Start Your CEO Succession Planning Now
Lynn Good, outgoing CEO of Duke Energy, on the art of looking ahead.
The real test of a CEO is how the company does after you leave.
If you’ve built a rock-solid business that creates predictable value for customers, employees, and shareholders, the momentum is likely to continue, even without you at the helm.
If you’ve been operating with no sustainable system, running around to put out all the fires yourself, and generally holding things together with duct tape and baling wire… well, it’s going to show once you’re gone.
This is why learning to be a systematic, forward-thinking CEO is one of the best forms of succession planning. You’ll be giving your successor an incredible gift.
This morning I read Lynn Good, CEO of Duke Energy, speaking with CEO Daily about her newly announced retirement from the role in April. Good has been CEO for 10 years, and the job will go to current Duke president Harry Sideris.
I thought Good’s summation of what she’d tell her younger self was excellent:
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