuse.
Your employees, clients and stakeholders can feel more confident in their relationship with your organization as they aren’t left wondering what will happen to them when you leave.
Your organization’s valuation increases because you have a communicated plan.
2. Set Future Leader Criteria Based on Environment
You owe it to your emerging leaders to establish an objective process with specific leadership criteria you believe the future leader needs to possess. A few items that should be considered when setting criteria to be met are:
The external environment
Future competitive challenges
Internal team culture
You’ll also want to assemble a diverse group to help you set the criteria expected of the next leader, including managers who will be working with the next leader. Understand that the skillset of a leader who can create a new business is a different than the leader who can take an organization into a growth stage.
3. Assess Entire Team for Capabilities
Depending on your organization, you may want to consider an internal candidate who has institutional knowledge and can be groomed for the position over time. Alternatively, you may want to explore an external candidate who can bring a fresh perspective, new customer base, and unique skill set. Either way, I highly recommend first focusing on your internal candidates. Identifying a few individuals provides you with options if a situation changes, while also building a team of peers who can support one another and assume varying top leadership and functional roles.
Here’s how to start:
Assess their skills compared to your objective criteria, and select a few high-potential candidates.
Hold candid, personal conversations with these individuals to determine their interest in assuming an executive role.
Recognize that the skills that made them successful in their current role may not be the skills they need for success in their future role—and consider this throughout the evaluation process.
“What got you here, won’t get you there.” – Marshall Goldsmith, world-renowned business educator and leadership coach.
4. Provide Increasing Opportunities to Test Leaders’ Mettle
There is a reason that organizations establish functional or regional leaders, and that non-profits create 2nd and 1st Vice Presidents who move up the chain each year. This process offers individuals increasing responsibilities so they can test out their leadership mettle and build effective problem resolution abilities dealing with actual organizational issues. When done thoughtfully, these experiences will position them well to excel as a leader.
5. Continually Mentor and Invest in Future Leaders’ Growth
The speed and success of an organization is set by the abilities of the leader. Therefore, you want to continually invest your personal time to mentor emerging leaders. Provide them with feedback, guidance, and a variety of professional development activities to grow their leadership and soft skill knowledge. If you don’t have time to create your own mentorship program, ask me about my Emerging Leaders Program.
5 Post-Leadership Transition Steps for the New CEO
1. Take Stock of Situation
Whether you were an internal candidate or a well-briefed external new leader, spend your first few weeks taking stock of the situation. Walking around the office, interact with the team you are now leading, ask them questions, and listen to every response, idea and suggestion.
2. Share Your Story
When you assume the helm, existing employees will want to know how this change will impact them. They will immediately begin evaluating your expertise and abilities, while judging if they can trust you. One of the best ways to build relationships under this new role is to share your story with your team. Let them know you personally, including:
Why you wanted this role
What you hope to achieve
The importance of their role
The experiences you’ve had that you feel make you poised to skillfully lead the firm
3. Cast a Compelling Vision
To be successful in your new role, you need to ask questions and listen first. Only then can you create a bond with the team as their new servant leader. Once trust is established, the team will want to know where the organization is heading under your direction. They will assume it is at least somewhat different than the current path. Communicate a consistent, compelling vision that will motivate your team and calm the worriers.
4. Assemble Resources and Your Team
Do you have the right type and number of people plus sufficient additional resources to execute your vision? To answer this question accurately requires a review of the current fiscal budget for necessary adjustments, as well as factoring these needs into next year’s budget. Of course your most important resource is your people. After Step 1 of walking around and taking stock, you should know if your current staff can effectively bring your new vision to fruition. Perhaps staff needs to be added, promoted, trained and/or given new responsibilities. Handle this with utmost integrity to continue building your team’s trust in you.
5. Take Action to Create Meaning
Whether it be your first day, week, month, or quarter, your team will be evaluating your abilities and effectiveness. How you are perceived can cause them to further engage, disengage, or even potentially want to leave. Besides how you treat your team, they will want to see progress; small goals accomplished and elements of large goals completed. Everyone wants to be part of something significant, so create a place where each individual working for you has a meaningful career and can contribute to the organization’s big picture.
Wherever you are in your organization’s life cycle, don’t wait too long to start thinking about your organization’s future leadership. If you’d like to review where you’re at today, it would be my privilege to offer a ‘needs discovery’ call to identify some next steps. Let’s get you positioned for the future, so you can knock it out of the park.
