It’s Just a Leadership Transition… Nobody Is Doing Anything Wrong

As the son of a pastor and a nonprofit employee myself, I know that leadership transitions can be trying, especially in mission-driven organizations. Let me share the best transition advice I’ve ever received. It came from a lifelong Mennonite Minister. “Leadership transitions are hard — even if no one is doing anything wrong!” This is bad news and good news.

The bad news is that all leadership transitions are hard. 

It’s as true in schools as it is in churches and nonprofits. Leadership transitions (hereafter LTs) are hard. They just are. I’m not wishing the worst on anybody, but I’ll give you my entire life savings if you can find me the true story of a transition that was easy for everybody. This is only natural. 

Organ-izations are living creatures, and every individual is a member of the body. When anyone leads anything, the institution grows around them. Their style changes the way things are done, the way expectations are set, even the way the days go. Of course, the people who find a fit in that particular shape are those who do just that: they find a fit.

Then the day comes where our beloved leader is replaced. What now becomes of all of us who had fit so nicely in the former structure? We either adapt to the new organ or we wither, both of which are difficult. There’s no part of a living being that you can change without a bit of discomfort at the least. The same is true in the bodies of mission-driven organizations.

This may seem almost boringly obvious. But in my personal experience, it’s extremely hard to remember in the midst of a LT. 

We routinely underestimate the depth and breadth of change. The tectonic structure shifts at every stratum: social, inter-personal, professional, communal, psychological, spiritual, financial, existential, and behavioral. Elements of the organization are so familiar to us that we can’t even see them; now they are called into question. Expectations that we didn’t know we had are suddenly — and often sorely — disappointed. We feel the institutional ground drift beneath our feet. It may make us vulnerable to feeling… well… vulnerable. 

All LTs are like this. That’s the bad news. But here is the good news. The difficulty doesn’t mean anyone is doing anything wrong. 

As a chaplain, I am aware of just how naturally we reach for a reason or rationale in any moment of unease. We want to know ‘why’ something is difficult, and often we suspect that someone is to blame.

In LTs there may well be no one to blame. This just is the way it goes: things get difficult but not because anyone is misbehaving. The frustrations, frictions, and pressure points of LTs are a perfectly natural part of change that may well be for the very best.

You might find this shallow comfort, but I find it profoundly steadying. In all the times I’ve worked with a new Senior Pastor or new Executive Director, it has helped me contextualize the worst of my feelings. It has also helped me resist one especially deadly thing, namely personal attacks. 

Some of the worst moments of LTs happen when the following insidious thought process takes root in key members of an organization:

(1) difficulty becomes blame

(2) blame becomes a personal trait or — worse — pop-psychologizing

What do I mean by this? 

I mean that when you think that the difficulty of the LT is someone’s fault, it’s often not long before you begin to speculate about this person’s interior life. Here’s a totally not real example…

For three years, Jack has been a Youth Pastor at First Church of What’s Happening Now, and a lot of the congregation is attached to him. Joe shows up as the new Senior Pastor. Everyone has the highest hopes. Joe’s predecessor was way more hands-off. Jack and Joe get into some conflict. At first, congregants say, “Joe’s just getting used to the place. He’ll learn. Give him time.” But the friction continues, and folks begin to say “You know, Joe’s actually kind of heavy handed. Jack seems to think he’s a real micro-manager.” By Advent of year three, people are saying “Joe has control issues, and I think he’s a narcissist.”

Where have we landed? Because we went looking for fault instead of patiently looking for better organizational frameworks, we’ve ended up with a faux-villain and a stalled organization. There’s been no genuine progress.

Now, I’m not saying there are no bad actors. I’m sure there are. All I’m saying is that every LT is hard and that’s not a sign that the folks involved are broken people.

If the old Mennonite is right, we don’t have to experience transition difficulties with our radars up for bad actors. These moments of friction can become fruitful opportunities for collaboration, rather than sites of suspicion. The same virtues that guide the rest of our lives and work — honesty, diligence, curiosity, patience, kindness — can shine through in these frictional moments of LTs. Leadership Transitions can end in sustainable, well-earned, and long term success.

Peter Hartwig is Chaplain at Christ School in Arden, NC and a graduate of St. Anne’s-Belfield School in Charlottesville, VA. He received his B.A. in Religious Studies & Classics from the University of Virginia. He then went on to receive graduate degrees from the University of Cambridge (Master of Philosophy) and Princeton Theological Seminary (Master of Divinity). His writing has appeared in Comment Magazine, the Hedgehog Review, and Earth & Altar. Peter’s articles for “The Classroom” address a range of education topics and we couldn’t be happier to have his contributions.