Case: Succession Planning for Social Impact Organization

Context: A purpose-driven organization comprised of three independent units—Investment Management, Philanthropy, and Executive Function—was planning for leadership succession. The CEO wanted to initiate conversations about leadership needs for the future.

Challenge: The functional leaders had very different backgrounds and perceptions of their leadership abilities. High workloads and the organization’s mission-driven purpose kept the executive leadership team passionately focused on daily operations, leaving little time for strategic future planning or succession discussions. Despite the heavy workload, employee retention was strong due to the organization’s meaningful mission.

Approach: We discovered deep talent and expertise one level below the senior leaders, revealing an opportunity to improve the reporting structure. Feedback was provided on how to better leverage this talent pool and how to improve the ELT’s own leadership effectiveness, by more efficiently delegating responsibilities.

Results: The CEO found the insights invaluable and used the feedback session to recommit to more effective execution, elevating the leaders with the highest potential, and supporting the development of the leaders with a longer growth trajectory. This approach helped set a clearer path for future leadership decisions, priorities in strategic execution, and ultimately focused the leaders themselves on larger, more meaningful, strategic goals.