Lai-Ling Su: When Leadership Changes—Supporting Teams Through the Uncertainty

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"We have a once in a generational or once in a lifetime type of opportunity to fundamentally work with these leaders to shift the workplace environments and the workplace dynamics in the way that we've been trying to craft in the world of product and agile for the last few decades." - Lai-Ling Su

Lai-Ling brings a systems-level challenge that has profound implications for Scrum Masters everywhere. Australia is on the brink of its largest intergenerational wealth transfer in history—$3.5 trillion over the next couple of decades—with 70% of private and family businesses planning to sell or succeed as part of this generational change.

This creates leadership vacuums as business leaders transition out and new ones step in. Some are family members stepping into roles without the full capability to lead; others are external CEOs facing resistance when they do things differently.

These transitions stall decisions, lose customer confidence, and fracture once tight-knit teams. Lai-Ling sees this as an unprecedented opportunity for Scrum Masters to support both outgoing and incoming leaders through succession planning, capability uplift, and protecting teams during the transition.

Teams need to be respected for what they've achieved, and Scrum Masters can serve as bridges—creating awareness about the team's strengths and facilitating dialogue between old and new leadership to ensure continuity.

Self-reflection Question: How might you proactively prepare your team to navigate an upcoming leadership transition, whether it's anticipated or unexpected?

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About Lai-Ling Su

Lai-Ling fixes the gap between operating model design and real-world delivery through her interim executive, consulting, capability building, and executive coaching work. She also equips product and transformation leaders with the capability everyone expects but no one teaches - how to navigate the people, politics, and performance expectations that come with their jobs.

You can link with Lai-Ling Su on LinkedIn.