Ann Mulcahy and Ursula Burns have set a high bar for how to manage a CEO succession well. As Ann describes it in this month's Harvard Business Review, it took a lot of "discipline, focus, and support". Clearly important. Some of the things that struck me as particularly strong include:
- Identifying potential successors early (Ursula first came to Ann's attention 20 years before Ursula became CEO)
- Be transparent about intentions, hopes, expectations, commitments (and non-commitments) both ways
- Train and develop the successor along the way
- Do what is right for the organization and the individual – no false trade-offs
- Manage the succession "little by little, to make it almost a no-brainer when the time came"
- Get out of the way at the appropriate time
John Hall
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