This booklet is intended to help board members make the right decision by taking them through the challenging, fascinating, frustrating, and sometimes painful but critically important steps of leadership change. It is a journey during which board members, the outgoing leader, and existing staff can be in dramatically different places, both intellectually and emotionally. This booklet sets forth the overall process, noting the board's particular role in each stage, and concludes by identifying some typical errors and how boards can avoid them. (p. 1-2)

CONTENTS
New concepts of leadership.

Key stages in leadership transition.

1. A decision to seek a change in leadership.
2. The design of a search and selection process.
3. An analysis of the strategic challenges facing the organization.
4. The translation of the strategic assessment into specific leadership needs and
    job qualifications.
5. A search for prospective candidates.
6. The screening and initial selection of finalists.
7. The interviewing and final selection of candidates.
8. A transition process.

The Board's role: avoiding mistakes.

1. Jumping too quickly to think of candidates and the search machinery without
    first capitalizing on the opportunity to revisit the strategic direction of the
    agency.
2. Failing to think about Board leadership and agency leadership together.
3. Jumping out too quickly from the search process itself.
4. Being unclear about appropriate roles for staff throughout the process.
5. Overvaluing the interview.
6. Accepting only written responses from references provided by the
    candidates.
7. Failing to use the final selection as an opportunity to look ahead to criteria
    for ongoing performance evaluation.
8. Pulling back too quickly during the transition.

Conclusion.
Suggested resources.
Appendix: the guiding questions to finding a new leader.
About the author.