Did you know that when a successor becomes CEO, the first 12 to 18 months after the official handoff can be the most misread stretch in any succession?
As growth stalls and employees begin to grumble, everyone around the new leader treats the wobble as a business problem. The board ends up perceiving this hesitation as incompetence and responds with more strategy. Meanwhile, the family takes it as proof they are still needed and lingers close by. Between the two, the new CEO gets pushed further from the seat they supposedly occupy.
This is a crisis of legitimacy.
Many successors privately feel unproven, hired in name alone, so they defer. The longer the deferring goes on, the more the organization treats its leader as temporary, and in the end, feeds the very doubt that started it.
This article shares tips on how to break the cycle, so that CEOs can take their seat with confidence.
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