Where Traditional Succession Planning Falls Short

A senior executive in the finance of a large public company decides to leave a relatively short notice to join another organization. Since this will lead to a significant disruption of the company, the CEO and the remaining management team quickly turn to their leadership pipeline to see who is ready to attend this role. Although a list of successors has already been created and discussed, nobody feels confident that one of these leaders has what it takes to excel in the position. The CEO decides to do an external research for executives, for months, leaving the role to an interim leader who makes two jobs at a time. The results suffer, the team stagnates and the momentum is lost.