Succession planning for the C-suite: A practical HR guide

What would happen if your CEO, CFO, or another critical executive left tomorrow? For many organizations, the answer isn’t clear. SHRM found that only 21% of HR professionals have a formal executive succession plan in place, while 56% have no plan at all.

At the same time, executive turnover is becoming harder to ignore. The Conference Board projects that the annual rate of CEO successions among S&P 500 companies could reach 13% in 2025, compared with 10% in 2024.

This means that succession planning can’t wait until an executive announces their departure. This guide explains how to build and manage your executive succession planning, from identifying successors and assessing development needs to preparing for emergency transitions and working with the board.

Executive succession planning is the process of preparing for who will step into an organization’s most important leadership roles when a current executive leaves. This can include the CEO, CFO, CHRO, COO, and other C-suite leaders.

The goal is to make sure that the organization has qualified leaders ready to step in when needed, whether a departure is planned or unexpected. It goes beyond simply naming a replacement. HR leaders work with executives and the board to identify potential successors, assess their readiness, and give them opportunities to build the skills and experience they need.

Strong leadership succession planning answers three key questions:

1. Who could step into this role?
2. Are they ready now or do they need more development?
3. What happens if the role suddenly becomes vacant?

Replacing a senior executive is different from filling most other roles. C-suite leaders influence company strategy, financial performance, and major business decisions. When one leaves, the impact can extend across the entire organization.

That’s why executive succession planning needs to look beyond whether someone has the right skills for the job. Organizations also need to consider whether a potential successor can lead through change and build trust with employees, customers, and the board.

C-suite succession planning also needs to account for two very different situations:

• Planned transitions: An executive is preparing to retire, move on, or take another role, giving the organization time to prepare a successor.
• Unexpected departures: An executive leaves suddenly because of resignation, illness, termination, or another unforeseen event. The organization needs someone who can step in quickly while a longer-term solution is determined.

For these reasons, a strong plan should include both long-term leadership development and an emergency backup plan. It should also be reviewed regularly as business priorities change.

C-suite succession planning is a shared responsibility. HR usually leads the process, but the CEO, executive team, and board all need to be involved. Each group brings a different perspective and helps answer a key question: Who could lead the organization next, and how do we prepare them?

HR typically coordinates the succession planning process and makes sure that it happens consistently across the organization.

For example, HR might do the following:

• Identify which C-suite roles are most critical to the business.
• Create a list of potential successors for each role.
• Assess whether each candidate is ready now or needs more development.
• Identify gaps in skills or experience.
• Create development plans to help candidates prepare.
• Review and update succession plans regularly.
• Create an emergency plan in case an executive leaves unexpectedly.

Example: If the CFO plans to retire in two years, HR might identify two internal leaders who could eventually take over. HR would then work with the CFO to identify the experience each person is missing and create opportunities for them to develop those skills before the transition.

The CEO and other executives understand the company’s strategy and what future leaders will need to succeed. They can help identify strong candidates, provide feedback, and give potential successors opportunities to take on more responsibility. The current CEO should be involved in developing potential successors, but shouldn’t be the only person deciding who could replace them.

Example: The company plans to expand internationally, and the identified potential successor is a senior leader with strong business results but limited international experience. The CEO and executive team could then give that person responsibility for leading a global project to build the experience they need.

The board has an especially important role in CEO succession planning. It needs to understand who could step into the CEO role, how prepared those candidates are, and what would happen if the CEO suddenly left. The board can also challenge assumptions. If leadership believes there is only one obvious successor, the board can ask whether other internal or external candidates should be considered.

Example: The board reviews the CEO succession plan twice a year and asks: If the CEO left tomorrow, who could step in temporarily? Who could be ready for the permanent role in one to three years? What skills are we missing in our current leadership pipeline?

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Let’s break down the step-by-step process for how you build an executive succession plan.

Start by identifying the C-suite and other leadership positions where a vacancy would create significant risk.

For each role, assess these questions:

• How critical is the role to business operations and strategy?
• How difficult would the role be to replace?
• How much institutional knowledge does the current executive hold?
• What is the impact of an unexpected departure?
• Are there qualified internal candidates?
• How long would it take to prepare an internal successor?

