Don’t Wait for the Leadership Vacancy to Find the Next Leader

Associations depend on people who are willing to lead while already managing careers, businesses, families, and other responsibilities. Board members, committee chairs, task-force leaders, chapter officers, mentors, and volunteers contribute expertise and time that would be difficult for most associations to replace with staff alone.

Eventually, every one of those leaders moves on.

The predictable nature of that transition should make succession relatively easy to prepare for. Yet leadership development can become urgent only when a term is ending, a committee chair steps away, or an unexpected vacancy needs to be filled. At that point, the question becomes, Who can take this role?

A stronger leadership pipeline starts with a different question much earlier: Who are we preparing to lead next?

Succession Planning Is More Than Replacing a Name

It is easy to think about succession planning as filling positions. One board member rotates off, another moves into the seat. A committee chair completes a term, and someone else takes over.

But replacing a person does not necessarily replace what that person contributed.

Experienced volunteer leaders carry relationships, historical context, organizational knowledge, professional expertise, and an understanding of how decisions actually get made. Association Headquarters emphasizes this challenge in its guidance on volunteer leadership succession: organizations need deliberate transitions that preserve continuity and transfer knowledge rather than simply waiting until a position becomes vacant.

That makes succession a development issue as much as a governance issue. The association needs people who understand not only the responsibilities of the next role but enough of the organization’s context to perform that role effectively.

The work has to begin before the transition.

The Leadership Pipeline Starts With Engagement

Future association leaders rarely begin by walking into a boardroom.

They may start by attending an event, participating in a discussion, helping with a short-term project, joining a committee, mentoring another member, contributing expertise, or volunteering for an initiative that matters to them. Those smaller experiences give the member an opportunity to understand the association while giving the association an opportunity to understand the member.

That matters because volunteer engagement should not be treated merely as a source of free labor. It can also be one of the association’s most important leadership-development systems.

ASAE’s guidance on volunteer engagement emphasizes creating meaningful experiences, understanding what motivates volunteers, and helping people see the impact of their contributions. When members have worthwhile opportunities to participate, associations gain something beyond completion of the immediate task. They begin discovering who follows through, collaborates well, brings useful ideas, earns the trust of others, and wants to contribute more.

Leadership potential becomes visible through participation.

Walter Bond: Leaders Develop the Next Roster

Walter Bond teaches that strong leaders recruit, develop, and retain top talent. Associations have an unusual version of that responsibility because their Roster includes both paid staff and volunteers whose involvement may change significantly over time.

Development cannot begin only after someone receives a leadership title.

Current association leaders can coach emerging leaders by giving them meaningful responsibility, offering feedback, explaining the context behind decisions, introducing them to important relationships, and creating opportunities for them to stretch before the organization depends on them to perform at a higher level.

That also changes how leaders think about their own success.

A strong committee chair does more than run an effective committee. A strong board member contributes more than their own expertise. Part of their impact can be measured by whether other people become more capable because they worked alongside them.

The strongest leaders do not simply occupy a position well. They help prepare the Roster that comes next.

Not Every Volunteer Wants the Same Path

Building a leadership pipeline does not mean putting every engaged member on a path toward the board.

People volunteer for different reasons. Some want to expand their professional network. Others want to contribute expertise, develop skills, support their profession, gain visibility, build relationships, or work on an issue they care about. Some may eventually want formal leadership roles. Others may be highly valuable contributors without ever wanting one.

Associations need room for both.

A leadership pipeline becomes healthier when it offers different levels and types of participation rather than forcing everyone through the same ladder. A member might begin with a short-term project rather than a yearlong committee commitment. Another might lead a small initiative before considering a committee chair position. Someone else may contribute specialized expertise without wanting an ongoing governance role.

These experiences allow people to test leadership responsibility while the association develops a deeper understanding of their strengths and interests.

Today’s Volunteers Need Different On-Ramps

Traditional volunteer structures can require substantial commitments. Regular meetings, multiyear terms, travel, extensive committee work, and other responsibilities may fit some members extremely well.

They can also exclude capable people who want to contribute but cannot make that level of commitment yet.

ASAE has encouraged associations to pay attention to the volunteer experience itself, including how opportunities are structured and how clearly volunteers understand the value and impact of their work. That opens the door to more flexible participation: project-based assignments, micro-volunteering, task forces, mentoring, virtual opportunities, and clearly defined short-term commitments.

