Building for Succession
You own a piece of land and intend to build a home. Will you do it by reading and conforming to the natural flow of the land? Or will you force the land to bend to your design?
If it is the former, you nestle the building within the land's contours, disturbing it minimally. You work with its natural drainage areas, actually seeking to improve the flora and fauna that gave rise to the soil in which you are digging. You make maximal use of light and the night sky. In this scenario, you carefully design with respect for what is there.
In the latter, you clear, burn, excavate, pound, and pour. Then you landscape to your vision, scraping away native soil to plant what you want where you want. The former becomes a memorable work of art. All too often, the second is just another row house.
Third Turn Leaders
Now let's bring that analogy to the executive leadership of organizations and the Third Turn. The Third Turn is that time when an executive knows what they have been building will soon be in the leadership hands of others.
A Third Turn leader, what we call a Maestro-level leader, takes the architectural approach...
A Third Turn leader, what we call a Maestro-level leader, takes the architectural approach, using elements of appreciative inquiry, systems theory, and cultural anthropology, building within and upon the context.
The fruit of that work is different every time. In one approach, a successor will be sought who preserves, changes, and builds with the mission in mind. A second approach is more like a housing development company removing what is to make way for what is desired, mechanistically and mindlessly. Successors in this scenario are just another input, brought in to preserve and manage what is, or swapped out to make changes. Furthering the mission is good, but often not first on the list.
Maestro-level leader cohorts
The first Maestro-level leader cohort launched in winter 2021...
The first Maestro-level leader cohort launched in winter 2021, and will finish its four-year run in January 2025. Our collaboration with Christian Leadership Alliance to offer the Maestro-level leader experience launches its second cohort about the time this issue of Outcomes lands in your inbox.
We don't publicize our members—that is for them to do—but they will tell you it plays a critical role in a planful succession story.
A Planful Succession
A planful succession involves an executive's whole person and an enterprise's whole ecosystem. Doing it well means we keep learning, vigorously developing our awareness, curiosity, and emotional intelligence. Without that, much of the current and future value we painstakingly built will disintegrate.
The future value of successors begins with their Maestro-level leader predecessors helping to remove obstacles. Our walking alongside these leaders and their organizations, and even more, their walking alongside each other, is something to behold. They join for insights they could never gain on their own. They stay for the community, accountability, and ongoing growth in wisdom. After all, most Maestro-level leaders will only do this once, and so much is at stake.
Maestro-level leader testimonials
“The Maestro-level leader cohort experience has enabled me to prepare for a CEO succession with wisdom and to walk through the process with God’s grace. The value of the coach’s intentional, wise guidance along the way has been inestimable; the fellowship and caring input of fellow CEOs walking similar paths has been a treasure to me. As I finish up a successful CEO succession plan, our mission has been the greatest beneficiary of my Maestro-level leaders’ experience. It is well worth the investment.”
Dr. Larry B. Jones, President and CEO, Seed Company
“Our Maestro-level leader cohort has developed a level of trust that Patrick Lencioni says is inseparable to achieving organizational success through accountability, encouragement and challenge. Our cohort has seen the results of that fruit in each of our organizations and ourselves as we have leaned in towards the Third Turn. If you want to be challenged to grow as an individual and an organization, Maestro-level leaders’ is for you.”
Andrew Stern, Executive Director, Restore St. Louis
Maestro-level leader cohorts and you
These cohorts build future value.
Christian Leadership Alliance provides Alliance members an exclusive discounted rate to join a Maestro-level leader cohort. These cohorts build future value. As part of a Maestro-level leader cohort, you will learn to lead where succession and legacy are concerned. A group of six to 10 companions travel with you through a disciplined exercise of mapping, modeling, and implementing strategies toward future value, succession, and legacy.
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Dr. Mark L. Vincent, CCNL, is the Founder of Design Group International and the Society for Process Consulting. In his Third Turn, he launched Maestro-level leaders, a four-year experience for accomplished leaders who care about a planful succession. He is author of Listening, Helping, Learning: Core Competencies of Process Consulting (Tenth Power Publishing, May 18, 2022).
Listen to Dr. Mark L. Vincent on The Third Turn Podcast as he discusses “Succession Models to Follow.”
Learn more about Outcomes magazine.
Dr. Mark L. Vincent will co-lead a workshop entitled “Leadership Transitions: Imagine, Engage, Align” at this year’s Outcomes Conference in Jacksonville, FL, April 9-11. Register to attend >>
