Board evaluation

Day 42: A newly hired Group Strategy Director is still at her desk at 9:00 p.m. She was brought in to lead a major transformation - one that’s been discussed for months but never clearly defined. She was hired because she’s capable, and there’s often an unspoken belief that capable leaders should just “get it” and move.

Her inbox is overflowing. Priorities keep shifting. Her peers are polite but distant - unclear on her mandate, protective of their turf, and too busy to engage deeply. Conversations stay surface-level.

She’s been invited in - but not set up to succeed.

It’s a common story: a strong leader, dropped into a high-stakes role without the clarity, structure, or support to land well.

Whether new to the company or stepping into a bigger role, many executives spend their critical first months navigating complexity alone - while being expected to deliver from day one.

Research has held steady for years: around 40% of leadership transitions fail within 18 months when the right support isn’t in place.

Too often, companies focus on choosing the right person - then overlook what it takes to truly integrate them. Without structured, human-centered support, even the most capable leaders struggle to succeed.

Why this matters more now

Transitions have always been high-stakes moments. But in today’s climate, the pressure is rising and the timelines are shrinking.

Leaders are stepping in during disruption - not stability.

Most aren’t inheriting status quo - they’re hired to fix or accelerate something.

Hybrid work delays trust-building and blurs cultural cues.

Visibility is high. Expectations form early and often.

In short: less room for error. More risk when it goes wrong.

Different paths. Same risks.

It’s tempting to think internal promotions are easier. But each path comes with invisible traps:

External hires lack historical context and relationships yet are expected to drive change.

Internal promotions bring familiarity but struggle to reset relationships and lead differently.

In both cases, leaders are often left navigating ambiguity alone once onboarding ends.

What’s missing

Most organizations do onboarding. Few do transitions. And that’s where things break down.

What’s often overlooked:

 
• A clear and aligned mandate
 
• Shared definitions of success across key stakeholders
 
• Insight into unspoken cultural and political dynamics
 
• Active sponsorship from the manager
 
• A longer runway to build trust and momentum
 
• Board-level clarity and engagement for senior roles

The result? Leaders are under pressure to perform - while still finding their footing.

The quiet rejection

Leaders are often hired to shift the system. But once inside, they encounter subtle resistance:

• Their pace feels too fast.
 
• Their questions challenge norms.
 
• Their style doesn’t match unspoken rules.

Suddenly, trust is withheld. Expectations shift. Peers disengage - but don’t say why. The very qualities that got them hired now work against them. Confidence erodes. Performance stalls. And promising transitions quietly derail.

This isn’t just an onboarding issue. It’s a readiness issue - on both sides.

The cost of getting it wrong

A failed executive transition doesn’t just impact the individual - it ripples across the organization. It stalls momentum, fractures teams, delays results, and undermines trust in leadership.

It’s also expensive. Between lost productivity, re-recruitment, and missed goals, the cost can easily reach several times the leader’s salary.

When transitions go off course, it’s not just a talent issue - it’s a business one.

What needs to change

Organizations that get transitions right do five things well:

1. Treat transitions as enterprise critical. Ask: What’s at stake beyond this one role?
 
2. Define success together. Ask: Are expectations aligned across leader, manager, and stakeholders?
 
3. Equip the manager to lead the transition. Ask: Are they prepared to sponsor - not just evaluate?
 
4. Provide real support - not just warm welcomes. Ask: Have we created space for the leader to reflect, adapt, and build capability?
 
5. Extend support beyond day 90. Ask: What happens after the honeymoon ends?

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The gray zone

Most leadership transitions don’t fail during onboarding - they stall in the murky middle. That stretch between onboarding and full performance. Too late for checklists, too early for formal reviews, and too often overlooked.

This is when the leader is highly visible but still gaining footing. The system assumes they’re up and running. But what they actually need is time to reflect, context to navigate, and support to show up differently.

