A law firm’s Managing Partner is sitting across the table from me and he’s at a crossroads. He knows he can’t live forever. It’s time to have the challenging conversation about the next phase of the firm and its leadership. I know it. He knows it. So what does he say? “I know, I know. I have to think about this succession planning stuff. But look, I really don’t want to think about that right now. I don’t want to get into talking about who will take over as the leader of the

10,000 baby boomers will retire every day for each of the next 13 years according to estimates from the Social Security Administration and the Pew Research Center. That’s about 9 people per second, which means about 90 people retired in the time it took you to read this far. Yikes! Let’s think about the gravity of that alarming rate for a moment. Especially how it relates to aging baby boomers within your business. How many baby boomers do you have at the mid- or senior leade

9/11. The Titanic sinking. The fall of the Soviet Union. Did anyone see any of these events coming? Doubtful. That’s why these and others like them are referred to as “Black Swan” events. A Black Swan has three characteristics: It is unprecedented in human history It is a totally unexpected event Its impact on society is major Only well after the event occurs that in hindsight we hear people around us say, “Well, it was probably bound to happen.” That may or may not be true,