Succession
While the real-life version plays out in front of all of us — Rupert Murdoch’s family drama as non-fiction to Logan Roy’s fiction — I cannot help but think about this topic and how it pertains to us all -– CEOs especially.
A few weeks ago, while in Greece, I heard the news of one client whose very senior leader passed unexpectedly. Last year, an Outsell Leadership Community member lost a key division head; she died in her hotel room the morning of their board meeting. Our jobs are stressful, and we have to think about who else and who next whether we like it or not.
Our family knows where the estate plan is, what’s in it, what attorney to call. They had say amongst each other (offspring of four) about which of them will be executors. When we plan to be away, they get an email about what not to forget in this regard. Quite simply if the plane goes down, we want our kids prepared. It sounds dreadful but to pretend it can’t or won’t happen is to bury our head in the sand. Our boards and companies are not paying us to do that inside our companies.
In case you fear I’m being macabre on this October Friday, I’m not. This is simply a matter of life and death and if we pretend it won’t happen or can’t happen, we create undue risk for our customers, our teams, and our boards. Some want to simply retire one day. Some want to step up to the board or do new things. Whether through retirement (the ‘planned’) or the worst that can happen (the “unplanned’) we have to have a plan. So, what’s next for you if you’re the CEO? Who will take your role if something happens to you and the worst happens? Like plans for our estates, we have to talk about it even when we don’t want to.
So, we are having an Outsell Leadership Council digital meeting to discuss what good retirement could look like, how to select it, and how to think about succession in the CEO role under any circumstances. It’s for OLC members, by invitation, who want to openly discuss how to think about this topic so our heads are on the right side of the grass fully aware about what making a good plan looks like.
Applaud the leaders who are joining me next Wednesday, October 23 from 8:30–10am PT for this private meeting. They are not announcing their retirement. They are not signaling their departure. They are simply being awesome leaders facing the difficult realities that are part of our role. It’s a conversation we have to have.