Too many organizations underperform because they fail to pay sufficient attention to leader transitions. As a result, the mission, those served, and the employees suffer. In my work with more than 300 organizations facing leader transitions, I’ve identified many factors that influence the outcome of a leader transition.

The Children’s Inn in [location], an organization providing homes for children with rare illnesses and their families while the National Institute of Health searches for a cure for their diseases, is a great example of the impact of leader transitions on mission. The Inn has known hard times from troubled executive transitions and successful times from smooth transitions.

A number of years ago, its Board of passionate organizational founders and their allies had watched as a series of executives they hired under-performed. The final straw was an executive who pitted the staff against the Board and seriously divided the organization.

At that point, deeply united in concern about the impact executive performance was having on the Inn’s ability to fulfill its mission, the Inn’s Board took charge and convinced a founding board member to serve as executive for a few years. Over a 12-year tenure, she transformed the Inn from x to y. Her combination of passion for mission and leadership skills resulted in a strong, vibrant organization.  When she decided to retire, remembering the pain of the years of poor leadership, the board feared a return of crippling disruption.

The departing executive had groomed a successor and recommended her to the Board. The Board stepped back and decided that with a critical decision such as this they would be wise to seek help from a transition consultant. The process that followed revealed some Board members favored a full search and others favored accepting the departing executive’s recommendation for a successor.  

The Board’s Transition Committee weighed all the considerations and launched a process which left open the possibility of an external search after they first did a rigorous evaluation of the internal candidate as a leader for the organization. The result of this process, which included input from staff members, was a unanimous and enthusiastic selection of the internal candidate. All shared amazement that an open, thoughtful process allowed all voices to be heard and resulted in a powerful consensus.

Jennifer Lucca has now served as the Inn’s executive for four years. The organization has continued to thrive and provide outstanding service to its clients. The Board’s fears of regression to the days of discord and declining services have melted away.

This story is about two things: the power of leader transitions to advance, weaken or destroy organizations and the power of a planned and well-executed transition to strengthen and transform organizations.

Unfortunately, not every leader transition goes so well. Think for a moment about organizations you might know that were weakened or destroyed by a flawed leader transition. Arts organizations, charter schools, food banks, group homes for people with developmental disabilities, neighborhood development initiatives and community health clinics of all sizes have felt the pain of failed or flawed transitions.

Some of the primary factors that I’ve found to predict positive leader transitions include:

1. The board and stakeholders believe that who leads the organization matters. Some people believe that any smart leader can lead any organization. I don’t. I believe the context of the organization or company determine the requirements for the best leader. The art of successful hiring is understanding well the context and identifying potential leaders who have the skills, attitudes and hunger needed for success in this context.
2. All involved accept that a leader transition is a multi-faceted undertaking that requires time and patience. There is a big difference between the change – the day the departing executive leaves – and the transition – the planning and completion of a process first to identify what the organization needs in its next leader and then to recruit, screen and successfully onboard that leader. The rush to hire quickly and the under-appreciation of the opportunity for important changes that come with transition get in the way of transition success.
3. Equity, diversity and inclusion matter. Leader transitions are great times to continue to advance an organizational commitment to equitable policies and practices. This is only possible if there is an ongoing focus on organizational practices and policies that advance racial equity and inclusiveness. Both the organization and the candidate are poorly served when a Board tries to advance its diversity goal singularly by whom they hire as executive. Transitions are terrible times to play the number games and add a few people of color to the board or search committee and to the finalist pool.  Diversity and inclusion need attention before the transition, during the transition, and after the transition. To support mission success, attention to diversity, equity and inclusion needs to be an ongoing, consistent focus of the Board and organization.
4. A good ending with the departing leader and a positive beginning with the new leader require attention to both and a learned tolerance for the confusion, anxiety and creativity in between. William Bridges, a leading writer on transitions, emphasizes the importance of normalizing what he calls the “neutral zone” – the uncomfortable period of not knowing between the two. The alternative to embracing the ending and neutral zone is to scapegoat someone or encourage controversy on some issue and divide the organization. (see https://wmbridges.com/ for more on endings, beginnings and neutral zone).

Paying attention to the preparation and execution of leader transitions takes time and often requires consultation or coaching from someone who understands the nuances of transitions. The payoff is the vastly increased odds of achieving organizational success – success that translates directly to positive outcomes for the people who are served.