Shared governance and Professional governance are one of the most powerful structures in healthcare. It elevates clinical voices, strengthens decision‑making, and creates the conditions where excellence becomes the norm rather than the exception. It becomes an expectation and part of the culture in a thriving environment. Shared governance and Professional governance is a building ground for leaders in the organization, and effective governance builds leaders while improving outcomes that affect patient care, the workforce and the organization’s bottom line. If you’re new to professional governance, explore our guide explaining what professional governance is and why it serves as the foundation for nursing excellence.
Succession planning is not an administrative task, but instead is a relational, cultural commitment to developing leaders who will carry governance forward with confidence and clarity, and, potentially, one day become positional leaders in the organization. Succession planning in professional governance can be seen in two ways. First, succession planning of council leadership to sustain professional governance and ensure council commitment to effective governance structures. The second way is regarding council leadership as a succession planning tactic for positional leaders in the organization.
At Creative Health Care Management (CHCM), we see succession planning as inseparable from professional governance. When organizations intentionally cultivate future leaders, governance becomes sustainable, resilient, and deeply rooted in the culture of the organization, and the succession planning of new positional leaders is built with the organizations. This is often referred to as “growing your own leaders.”
Walk into any organization that has a strong professional governance structure in place and ask positional leaders to reveal how many of them have served on councils during their clinical nurse years. More than likely, you will see many hands go up, and hear many stories of how shared governance and professional governance provided growth in their professional development and career advancement. Usually, it is the turning point or springboard in their leadership journey.
This article explores how shared governance and professional governance and succession planning work together to create sustainable leadership pipelines rooted in relational leadership, mentoring, and cultures of excellence.
Why Succession Planning for Councils Matters More Than Ever
Healthcare organizations face increasing leadership turnover, workforce shortages, and retirements, making intentional succession planning more important than ever. Healthcare is in constant motion. Council leaders change roles, shift departments, or take on new opportunities. Without a plan for who steps in next, councils lose momentum, outcomes stall, and engagement declines.
Having a succession plan within the council is essential to sustaining momentum and ensuring continuity. Organizations should intentionally identify who will step into leadership when a chair’s term ends or an unexpected transition occurs. Will it be the co-chair, or another experienced council member who understands the council’s purpose, processes, and goals? By planning leadership transitions in advance, councils can maintain stability, preserve organizational knowledge, and continue making meaningful progress toward their objectives.
Succession planning protects against these disruptions by ensuring:
- Leadership transitions are smooth and predictable
- Council work continues without interruption
- Knowledge, history, and expertise are transferred intentionally
- Emerging leaders feel supported and prepared
- Governance remains strong through organizational change
In short, succession planning is how we honor the work of today’s council leaders while preparing tomorrow’s leaders.
Succession Planning Is a Relational Leadership Practice
Traditional succession planning focuses on filling vacancies. CHCM’s relational leadership philosophy reframes it entirely: succession planning is about developing people, not replacing them.
This means:
- Leaders actively identify emerging talent
- Mentoring becomes a shared responsibility
- Leadership identity is nurtured over time
- Knowledge transfer is planned, not accidental
When succession planning is relational, leaders don’t just pass the baton, they prepare the next runner. Positional leaders mentoring council leadership leads to positional leadership succession planning. Because of this mentoring and coaching, council leadership exhibits the characteristics of positional leadership in the organization. A smooth transition takes place as council leadership moves into positional leadership roles.
Council leaders that have been mentored, have sat side by side with positional leaders to review patient outcomes, to review workforce outcomes, and to problem solve situations through the governance environment. They have learned the importance of leading a team, managing conflict, and working through decision making on a smaller scale.
Six Leadership Behaviors That Strengthen and Sustain Professional Governance Through Succession Planning
Strong shared governance and professional governance requires positional leaders who model behaviors that build confidence, clarity, and connection. The most effective leaders:
1. Spot Emerging Leaders Early
They notice curiosity, initiative, and engagement — and invite those individuals into leadership opportunities long before a role opens. Council leadership is a great way to enhance leadership skills before they have opportunities to move into positional leaders.
Champions are another great way to build emerging leaders. There often are opportunities to have Nursing Sensitive Indicator Champions, Engagement Champions, or Journey to Excellence Champions, all can build leadership skills and enable clinical staff to exhibit leadership skills.
2. Make Mentoring a Daily Practice
Mentoring is not an event; it’s a relationship. Leaders coach, encourage, and guide future chairs through real governance work. The backdrop of leading councils provides an amazing venue for council leaders to practice leadership skills and enhance leadership competencies.
Think about the competencies needed to run a meeting, create an agenda, pull together speakers, and identify patient outcome data to review. Not only are these council leaders focusing on the skills needed for an effective council meeting, but they are also learning what is important to the organization through patient care improvements, financial improvements and changes in their work environment that make it safer and healthier.
3. Provide Clear Leadership Pathways
People step into leadership when they understand what the role requires and how they will be supported. Develop pathways through one-on-one conversations, during performance appraisal goals, and strategies that show emerging leaders the way to leadership opportunities. Professional development goals and career mapping are great ways to provide clear leadership pathways. Ask the questions about where they want to go and map the way to get there.
Professional portfolios are a great way to keep track of the activities that have been completed toward leadership or professional development goals. Think about ways to track succession planning activities for those pathways.
4. Use Shared Leadership Models
Examples of shared leadership include team leaders, excellence champions, charge nurses, council chairs and co-chairs, rotating facilitation, and distributed responsibilities. Together, these approaches reduce burnout, develop leadership capacity, and build a strong pipeline of future leaders. In a shared leadership model, positional leaders can meet with informal leaders to share insight and provide opportunities to develop emerging leaders.
