How I prepared to leave a leadership position

I believe that leadership and teams in NGOs should change. Structures built around one person who is not ready to ever leave, harm the development of the organization, the sector, and the people they are supposed to serve.

Three months passed since I quit my job as Executive Director of Coming Out. Looks like everything still works there. And here is what steps and measures I took to leave the organization in the most harmless and effective way.

📍First of all, how this journey started for me?

When I started my tenure as an Executive Director of ComingOut LGBTQ+ group, there was a demand for changes because the organization was in disarray. From the very beginning, it was clear that such a restructuring would require quite harsh and exhausting crisis management, so I initially set myself a 2-3 year term in this position. It turned out to be 2.5 years in the end. And here is how I prepared to quit.

📑Planning the transfer of duties

I began planning the transfer of duties at the end of 2022. At that time, I considered who on the team could be offered a promotion, discussed it with my colleagues at the organization’s management, and received approval.

At the beginning of 2023, I discussed it with the candidate himself. 

In mid-2023, I received approval from the Board, without which such a change would have been impossible, and in case of refusal, I'd've had time to find another candidate.

In the fall of 2023, I drafted and approved with the organization's management a roadmap for the transfer of duties. Around the same time, I started gradually introducing the future director to partners and actively informing everyone around about the upcoming leadership change.

📬Transfer of duties

Since the beginning of 2024, I began transferring all my expertise, contacts, and technical aspects of the work to the future director, slowly involving him in current processes.

At the same time, I started gradually reducing my involvement in decision-making processes. This turned out to be quite painful: seeing things fall apart somewhere, proceeding contrary to how I would have done, some failures, missing outs. But it was precisely based on this information that I have the opportunity to give recommendations on what to particularly pay attention to for the new leadership.

⚙️How that worked

From my perspective, that worked out.

I stayed in touch with a new director for the first few months, adviced and supported where necessary. Of course, there are always some problems, permanent lack of funds, necessity to make tough decisions, but the organization is strong as never, with an amazing team, and (let's hope) brought and impactful future.