'You're Not Ready': The Quiet Crisis Of CEO Succession

Forbes

4 days ago

Older employee looking out of office window.
Logan Roy, brutal patriarch of Succession, delivers one of the show's most revealing lines without blinking: 'I love you. But you are not serious people.'
It's more than a takedown. It's a generational indictment. A founder who won't let go. A next generation unsure if they're trusted to lead.
That dynamic isn't just a popular TV plotline. It plays out inside real boardrooms, family enterprises and executive teams. The CEO successor is named but sidelined. The current leader still takes the big decisions. The person next in line is visible but not empowered. The plan exists, but the trust behind it is fragile.
Most CEOs, founders and boards don't ignore succession. But they often treat it as something to finalize later.
The Illusion Of Time
In a conversation with a board and CEO, I was told their succession strategy was solid. The business was performing well. The future CEO had been identified. There was 'plenty of time.'
So I asked: 'If your CEO stepped down tomorrow, who could step in—credibly?'
There was a pause. Then a quiet recognition. While a successor had been named, they had not been exposed to the board. They had not led through volatility. They had not owned the story externally.
My next question was even simpler: 'Is the board aligned on that person's readiness?'
The answer: 'Not entirely.'
That hesitation isn't rare. It's an early signal that belief has not yet become readiness. The candidate is identified but not yet fully seen.
The CEO Clock Is Ticking Double-time
The quiet urgency is already visible in the top seat. In Q1 2025 alone, 646 U.S. CEOs left their roles — a record high. According to Spencer Stuart, CEO tenure among the S&P 500 has declined– from 11.2 in 2021 to 8.3 years in 2024.
The leadership cycle is shortening. The window to prepare is shrinking. And in many boardrooms, the successor still isn't visible. In fact, interim leadership has soared in 2025. Of all incoming CEOs this year, 18% of them were named on an interim basis, compared to 6% during the same period last year.
What departs with a CEO isn't just decision rights. It's strategic memory, investor trust, unspoken influence and the instincts shaped by years of complex calls. From the outside, the transition may look smooth. Inside, momentum has already begun to drift.
Consider a familiar scenario: a CEO announces their retirement two years out. A successor is named. But over those two years, that successor is kept adjacent—invited to sit in, but not to lead. They don't build board relationships. They aren't tested with external investors. The team doesn't look to them when pressure hits. When the handoff comes, they are still a mystery to the people who matter most.
Now contrast that with a company like Microsoft. Before Satya Nadella became CEO, he had led multiple business units, shifted internal mindsets around cloud, and earned deep trust inside and outside the organization. He wasn't just selected. He was prepared. The board wasn't surprised. The team wasn't skeptical. The culture didn't pause.
One organization hoped succession would work. The other ensured it would.
In my conversation with Piyush Gupta, ex-CEO of Singapore-based DBS Bank, he reflected on how much of his own leadership readiness came from being placed in tough, often uncomfortable roles early on—across geographies, away from familiar systems, in moments of high stakes.
Those crucibles didn't just build experience. They built identity. He said it was in those formative tests that he learned to make sense of ambiguity, lead without defaulting to control, and develop judgment under pressure. That kind of preparation isn't theoretical. It's earned. And it starts long before the title ever changes.
Gupta also aced his own succession. When he announced his departure, he named his successor in the same breath—Tan Su Shan, a longtime internal leader, would step into the role. No drama. No scramble. Just clarity, stability, and a transition that matched the precision of the institution he helped build.
Four Shifts Boards And CEOs Must Make Now
I've worked on CEO succession with public companies, founder-led firms and family businesses. The ones who handle it well don't view it as an HR process. They treat it as a cultural investment—something that reveals the organization's capacity to learn, evolve and trust.
Succession doesn't begin at resignation. It begins when a CEO chooses to shape what comes next.
Some CEOs delay because they still feel useful. But often, their most lasting influence happens in the final chapter—as teacher, mentor or transition partner. Not from obligation. From conviction.
Reengaging the outgoing CEO in a purposeful handoff builds credibility. It creates space without leaving a void. It protects the legacy while empowering the future.
Mentoring a CEO successor is unlike any other leadership relationship. It requires confrontation with complexity—activist pressure, investor expectations, media scrutiny, internal dissent.
Successors don't need guidance alone. They need access. They need to be pushed, heard, contradicted and invited into the spaces where presence matters most.
A name on a board deck does not equal a ready successor.
Many boards assume that a strong internal leader can step up. But readiness doesn't come from potential alone. It comes from repeated exposure to risk, to contradiction, to conflicting expectations—and the maturity to navigate them.
Real stakes reveal themselves in breakthrough moments. Investor briefings. Board negotiations. External crises. Not rehearsed behind closed doors—but tested in the open. Authority isn't proven in simulation. It's forged in the marketplace. On the global stage. In lived, not scripted, experience.
The CEO role isn't granted. It's demonstrated in advance.
The real handoff is already underway. It happens in how the current CEO frames tradeoffs. In who they bring into key conversations. In how often they explain why a decision was made—not just what the decision was.
Culture doesn't replicate by instruction. It transmits through observation.
Boards should look for the signals that successors are being shaped early. Not through formal grooming, but through informal inclusion.
What CEO Legacy Actually Means
Most CEOs eventually ask: what will I leave behind?
But legacy isn't what follows you. It's what endures without you.
It's the strategic clarity that remains intact. The team that doesn't stall. The confidence that continues when your name is no longer the one in headlines.
In the strongest transitions I've seen, the outgoing CEO doesn't just vacate. They clear the way. The successor doesn't wait to be told they are ready. They act like it.
Because they were trusted with the work that matters. Because someone showed them the horizon early. Because the board aligned not on safety, but on strength.
And when succession is handled well, no one needs to say 'You are serious people.' The successor already proves it.