Building Sustainability Through Effective Leadership Succession
Most nonprofit leaders hope their organizations will continue making a meaningful impact for generations to come. Yet without intentional succession planning, many nonprofits struggle to navigate even an extended absence of a key leader.
Effective leadership is critical to a nonprofit's success. When leadership transitions are unplanned or poorly managed, organizations can face significant operational, strategic, and financial challenges. Without a clear succession plan, the departure or extended absence of a key leader can disrupt day-to-day operations and weaken organizational stability, leading to interruptions in program delivery, disengagement of volunteers, loss of institutional knowledge, and even a decrease in external funding.
This is reason enough to plan for future transitions ahead of time. Succession and leadership development planning are worth your time and attention because they are key components of sustainability. In a nutshell, succession planning is the process of identifying the critical positions within your organization and developing action plans for individuals to assume those positions. It is a written plan that will be implemented in the natural progression of leadership within your organization, or in the event key leaders leave your organization unexpectedly.
Here are three meaningful ways succession planning makes your nonprofit stronger, along with a few specific tactical examples of how succession planning achieves them.
Emergency Preparedness
The pandemic drove home how important it is to be prepared for the unexpected. The steps laid out in a succession plan are a reassuring roadmap for navigating any future crisis in leadership. Here are a few specific examples of how your succession plan prepares you:
It identifies critical positions within your nonprofit—not just the board president or executive director, but also board officers and committee chairs—and specifies who will cover those positions in the event of planned, unplanned, temporary, or long-term leadership absences.
It creates expectations for transparency and communication: what will be communicated and when it will be communicated to key stakeholders. It also allows for stakeholder involvement in the plan.
It outlines the search process, including a detailed timeline, if a replacement is necessary. A succession plan’s timeline may be outlined in years rather than months.
Change Is Healthy
A succession plan can also facilitate healthy turnover in key positions. Often, internal factors contribute to the need to accelerate leadership changes within nonprofit organizations. What are those signals? See if any of this resonates with you.
✓ Your leaders have been in place for five+ years
✓ Your leadership revolves around just a few individuals
✓ Your leaders are suffering burnout
✓ Some of your board members are disengaged
✓ Your committees are ineffective or lack leadership
✓ Your volunteers are not meaningfully engaged
✓ Your organization is not meeting its financial goals
Most board members and founders have only the best intentions, but sometimes their focus can wane over time due to factors beyond their control. Others may feel stuck because they can see there is no one qualified to replace them. New and talented volunteers may become disengaged or move on if they don’t have opportunities to fully engage and ultimately lead. A succession plan gives everyone a healthy path forward.
Sustainability, Vibrancy, and Growth
To achieve organizational sustainability, a process must exist within your nonprofit to continually identify, recruit, engage, and develop potential leaders. This doesn’t happen by chance and is a critical component of your succession and leadership development plan.
First, envision an ideal leadership team. What would it look like? Clearly delineate what capabilities your leadership will need to meet future challenges.
Second, seek new talent. Too often, nonprofit organizations recycle leaders. Plan to recruit strong leaders to your board of directors and develop a pipeline of volunteer leaders. Assess the skills you have now and look for candidates who bring complementary skill sets and new energy.
Third, develop your leaders. Invest in those with interest and potential. Determine where they may need development and incorporate education and training to support their growth.
Finally, create a process that enables you to keep leadership identification, recruitment, and cultivation ongoing. Documenting this process is an essential component of your succession and leadership development plan.
Two Paths to a Succession and Leadership Development Plan
Because your board of directors is responsible for ensuring the long-term sustainability of your organization, including recruiting, and maintaining effective leadership, your board should take responsibility for succession planning and leadership development. Beyond responsible governance, your board should be eager to pursue sufficient board succession planning for many reasons, not the least of which is obtaining top talent for the team and reinforcing trust among stakeholders.
In my experience, most nonprofits struggle to get a plan started. If you decide to give it a try on your own, you can find sample succession plans online, like this one, and use one of them as your starting point. Another option would be to engage a strategic advisor who will guide you through the entire process of developing a succession plan. Committing resources to this process is a way of ensuring it will have your focus.
Regardless of the path you choose, by creating a strong succession plan you will be doing something of vital importance for the health of your organization.
For more information on leadership succession planning, schedule a call.