How Many Leadership Transitions Does It Take To Screw In a Light Bulb?
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Synopsis: Columbia Business School Family Enterprises and Wealth Program and Wharton C-Suite Leaders Program course leader Ryan Kauth unpacks a real-world leadership transition, sharing insights on how trust, clarity, and relationships—not just planning—shape successful, sustainable leadership change. |
About 90% of new leaders feel unprepared for the role, highlighting a significant gap in leadership development.1
Leadership transitions are among the most critical yet vulnerable moments for any organization. But what makes leadership transitions fail? And how do they impact alignment, culture, and momentum when mismanaged?Â
Recently, I observed a real-world case that offers both a cautionary tale of leadership transition challenges and a blueprint for success.
A Case of Cascading Transitions
This particular organization had four management layers. All four were in a transition process.
The top two layers had interim leaders in place, and a formal search was underway for a permanent CEO to replace the departing leader. The third-layer leader was new to the role and to the industry but seemed to energize their team with a fresh perspective. Meanwhile, at the fourth layer, one department had so many direct reports that it was being split into two. A team member from within was promoted with unanimous support—a rare example of a seamless leadership transition.
But not all leadership shifts were met with alignment or confidence.
The interim CEO, who was a former second-tier executive, was a finalist for the permanent role. Yet, a major internal group voted no confidence in their leadership. The motion passed—but only just. This added another layer of complexity as the organization dealt with new interim leaders in both the second and third tiers while continuing to reprioritize several initiatives.
Sounds chaotic? I’m sure many of us have experienced something similar: stepping into a leadership role only to be hit by a fire hose of decisions, navigating shifting priorities or watching initiatives aligned closely with an organization’s mission get deprioritized despite being well resourced.
I won’t reveal how the story ends. Instead, I’d like to use this case as a lens through which to examine effective leadership development.
The Cost of Misalignment
Having worked with leaders across industries, I know how familiar this scenario can feel. The early days of a new role are often defined by ambiguity, rapid decision-making, and reprioritization, sometimes without full context.
What’s often less visible is the cost of these leadership transition plans that organizations face. I estimate hundreds of hours were spent gathering data, hosting meetings, and aligning stakeholders just to make one decision about one initiative. Everyone was doing their job, yet alignment remained elusive.
This leads to the following question: How many leadership transitions does it take to make one decision?
Lessons From the Field: Preparing for Leadership Transitions
In my work coaching family business owners and serial entrepreneurs, I rarely see every management layer in transition at once. Still, I actively prepare my clients for it.
Why? Because true succession planning isn’t about slotting names into a chart. It’s about building capacity, clarity, and connection.
Here’s what that looks like in practice:
- Don’t just identify a successor. Develop them.
- Don’t just focus on skills. Focus on relationships.
- Don’t just run training. Cultivate cohorts, peer learning, and real mentorship.
- Don’t just communicate decisions. Build clarity before, during, and after.
You cannot delegate effectively without trust. You cannot lead change without connection. And you cannot prepare for a leadership transition plan with policy alone.Â
Executive education programs can help leaders acquire these critical leadership skills but only when the learning is actively applied. Cohort-based learning and peer engagement aren’t mutually exclusive; they’re complementary and essential.
The Heart of Leadership: Relationships
Decades after executives graduate from college, the things they value most are the people. The alumni network. The professor who mentored them. The peers who challenged them.
The most impactful leaders—whether in a classroom or a boardroom—intentionally invest in one-on-one relationships. That’s where transformation happens.
And strong transitions are built on that same foundation: clear, authentic communication.
Clarity doesn’t mean skipping levels. It means following a strategic communication plan to engage people meaningfully before the meeting, in the meeting, in follow-ups, in reinforcement, and long after decisions are made.
Read more: Succession Planning for Smooth Leadership Transition: Cambridge Judge Family Business Course
So, How Many Leadership Transitions Does It Take?
In an ideal world, it would take none. But in the real world, leadership transitions are pivotal moments—and messy. So, the real answer would be that it depends on how well you’ve built trust, how clearly you’ve communicated, and how prepared your people are to lead.
What makes people manageable is not just a well-crafted succession plan but the relationships and readiness built long before the light bulb ever needs changing.
In my experience coaching leaders across industries, the most successful transitions happen when:
- Leadership is viewed as relational, not just positional.
- Successors are coached, not just chosen.
- Communication is proactive, not reactive.
- Clarity is consistent, not episodic.
So, how many leadership transitions does it take to screw in a light bulb? The better question might be as follows: Have you built the kind of leadership and organizational culture where the light doesn’t go out in the first place?
(Ryan Kauth is the course leader for the Columbia Business School Family Enterprises and Wealth Program and the Wharton C-Suite Leaders Program. Views expressed here are their own.)
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