Amid constant complexity and uncertainty in today’s business landscape, traditional executive succession planning is being tested right when it’s needed most. The long-standing practice of identifying heirs apparent for a few key roles on a static template is a relic from a more predictable era.
This gap between old methods and new realities is reflected in recent data, which reveals a stark crisis of confidence. Research from Heidrick & Struggles highlights a significant gap between the need for and the reality of effective executive succession planning:
- Only 11% of CEOs and directors are “entirely confident” that their executive talent strategies are positioning the organization well for the future.
- A mere 4% of Chief People Officers cite their current leadership transition planning as being as effective as it needs to be.
- 55% of CPOs think they have succession plans for the wrong roles.1
- In the average F1000 corporation, fewer than 5 executive roles are even considered in the formal executive succession plan.1
1 Proprietary data from an online survey conducted by Heidrick & Struggles of 600 CPOs in markets around the world, across sectors, spring 2025.
These findings signal that most organizations are dangerously exposed to leadership risk beyond the CEO succession process, lacking a ready-now plan for critical roles like the CFO, COO, CHRO, or CIO. When a high-impact executive transition occurs—whether planned or unplanned—a lack of preparation can create a vacuum that stalls momentum, rattles investors, and burns out the remaining team.
The answer isn’t simply a more detailed, yet still static, plan. Leading companies are embracing an entirely new, agile mindset that includes external interim leaders—along with scalable, digital assessments, more dynamic succession planning, and more targeted leadership development—to de-risk high-impact transitions and strengthen long-term leadership transition planning.
Today’s interim leaders are not simply “seat-warmers.” They are proven, high-caliber executives deployed to play a critical, surgical role in stabilizing operations, bridging to moments of clarity, and actively developing an organization’s internal teams.
Based on our work deploying interim executive talent, we have identified three key moments to engage an interim leader in the executive succession process.
1. Getting Ahead of a Potential Executive Retirement or Departure
The traditional succession planning playbook often relies on a long, predictable runway, such as a planned retirement 18 months out. In reality, things are rarely so clear. The final timing of a transition is often influenced by factors beyond a simple retirement date. Interdependent moves at the top of the team, key financial triggers like vesting windows, and unpredictable personal matters such as health issues or caregiver contingencies can all create a fluid—or even compressed—timeline while successor readiness is still being built.
While many organizations maintain emergency succession plans for critical roles, these common scenarios—where the timing is unclear or an internal successor is not yet fully defined—require more than just a stopgap. An organization cannot afford to simply wait for clarity. This situation calls for a proactive approach to bolster capabilities and bridge gaps, often even while the incumbent is still in place, ensuring the team is supported as the long-term transition takes shape.
In moments like these, engaging a proven executive in a supporting role can be the best tactic to ensure progress continues while leadership decisions are made. This interim leader’s mandate is not to fill the top spot, but to take on complex projects that are critical for forward momentum, such as leading a major systems implementation, executing a business-unit turnaround, or standing up a new center of excellence.
This strategy achieves two critical objectives simultaneously. First, it immediately ensures there’s a designated leader for key initiatives through the transition, which de-risks the initiative and takes immense pressure off the incumbent and the team. Second, it provides the board and CEO with invaluable breathing room to conduct a thoughtful, unhurried search for the permanent successor, ensuring the right long-term fit rather than a reactive, “good enough for now” hire.
2. Redefining an Existing Role Prior to Naming a Successor
A common trap in succession planning is assuming the goal is to find a “carbon copy” of the incumbent. The reality is that the role itself is almost never static. Even in stable conditions, market demands, new technologies, and shifting strategies are constantly redefining what a key leadership position requires.
This space between the current role and the future one becomes a critical challenge during moments of profound transformation—a digital pivot, a new go-to-market strategy, or a post-merger integration. The skills that successfully built the business are often not the same ones needed to transform it.
Hiring a permanent, senior-level executive into a newly defined, untested position can be exceptionally high risk. This new leader is being asked not only to do the job but also to invent the job, all while navigating legacy processes and, often, internal resistance. This can lead to a costly and high-profile flameout.
A more agile approach is to deploy an interim leader to trial the reformed executive mandate before committing to a long-term hire.
External leaders bring a distinct advantage. They often have no internal political baggage and can operate with a degree of objectivity that is difficult for an internal candidate. Their mandate is to absorb the friction of change, pressure-test the new scope, and validate what the role truly requires to be successful.
Of course, this approach requires selecting an interim who can navigate the existing culture and build credibility quickly. When done right, the permanent successor steps into a role that is already functioning, tested, and aligned with the future-state strategy—increasing the odds of success from day one.
3. Providing Executive Scaffolding for the Next Leader
One of the most common succession dilemmas is the “high potential, but not quite ready” internal candidate. This is a rising star who is worthy of promotion but lacks notable experience or skills. In such scenarios, companies are sometimes left with two perhaps equally undesirable options: “promote and pray,” risking a critical business unit on an untested leader; or pass over for an external hire, demoralizing the star and sending a negative signal to the internal talent pipeline.
Appointing a seasoned, “been there, done that” leader to act as an advisor and high-level accelerator for a preferred “step-up” candidate mitigates risk and shortens the learning curve, effectively fast-tracking the successor’s transition into the new position.
The interim executive’s role in this case is to provide real-time, on-the-job development and serve as an operational backstop. As the internal candidate takes the lead, the interim advisor can personally own one or two high-risk areas where the candidate is weakest, providing a masterclass in execution while protecting the business.
This “scaffolding” model closes experience gaps in real-time and builds the candidate’s confidence, ensuring the internal talent is fully prepared to take sole command. It also transforms what was once a reactive process into a proactive, strategic component of the executive planning cycle.
Modernizing a Succession Planning Strategy
Companies have used standardized, static succession planning templates for decades. Today, it’s clear that this approach rarely captures the dynamic realities of current leadership needs.
Rethinking the traditional succession playbook doesn’t mean abandoning planning. It requires augmenting those plans with more agile and responsive tools. This is where engaging interim executives becomes a core component of a modern, more resilient strategy.
Modern succession planning should include not just who might fill a role, but how and when the transition would occur under different scenarios. This includes:
- A clear understanding of critical role profiles and success metrics.
- Defined contingencies for both planned and unplanned executive transitions.
- Access to on-demand or interim succession options for immediate coverage.
- Built-in leadership development goals that link internal talent readiness to strategic needs.
Ultimately, the question for every board and CPO is not just “Do we have a succession plan?” It is, “Do we have the agile options, like interim leadership, to ensure that our plan succeeds in the real world—not just on paper?”
About the Author
More Content by Kelsey O'Neal
