Is your successor ready, today?

Succession planning is one of the most universally acknowledged priorities in corporate America — and one of the most consistently neglected. 

In this episode of Shedding the Corporate Bitch, host and executive coach Bernadette Boas draws on 16 years of direct work with executives, HR leaders, and management teams to expose the real reasons succession planning keeps failing and what leaders can do about it starting this week.

Bernadette opens with a challenge that hits close to home for many leaders: Who in your organization is ready to step into a critical role tomorrow, not after six months of development or a 90-day executive search, but tomorrow? 

If the answer doesn't come quickly, or comes with a knot in the stomach, this episode was made for you.

Drawing from Deloitte research, DDI's Leadership Forecast 2025 (which surveyed over 10,000 leaders across 50 countries), and real-world coaching case studies, Bernadette makes a case that is both data-driven and deeply human: succession planning is not a talent shortage problem. It is a leadership preparation problem. And the cost of getting it wrong to the people, culture, and the bottom line is far greater than most organizations calculate until it's too late.

What You'll Learn

• Why 86% of leaders call succession planning urgent, yet fewer than 14% believe they do it well
• The three most common myths that keep leadership pipelines empty, including the one no one says in the boardroom but everyone feels
• Why "names on a list" is not the same as having a successor, and what a genuinely prepared successor actually requires
• Why the leaders who develop their successors most effectively are the ones who get promoted fastest
• How to assess your succession plan for equity and diversity and why it matters strategically, not just ethically
• Seven concrete, actionable strategies to build a leadership pipeline that is genuinely ready, starting this week

Key Timestamps

• [00:00] — Opening challenge: Who is ready to step up tomorrow?
• [01:00] — The data: What Deloitte and DDI tell us about succession planning
• [02:30] — Myth #1: Succession planning is an HR project
• [03:30] — Myth #2: We have successors, we have names on a list
• [04:00] — Myth #3: Succession is about the future; we have fires right now
• [05:30] — Challenge #1: Leaders don't want to develop their own replacement
• [08:30] — Challenge #2: High potentials are identified but not sponsored
• [10:00] — Challenge #3: The human and business cost of succession gaps
• [13:00] — Seven concrete strategies for proactive succession planning
• [21:00] — The case for proactive executive coaching (12–18 months before transition)
• [23:00] — Auditing your succession plan for equity
• [24:30] — Creating and reviewing a critical role map
• [25:30] — This week's challenge: One role, one name, one 90-day plan
• [28:00] — Episode recap and closing
• [29:00] — Leadership diagnostic calls: coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall

Resources & Links Mentioned

• 🔗 Leadership Diagnostic Call (complimentary, 45 minutes): coachmebernadette.com/discoverycall
• 🎧 Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/shedding-the-corporate-bitch/id1651682974
• 🎧 Spotify: 

Support the show