You can use a simple criticality rating, such as low, medium, or high, to prioritize the roles that need the most attention. For each critical role, create a succession profile that includes the current executive, key responsibilities, required capabilities, potential successors, readiness levels, and development needs.

Don’t assume that the next executive should simply look like the current one. Start with the company’s business strategy for the next three to five years. 

Ask these questions:

• Where is the business going?
• What challenges will the next leader face?
• What capabilities will become more important?
• What leadership behaviors will the organization need?
• Which responsibilities may change?

Then create a success profile for each role. This should outline the knowledge, skills, experience, and leadership behaviors required for someone to succeed.

Separate requirements into these categories:

• Must have: Capabilities that are essential to the role
• Important: Capabilities that strongly contribute to success
• Developable: Skills the right candidate could build after taking the role

This gives everyone a consistent standard for evaluating potential successors.

Don’t immediately choose one person for each role. Instead, identify several potential successors when possible. 

Look across the organization for leaders who demonstrate these qualities:

• Strong performance in their current role
• The potential to take on greater responsibility
• Strong leadership and decision-making skills
• Ability to influence across the organization
• Business and financial understanding
• Ability to lead through change
• Interest in future leadership opportunities

Look beyond the obvious candidates too. Succession planning can expose talented leaders who may not currently have a direct path to the C-suite. HR can use talent reviews, performance data, manager input, career conversations, and tools such as the 9-box talent review to create a more complete picture of the leadership pipeline.

Once potential successors have been identified, evaluate each person’s current readiness against the success profile. Avoid simply labeling someone as “high potential.” Instead, document what they can already do and what they still need to learn.

A practical readiness framework could include:

READINESS LEVEL:	WHAT IT MEANS:
Ready now	Could step into the role with minimal additional preparation
Ready in 1–2 years	Has most of the required capabilities but needs targeted development
Ready in 3+ years	Has potential but needs significant experience or development
Not currently identified	No internal candidate is currently on track

For each candidate, document their strengths, gaps, career interests, and readiness timeframe. This distinction is important because performance in a current role does not automatically mean readiness for a C-suite position.

Next, compare each candidate’s current capabilities with the requirements of the target role. Be specific. Instead of writing “needs more executive experience,” identify exactly what experience is missing.

Potential gaps might include:

• Presenting to the board
• Managing a P&L
• Leading a global organization
• Managing through a major transformation
• Building relationships with investors
• Leading cross-functional teams
• Handling a crisis
• Making enterprise-level decisions
• Managing a larger organization

Turn each readiness gap into a specific development action or opportunity, which could include:

• Executive coaching
• Mentoring
• Stretch assignments
• Cross-functional projects
• Job rotations
• P&L ownership
• International assignments
• Board presentations
• Strategic planning responsibilities
• Leading a major transformation or business initiative

Each development goal should have an owner and timeline. For example, instead of writing “increase board experience,” the plan could state: Present quarterly updates to the board for the next 12 months, with coaching from the current CFO. This makes development measurable and gives HR a way to track progress.

A strong internal pipeline is valuable, but organizations shouldn’t assume the next executive must come from inside the company. After assessing internal readiness, determine whether there are capability gaps that cannot reasonably be developed within the required timeframe.

External candidates may need to be considered when:

• There is no internal successor
• The organization needs capabilities it doesn’t currently have
• The business is entering a new market
• The company is going through a major transformation
• Internal candidates won’t be ready when the role needs to be filled

Succession plans contain sensitive information, including assessments of individual employees and potential promotion decisions. HR should establish clear guidelines around who can access the information and how it should be discussed. This also helps prevent succession planning from becoming an informal conversation that only a few executives are aware of.

Define who is responsible for:

• Maintaining the succession plan
• Conducting talent reviews
• Updating readiness assessments
• Managing development plans
• Reporting progress to the executive team or board
• Activating the emergency plan

Succession planning should be an ongoing process, not a document created once a year and forgotten. Update readiness ratings as candidates gain experience. Someone who was “ready in three years” two years ago may now be ready to step into the role.