5. Ensure Intentional Knowledge Transfer
Outgoing leaders document processes, share lessons learned, and co-lead with incoming leaders to ensure continuity. Orientation and transition into the various levels of leadership is necessary to ensure confidence and competence in each emerging leader role. Make sure to have orientation processes that are updated on a regular basis to reflect changes in the organization and in patient processes.
6. Celebrate Transitions
Leadership changes should be visible, meaningful, and celebrated, reinforcing that positional and governance leadership is valued and supported. Celebrations are sometimes an oversight in organizations. Remember, every celebration does not have to be a grandiose event. It can be an in-the-moment recognition of someone at change of shift, or an announcement through a newsletter or bulletin board.
Celebrate these transitions and highlight the hard work that made these transitions possible… the great work as a council leader, the persistence of champion work, or the dedication to improving an outcome, the innovative project or initiative, or making a change on the unit that improved the work environment.
Governance Maturity and Succession Planning Go Hand in Hand
As councils mature, succession planning becomes more natural:
- Early-stage councils need structure and clarity
- Developing councils need coaching and confidence-building
- Mature councils need autonomy and shared accountability
Succession planning is both a sign of maturity and a driver of it. Governance structures need strong structures in place to address the stages of maturity. Who is taking over if something happens? Who is next in line? Where is that in our bylaws? How do you ensure the next council leader is prepared to carry on the work?
Common Succession Planning Challenges in Professional Governance
Even strong organizations face challenges. Common issues can be addressed with intentional strategies and consistent follow-through:
| Issue | Behavior | Solution |
| Council Leadership Turnover | Competing or changing personal/ professional lead to unexpected chair or co-chair transitions, disrupting council momentum and outcomes. | Have a clear succession plan identifying who steps in when turnover occurs; maintain a list of prepared successors and communicate transition expectations proactively. |
| Role Ambiguity | Leaders and council members often lack clarity about responsibilities due to insufficient orientation or transition-to-practice support. | Creates and implements a structured orientation for council leaders and members, including role expectations, processes, and tools for effective participation. |
| Over-Reliance on One Strong Chair | A common issue where the same person leads for years, often due to noncompliance with term limits or lack of leadership pipeline, causing stagnation and burnout. | Develop a plan for selecting new chairs, enforce term limits, and intentionally rotate leadership roles; build a leadership pipeline through mentoring and shared responsibilities. |
| Lack of Mentoring Structure | Chairs do not receive mentoring from positional leaders, previous chairs, or leaders of other councils, leaving them unsupported and isolated. | Make mentoring a scheduled, expected event; pair chairs with mentors; incorporate mentoring into governance operations and leadership development plans. |
| Fear of Mentoring Structure | Clinicians hesitate to assume leadership roles due to new skills required, perceived challenges, or lack of confidence. | Prepare chairs through structured onboarding, chair education sessions, and scheduled support; provide coaching and gradual leadership exposure to build confidence. |
The solution is always the same: relational leadership, clarity, and intentional development. Have a plan in place, succession planning, orientation, and mentoring/coaching.
When leaders show up with presence, empathy, and consistency, governance becomes a place where people want to lead, not a place they fear stepping into.
The Bottom Line: Succession Planning Sustains Professional Governance, and Professional Governance Sustains Succession Planning
Professional governance and succession planning are inseparable. While governance strengthens shared decision-making today, it also develops the leaders who will sustain excellence tomorrow. Organizations that intentionally mentor council members, create leadership pathways, and invest in professional development build stronger governance structures while creating resilient leadership pipelines for the future.
Professional governance is only as strong as its ability to endure. Succession planning ensures that councils remain vibrant, effective, and aligned with organizational priorities, no matter who holds the chair role. When leaders nurture future leaders, governance transforms. It becomes a living culture of excellence that stretches across generations, and a rich, fertile field where new leaders discover their voice, grow their confidence, and shape the future of the organization
At Creative Health Care Management, we partner with healthcare organizations to strengthen professional governance through consulting, leadership development, mentoring strategies, and organizational transformation. Together, we help organizations create cultures where future leaders are developed intentionally, not accidentally.
Ready to Build a Stronger Leadership Pipeline?
Professional governance is more than a governance model; it’s one of the most effective ways to develop future nurse leaders and sustain organizational excellence. Creative Health Care Management helps healthcare organizations strengthen professional governance through multiple solutions including consulting, leadership development, governance education, mentoring strategies, and Nursing Excellence solutions. Whether you’re building a new governance structure or strengthening succession planning within an established program, our team can help.
Contact us today to learn more about shared governance and/ or professional governance.
Frequently Asked Questions
Professional governance develops future leaders by providing opportunities to lead councils, facilitate decision-making, mentor peers, and participate in strategic initiatives. These experiences prepare clinicians for future leadership roles.
Succession planning ensures councils continue to function effectively during leadership transitions while preserving organizational knowledge, maintaining engagement, and strengthening long-term governance success.
Nurses participating in professional governance often strengthen communication, collaboration, conflict resolution, strategic thinking, meeting facilitation, quality improvement, and shared decision-making skills.
Mentoring is a foundational component of succession planning. Through coaching, knowledge sharing, and leadership development, experienced leaders prepare emerging nurse leaders to confidently assume future governance and organizational leadership roles.
Creative Health Care Management partners with healthcare organizations to strengthen professional governance, leadership development, mentoring, and succession planning through consulting, education, facilitation, and proven relational leadership strategies.
Marky has expertise in aligning people and processes, identifying emerging issues, and assessing the effectiveness of organizational interventions. The result: enduring measurable improvement. Marky uses her deep health care experience along with evidence-based practices to co-create a customized improvement plan with clients.
