It’s Humpday!

WEDNESDAY - September 2, 2026

HUMPDAY

Weekly Insight & Inspiration for Purposeful Leaders

THIS WEEK’S FOCUS

Passing the Baton

What Olympic relay teams understand about succession that some of the best leaders often miss

No relay team has ever won gold just because they were fast. They won because the baton never hit the ground.

The Race No One Runs Alone

My family and I are big sports fans. Watching sports together is one of our favorite ways to spend time together. Every four years, we are glued to the TV and the summer Olympics. We love the competition and skill of every event but the ones we love most are relays. We all yell and scream at the TV as if we were actually in the front row. One of the most exciting is the 4x100 track relay. It’s over in under 40 seconds, but the outcome is rarely decided by who the fastest individual runner is. It’s decided in the exchange zone. Those few strides where one runner has to trust that the baton will land cleanly in the next runner’s hand, at full speed, without the receiver looking back. Coaches spend months, even years, deciding not just who runs, but who runs where. Who will be the anchor? Who will be the opener? Who can be trusted to receive the baton at a dead sprint and not drop it? Nothing about that handoff is left to chance.

Unfortunately, leadership succession planning is rarely treated with that same intentionality. Too often a leader announces a resignation, a retirement or an unexpected departure, and the organization scrambles to try to figure out who’s actually ready for the next leg. Nationally, roughly half of nurse leaders say they intend to leave their current role within five years. That is not a distant planning problem. That is a baton about to be dropped in exchange zones all over healthcare unless someone is deliberately preparing for it.

Succession planning isn’t a task reserved for HR or the C-suite. It’s a responsibility that belongs to every leader, at every level, the moment they begin leading. The question isn’t whether you’ll hand off your role someday. You will. The question is whether the person you hand it to will be ready to run.

If You Are a Charge Nurse or Supervisor: Start the Handoff Early

You are closest to the talent. You see, shift after shift, who stays calm when the unit is slammed, who the team naturally turns to, who asks the kind of questions that show they’re already thinking beyond their own assignment. That’s your scouting report, and no one else in the organization has it.

Name it out loud. If you see leadership potential in a front-line team member, tell them specifically what you see as soon as you see it. Most people don’t self-identify as “leadership material”. They need someone to say it first.
Delegate real responsibility, not more busywork. Let them run huddle, take charge for a shift, precept a new hire or lead a small unit project. Small handoffs build muscle for bigger ones.
Coach in the moment. When they make the call themselves, whether it was right or wrong, debrief it with them. Real-time coaching is what turns a good bedside clinician into a leader who can hold a room.

If You Are a Manager or Director: Build the Bench, Not Just the Backup

At this level, succession planning stops being informal mentorship and starts being a responsibility you are accountable for. Having only one backup isn’t a plan, it’s a single point of failure with a different name.

Identify more than one name per role. For every key position on your team know who could step in tomorrow, who could step in with three to six months of development, and who could step in with one and two years of development.
Put them in the exchange zone, not just the practice track. Send them to the meeting you would normally attend. Let them present the outcomes to your boss. Let them own a project end to end, visibly, with your name nowhere in the credits.
Put development in writing. A verbal “you’re doing great” does not build a pipeline. a documented development plan with clear objectives, revisited and updated quarterly does.

If You Are a VP or Executive: Own the Pipeline, Not Just the Position

At the executive level, succession planning is no longer about one person’s replacement, it is about the health of the entire leadership pipeline reporting to you and ensuring the organization can absorb turnover at any level without losing momentum or quality of care.

Make succession a standing agenda item, not a crisis response. Review bench strength for every manager and director role regularly, the same way you review budget and quality metrics. You should not wait for a vacancy to justify the conversation.
Sponsor, don’t just mentor. Mentorship gives advice. Sponsorship spends your own credibility to open a door and put a rising leader’s name forward for a stretch assignment, a system level committee, or a search they wouldn’t have been considered for unless you suggested them for it.
Make the pipeline visible to the board and to the organization. A leadership bench that only you know about doesn’t protect the organization. A leadership bench the organization has seen through visible projects, presentations, and stretch roles is one it will trust when the time comes to promote from within.

Wherever You Are Right Now: Be Ready to Take the Baton

Succession planning isn’t only your leader’s job. It’s also yours regardless of your title. Readiness isn’t something that just appears the moment a role opens. It is built long before, in full view of the people who will eventually decide who will be standing there when the baton is ready to be passed.

Do the job before you have the title. Think, ask questions, and problem-solve at the level above your current role. Leaders notice this long before an opening exists.
Raise your hand for visibility, not just workload. Volunteer for the committee, the pilot project, the presentation. Volunteer for the things that put your name and your thinking in front of people who are not your direct supervisor.
Ask directly. “I’m interested in growing into a leadership role. What would you want to see from me so that I am considered?” Making your interest known and asking this question is often the only thing standing in between you and the role.
Stay ready even when the timing isn’t yours to control. The runner who is warmed up, watching the track, and already moving before the baton arrives is the one who receives it cleanly. The one who’s still tying their shoes gets left behind.

3 PRACTICES FOR PASSING THE BATON WELL

Name a successor before you need one. For every leader reading this, at every level: If you left tomorrow could you immediately say who is ready, who is close, and who needs to be developed. If not, this is your first step today.
Trade credit for readiness. Every time you hand off a visible task instead of doing it yourself, you’re not losing the spotlight, you’re testing and building the very runner your organization will need next.
Treat the exchange zone as sacred. The handoff - the actual transition of responsibility, relationships, and institutional knowledge deserves as much intentional preparation as the selection did. Don’t leave it to the last week.

A Final Thought

No one remembers which runner was fastest on a winning relay team. They remember the team that won. They won because every exchange was practiced, trusted, intentional and clean.

Your job as a leader was never just to run your leg well. It is to make sure the baton never hits the ground.

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This week, name one person you are actively preparing to take your baton or one exchange zone where you need to be more visibly ready to take the baton from someone else. Then take one concrete step towards it.

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I’d love to hear from you. Please reach out and share if you found this insight helpful, if you’d like to talk about it more, or if there’s a topic you’d like to see in a future Humpday. Stacie@LumisLeadership.com

~ Stacie

Previous Humpday’s can be found in the Newsletter Library at www.LumisLeadership.com

The “Humpday” was an e-mail originally created by a great leader and mentor - Marc Strode. He used the Humpday to bring insight and inspiration to his team every week. With his permission and at his request to Keep the Spirit - the Humpday lives on. Marc, thank you for being a leader worth following. Despite your love for camels, you truly are the GOAT!