Flexibility is not simply a convenience. It can expand the pool of people the association gets to know.

Someone who cannot commit to a board role today may still become an important leader several years from now. If the only entry point requires a major commitment, the association may never build the relationship that allows that potential to emerge.

Staff and Volunteer Leaders Have to Work as Partners

Association leadership is also unusual because authority and execution are often shared between volunteer leaders and professional staff.

ASAE’s work on productive staff–volunteer relationships emphasizes the importance of role clarity, communication, mutual respect, and shared understanding. Those relationships can become particularly important when new volunteer leaders rotate into positions while staff members provide continuity across leadership terms.

A board member may bring industry expertise and strategic perspective. Staff may understand organizational history, operational realities, governance requirements, and why previous decisions were made. Neither perspective should automatically dominate the other.

When those roles are clear, they complement each other. When they are not, volunteer leaders may drift into operational decisions while staff are left guessing about strategic priorities—or staff may unintentionally prevent new leaders from contributing fresh thinking because “we tried that before.”

Preparing future leaders therefore includes teaching them how the association itself works.

Knowledge Transfer Should Be Part of the Playbook

Leadership transitions often reveal how much important knowledge was living inside one person’s head.

Why was a particular partnership created? Which stakeholder relationships need special attention? What was learned from the last attempt at an initiative? Why does a committee operate differently than the bylaws alone would suggest? Which conversations are already underway?

A title can transfer immediately. Context cannot.

Associations can reduce that loss by building knowledge transfer into the leadership Playbook. Outgoing and incoming leaders can overlap when practical. Important decisions and lessons can be documented. Experienced volunteers can mentor newer ones. Staff can help preserve organizational context while still allowing new leaders to question old assumptions.

The goal is not to teach the next leader to reproduce everything the previous leader did.

It is to give them enough understanding to make their own decisions without unnecessarily starting over.

Leadership Development Requires Real Responsibility

Associations can offer leadership programs, workshops, mentoring, and educational resources, but leadership ultimately develops through practice.

Someone has to lead the meeting. Make the recommendation. Navigate disagreement. Coordinate the project. Present to the board. Take responsibility when something does not work. Learn how to influence people they do not supervise.

Volunteer organizations can provide unusually valuable opportunities to develop those skills because much of association leadership depends on influence rather than formal authority.

That is also why emerging leaders need meaningful assignments rather than ceremonial roles. Giving someone a title without responsibility may look like development on an organizational chart, but it provides limited opportunity to actually become better at leading.

The objective should be increasing responsibility with appropriate support.

Stop Looking at the Same Small Circle

When a leadership opening appears, organizations naturally think first about people they already know well. Those individuals have established credibility, understand the association, and may have served successfully before.

Over time, however, repeatedly drawing from the same circle can narrow the leadership pipeline.

A deliberate development strategy encourages associations to look more broadly. Who is consistently contributing but has never been asked to lead? Which emerging professionals are showing initiative? Who brings expertise the current leadership team lacks? Which members have participated in smaller ways and may be ready for something more?

This is not about selecting inexperienced people simply because they are new. It is about creating enough opportunities to discover capability before the organization needs it.

You cannot develop leaders you never give a chance to lead.

The Next Leader Shouldn’t Be a Surprise

Leadership transitions will always create some uncertainty. Every person brings a different style, perspective, network, and set of priorities to the role.

But the existence of the next leader should not come as a surprise.

Associations can continuously identify potential, create meaningful volunteer opportunities, develop skills, transfer institutional knowledge, and expose emerging leaders to increasing levels of responsibility. By the time an important role becomes available, the organization should already know several people who have demonstrated that they may be ready.

That changes succession from a search into a progression.

Instead of asking who can fill an empty seat, the association can ask which of the people it has been developing is prepared for the next opportunity.

Build the Roster Before You Need It

Associations spend enormous energy serving today’s members and solving today’s problems. Leadership development can easily slide down the priority list because the vacancy it addresses may still be years away.

That is precisely why it deserves attention now.

The board member whose term ends three years from today creates an opportunity to develop someone for three years. The committee chair who eventually steps away can begin transferring knowledge now. The emerging professional who volunteers for a small project today may become one of the association’s strongest leaders a decade from now.

Associations cannot predict exactly who will lead them next.

They can make sure they are not beginning the search when the chair becomes empty.

The leadership pipeline is not built at succession. It is built in all the opportunities that come before it.