Leadership
Transition
My Approach
Prepare. Pivot. Thrive.
Preparation for leadership transitions – especially for long-tenured or founding executives – paves the way for new leadership to succeed and helps your organization ensure stability and realize its full potential. It’s all about ensuring smooth endings and great beginnings, which are critical for the success of incoming and outgoing leaders – as well as for the whole of the organization.
In my work with Executive Leadership Transitions, I partner with Raffa – Marcum’s Nonprofit Practice Group. Together, we bring a highly competent team to ensure that your organization and leaders are prepared for the transition and that we search, source, and onboard an ideal executive to lead your organization. We execute a customized and proven approach to our work:
Prepare
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Conduct an organization assessment to identify and leverage strengths and address vulnerabilities
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Craft a succession policy to ensure organization readiness for leadership transition, whenever that occurs
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Coach the outgoing executive to design their departure path
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Coach the leadership team to vent fears and concerns, ease tensions, and leverage assets
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Produce search collaterals, such as the communications plan, position profile, and search plan
Pivot
- Imagine the future state of organization success (3–5 years out) and what must happen or change from the current state in order to get there
- Establish 12–18-month priorities to achieve your vision
- Conduct a needs assessment around board and staff leadership competencies and attributes (what we have now versus what we need)
- Partner with your organization’s transition and search committee to facilitate the executive search from start to finish
Thrive
- Plan for and facilitate a positive beginning for the new leader
- Ensure clarity of goals, roles, and expectations between the board and the new executive
- Confirm direction, alignment, and commitment among board and staff to the organization’s vision, mission, and goals, and develop a pursuant action plan
- Enroll accountability partner(s) to ensure successful plan implementation and goal achievement
- Coach the incoming executive to build relationships with staff and board, and design and execute their leadership agenda to aid evolution in the new role
- Coach the leadership team to vent transition fears and anxieties, build team relationship with new leader, and align and leverage strengths and assets to execute on priorities
Inspired leadership for
“Jeanie led our organization through a leadership assessment, succession planning, and executive search for our Chief Executive Officer. Facilitating the transition of a long-time director, and with it an organization culture change, requires great skill and finesse. She brought a depth of knowledge and expertise to the process coupled with an interpersonal savvy to manage the complex human dynamics of change and transition.”