Succession Planning: The Five Stages of CEO Abandonment

Note: This is the ninth 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. 9 - Plan for Plan B: Your CEO Resigns

Surprise…and maybe shock! While you thought your CEO would serve until retirement, today she called your board chair to announce her resignation! 

CEOs exit for many reasons:
• God’s call to another ministry
• Transition back to a previous career or organization
• Burnout or boredom
• Lack of passion
• Illness or family challenges
• Geographical and/or weather preferences
• “Pounding the same nail” one too many years
• Out of alignment with the board’s vision
• Failure or position mismatch
• Theological disagreements

You likely have other reasons to add to this list.

Boards will often have a sense of abandonment. The timing is rarely perfect. Some board members will experience one or more of the five stages of loss and grief popularized by Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Denial and Isolation, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, and Acceptance.

As you’re negotiating this transition, heed the counsel from author William Bridges, who notes that “the beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.” He lists three phases of managing a transition: the ending, the neutral zone, and the new beginning. 

Boards will be alert to these phases during a CEO succession process. For more, read Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change, by William Bridges, and read my blog post, “Beware the Emotional Effects of Transition,” about the 22 emotions that your board might experience along the continuum—from denial to enthusiasm.

Warning and Reminder! How boards and CEOs negotiate the delicate dance of honoring each other will be observed by staff, volunteers, stakeholders, givers, and the community. (Not to mention your next CEO recruit!) What an opportunity to be God-honoring!

BOARD DISCUSSION: True or False?
1. We have board-approved policies that address CEO succession.
2. As a board, we are experienced at spiritually discerning God’s voice—and we will not need to learn this competency in the middle of a crisis.

TO DO TODAY: Download the Facilitator Guide and inspire a board member to address how you’ll respond to a “Plan B” scenario. Remember: every CEO is an Interim CEO. 

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.

Succession Planning: Does Your CEO Need a Coach?

Note: This is the sixth 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. 6: Invest in Growing Your Leaders (Every Leader Needs a Coach)

Bill Conaty and Ram Charan preach this memorable one-liner in their powerful book, The Talent Masters: Why Smart Leaders Put People Before Numbers:

“Only one competency lasts.
It is the ability to create a steady,
self-renewing stream of leaders.”

These two business leaders list 12 “Leadership Pitfalls” in The Talent Masters, including “not developing your own succession plan.” Boards should memorize the list and be alert to staff members practicing this pitfall: “’Running for office’—which is totally transparent to everyone else.”

So on your journey towards succession plan readiness—how high is your board setting the bar on these two big ideas?
   1) Grow your CEO.
   2) Inspire your CEO to grow leaders.

I know. I know. The daily to-do list pushes succession preparation way down. Critical budget needs leave inadequate funds for leader development. Stop! Reflect! Pray! Consider this wisdom:

CFO to CEO:
“What happens if we invest in developing our people
and then they leave us?

CEO: “What happens if we don’t, and they stay?”

Or this from Jack Welch, quoted by Jeff McManus in Growing Weeders Into Leaders: Leadership Lessons from the Ground Level: “Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”

Or this from Paul to Timothy: “And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others.” (2 Timothy 2:2, NIV)

Principle No. 6 includes four discussion ideas for inspiring your CEO to grow—so when succession happens, your next CEO will take the baton of a healthy, God-honoring organization. 

Check it out 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

BOARD DISCUSSION: Does your CEO need a coach? According to Soderquist Leadership, “92% of executives who received coaching said they would be willing to be coached again.”

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

Succession Planning: “Appointment Without Anointment Always Led to Disaster”

Note: This is the second 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.

“…the greatest tool for effective steward leaders is a mirror and a group of friends to be sure they are looking into it with clarity and focus.”

That insight is from R. Scott Rodin’s important book, The Steward Leader: Transforming People, Organizations and Communities. Who is holding your current leaders accountable—and what do they believe about leadership?

The second of 11 principles in the new ECFA Governance Toolbox Series on succession planning warns, “Before your board’s CEO succession planning discussion spirals into the nuts and bolts, stop the presses…” and reflect on this topic:

“Principle No. 2: Discern Your Board’s Succession Values and Beliefs”

Are all of your board members (and senior team members) on the same theological page? Is everyone in alignment on what Christ-centered leadership looks like? Noting two resources from Rodin and David McKenna, Video #2 of 4 wades into these important waters. Don’t skip this one!

Rodin says the antidote to the “owner-leader” trap is the steward leader. He skillfully contrasts the classic leadership styles (servant leadership, great man and charismatic leadership, transactional leadership, transformational leadership, etc.) with his unique and deeply biblical insights on the concept of a steward leader.

And then this gut-check for CEO search committees:

“I know of few Christian leaders today who were anointed before they were appointed.

“We have mostly employed the business model of doing careful searches, looking for Christian leaders who we can appoint to office. We check their credentials, put them through rigorous interviews and give them psychological tests before we make the critical appointment. Once they are in place, we then anoint them and ask God to bless their work.

“The biblical evidence seems to indicate that God selects leaders in the opposite order. Samuel anointed David before appointing him king. The selection criterion for leadership was not based on who seemed most fit for the appointment, but on whom God had anointed for the task. And appointment without anointment always led to disaster.”

Yikes! 

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

BOARD DISCUSSION: Do you agree that “appointment without anointment” will lead to disaster?

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