Succession readiness

How Ready Is Your Organization for Its Next Leadership Transition?

Most organizations discover the answer during the transition itself. The Leadership Bench Strength Diagnostic gives your leadership team that answer beforehand — while there is still time to act on it. It takes about ten minutes.

What it evaluates

Seven areas where continuity risk usually hides

Critical-role identification

Do you know which roles would genuinely disrupt the business if they emptied tomorrow?

Leadership bench strength

How much leadership capability exists below the top layer, and how deep does it go?

Successor readiness

For each critical role, is there someone ready now, ready soon, or nobody at all?

Leadership development

Is development targeted at identified gaps, or is it generic training that happens to be scheduled?

Knowledge transfer

How much of what matters lives only in one person's head — and what happens when they leave?

Retention risk

Which of the people you are counting on are most likely to leave first?

Leadership pipeline visibility

Does the leadership team share one current picture, or several private ones?

The assessment

Leadership Bench Strength Diagnostic

A five-minute self-assessment. Score each statement: 3 = clearly true, 2 = partially true, 1 = not yet true.

Section 1 — Critical role clarity

I can name the 5–7 roles where a 60-day vacancy would genuinely hurt operations

I know what each critical role actually requires in terms of skills and relationships, not just the job description

I've documented what key leaders know that exists nowhere else in the organization

I've assessed the departure timeline risk for each critical role over the next 3–5 years

Section 2 — Pipeline depth

Each critical role has at least one identified, actively developed successor

My succession candidates have been assessed for genuine readiness, not just assumed ready from performance

I've had an explicit conversation with each identified successor about their career intentions

I have at least two viable candidates for my most critical roles

Section 3 — Development system

Each succession candidate has a written development plan with specific activities and timelines

My managers are actively developing their people, not just managing tasks and reviewing results

We have a system that keeps development active between formal programs, not just annual reviews

Succession candidates get real stretch assignments, not just observation or shadow opportunities

We use coaching to keep development active in the flow of daily work, not only in formal sessions

Section 4 — Knowledge transfer

We have structured sessions where current leaders actively transfer what they know to successors

Critical client relationships, vendor knowledge and institutional history are documented, not just in people's heads

If my most experienced operational leader left tomorrow, someone else could step in without a significant loss of how things actually get done

Section 5 — Governance & continuity

We review our leadership bench and succession candidates at least quarterly, not just when something breaks

I have an emergency succession plan for every critical role, separate from the planned succession plan

Succession planning is a standing item on our leadership team agenda, not just an annual conversation

0 of 19 answered — answer every statement to score

Talk Through Your Results

You have your score. The harder question is what to do about the gaps it exposed. Send us your results and we will come back with a read on where to start.