Executive Transitions – What Boards Need to Think About Before the Inevitable Happens

Nonprofit leaders leave for all sorts of reasons: a better job, a gentle (or not so gentle) nudge from the board, retirement – the fabled winning of the lottery punctuated by a postcard from Fiji. No matter the reason, these transitions are inevitable. They tend to happen every five to eight years – just long enough for the board to forget how much work the last one was.

When the moment comes, boards have to be ready to manage the transition – whether it’s smooth, bumpy, or roller-coaster-ride-turbulent. Chief among their responsibilities is leading the search for the new leader. (I consider this the board’s most important job, right after keeping that leader happy and effective once they’re in place.)

Here’s the thing: hiring a new executive director isn’t like hiring your next program associate. It’s more like buying a house – something you do rarely. It’s stressful, expensive, and likely to expose some relationship quirks your board didn’t even know they had. Sure, most board members have hired people before, but this role will set the tone and culture of your organization for years. You want to get it right the first time.

Once the exit is official, here are a few things boards should brace for:

Interim Leadership 

Unless your current executive is willing to stay until their replacement arrives (I was that unicorn – we do exist), you’ll need a plan for interim leadership. Some boards ask a current staff member – or a cohort of brave souls – to manage things temporarily.

Others bring in an interim executive director from outside, which is often the wiser choice. These professionals have seen it all and won’t be thrown by much. Their analysis of the operations can also inform the profile of the ideal candidate. Big bonus: the board chair won’t have to manage a staff member who also wants the top job, which is as awkward as it sounds.

Time Commitment

Executive searches take time – time no one had before or will after but time you need to make. Even with a search firm, board members should expect to double their usual hours – joining interviews, managing interim leadership, meeting more often to ensure the operations remain stable. The process usually takes six months or more, just long enough to leave everyone gasping for air at the finish line.

Understanding Who Should Come Next

To choose the right next leader, your board needs to understand the current one. That should be easy enough, except most boards don’t conduct regular performance evaluations for their executive director (shocking, but true). Without a reasonable understanding of the person who just exited, it’s hard to identify which qualities you want to replicate, and which gaps you would like a new leader to fill.

Understanding the Current State of the Organization

It may take time for the board to really grasp how the organization is functioning. Annual reports and dashboards only get you so far. Beyond annual executive director reviews, most boards also lack a true succession plan – beyond “What’s the Program Director’s name – could she do it?” A robust succession plan looks at staff pipelines, potential internal candidates, and even board succession (it can be scary to look in the mirror sometimes, but it’s important).

Once you’ve wrapped your mind around all that, here’s how to structure a search process that won’t get away from you:

Establish Leadership

The board chair will lead the charge, as always, but should first recruit a search committee and strong committee chair, fully authorized to lead the process. The board chair’s calendar will be even fuller than usual – keeping close touch with interim leadership, making sure staff and donors feel loved, and rallying the board to keep its momentum going.

Identify a Search Committee

Your search committee should reflect your organizational values and priorities. That means diversity of perspective, skill sets, and backgrounds – and a size small enough to come to consensus before everyone terms off the board. Each member should bring something unique to the table and plan to stay on the board through onboarding the new leader.

Find the Right Search Firm

If you can afford a search firm (and I generally consider them worth the price of admission), pick one that knows your sector and geography, has a broad network, experience with CEO roles, and is sensitive to your organizational culture enough to show you candidates who are in the ballpark. If you can’t afford full-service search, at least (please) hire a consultant to manage part of the process or source candidates. Anything that reduces the work on board members and expands the number of candidates is a gift.

Decide How You’ll Decide

Searches bring out opinions – lots of them. The board needs to know how it will come to consensus and then an official board vote. A good search firm can help set these norms – prevent committee meetings from being a conflict avoidant Thanksgiving dinner or a World Wresting Friday Night SmackDown.

Engage the Full Board

Non-search committee members shouldn’t feel left out or, worse, blindsided. Consensus building happens before you even meet candidates. Provide updates at every regular meeting and use executive session to share any sticky issues or evolutions in thinking. When it’s time to vote, the board should feel like they’ve been part of the journey, not like they are voting on candidates they know nothing about.

Ensure an Equitable and Inclusive Process

To evaluate a diverse pool of candidates, your board needs to understand your organization’s DEI approach and how to avoid unconscious bias. If you hire a search firm, confirm they’ll support this work. If not, consider bringing in a DEIB consultant to keep the process fair – and to gently stop anyone from saying “they just didn’t feel like a culture fit” without unpacking what that means.

Now that you’ve done all that, here are …

Seven Things Every Board Should Do During a Transition

Hire an Interim Executive Director. Someone impartial can assess the organization without the baggage. Plus, the board chair won’t have to supervise a staff member who’s also a candidate. Avoided that messiness if you can.

Dedicate Time to Staff Communication. Transitions are lengthy and send the staff into limbo that the board doesn’t have to see daily. A chance to give input on the search, followed by regular updates from the board president or search chair can calm nerves and keep talent from drifting away.

Clarify the Outgoing Executive’s Role. The selection of the new leader is the board’s responsibility; however, the outgoing executive director has some valuable perspectives on the current state of the organization and your finalists may want a chance to talk to the outgoing leader before committing to the role.

Include the Full Board in the Homestretch. Let everyone meet the final candidate before the vote. The board chair and search committee leadership may also opt to have one-on-one calls with some key board members. Confidence in the choice makes for smoother onboarding.

Break Up the Search Responsibilities. Consider spreading out tasks – search firm selection, interviews, salary benchmarking – to avoid burnout and keep more members engaged. Beyond making the overall burden less for each member, it engages more members in the search so that everyone can feel more invested in and included in the final choice.

Center DEI in the Search. Support your committee with resources to keep the process equitable – from decision-making processes to working through unconscious biases among committee and board members.

Don’t Wait. Start Succession Planning Now. Dedicate at least one meeting annually to succession planning – review leadership pipelines, staff morale, and board succession at least once a year.

An inclusive and thorough process is something a nonprofit owes its stakeholders. Executive transitions take longer than anyone thinks and require more coordination than anyone wants. But done right, it pays off in a stronger hire and a smoother landing for your organization.

If you’d like to prepare your board before the next transition catches you off guard, email me at gary@garybagley.com. You can also find more of my musings on board management and executive leadership, by following me on LinkedIn.