Picking a president is different than picking a CEO—but there are a few habits that political parties could learn from corporate America
CHIP SOMODEVILLA AND DREW HALLOWELL VIA GETTY IMAGES

Picking a president is different than picking a CEO—but there are a few habits that political parties could learn from corporate America

After weeks of calls to step aside and a nail-biting weekend, President Joe Biden announced that he would not be seeking reelection on Sunday. Instead, he asked that his supporters throw their power behind current Vice President Kamala Harris as the next Democratic candidate.?

We’re still weeks away from the Democratic National Convention, but messages of support for Harris are already pouring in from major party players. And many voters seemed to breathe a sigh of relief that they would be avoiding a November election with Biden, whose support fell off a cliff following his disastrous first debate.?

But it has been a bumpy ride so far. And as the political world heads into unprecedented waters, they might consider taking a moment to reflect on the succession practices and strategies of the business world.?

Many companies are always actively cultivating their next generation of leaders, and succession is an obsession for corporate boards, writes my colleague Lila MacLellan . Although there have been high-profile misses, and some boards at high-profile companies have made the mistake of giving too much weight to their incumbent CEO's choice for a successor,? the strength of a company’s culture is often judged by how seamlessly boards can appoint new leaders introduce the right amount of change or continuity, depending on what the moment requires.??

The Democrats have often fallen short on figuring which early-career politicians to champion, and how to pass the torch to the next generation. They should think carefully about how they’re connecting with young voters . And although Harris is currently racking up endorsements, the Biden administration could have done more to set her up for success as a presidential candidate.?

There’s also the issue of what exactly a president does after they stop being president. The afterlife of a CEO can range from keeping a board-chair role to fly-fishing in Montana. But the idea of crafting a “beautiful exit,” so common in the business world, is more rare in politics.?

“It’s hard for human beings to accept their own disintegration, so we go into all different kinds of defensive maneuvers,” says Dutch management theorist Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries. “Including clinging to power and to work.”?

Leadership Tip of the Week ??

Summer Fridays are mostly dead. With the rise of remote work, many bosses figured that working from home on Fridays was enough to keep employees happy, writes my colleague Emma Burleigh . But a few hours off at the end of the week is wildly popular among workers—and an easy way to drum up a bit of goodwill for disengaged employees.??

Leadership Next

Kendra Scott started her jewelry company with $500 in 2002 out of her house in Austin. Today it’s a billion-dollar jewelry brand with both mass-market and premium lines and hundreds of retail stores across the country.

On this week's episode of #LeadershipNext, Kendra Scott CEO Tom Nolan talks about the company's growth plans, his unlikely path to the CEO role, the process of taking over for a founder, and what being CEO of a female-dominant company has taught him about leadership.

Listen to the episode and subscribe to Leadership Next wherever you listen to podcasts, or read the full transcript here.

Those are our biggest leadership stories of the week.

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-Azure Gilman , Fortune’s Deputy Leadership Editor

John Morrison

Strategic Fundraiser | Mentor | Community Builder | Public Speaker | Marketer | Storyteller

3 个月

I think it's difficult for politicians to look into the future and nurture future talent when their primary concern at all times seems to be, "What must I do to get re-elected?" In the corporate world, if you perform, you generally are rewarded and stick around for a while. Employees are also provided support and other things to help them be successful. In politics, half the country dislikes you the minute you step into office. While a nice thought, comparing government to a corporation is like comparing apples to oranges.

Johnson Martins

Construction Specialist @ RCC Group LLC | Civil Engineering

3 个月

If this is the fact, then I assume, or let me say, I put it to the Corporate, as an act of democratic deprivation.

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Al Jones

SBA-funded SCORE volunteers chapter chair in Billings, serving the Eastern half of MT, Northern half of WY, and Western half of SD.

3 个月

Presidents aren't promoted from the senior or middle management team very often (John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, John Quincy Adams, Ulysses Grant, William Howard Taft, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhower (sorta) although that's a pretty decent track record) which violates corporate practice of moving up a marketing or finance VP or hiring the CEO of a smaller company for fresh blood (so Justin Trudeau, Obrador, Boris Johnson, Macron?)

Lutz Filor

System/SW Architect @ AMD | Hardware Design, Analog Semiconductors

3 个月

Corporate is preselecting the candidate and excluding everyone else from being considered- that fact?

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