When a leader leaves an organisation the focus often comes on the paperwork like the updated organisational chart or new email signatures. But the most crucial part of any transition is not handing the position to someone else, rather it is the aftershock that is felt psychologically by everyone who is involved in the company which causes resistance for the new leader.
If organisations want the new leader to be accepted, everyone involved can benefit from planning how to deal with the complexity of detaching from how things were previously old and attaching to how new are going to be. There is a lot of power in the way certain things are done. For example: Many family businesses and its employees tend to be rigid about how their company works. Yet, in many workplaces a leadership change is treated as a simple exchange. So the responsibilities are similar but only the person doing them is going to change.
However, Zhao et al. (2026) has suggested that some rituals are necessary to reduce uncertainty and provide stability. Hence, they proposed a Dual-Pathway Model which says that for a transition to feel real the following two things should happen together:
- Building attachment to the new: This involves rituals like Welcome Ceremonies, where the new leader is publicly validated by others in the organisation.
- Allowing detachment from the old: This is often the forgotten step and rituals like Farewell Ceremonies or Closure Acts which mark a clear end give people the permission to let go of the previous era.
Moreover, there is the Mine factor of psychological ownership. The transition becomes even more challenging in family businesses as ownership is the feeling of the business being theirs and often it becomes a part of their identity.
Hence, leadership transitions can be deeply emotional as things are constantly changing. For example: The previous leader was CEO of a huge tech company or a father handing over his family business to the next generation. The problem would only arise if they are not willing to give up the psychological ownership of the role as it might make it difficult for the next leader to truly take over.
All in all, true success in a transition will come when an organisation will stop just introducing the new leader. Instead, it will come when people in the organisation help everyone in attaching to the new and detaching from the old. The cognitive and emotional liberation that will come from it is what might finally allow the business to begin its next chapter.
Food for thought: If leadership transitions require both letting go of the past and accepting the future, what happens in organisations where employees never truly detach from the previous leader?
References
- Brundin, E., McClatchey, I. S., & Melin, L. (2023). Leaving the family business: The dynamics of psychological ownership. Journal of Family Business Strategy, 14(2), 100555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jfbs.2023.100555
- Zhao, H. H., Wang, M., Yuan, Y., Ni, D., Zheng, X., & Lam, S. S. (2026). Detachment and Attachment: A Dual-Pathway model of leader succession rituals. Journal of Management. https://doi.org/10.1177/01492063261419057