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Leaving Well in the Workplace

What Queer Eye's finale teaches us about succession planning

Published 4 months ago • 1 min read

Netflix's Queer Eye just did something most nonprofits aren't so great at: they ended well. Their final season features five episodes—each concluding with a different cast member reflecting on their decade-long journey. They announced the ending six months in advance, which allowed them to leave from a position of strength instead of crisis response.

Most nonprofits treat leadership departures as emergencies to manage, but the Queer Eye crew treated their ending as part of their legacy to design. They gave everyone time to prepare, integrated reflection into the work itself and made space for honest, emotional goodbyes.

I just published an article breaking down the five elements nonprofits can learn from how they're handling this transition—from announcement timing to knowledge transfer to normalizing that all good things eventually end.

The way someone leaves shapes organizational culture for years to come.

Queer Eye gets this. Does your org?

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Leaving Well in the Workplace

Naomi Hattaway, Founder and President

Your Leaving Well guide to navigating workplace transitions 🧡 I normalize workplace transitions one organization + person at a time. Leaving Well is the art + practice of leaving in the workplace, with intention + joy.

Read more from Leaving Well in the Workplace

Katie didn't get to plan her departure. She died suddenly, mid-leadership, no warning. What her team did next, during my interim executive director time with them, wasn't in any succession plan I'd ever written. We put a giant sticky note on the wall and asked one question: what did you love about Katie's leadership? The answers repeated, and themes arose. We named the items that rose to the top: Katie's Way. We then asked the next leader to protect two of those pivotal and memorable...

about 21 hours ago • 1 min read

Nonprofit Founders: I love you and your incredible impact. I also need you to spend some serious time thinking about your departures, especially as it relates to any designs you have about joining the board when you leave. About half of the founders I work with want to join the board after they step down as ED/CEO. About 25% do (against my recommendation), and for the other 75%, the board says no. The "no" might mean there's a short-term, time-limited advisory option instead, or ... the...

6 days ago • 1 min read

Lately, we are nerding out over finding similarities and adjacent learning opportunities with existing frameworks, models, thought leadership, and more. Currently on our minds is the Dancing with Systems model from Donella Meadows, one of my very favorite systems thinkers. Would love to know what you think of this article, and our take on her model as meshed with our Leaving Well framework! Some of our favorite podcast episodes to share: We recently hired the Satiated Artists team to help us...

12 days ago • 2 min read