CEO Succession Planning Workbook

1. Establish board oversight and decision rights

The board should own the succession mandate, define the future CEO's responsibilities, and approve the selection and transition. A committee can coordinate assessment, while management supplies performance evidence and development opportunities. Clarify who recommends, who challenges, and which decisions remain reserved to the full board under its governing arrangements.

Document conflicts, review cadence, and the information directors need. Ask governance and legal advisers to review applicable requirements. This workbook is an organizational tool, not legal advice. Its phases illustrate a sequence of work; they are not statutory timelines or promises about how quickly an appointment can be completed.

2. Separate emergency continuity from planned succession

An emergency plan addresses sudden incapacity, departure, or an otherwise unexpected vacancy. Identify an available interim leader and backup, the person authorized to convene the board, and the approval process for activation. Confirm availability rather than assuming a named executive can serve. Record essential operational dependencies and how the plan will be accessed securely.

Planned succession evaluates the leadership required for the next strategic chapter, develops internal options, and considers external candidates. An effective interim is not automatically the preferred permanent CEO. Keep the two decisions distinct, while allowing the emergency plan to support continuity during a planned transition.

3. Make interim delegation explicit

Write a board-approved delegation schedule covering spending, signing authority, people decisions, external representation, and risk escalation. Identify limits, deputies, board-reserved matters, and the interim assignment's review or expiry conditions. Confirm operational access and handoffs without sharing credentials or bypassing controls.

Communicate these decision rights to the leadership team and relevant control functions. A title alone does not tell colleagues who can authorize a commitment or resolve a crisis. Assign an owner to maintain the schedule and bring exceptions back to the appropriate approval body.

4. Build an evidence-based candidate readiness matrix

Translate strategy into job-relevant criteria: execution, financial and capital judgment, risk management, leadership-bench development, and board communication. Record each candidate's observed behavior, date, operating scope, outcome, and gaps. Compare internal and external candidates against the same criteria rather than confusing familiarity or tenure with readiness.

Use “demonstrated,” “developing,” or “untested” as evidence labels, not numerical predictions. A strong result at a smaller scope may leave a material uncertainty. Assign development actions such as leading a cross-functional initiative, presenting a capital decision, or building a successor team. Give each action an owner, resources, measurable outcome, and board-set reassessment date. Discuss development with the candidate without promising appointment.

5. Protect confidentiality and record board approval

Limit candidate information to authorized participants and record access, retention, and sharing rules. Obtain consent for assessment and reference contacts; current-employer contact requires separate explicit permission. Do not seek private records or unrelated personal details. Confidential handling does not remove applicable disclosure obligations: involve qualified advisers when determining what can be shared and when.

Before selection, review alternatives, evidence gaps, conflicts, and transition risks. Record the board's approval, rationale, appointment conditions, and unresolved actions. The committee's recommendation is not a substitute for the board decision required by the organization's governance arrangements.

6. Assign stakeholder communications owners

Create a communications table for the incoming and outgoing CEO, leadership team, employees, investors, customers, partners, and relevant regulators or lenders. For each audience, specify the message purpose, accountable owner, approver, channel, timing or trigger, and contingency. Coordinate the sequence with disclosure and legal advisers rather than using a generic announcement timetable.

Explain continuity, decision rights, and where questions should go. Prepare responses for a delayed start or unexpected departure. The board should fill and approve dates and owners before release; an unassigned message is an operational gap, not a communications plan.

7. Track 30/60/90-day onboarding and refresh the plan

Use these checkpoints illustratively, with actual dates agreed by the board and incoming CEO. At 30 days, confirm decision rights, priority stakeholder meetings, and an operating baseline. At 60 days, agree strategic priorities, leadership gaps, and accountable execution plans. At 90 days, review early execution, risks, and support needs against that baseline.

Choose measurable outcomes rather than declaring success by elapsed time: completion of agreed stakeholder meetings, approval of priority plans, or movement in a relevant operating measure. Fill targets, evidence, owners, and review dates in the workbook. Refresh emergency coverage and candidate readiness after material strategy or personnel changes; appointment does not end succession oversight.

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