How Much Overlap Is Needed in a Nonprofit Leadership Transition

So how much overlap is needed between a departing nonprofit Executive Director and the new Executive Director?

As a nonprofit recruiter, I have had the opportunity to observe many leadership transitions. This question of overlap is one a Board often faces. This is especially true if the retiring Executive Director has had a long, successful tenure with the nonprofit.

It is not unusual for the Board to want the newly hired Executive Director to have a 3 to 6-month overlap with a long-tenured Executive Director. It seems to make sense for the new Executive Director to see firsthand how to run the operation for a significant period of time to help him or her learn the ropes. Surely this will prove valuable to the new Executive Director and will provide important continuity for the nonprofit…

The problem is that I do not see extended overlaps working well in actual practice.

I recall a new Executive Director hired by the Board to overlap the departing Executive Director with a year-long transition. The new leader remembered it as a most difficult, painful year. He was trying to assert his authority and run the organization with the outgoing Executive Director still in the building. The incoming Executive Director was trying to make decisions, but the staff were still looking to the departing Executive Director. His authority and direction were naturally discounted. For him, it was a bad situation.

By contrast, I know a retiring Executive Director who had been at her position for 13 years but had a total of 34 years with the nonprofit. The plan was for the overlap with the new hire to be 6 weeks. As it turns out, only 3 weeks was needed. The two spent their time together traveling to different office sites spread over 36 counties, meeting partners and funders. They also spent one hour a day going over contracts and procedures. The retiring Executive Director attended one Board meeting and one staff meeting and then stayed away from other meetings.

The reality is that overlaps are usually short – and that is for the best.

The ideal solution is for the Board to contract with the departing Executive Director as a consultant (on an hourly basis). Then they leave it up to the new Executive Director to decide how much to use the departing Executive Director. It has been my experience that the new Executive Director will sparingly use the departed Executive Director. But if the two hit it off, then the consulting arrangement provides the mechanism for the two to work together during the transition period.

There is no question that a long-tenured, successful Executive Director has valuable input for the incoming Executive Director. However, it must be left to the new leader how much to use that input. If we can be of assistance with your upcoming leadership transition and nonprofit executive search, contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation.

by William J. Moran, J.D., M.S., Ed.
President, The Moran Company
“We Find Great Nonprofit Leaders”

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