Adam Fazio
Vice President
When a longtime CEO announces their departure, boards often lean on them for help. It makes sense. The outgoing CEO knows the organization better than anyone in the room, has relationships across the community, and has spent years making the decisions that shaped where the organization stands today.
But a CEO search is different from the decisions that came before it. Hiring and evaluating the CEO is one of a board’s most important responsibilities. It belongs to the board, not to the outgoing leader, no matter how capable or well regarded that leader is.
This can create real tension and uncertainty for boards. Boards that have operated for years in a relatively passive mode, deferring to a strong CEO on most major calls, suddenly need to step into an active, decision-making role. Outgoing CEOs, who have carried so much of the organization’s direction, often feel a natural pull to stay involved in choosing their successor. Neither instinct is wrong, but that dynamic needs to shift in order for the organization to remain successful during a leadership transition.
Transitions go most smoothly when an organization has a plan in place and engages search counsel early, ideally well before a departure is announced. That early engagement gives the board and the outgoing CEO time to define roles and expectations together, rather than working them out under pressure once the process is already underway.
Where the outgoing CEO adds value
The outgoing CEO can and should play an important role in the search process. When appropriately engaged, they can be an incredible asset to the search, both for defining the role and for recruiting potential candidates. In our experience, their engagement is often most impactful early in the process:
Discovery
They can offer insight into the role as it currently exists and point the board toward the staff, funders, and community members worth interviewing as part of the search’s discovery phase.
Sourcing
They often know potential candidates or referral partners the search firm or board wouldn’t otherwise reach. The search team should gather this input and handle the outreach directly. Candidates often ask about the outgoing CEO’s role in the search and many understand active, appropriate involvement of their predecessor in the process to be a signal of the strength of the board/executive relationship.
Candidate Review
Before finalists are presented to the search committee, an outgoing CEO can sometimes offer useful context on candidates already known to the organization, particularly local candidates with existing relationships in the community.
Where the outgoing CEO needs to step back
The same person who adds value early needs clear boundaries as the process moves toward a decision.
Outgoing CEOs should not sit in on interviews with the full search committee. Candidates, however, often appreciate a one-on-one conversation with the outgoing leader, particularly if they are retiring from the role and remain with the organization through the search process. We have found this works well as part of a finalist visit, once the board has narrowed the field to two or three candidates. The outgoing CEO’s perspective can inform the board’s evaluation of the candidates while also providing candidates a more realistic preview of the role.
After each finalist interview, the search committee typically holds a debrief to discuss the conversation and rate the candidate. Inviting the outgoing CEO into these debriefs can be valuable, since their feedback adds perspective the committee doesn’t have access to elsewhere.
The exception is the final deliberation, when the committee compares finalists and aligns on a recommendation. That conversation belongs to the board alone. The outgoing CEO’s read on how the role has historically been done is useful. However, their view on who should do it next is not something the board needs, and including them risks the board deferring to the outgoing CEO’s preference rather than reaching its own conclusion.
A search done well
One executive director we worked with, after more than 20 years leading her organization, modeled this balance closely. When she began planning her retirement announcement, she made sure her board chair was ready to lead the search and the transition that would follow. Early in the process, she gave the board a clear picture of who to talk to on staff and in the community, along with a candid assessment of the opportunities and challenges facing the organization.
From there, she stepped back. She stayed informed as the search progressed but did not try to shape the board’s decisions. By the time the committee reached its finalists, she had already left the organization, so she wasn’t part of those conversations at all. After the new CEO was selected, she remained available as a resource and thought partner, but only to her successor.
After the search: onboarding and overlap
Once a new CEO is selected, boards often ask whether the outgoing leader should stay on for a transition period. A short overlap, generally around two weeks and never more than four, can genuinely help.
Longer overlaps tend to create more problems than they solve. Staff become unsure who to bring questions to. The board loses clarity about who is leading the organization. And the incoming CEO loses room to establish their own approach and build the processes that will work for them, rather than inheriting someone else’s.
Even after the outgoing CEO has fully departed, they can still be a resource, most often through a limited-scope consulting engagement. In these arrangements, access should run through the new CEO only. Not the board, not the staff. The same principle that governs their role in the search applies here: their knowledge is valuable, but it needs to move through a single, defined channel rather than back into the organization at large.
Questions for boards to ask
When boards first learn of a CEO’s decision to retire or otherwise step down, the temptation is always to spring into action immediately. But pausing to consider their vision for the organization’s next chapter and the roles they want everyone to play in the transition can add real value. Some key questions to consider include:
- Have we clearly defined what our outgoing CEO will and won’t be involved in during the search?
- Are we treating their input as useful context, or are we deferring to an outgoing leader?
- If we’re considering an overlap period, have we set a hard end date, and is it four weeks or less?
- If the outgoing CEO will remain a resource after departure, does that relationship run through the new CEO exclusively?
An outgoing CEO’s knowledge of the organization is valuable and can absolutely strengthen the search process. The board’s job is to ensure that knowledge has a clear channel and a clear endpoint, so the search and the transition that follows can build toward what the organization needs next, not simply extend what came before.
If your organization is anticipating a leadership transition or wants to put a succession plan in place before one is needed, Benefactor Group’s executive search team would welcome the conversation. Reach out to discuss your organization’s specific needs and timeline.