A long-term succession plan helps you prepare future leaders. An emergency succession plan answers a more immediate question: What happens if a critical executive leaves tomorrow?

Unexpected departures can happen because of resignation, illness, termination, or another unforeseen event. Without a plan, organizations can lose valuable time trying to decide who should take over and how to communicate the change. HR can help the organization prepare by creating an emergency plan for each critical executive role.

For each critical role, identify one or more people who could provide interim coverage. The interim leader does not necessarily need to be the permanent successor. Their primary job is to keep the business moving while the organization determines its longer-term solution. Document a primary interim candidate and, when possible, a backup.

An emergency plan should spell out the actions that need to happen immediately after a departure. Create a simple timeline for the first 24 hours, first week, and first 30 days. 

Make sure that you include:

• Who is notified first
• Who appoints the interim leader
• Which decisions need immediate approval
• Which responsibilities need to be transferred
• Which meetings or commitments cannot be missed
• Who communicates with employees
• Who communicates with customers, investors, or other stakeholders
• When the board needs to be involved

Senior executives often hold information that is difficult to replace quickly. Identify the knowledge that would create the biggest problems if they suddenly became unavailable. Where appropriate, make sure that this information is documented and accessible to the people who may need it during a transition.

This could include:

• Key customer or investor relationships
• Critical vendor relationships
• Strategic initiatives
• Upcoming board decisions
• Financial or operational information
• Important contracts or negotiations
• Regulatory responsibilities
• Major employee or organizational issues

The person who can stabilize the organization temporarily may not be the right person to become the permanent executive. For example, a COO might be the best person to serve as interim CEO because they already understand the business and can provide immediate stability. The board may still decide to conduct a broader internal and external search for the permanent CEO.

Keeping these two decisions separate gives the organization time to make a thoughtful long-term choice rather than promoting someone simply because they were available during a crisis.

Once you’ve identified successors and created development plans, HR needs a way to track whether the succession pipeline is actually getting stronger. The easiest approach is to establish a small set of metrics and review them regularly with senior leadership and the board. These metrics should show where the organization has strong coverage, where gaps remain, and whether development efforts are working.

Start with a simple question: Does every critical executive role have someone who could eventually step into it? You can report this as a percentage. For example, if 8 out of 10 critical roles have at least one identified successor, your organization has 80% successor coverage. This quickly shows where the biggest gaps are.

Your succession plan should connect directly to the development plans you created for potential successors. For each person, track whether their planned development activities are actually happening. Don’t measure success simply by whether someone completed a course or attended a coaching session. Look at whether they gained the experience the role requires.

This could include:

• Stretch assignments completed
• Executive coaching completed
• New responsibilities gained
• Cross-functional experience gained
• Board exposure
• International or business-unit experience
• Specific skill gaps addressed

Track how often critical leadership roles are filled internally versus externally. A strong internal promotion rate can indicate that your leadership pipeline is producing qualified candidates. However, the goal shouldn’t be to fill every executive role internally. External hiring may be the right choice when the organization needs capabilities that aren’t available internally.

Choose a regular review cycle, such as quarterly for the executive team and twice a year with the board. The goal is to give decision-makers a clear picture of leadership risk and progress.

If a critical role has no successor, no emergency coverage, or a successor whose development has stalled, that should trigger action. This could mean accelerating development, expanding the internal talent search, or beginning to build an external pipeline. Over time, these measures help HR demonstrate whether executive succession planning is actually improving the organization’s ability to handle leadership transitions.

Executive succession planning is most effective when it starts long before a leadership transition is on the horizon. Here are the key takeaways:

• Identify the executive positions where a vacancy would have the greatest impact on the business.
• Build a strong leadership pipeline with multiple potential successors for critical roles.
• Give future leaders specific development opportunities to close their capability and experience gaps.
• Prepare an emergency plan that identifies who can step in and what needs to happen if an executive leaves unexpectedly.
• Track succession metrics to understand where leadership coverage is strong and where gaps remain.
• Review and update succession plans regularly as business priorities, leadership teams, and successor readiness change.

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