Managing Leadership Transition for Nonprofits: Passing the Torch to Sustain Organizational Excellence

Introduction

There is a crisis of leadership in our country. We idealize and revile leaders with equal passion. We welcome them as saviors and boot them out as scoundrels. The crisis, however, may reside as much in our confusing expectations as in the leaders’ ineffectuality. There may be better ways to identify, introduce, support, and monitor our leaders that will enhance rather than undermine their performance.

That is the subject of this book: how to manage the change from one leader to the next in a way that gives leaders and the organizations they serve the best possible chance to succeed.

Leadership transitions are among the most important activities in the lives of organizations. Some people believe, for instance, that George Washington’s ...