In Season 3 Episode 6 of I So Appreciate You!, co-hosts Nadege Souvenir and Melanie Hoffert explore why succession planning is so important and what individuals and organizations can do to make leadership transitions successful for everyone involved. Guests Carmen Giménez and Ruby Oluoch are two seasoned nonprofit leaders who share their experiences with leadership transitions. They discuss the role board members play in educating and connecting new leaders and why it takes considerable time to build trust between leaders, board members and staff in order to ensure successful transitions. Having a communicative, established and knowledgeable board can help fill those gaps in times of transition. Another step organizations can take to ensure smooth transitions is general planning around succession.
“Succession is an occasion for an organization to do some inward thinking about who they are and what they want. An organization isn’t built around a person, but it is shaped by that person. There’s a lot of adapting that happens, so it’s preparing the organization at a micro level and anticipating the changes that need to happen.”
Carmen and Ruby also discuss what individuals stepping into new leadership roles can do to support board and staff members during transitional times and to ease some of their own onboarding. They chat about the importance of protecting your vision and imagination when transitioning into new roles, especially if working in a place of deficit within organizations. Carmen and Ruby talk with Nadege and Melanie about the joys of discovery and learning in a new role, as well as the freedom of allowing yourself to be wrong or to not know everything when becoming a new leader. Rounding out the conversation, they share what emerging research is saying about leadership transitions, particularly with BIPOC leadership, and what can be done to support narrative change in organizations.
Links
Bell Hooks' Marginality as a site of resistance
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Washington Area Women’s Foundation “Thrive As They Lead” Report
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