GOVERNANCE WHAT AMERICAN POLITICS CAN LEARN ABOUT SUCCESSION PLANNING FROM AMERICAN CORPORATIONS

A POPULAR ADAGE about leaders says the most effective of them build self-sufficient organizations. If the conductor leaves, the orchestra plays on.

- LILA MACLELLAN

But let's be honest: That's not true for many of today's most influential leaders, in business or politics. Instead, as this year's run-up to the U.S. election has made plain, we often elevate leaders who believe they're irreplaceable. Without me, the entire enterprise disintegrates, these leaders seem to think. The music stops.

Now Americans are watching in real time the problems this can cause. Less than a month before the start of the Democratic National Convention, the 81-year-old sitting president, Joe Biden, has capitulated to demands from within his party that he stand down from his campaign for a second term and make way for a younger candidate. His decision has won praise, although some say, as Frank Bruni put it in the New York Times, that it came “weeks later than it should have, after too much secrecy, too much arrogance, too much denial.”

At the time of writing, the Democrats are scrambling to build a process for finding a new nominee. Biden endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris, and she is seen as the frontrunner after several powerful Democrats—but not all—quickly backed her.

The Democrats may still pull off a successful transition to a new candidate, but no one would say it has been a smooth process so far. And Biden’s critics say his administration has failed to give Harris opportunities to demonstrate her ability to lead (a complaint that could be made about previous administrations, too). Having an emergency line-of-succession plan is not the same as building up the party’s next presidential contender.