Succession Planning: “Do I Still Have Fire in My Belly?”

Note: This is the eighth of 11 blogs featuring practical wisdom from the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning. Free to ECFA members, you can download the resource and video by clicking here.

Principle No. 8 - Plan for Plan A: Your CEO Retires

News Flash! Your CEO will retire someday, as will the senior leaders reporting to the CEO. Healthy boards and healthy CEOs address these facts of life well in advance. Effective boards take time for prayer, discernment, and considering God-honoring options. The toolbox resources for “Plan for Plan A” include helpful questions so boards and CEOs can address the elephant in the room. 

Example:
• “We have clear expectations and written annual goals (with annual performance reviews) for our CEO to prevent ‘coasting’ into retirement.”
• “Our CEO already has a healthy and balanced life outside of work so retirement will not be a shock to the system.”

Even if your current CEO is relatively young, effective boards help CEOs plan for their inevitable retirement. David McKenna counsels, "Succession begins before we assume a position of leadership, not when we get ready to leave it.”

In the next two blogs, we’ll discuss Plan B—your CEO resigns, and Plan C—your CEO is terminated. Given three choices, Plan A is a joy to address!

When should a CEO retire or resign? McKenna says “timing is everything” when discerning when to leave a ministry. CEOs should ask themselves, “Do I still have fire in my belly for the future of this organization?”

In The Leader’s Legacy, McKenna notes three questions from Peter Drucker:
   • What needs to be done?
   • Can I do it?
   • Do I want to do it?

Download the Facilitator Guide and inspire a board member to address this common elephant in the room at your next board meeting. Remember: every CEO is an Interim CEO. 

BOARD DISCUSSION: One retirement option for your CEO might be to launch a second part-time career (consulting, teaching, writing, etc.). Would our board be open to our CEO beginning what Bob Buford, author of Halftime, labeled “low-cost probes” into a new venture while still employed here?

DOWNLOAD: ECFA Governance Toolbox Series No. 4: Succession Planning – 11 Principles for Successful Successions: “Every CEO is an Interim CEO.” The toolbox includes 
   • Read-and-Engage Viewing Guide (20 pages) – photocopy for board members
   • Facilitator Guide (10 pages)
   • 4 short videos (4-5 minutes each)
   • Additional resources and succession planning tools

MORE RESOURCES: Follow the “40 Blogs. 40 Wednesdays.” color commentaries on Lessons From the Nonprofit Boardroom. Click here.

Is There a Retirement Age for Board Members?

In a board governance workshop last year, a ministry CEO in the back row asked how he could gently help an elderly board member exit from the board.  He wondered if a governance consultant could be of help.
 
Yet as he described his situation (the board member was elderly, but also one of those dig-your-feet-in types), I suggested that he didn’t need a consultant, he needed a pastor.

In the ECFA 2011 Governance survey of ECFA accredited members, 54 percent of board members were age 60 or over (16 percent were 71 or over).  Among board chairs, 62 percent were age 60 or over (23 percent were 71 or over). Is that good or bad? No one really knows.

Why did I recommend pastoral help to the ministry CEO?  In my consulting work and board service experience of more than 40 years, I’ve observed that the greater problem is not aging, it’s sinning. Are board members—no matter the age—hearing from God about their board service?

I’m in the age bracket mentioned above—and I’ve become more intentional about urging my wife, my son and my close friends to speak the truth into my life when it’s time for me to exit a board.  Yet I’ve watched extraordinary men and women, who some would describe as “elderly,” bring wisdom and experience into the boardroom and humbly help others discern strategic forks-in-the-road. 

I’ve also seen the opposite—aging board members concerned more with their own agendas and self-worth. I don’t hear them speaking about a holy calling or having passion to spiritually discern God’s voice. 
 
Question: Who speaks the truth into your life?