Leadership Transitions
Leadership transitions require families and leadership groups to consider how accumulated experience, judgment, and authority will be carried forward. The resources below provide practical ways to examine an enterprise's history, learn from consequential decisions, and clarify how responsibility can evolve as future leaders develop.
Our Leadership Transition Tools
1. Learning from the Enterprise’s History
An enterprise’s history holds valuable knowledge about how judgment developed, how setbacks were navigated, and how important capabilities and relationships were built. Looking closely at pivotal moments can help families make that experience more visible and useful to future leaders.
Practitioner Note
Learning from the Enterprise's History: Using a timeline to make experience and judgment more transferable
Enterprise Timeline Mapping: Using significant events to understand what worked and prepare for the future
2. Using Past Decisions to Prepare Future Leaders
Preparing someone for leadership involves more than transferring a title or defining responsibilities. Examining how consequential decisions were actually made can reveal the judgment, information, relationships, and understanding of risk that experienced leaders rely on—and identify experiences through which future leaders can develop those capabilities.
Practitioner Note
How to Use Past Decisions to Prepare Future Leaders
Retrospective Decision Mapping: Using past decisions to prepare future leaders
3. Clarifying Decision Authority During Leadership Transitions
Leadership transitions work better when everyone understands who can decide, whose judgment should be sought, and when consultation or escalation is required. Making those boundaries visible can help emerging leaders assume real responsibility while allowing experienced leaders to remain valuable sources of judgment and perspective.
Practitioner Note
Clarifying Decision Authority During Leadership Transitions
Decision Authority Mapping: Clarifying who decides, recommends, consults, and needs to know
4. Transferring Meeting Leadership
Recurring meetings provide a practical setting in which emerging leaders can begin exercising greater responsibility. A deliberate handoff allows an incoming leader to practice preparation, discussion, judgment, and follow-through while the incumbent remains available to contribute experience within clearly understood boundaries.
Practitioner Note
Transferring Meeting Leadership
Transferring Meeting Leadership: Using recurring meetings to develop judgment, authority, and follow-through