Book excerpt: You've heard it before: 50% of all CEO succession attempts fail. Which means 50% must succeed! Learn from leaders who beat the odds in Your CEO Succession Playbook. For Boards and transitioning CEOs, consider this book your strategic companion from the start of the process right through to the hand-off, and discover how to address common concerns along the way. Learn why a CEO should start a conversation about succession planning early, even if they have no intention of leaving their role anytime soon. Stay above the fray by mitigating and managing power plays. And understand how to build a practical framework to help the departing CEO start a new life chapter that moves from success to significance. Your CEO Succession Playbook is a 6-phase game plan for each step in the CEO succession process, one that doesn't require you to work harder and faster, but rather more intentionally. With these strategies, you will build trust, avoid politics, and gain confidence in your leadership pipeline. Among dozens of tactics and a suite of tools, you will get: A practical strategy for introducing the topic of CEO succession to your Board without prematurely accelerating succession; A CEO success profile that you can use to benchmark candidates; A model for determining who has the potential to be the next CEO; Strategies for how to best develop future CEOs; Advice on how to minimize ego-plays and power struggles and avoid "survival of the fittest" politics; Communication samples and tips for each of the 6 key phases; Leadership insights that distinguish who you need to be as a leader to build trust; Self-coaching questions to help you do what's right for your business. Natalie Michael has worked in private practice developing executives for the last fifteen years. Whether as an executive coach, CEO forum chair or succession management consultant, her main goal is to help companies identify and develop executive potential. She has coached hundreds of executives, from Canada to Africa to New Zealand, with clients ranging from Fortune 100 companies to entrepreneurial start-ups. Before turning to coaching and consulting, Natalie led organizations that won accolades such as best-managed company, fastest-growing company and top employer. In her personal time, she loves quiet mornings on her mat and hitting the trails with her family. Brian Conlin is an executive coach, mentor, board member and business advisor who worked in employee-owned organizations for over thirty years. He personally went through a successful transition as the former CEO of Golder Associates, a professional services firm that grew during his leadership from a modest regional business to a global powerhouse with over nine thousand employees and $1.5 billion in annual revenue. During his career, Brian has coached and supported the development of dozens of leaders. Today he coaches executives from small start-ups through to large, complex firms. He enjoys engaging with executives who dream big, want to succeed and care for others. A family man with two grown boys and a granddaughter, he enjoys volunteering for worthy causes, cycling and playing golf. Advance praise for Your CEO Sucession Playbook: "The decision to name a new CEO is one of the most important a company can make. With this book in hand, though, you'll be ready. Every CEO and board member should read it, heed its lessons, and put its tools into action." Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive and To Sell Is Human