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Planning Your Exit

Every leader is an interim leader.

A group of people are sitting at a table having a conversation.

God’s plans aren’t confined to our human limitations. This is a great encouragement to us as business leaders. He is capable of accomplishing immeasurably more than we could ever imagine. We are promised that in Ephesians 3:20.


Craig Groeschel said at the Global Leadership Summit in 2012 that,


“You’re going to vastly overestimate what you can do in the short run but vastly underestimate what God can do through a lifetime of faithfulness.”


As we faithfully steward our businesses, we know that He will faithfully work through them now and in the future—His plans are not limited to us, and His plans will continue after us.


You and I will not last forever, but the fruit from the seeds we sow in our lifetime will continue to multiply.


That’s why part of stewarding our businesses well involves intentionally navigating critical leadership transitions and planning for our inevitable “exit.”


Every leader is an interim leader.


Leaders come; leaders go. But the businesses we have built will hopefully experience success far beyond our tenure.


Thinking about our exit as business leaders can be daunting, but one that must intentionally be thought about.


Our faith can greatly motivate us in this area if we believe that this isn’t our business; it’s God’s that has been entrusted to us. Inevitably, we will have to pass the baton one day. Will we pass it on well?




How prepared are you for succession?


In Success and Succession: Unlocking Value, Power, and Potential in the Professional Services and Advisory Space, the authors provide an analogy of three buckets. Each bucket brings potential conflicts between exiting leaders and successors.


They include:


For most leaders, it could be easy to fixate on the financial bucket, oversimplify the operational budget, and neglect the emotional bucket. Many leaders would say that the reverse sequence often determines the success of the transition.


C12 Succession

If you are considering how you could be preparing for succession, no matter the stage of business leadership you find yourself in, here are questions you can ask yourself for each bucket:


Operational Challenges:

  • How and when will you transition?
  • Whom do you select as the successor?
  • How will you structure leadership roles?
  • How will you ensure culture/mission remains intact?


Financial Challenges:

  • How will you fund exiting and incoming leadership?
  • What are the equity and compensation considerations?
  • How will you handle outstanding legacy financials (i.e., debt, equity, agreements)?


Emotional Challenges:

  • What is next?
  • How will you stop after pouring your heart into the business?
  • What “next” can you set your eyes on?




Who is your sounding board?


According to Peter Greer, only 17% of organizations have a well-documented succession plan. Even worse, 40-60% of CEOs fail in their first 18 months on the job. We’ll only successfully pass the baton if we are willing to have the hard questions asked, like the ones above.


As a business leader, it’s often hard to find those who will ask the hard questions and give life-giving feedback when you're on the top of the org chart. Does that resonate with your experience?


Just a few months ago, small groups of over 300 CEOs and owners in South Carolina and Georgia gathered to ask the hard questions, share experiences, and provide encouragement and feedback on succession planning after walking together through an MBA-level Succession Planning curriculum. If you’re a Christian CEO or owner, that opportunity is also available to you.


Leading can be lonely, but it doesn’t have to be.


You can use the Succession Planning Assessment that we used here. You can also learn more about the camaraderie and accountability found in C12 at c12gaandsc.com.


Together, we can prepare for succession that leaves our companies thriving after we exit.




References:

Bible Gateway. Ephesians 3:20 (New International Version). Retrieved from

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Ephesians%203%3A20&version=NIV

Eric Hehman, Jay Hummel, and Tim Kochis, Success and Succession: Unlocking Value, Power, and Potential in the Professional

Services and Advisory Space (Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, 2015).

Peter Greer and Doug Fagerstrom, Succession: Seven Practices to Navigate Mission-Critical Leadership Transitions (2020).

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