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Books About Executive Transition

Axelrod, Nancy. (2002) Chief Executive Succession Planning.  Washington, DC: BoardSource.  How ready are you for a leadership transition? Discover why it is important for your board to have a leadership transition plan whether or not you anticipate an upcoming executive search. Learn how to devise an ongoing chief executive officer succession plan that is linked to the strategic planning, mission, and vision of your organization. Help your board prepare for the future by tying the needs of the organization into the chief executive officer job description and chief executive officer evaluation.

The following two books are The Classics in leadership transitions.

Bridges, W. (1991) Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Boston: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company.  Bridges makes a distinction between change which occurs externally and transition which is the emotional process people go through as a result of change.  He also splits the transition process into 3 stages: ending, neutral zone, and new beginnings.  The ending is an important part of transition, people must acknowledge the end and loss; the neutral zone is the turbulence people feel between the old and new; new beginnings truly occur when people let go of the past, move through uncertainty and begin to focus on the future.

Gilmore, T. (1988) Making a Leadership Change: How Organizations and Leaders can Handle Leadership Transition Successfully.  San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.  Gilmore’s classic is currently out of print.  However, in it he discusses keys to a new leader’s effectiveness, contributions to long-term success and advice on preparing for transitions.

For a good how to booklet that identifies steps and issues and provides some tools, see Managing Executive Transitions (1999) by the Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation's Community Development Leadership Project.  While this booklet is several years old, it does provide a basic blueprint of how to manage an executive transition. (Click here to download a PDF version.)

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3/17/03