Without that space, small misalignments become big ones. First impressions stick. And promising transitions quietly derail - not because the leader isn’t capable, but because they’re left to navigate complexity alone.

This “gray zone” isn’t anyone’s job to manage - and that’s the problem.

The role of transition coaching

Transition coaching provides a confidential, strategic space to:

• Navigate unspoken dynamics
 
• Build confidence and clarity
 
• Reflect and recalibrate in real time

As Greg Smith, CEO of Teradyne, put it:

“We’re investing in executive coaching because we want our senior leaders to lead with confidence from day one—not figure it out by month six.”

And the research backs it up. Coaching accelerates traction, strengthens alignment, and improves long-term performance.

But it only works when paired with system-level readiness: aligned stakeholders, engaged managers, and a clear plan for integration.

Final thought

Transitions aren’t just about setting a leader up to succeed. They’re a mirror for whether your organization is ready to evolve.

Because every new leader brings change - and every transition is a test of how well your system absorbs it.

If you’re hiring or promoting this year, the question isn’t just “is this the right person?”

It’s “are we ready to change with them?”

BTS helps leaders - and the systems around them - thrive through transition. Let’s talk.

Sources

 
1. McKinsey & Company (2023), Leadership Transitions: Making the Move from Operational to Strategic
 
2. Harvard Business Review (Ciampa & Watkins, 1999), Right From the Start
 
3. CEB/Gartner Executive Research (2016), Why Successful Executives Fail
 
4. DDI Global Leadership Forecast (2021), Assessing the Risks in Leadership Transitions
 
5. McGill, P., Clarke, P., & Sheffield, D. (2019). From “blind elation” to “oh my goodness, what have I gotten into”: Exploring the experience of executive coaching during leadership transitions into C-suite roles. International Journal of Evidence Based Coaching and Mentoring. Oxford Brookes University.
 
6. Greg Smith, CEO of Teradyne, as quoted in BTS webinar (2025)
 
7. International Coaching Federation (ICF, 2021), The Value of Coaching in Leadership Transitions

A large financial services company promoted a key leader into the position of CEO. Two of their peers were also vying for the top job. Almost immediately, the other two executives left the company. This created an unexpected leadership vacuum that cascaded within their respective departments, where no one on either team was able to step up into the suddenly vacant leadership spots. The lack of “ready now” successors required the company to look outside to replace those executive leadership roles, significantly disrupting their critical strategic transformation effort and creating additional chaos at the top of the company at a time when they could ill afford to slow momentum.

Similarly, a global manufacturing company promoted a key leader into the CEO role who lacked sales and marketing experience – an area where his predecessor had deep expertise. This expertise was a critical driver in the company’s success to date, and the gap at the top was stalling revenue growth and impeding the new CEO’s ability to deliver on the Board’s expectations. In order to fill the CEO’s knowledge gap, the company reorganized the head of sales and marketing role so that it was led by two executives instead of one. This unanticipated restructuring created confusion across the C-Suite and the rest of the sales and marketing organization regarding roles and responsibilities, which compounded their challenges in driving growth. The unexpected increased salary costs accompanying the additional executive role further impacted the bottom line, as well.

What these two examples illustrate is the Domino Effect. The Domino Effect occurs when a star performer is promoted, and there is no “ready now” successor to fill the role they are vacating. With so much attention placed on getting a new CEO into the role, the Domino Effect can cascade down through the organization and is an often hidden and unanticipated outcome that can hinder even the most capable chief executive from successfully taking the reins.

Assessing the impact of the Domino Effect

Conventional wisdom and the literature suggest that CEOs sourced internally outperform CEOs that are sourced externally. For example, in Harvard Business Review’s “Best CEOs of the World” top 100 list, 84% came from internal promotions1. The majority of leaders who ascend to the CEO role are COOs, CFOs, divisional CEOs, and some are “leapfrog” leaders identified below the C-Suite2. A question that has not been addressed is: what happens to the performance of the company when there are no internal candidates for the new CEO’s previous role? In other words, what is the impact of the Domino Effect on company performance?  

