ABSTRACT
The departure of a school leader is a natural occurrence that should be welcomed, as all organizations must renew themselves in order to grow. Proactive succession planning can help avoid the disruption a leadership change might cause. Schools can do this by creating a process for developing future leaders and by taking a systematic approach to identifying high-potential junior leaders in the organization. Succession planning should address the two different scenarios that require a change in leadership: a scheduled departure and an unscheduled departure. In a scheduled departure, the current leader has planned to step down, communicated this to the school, and provided the organization with advanced notice. Identifying a successor in both scenarios can be handled with minimal disruption to the community if the school has invested in creating a leadership development program. Leadership-development programming and proactive succession planning are critical, as continuity and organizational momentum can easily be lost without a strong leader at the helm.
