Succession Planning

Advice for a Long-Term Leader Considering a Departure

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These are some tough lessons for a long-term leader to learn from someone who has seen a lot of transitions.

You are not the job or the organization. You are one person who has poured heart and soul into this nonprofit but you are replaceable. Someone else will do it differently. They’ll do some things better and some things less well. But you will have to let go. You can only control the process until you leave and even then, it will be increasingly less in your control. 

It is time for you to think about the legacy you want to leave. How can you ensure the best chance of success for the organization you have built up? Here are some suggestions.

Transfer responsibilities and relationships to other staff. Start now – the new ED doesn’t have to have all the same responsibilities that you did, and in fact, won’t be able to take on all of that legacy work when they are learning the role. Start delegating and empowering your staff to take on this work. You need to ensure that key donor and partnership relationships are organizational relationships not dependent upon you.

Build a strong board. Often with a long-term ED, the board is a gathering of people who have a relationship with the ED. They aren’t a cohesive team with strong bonds between each other. They need to fully understand the work you do. They need to be a team in order to do the work of hiring and supporting the next executive director. They need to be fully enmeshed in the mission and vision of the organization and making strategic decisions. How can you help them build this team ethic?

Document, document, document. Write down as much as you can. Make sure you have a list of computer accounts and critical deadlines. Give the new ED a roadmap so they know what to expect in their first year. Explain the revenue sources and the relationships that make them work. Let someone know that one funder hates phone calls but another only wants to communicate by phone.

Clean house. Do what you can to leave a clean house for your successor. This includes cleaning out decades of paperwork. It also includes letting go of work and people that no longer serve the organization. 

Raise money for the new ED – make sure they have a cushion so they can get started without worrying about making payroll in week one.

Prepare yourself. Work on your own emotional state and extracting yourself from the organization. Work with a therapist or coach if you can – this is a big task and the more you can do it yourself, the better the transition will be. Find other ways to make a difference. One ED I worked with was excited to take care of her new grandchild full-time. Another planned a long trip to help herself reset. It doesn’t have to be a full plan for what you are doing for the next ten years, but what are you excited to have time to do now? Visit family? Train for a bike trip? Volunteer in a completely different field? Pick something you can look forward to.

Be an enthusiastic supporter of the new ED and the organization after you leave. Your voice will still carry a lot of weight in the community – take the high road. Likewise, be prepared to ask for what you need if that’s possible. How would you like to be honored after your departure? Think about what would make the most difference to you so you’re ready to ask for it. You may want to stay involved – if so, take a sabbatical first, and then come back and talk through the options with the new ED. But give them space first to establish themselves in the role, and remember that they are the ones who get to decide whether you come back. If you do return, set boundaries on what you will do and when the role will be revisited or ended. Clear boundaries make for good relationships.

Help tell the story of the transition – you can create a narrative that explains why you are leaving and centers the mission and organization, not just the leader.

Does this all sound like a lot to do? It is. It’s a time-consuming process but better to prepare than not. Without it, you risk a very bumpy transition.

I recommend Tom Adams’ book, The Nonprofit Leadership Transition and Development Guide as a great introduction to leadership transitions. Community Action’s guide to succession planning also covers the subject well.

Please reach out if you’d like to chat about your own succession planning. I have many resources to share and have helped organizations create and execute their transition plans. Book a time with me on this page.

Succeeding as an Acting Executive Director

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Being promoted to acting executive director can be an honor but comes with its fair share of stress. You are suddenly taking on a new set of high-level responsibilities while still trying to maintain your existing work. There’s a huge advantage to the organization to temporarily fill a position internally. It is a fairly fast and simple process, but there are significant challenges to overcome.

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Exit Interviews

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Inevitably all employees are going to leave their position. You’ve prepared through good succession planning, but there’s still a huge advantage to talking with the departing person before they go and getting their input on the organization. Take time to do an exit interview and make use of the information you receive.

There are many advantages to conducting interviews. Besides the information you gather, it just helps the employee feel valued, even when they are leaving. And you know that a former employee can be an ambassador for the organization in the community, so it helps to end on a high note.

There are a few pitfalls to watch out for during exit interviews. If at all possible, the employee’s direct supervisor shouldn’t conduct the interview. If that’s your ED, can a board member with some HR experience do it? You’ll get more candid responses. You could also contract with an HR professional to conduct the interview. Also, make sure to prioritize the interview so it actually happens. Holding exit interviews consistently is key to gathering a better picture of how staff feel about the organizations. Finally, if the departing person doesn’t want to do it, don’t force the issue. Offer to let them give you written feedback instead.

You can even consider holding board exit interviews. There’s something about having a final conversation that helps people be more introspective and share information you might not have otherwise heard. Plus it just gives the board member a positive feeling to know someone cared enough to interview them at the end of their service.

Here are some useful questions to ask.

  • Why are you leaving your current position?
  • When did you start considering moving on?
  • What prompted you to look for other positions?
  • Were you given the resources you needed to do your job well?
  • What did you like most about your job?
  • What did you like least about your job?
  • What are you most proud of from your time with the organization?
  • What skills and qualities should we look for in your replacement?
  • Do you have any recommendations for the organization for the future?

Exit interviews are a great way to get feedback on your organization. As part of a consistent evaluation process, they will help you see how you can improve.

Board Source shares some great tips on exit interviews for board members in this article.

Departure-Defined Succession Planning

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A wide range of terms are used in succession planning and the type of plan you create varies depending on your current stage in the process. I covered the basic types of planning necessary for all organizations in my article on succession planning. In this article, I will provide an overview for those organizations that have a long-time executive director who is planning far in advance for a transition.

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