What does a successful handover look like at month six?

At month six, a successful handover rarely means the title has moved. It means the room has started to move. The board engages with the successor’s recommendations, senior people bring problems to them first, some decisions have visibly changed hands, and parent and successor have agreed in writing what moves next and when. None of it is guaranteed, but all of it can be observed.

This is a useful distinction for a parent. Asking “is the handover done?” at six months usually produces the wrong answer. Asking “what has changed in the rooms that matter?” produces a more honest one.

Why is month six a checkpoint, not a finish line?

A successor preparing to lead is usually one to three years from the full role. Six months is long enough to change how they lead specific rooms, and long enough to agree the shape of the handover. It is not long enough to complete the handover itself, and it should not try to be.

So the question at month six is direction and evidence. Is the successor leading in the rooms that matter? Are other people treating them as someone who decides? And is there a clear, shared plan for what happens next?

Two related articles cover the neighbouring questions. What results to expect from successor coaching looks at how change in the successor is measured, including recordings. What happens in the handover session describes the session where the plan is agreed. This article is about what a parent can see in the company and the family.

What does it look like in the board?

The board asks the successor, not the parent. When a question concerns the successor’s area, directors address them directly and wait for the answer.
Recommendations are discussed on their merits. A proposal from the successor is debated, challenged and sometimes changed, rather than politely received and then checked with the parent afterwards.
Hard questions get short answers. The successor answers the difficult question in the room, without looking to the head of the table first.
The parent speaks less. Not because they have been asked to stay silent, but because the successor’s answer is enough.

What does it look like in the senior team?

The senior team is often the clearest signal, because their behaviour changes before anyone announces anything.

Problems arrive at the successor’s desk. Senior people bring issues to the successor first, not as a courtesy before going to the parent.
Decisions hold. When the successor decides something in a meeting, it is carried out, not quietly reopened through a side conversation with the founder.
Disagreement happens in the open. A long-serving executive who disagrees says so to the successor, in the meeting, instead of to the parent in the corridor.
The language changes. People start to say “we need to check with” and mean the successor.

None of this requires everyone to be enthusiastic. Some people will still have doubts. The sign is that they act on the successor’s decisions anyway.

What does it look like in the family?

The successor can say what they need. They can tell the parent, calmly and without sounding ungrateful, which decisions they need to own and what support would help.
Disagreements have a rule. Parent and successor know how they will disagree in front of the team, the board and the family, and the rule is being kept.
Siblings know where they stand. Roles and who decides what have been discussed openly, even if not every question is resolved.
Family conversations about the business are calmer. Not free of tension, but less likely to reopen decisions that were already made.

What does it look like for the parent?

This is the part parents tend to notice last, and it is often the most telling.

Fewer calls. Managers who used to call the parent about the successor’s area call the successor instead.
A different diary. Some meetings the parent used to attend now go ahead without them, and the decisions are still good.
Less correcting. The parent finds fewer reasons to add a comment after the successor has spoken.
A clear next role. The parent knows what they are stepping into, not just what they are stepping out of.

If the parent’s diary looks exactly as it did six months ago, the handover has probably not started yet, whatever the successor has learned. How a founder steps back without disappearing covers this side of it.

What should be written down by month six?

Good intentions fade. At month six, a successful handover usually has a few things in writing:

Which decisions move to the successor, and when. With dates, not “when they are ready”.
Which decisions stay with the parent, and for how long.
How they disagree in front of others.
The parent’s new role.
The announcement. Who tells the company, the board and key partners, in what order.

These are the sections of a Handover Charter. A charter that keeps some decisions with the parent for another year is still a success, as long as it says so clearly and says when it will be reviewed.

What are the warning signs?

A handover can look fine on the surface while not moving underneath. Watch for:

The successor presents, the parent decides. The successor speaks well in meetings, but every real decision still waits for the parent.
Side channels. Senior people still go to the parent after a meeting to check what the successor said.
No dates. Everyone agrees the successor will take over “soon”.
A silent family. Nobody has raised the hard questions about roles, fairness or the parent’s future, so they are waiting to come up later.

Seeing one of these at month six is not failure. It is information about where the next stage of work should go.

What can a parent not expect?

Some things are outside anyone’s control: whether a particular director comes round, how a long-serving executive reacts, what the market does. A good six months improves the odds in the rooms that matter. It does not guarantee the outcome, and Second Chair™ makes no such promise. What it does provide is evidence: the recorded comparison, the parent’s monthly briefings, and a signed charter that sets out the next steps.

How does Second Chair™ frame month six?

In Second Chair™, what success looks like at month six is agreed with the successor in week two and shared in summary with the parent, so the test is set at the start, not invented at the end. The six months close with a facilitated handover session, with the successor, the parent and anyone the family chooses, and a one-page Handover Charter signed by both.

In short

At month six a successful handover usually means the room has started to move, not that the title has.
Look for the board addressing the successor, senior people bringing problems to them first, decisions that hold and a parent whose diary has changed.
The essentials should be in writing: which decisions move and when, how parent and successor disagree, the parent’s new role and the announcement.
Warning signs are information, not failure, and no outcome is guaranteed.

How the six months build towards that point is set out on the method page.