What happens after the six months?
The Second Chair™ program ends at month six with four things in place: a two-page personal playbook, a final recorded delivery set side by side with the week-two baseline, a facilitated handover session with both generations, and a one-page Handover Charter signed by parent and successor. After that, the charter guides what happens next. Any further support is discussed with the family at the end.
Six months is a fixed engagement with a clear end, not an open-ended relationship. What matters is that the successor and the family leave with what they need to carry on without a coach in the room.
Why end at six months at all?
Coaching that never ends can quietly become a dependency. The successor starts to prepare every important meeting with the coach, and the parent starts to rely on the coach’s view of how things are going. Neither is healthy for someone who is about to lead.
A fixed end has the opposite effect. It gives the six months a direction: the successor knows that by month six they must be able to prepare and lead the important rooms on their own. The final weeks are built around that: the playbook, the final recording and the handover session.
What does the successor leave with?
A personal playbook
Near the end of the program, the successor puts their own frameworks, phrases and pre-event routine on two pages. It is not a summary of the course. It is the short list of things that work for them, written in their words, to be used before the next board meeting, address or hard conversation.
Two pages is the point. A long document gets filed. A short one gets read in the car park before a meeting.
The final recorded delivery
The three scenarios from the week-two baseline are recorded again: a short address to the whole company, a board update with hostile questions, and a hard conversation with the parent or a senior executive. The new recording is placed side by side with the first, so the family can see the change rather than take it on trust.
The recording is also useful later. When the successor faces a new kind of pressure, they have a clear picture of what they sounded like at their best, and what they sounded like before.
A rehearsed handover
The last weekly session is preparation for the handover session: a final rehearsal of what the successor will say when both generations sit down together.
What happens in the handover session?
The six months close with one facilitated session of two and a half to three hours, with the successor, the parent and anyone the family chooses. It is held in person when possible, otherwise on video. The successor speaks first. Then the session works through which decisions move to the successor and when, how parent and successor disagree in front of others, how the parent steps back, and who announces the change to the company, the board and key partners, in what order.
It ends with the Handover Charter, written in the room and signed by both. What happens in the handover session describes each part.
Why does the charter matter after the program?
The charter is what carries the work forward. Coaching changes how the successor leads. The charter records what the family has agreed will change around them.
It sets out, on one page:
- What changes, and when. Which decisions move to the successor, with dates.
- What stays with the parent, and for how long.
- How they disagree. The rule for disagreeing in front of the team, the board and the family.
- The parent’s new role. Support without overriding.
- The announcement. Who tells whom, and in what order.
After the program, the charter is the reference point when something is unclear. If a manager goes to the parent about a decision that now belongs to the successor, the charter says what should happen. If a date arrives, the charter says what moves. A family can also agree in the charter when they will review it. The Handover Charter guide explains how to write one well.
What should the family do in the months after?
The program ends. The handover usually does not. The successor may still be a year or more from the full role. A few practical habits help the work hold:
- Keep to the charter’s dates. A date that slips once without explanation tends to slip again.
- Review it on a fixed occasion. At a family meeting or alongside a board cycle, rather than only when something goes wrong.
- Keep the disagreement rule. It is most tested in the first few months, when old habits return under pressure.
- Let the successor use the playbook. Before the next big event, the successor prepares with their own two pages, not with the parent.
- Watch the side channels. If senior people start going back to the parent, the parent’s response teaches everyone where decisions live. How founders undermine successors covers the habits that tend to return.
Is there support after the six months?
Second Chair™ is a six-month engagement. Any further support, if it would help, is discussed with the family at the end of the program, based on where the successor and the handover stand at that point. We do not set out options here, because the right answer depends on what the six months show.
Families should also keep in mind what was never part of the program. Questions about ownership, governance, tax, estate planning or family agreements belong with the family’s lawyers, accountants and advisors, before and after the six months.
What if the handover is not finished at month six?
That is normal. A charter can keep some decisions with the parent for another year, as long as it says so clearly and says when that will be reviewed. What undermines a successor is not a slower timeline. It is a timeline that nobody wrote down.
What a successful handover looks like at month six describes the signs a parent can look for at that point.
In short
- The program ends at month six with a personal playbook, a final recorded delivery set beside the baseline, a facilitated handover session and a signed Handover Charter.
- The fixed end has a purpose: the successor must be able to prepare and lead the important rooms on their own.
- After the program, the charter carries the work forward: its dates, its disagreement rule and the parent’s new role.
- Any further support is discussed with the family at the end, based on where things stand.
The full shape of the six months is set out on the method page.