Leadership: Transition

 

Few events in the life of an organization are as critical, as visible, or as stressful as when the leader leaves the organization. The eyes of every employee, customer, partner, and investor are focused on the outgoing executive. How that moment is managed reveals the character and effectiveness of the leader, the organization, and its people. Leaders move into a new position with a strategy for capturing the promise and energy of a new beginning. To make a lasting difference, however, they must remember that an ending is also a beginning; it requires just as much thought and planning.

 

Leadership transition is an integral process for all leaders of an organization. It begins long before (and continues long after) the outgoing leader departs, and it presents a remarkable opportunity to move forward with a new understanding of the complexities, challenges, and changes the organization must address.

 

A Four-Step Process

 

If the present leader and her team were right for yesterday and today, the new leader must be equally right for tomorrow.

 

Phase I Defining a Vision.

 

• A search committee appointed by the board of directors, with superior staff support, describes its vision for the future of the organization and the major issues it will face in the next 5 to 10 years.
• The vision statement is shared widely and describes both the nature of the organization 10 years hence and the qualities required of the new chief executive to lead toward that vision.
• If the present leader and her team were right for yesterday and today, the new leader must be equally right for tomorrow Celebration of the future - not perpetuation of the past - underscores all communication.

 

Phase II Building a Search Infrastructure.

 

• The search committee selects a search firm that understands the vision, goals, and expectations of the organization. The chemistry has to be right.
• The chief executive designs and manages the process - not the search itself.
• She helps to articulate organizational goals, may offer insight on the qualities necessary in a successor, and may advise on the selection of a search firm.
• She provides superb staff support to the search committee, but then is scrupulous about not even appearing to direct the committee's work.

 

Phase III Delegating Authority.

 

• The board of directors has delegated to the search committee the selection of the search firm.
• Board and staff members, and other constituents, should submit nominations to the search firm, not to the search committee, for screening - thus avoiding any appearance of internal pressure or preference.
• But before the board of directors to the search committee delegate's responsibility, it is important for the board to agree on the selection process. Will the search committee present one final candidate to the board for approval, or does the board wish to interview two or three finalists?
• Once the board has approved the selection process, the delegation of authority must be clear and specific. The plan must then be adhered to as the process moves ahead.

 

Phase IV Conducting the Search.

 

• The search committee and the search firm agree on the ways to work: whether, for example, to cast a wide net or to concentrate on particular fields; the timetables and deadlines to meet; the number of final candidates the committee will interview, and when and where they will be interviewed.
• Ethical behavior and observance of total confidentiality is key to the recruitment process.
• Ideally, the incoming leader will be able to work with the outgoing leader in the weeks or months before taking office - always observing that the present leader carries full responsibility for the organization until the day she leaves. There are no lame ducks in a successful transition.

 

A generous and graceful separation can relieve some of the organizational anxiety.

 

These four steps are not a blueprint for the success of all searches, but they do suggest order and principle in what can be a stressful event. Not all partings are planned or voluntary, of course. In these cases, a generous and graceful separation can relieve some of the organizational anxiety.

 

Leaders spend much time thinking about how to propel the enterprise - and their careers - into the future. They usually spend far too little time thinking about the right time and way to leave. Yet a successful transition can be a seamless, productive, and unifying experience. Most of us will be remembered, in work and in life, for just a few words or deeds that made a difference to others. The way we choose to say good-bye is likely to be one of the ways we are remembered. If we execute our final leadership responsibility with the same care and attention that we gave to the first, our departure can be an inspiring gift to the enterprise and to the people in it.