To answer this question, we compared the S&P 500 twenty best performing companies3 with the twenty worst performing companies4 based upon percentage change in stock price.  

‍What happened at the Best Performing companies?

Within the top 20 best performing companies, 75% of the CEOs were internal with 5 of the CEOs being founders of the company and 10 being promoted into the role. For their former positions, from which they were promoted, four were filled by internal candidates, and two were replaced with external candidates. Examining the leadership teams on the company’s websites, it appears that in three incidences, the role that the CEO vacated no longer exists. In one case the role was restructured and split into two different positions.

‍What happened at the Worst Performing companies?

70% of the CEOs at the worst performing companies came through promotions or being founder led (12 and 2 respectively), which is nearly identical to the best performing companies. All things being equal, one would expect a similar trend regarding the number of internal vs. external replacements for the CEOs’ previous roles from which they were promoted. However, we found that there were differences. Only three of the backfilled positions were placed by internal candidates and four were placed by external hires. In three of the companies, the position no longer exists, and two of the companies restructured the position.

Understanding the impact: disruption and worsening performance

The research shows little difference between the best and worst performing companies in relation to internal promotions and external hires for the CEO position. However, we do see more organizational disruptions in the replacement of the previous roles held by the CEO. A disruption is defined here as either the company was required to hire from the outside, restructure the role, or eliminate the role altogether. All of these create added turmoil and challenge for the new CEO as they try to move quickly to onboard and start delivering impact.

We found that disruptions were present in 60% of the top-performing companies, compared to 75% of the poorest performing companies. While more research is needed to uncover the nuances, our research suggests that companies with a stronger bench for newly promoted CEOs’ previous positions have less organizational disruption and outperform those who do not have a strong bench.

Tackling the Domino Effect before it falls

While CEO succession garners the greatest amount of the spotlight in the press, among board members, and in public sentiment of the health of a company, our research underscores the need for CEOs, CHROs, and Boards to focus on the Domino Effect as part of their C-Suite succession process. That is, creating a bench of potential successors targeted specifically for the CEO’s previous role, and the roles deeper within the organization that could replace those who are being elevated in the company at the time of the new CEO transition.  

Consider these best practices to get ahead of the Domino Effect:

• Build the backfill into the identification process. When identifying potential candidates for the CEO, simultaneously consider who may replace that candidate for their current role.

• Focus on the role rather than the person. You may not be able to replace the next CEO’s position with one individual, but you may be able to replicate their skills with people who can excel in the role with complimentary skills.

• Expand the purview of success profiles. Create success profiles for the CEO and those roles that are likely feeder pools for CEO. Ensure that the success profiles are future focused rather than focused on what is important today. Business realities change over time. What makes someone successful today may be different than what is required in the next 3 to 5 years.

• Leverage the power of data for determining future success. As you look at your bench, use structured assessment processes to assess individuals against the success profile, reduce the risk of biases towards individuals, and determine their readiness to address the future business challenges that the organization will face.

• Comprehensively build the right bench. Look broad and deep within the organization when identifying potential successors. You may find those “leapfrog” leaders who would otherwise be overlooked.

• Continually refresh your succession slate. Given the cascading impacts of the Domino Effect, it is more important than ever to ensure your slate is up to date with viable candidates for higher level positions. Consider doing so on at least an annual basis.

• Ensure that succession is seen as a strategic imperative across the leadership of the organization rather than a single event of placing a new CEO. The CEO and the CHRO should own the succession process, the Board should be involved, and the focus should stay equally on the CEO role and the successor leadership roles throughout the organization.

Finding, placing, and ramping up a new CEO is a momentous decision with big outcomes at play – for the CEO’s own success and the viability of the organization. If you embrace the opportunity to turn the Domino Effect into a strategic gameplan, you will be positioned both for accelerated success and impact.

