When a CEO Exits (or should)—what are the Board’s Succession Options?

By Eugene Fram                  Free Digital Image

CEOs of for-profit and nonprofit organizations typically come and go. Some executives my be retained for an extended period and may be highly valued for their demonstrated skills and accomplishments. One CEO I know has reached a 30 year anniversary and is still innovating. Other CEOs, including organization founders, may remain on the job past the point of growth. The nonprofit environment can be a comfortable workplace—a board member I once interviewed remarked that his long-serving CEO had a great “deal.” He meant the nonprofit wasn’t even close to its potential   I’ve even encountered CEOs who admit that they can run the organization on automatic, convinced that new challenges will be similar to those of the past.

Perceptions like these call for a board to engage in some form of succession planning to both prepare the organization for a time when the CEO must be replaced—and to periodically assess his/her performance in terms of position tenure. These discussions may be difficult, particularly when a long serving CEO is accorded a high level of deference for a number of overt or subtle reasons. Some of the issues involved:

• With the average board member having a median tenure of four to six years, board members  can take on a short-term view of their relationship with the organization. Succession planning is not a high-priority topic unless it is forced on the agenda by termination or resignation.
• Based on likable characteristics, some long-serving nonprofit CEOs may be simply “minding the store.” They are performing with little creativity but satisfying board members with a stable operation that meets financial standards. This includes low single digit growth levels with revenues meeting expenditures and perhaps a modest surplus.

• Often the CEO is the only one who has the organization’s “institutional memory” of past successes and failures that board members are hesitant to challenge.
• Even under egregious circumstances boards may be hesitant to remove a long serving CEO. In some unusual cases, boards themselves have had to be removed by the state attorney general when they have refused to terminate a CEO with an overt fraud record.

Elements of Succession Planning That Can Address Challenges.

Interim Succession of the CEO

Every nonprofit board needs to have this plan in position in the event that the CEO is incapacitated for a long period or has given short notice to take another position. The discussion usually has to first center around whether or not a current staff person can be appointed to the ED position, full or interim time, or an outside interim person(s) needs to be identified to assume the position.

Staff Succession

Every nonprofit board has an overview responsibility to be able to identify promotable senior talent in the organization. As part of this responsibility, the board has to become aware of the strengths and weakness of those who can be promoted to senior management positions.

CEO Succession

Annually the CEO needs to be asked to outline the his/h plans to creatively approach continuing challenges and/or experimentally address new ones. In addition, both the board members and CEO need to have a discussion on the skills or abilities the CEO should have three to five years from now.  This places the board in a better position to recruit a new CEO if the current one resigns. It also allows the CEO to think about opportunities for his/h own growth opportunities.