Unexpected leadership vacancies affect every industry, but with not-for-profits they can be particularly burdensome because they may highlight an organization’s budgetary restrictions, weaknesses in its compensation strategy and larger questions about its retention ability.
Recently we helped a client with a situation that illustrates how important it is to be confident in your leadership pipeline. A fast-growing healthcare-related not-for-profit lost its long-time chief executive officer (CEO) to an unexpected early retirement. No successor had been identified, and the not-for-profit turned to an outside search.