‍References

1 Harrell, E. Succession Planning: What the Research Says. Harvard Business Review December 2016

2 Harvard Business Review Staff. November 2009. The Best Performing CEOs in the World. Harvard Business Review 41-57.

3 https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/10/10/invest-sp-500-stocks-market-portfolio/

4  https://finance.yahoo.com/news/20-worst-performing-p-500-200036146.html

In advance of an important meeting with company executives, most leaders provide an agenda along with a set of pre-read materials.

The ask of the senior leader audience: Please review these documents before our meeting.

It seems like a simple request, except for the fact that for many of us, getting an audience to even skim our pre-read materials in advance of a meeting is a minor victory. Pre-reads are tricky. Just ask anyone who has started a meeting by asking the audience if they reviewed the slides, charts, or documents that were painstakingly crafted and shared in advance. Cue the awkward silence, as audience members explain how they were too busy, they just didn’t have time to get to it, so could you please walk through the pre-read materials now, blah, blah, blah. On the other hand, you may have one or two colleagues that seem to enjoy poring over your pre-reads, ready with their tough questions when the meeting time comes. Let’s appreciate the thoroughness of these individuals, rather than wish they were more like everyone else who just ignored the pre-reads in the first place.

Done right, pre-reads play a valuable role for leaders and teams to lead productive meetings. They provide important background and context, enabling meeting leaders to make well-informed decisions and engage in productive, strategic discussions far more efficiently.

How do we consistently create these types of meeting outcomes? Here are some simple principles to consider:

Always link the pre-read to the meeting purpose and desired outcomes. A CFO and his team had scheduled an important meeting with the CEO and executive leadership to determine future capital expenditures at the company. In advance, the team prepared a detailed set of materials for the senior leaders to review, including a 60-page document that contained important information that would be relevant to the discussion. Knowing that the meeting would not succeed unless the executives had thoroughly reviewed the document in advance, the team prepared a short note to accompany the pre-read that reminded the audience of the purpose of the upcoming meeting, the relevance of that purpose to the audience, and the role the pre-read materials would play in achieving that purpose. The simple note paid off when company executives told the finance team it was one of the best meetings any team had ever led at the company.

As the CFO shared: “The note made such a difference. Too often, we assume the purpose of the pre-read is obvious, but we must make the connection clear to the audience. It isn’t enough to send slides in advance. If you really want people to read them and absorb the information, provide a compelling reason. We learned that by saying, ‘If you read these, we’ll achieve something important together,’ made all the difference.”

Make it very easy for your audiences to be prepared. Let’s imagine that you were part of the audience described by the CFO in the above example. No matter how compelling the note and materials provided in advance of the meeting, there’s no getting around the fact that you’ve been asked to read and absorb a 60-page document. For your average senior leader, it’s challenging to find the time to prepare for meetings and one of the biggest reasons that pre-read materials don’t get the attention they deserve.

Here’s where you can help your audiences. Provide questions and answers. This easy step can be a game-changer when done right. One simple technique is to raise a few relevant questions in a short email to your audience in advance of your meeting that includes your pre-read. For example:

• What is the overall purpose of the project?
• What do we want to accomplish in our meeting?
• What role will the pre-reads play in accomplishing that objective?
• How are the pre-reads structured to enable our discussion?
• What role will you play?

Don’t forget to provide simple, bullet-point responses to your questions as part of your note. The question-and-answer format is a powerful combination that helps you set the stage for your meeting by guiding participants in advance. You’re not just sending an agenda with an attachment: You’re taking charge and helping your audience understand how to show up prepared and ready to engage in a very productive discussion with you.

Good pre-reads take time to create, and even outstanding materials may get overlooked because the value they provide may not be immediately obvious to your audiences. The moral of the story? Don’t let your efforts go to waste. Good information provided in advance of meetings leads to better discussions and smarter decisions, but those outcomes won’t just happen on their own. With a few small tweaks to your pre-meeting process, you can achieve far better post-meeting results.