The Five Biggest Questions for Leadership Succession

Prior to turning sixty, I could tell I didn’t have the same energy and drive as the previous ten years.  

 

I questioned if I had to do another capital campaign whether I had it in me. Plus, the church had aged with me. The rule of thumb that a pastor can typically only reach ten years below or above his/her age seemed true for us. 

I had two strong weekend communicators leave staff to pursue lead pastor positions a few years earlier, and my number two person had decided—wisely—that he wasn’t to be the successor, which led us to hire a recruiter firm.

With a capable search team, we prayerfully approached everything and made a choice after looking at many potential leaders. But in the end, we missed it. Though a strong gifted communicator who seemed to fit the profile we had created, my successor came from a very different church culture. The result?—a collision of vision. And as the saying goes, culture eats vision for breakfast.

Essentially, I had to own it.

Thankfully, we had spent several years reworking our bylaws and establishing an empowered board. A few years after the transition, they confirmed some serious leadership gaps and made the hard decision to move on. After an interim period, the board was able to affirm a new lead pastor who had even once been on staff. The church is doing quite well now.

All that to say is that I learned there are 5 Big Questions to consider when approaching a succession. Keep in mind, though, that simply being a human can complicate how well we do any one of these points. And if we could do everything perfectly, we wouldn’t need Jesus, would we?

1.  Is your successor a good fit and ready for the role? In other words, does he/she fit the culture and align with the church’s mission? Would their overall future goals align with the organization’s raison d'être? And, of course, they must be competent spiritually, emotionally, relationally, and skill-wise. Facilitating mentoring should be included to bridge any gaps.

2.  Do you have a good communication plan? Every church or organization has concentric circles of communication and “need-to-know” levels. Trust and maintaining morale with transparent communication is critical for creating a healthy narrative because transitions fuel uncertainty. Make sure to develop a good communication plan.

3.  Is your “Institutional Knowledge” documented? Leaders often function intuitively. Any info about informal networks and relationships along with organizational history must be transferred to the next leader. Does the church have a process for passing this key information on?

4.  Are the boundaries clear? The new leader must have space to lead. The outgoing pastor—even well-intentioned—has a built-in lingering influence. Any triangulation or back-channeling must be avoided. Clear end-dates and post-transition roles, if any, must be clarified. And then clarified again.

5.  Does the former pastor and successor understand their unique roles in the transition? The outgoing pastor must encourage staff and key volunteers of one key mandate: to make the incoming leader successful. And the successor and board must understand how critical it is to honor the previous pastor. This is a crucial element for the acceptance and emotional closure of the stakeholders and attendees during organizational transition.

Those are the 5 Big Questions, but we also created a super-practical two-page “Pre-Succession Checklist” for churches and nonprofits. If you’d like to download a free pdf, click here—no strings attached!

Dave Workman | The Elemental Group

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Every healthy organization is marked by four essential traits: Integrity, Passion, Servanthood, and Imagination. With a practitioner perspective, author Dave Workman offers common sense guidance and tools to maximize leadership. Filled with insight, humor, and reflective exercises, this is an indispensable exploration of these four universal values. Check out Elemental Leaders: Four Essentials Every Leader Needs...and Every Church Must Have