Long-term organisational success requires more than maintaining business continuity and market share, fostering sustainable growth and ensuring organisational stability. It calls for effective leadership at all levels, more specifically at the CEO level. The current and future success of organisations depends heavily on having the right leaders in the right positions at the right time.
As all senior leaders will ultimately exit organisations. Smooth transitions of new leadership require a carefully designed and orchestrated leadership succession planning strategy to mitigate potential business risks. An HBR research study has shown that most organisations are, however, ill-prepared to replace their current CEOs.
Let's have a look at leadership succession in more detail.
Leadership succession is an organisation's most important handover
Boards of Directors face their most critical business decision when selecting the right CEO as a successor, to elevate the organisation to the next level. A strategic approach to succession planning plays a pivotal role in talent management to prepare for proactive business leadership transition readiness.
A 2010 survey conducted by The Rock Centre for Corporate Governance and Heidrick & Struggles at Stanford University found that 39% of boards had no suitable internal candidates ready for immediate replacement of the CEO, should the need arise. Simultaneously, only 54% of boards were actively developing a specific leadership successor.
Succession planning matters for the following reasons, according to a Deloitte Insights article:
- Organisational resilience and stability
- A strong organisational culture
- Better quality of decision-making on leadership development and promotion investments
- A robust portfolio of leadership successors
- Enhanced career pathway and development opportunities to ensure a "future-proofed" workforce
A failed CEO succession plan could be costly to an organisation in various ways, such as a disrupted workforce, damaged company reputation, erased shareholder value and ruined business legacy of the outgoing CEO. Organisations must have a thorough understanding of the complexity of their succession plan. This will enhance the successful appointment, transition and adoption of the next CEO, in the context of the organisation's current and future objectives.
How to facilitate a successful leadership handover
Three different types of leadership successions could take place based on the organisational context, according to Dan Ciampa and Adam Bryant (HBR, 2024). These are:
Strategic succession
Strategic succession occurs during a business acquisition or merger.
Forced succession
A forced succession occurs when the incumbent CEO exits the organisation due to poor health or performance, and a new CEO takes over abruptly.
Planned succession
A planned succession occurs when a new leader is appointed either internally or externally. The latter is the most common, but also the most complex succession to be executed. It requires the recognition of the impact of human behaviour, through combining a disciplined, data-driven and people-centric facilitated approach that adequately engages stakeholders (Routch, Monahan, Doherty, 2018).
During a planned succession, the outgoing and incoming CEOs' tenures overlap for a defined handover period. This succession type requires expert facilitation in a phased approach to effectively implement the leadership handover.
It is recommended to facilitate the handover in the following three phases:
Phase 1: Leadership success definition and selection
During this phase, the desired successor's key behavioural success factors are defined, aligned with the organisation's culture and strategic context, followed by the design of a bespoke, scientific selection process. The selection process is facilitated by integrating candidates' qualitative and quantitative psychometric assessment results to objectively determine the strongest match between a candidate and the CEO position's key requirements.
Phase 2: Thinking-based leadership transition
During the defined handover period, the thinking styles of both the current and newly appointed CEO are debriefed during a 1:1 individual feedback session, utilising the Herrmann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI). The purpose of this session is to enhance self-awareness in each CEO's natural and under-pressure profiles, as a prerequisite for effective leadership transition. A 'pairs' profiling feedback session is facilitated as a follow-up between both CEOs to create shared understanding of each individual's thinking style and combined profile, for effective agreement and decision-making on the key responsibility areas of the new CEO's role.
Phase 3: Leadership adoption
As part of the leadership succession, a strategic leadership adoption programme is designed and facilitated for the new CEO and his/her executive team. The purpose of this session is to allow the leader to introduce him/herself by means of their HBDI profile, in a psychologically safe environment, to share his/her strategic business focus areas. The programme is facilitated using a scientific, multi-disciplinary methodology called AEL, allowing team members to test new ideas and contribute unconditionally. Alignment of the CEO and his/her executive team is thereby strengthened by clarifying business priorities and accountabilities.
A facilitated team development strategy follow-up is strongly recommended to promote institutionalised team behaviours and successful CEO adoption.
Conclusion
If you're interested in learning more about how to apply expert facilitation at your law firm or workplace in leadership succession planning and management, TBi - Team Building Institute specialises in organisation transformation and has assisted global organisations with their leadership succession strategies, leadership transition and adoption.
About the author
With over three decades of experience, TBi drives positive change in the way employees feel, think, and behave. Learning and change are created through expert facilitation. This could be achieved through a customised approach, designed to address key areas:
- Talent optimisation and management:
Maximising the potential of your workforce to drive operational efficiency and enhance productivity. - Individual, team and organisational development:
The cultivation of essential skills and capabilities at individual, team and organisational levels, through fostering a culture of continuous improvement and learning. Helping organisations strengthen internal relationships enhances overall performance. - Tech, AI and systems adoption:
Staying ahead in today's digital era. - Change management:
Change is inevitable, but how it's managed makes the difference between success and failure.
This blog was last updated on 08/07/2025