Inheritance is a double-edged sword. Honestly, most people think stepping into a high-level role after a successful leader is a "plug and play" situation, but it's actually a minefield. You aren't just taking an office. You're taking on a ghost. Continuing her predecessors work requires a specific kind of ego-suppression that most high-achievers simply don't have. It’s about balance.
The reality? Most successors fail because they either change everything too fast to "make their mark" or they change nothing and let the engine stall.
Take a look at the transition between Angela Ahrendts and Marco Gobbetti at Burberry, or more recently, how Jane Fraser has handled the massive overhaul at Citigroup after Michael Corbat. These aren't just names on a masthead. These are people trying to figure out how to keep a legacy alive without letting it become a museum exhibit. It's gritty work. It’s rarely glamorous.
The invisible pressure of continuing her predecessors work
Walking into a room where everyone is still loyal to the "old way" is exhausting. You see it in every industry. When a female CEO or director takes over, there’s an unspoken expectation that she will provide continuity, but also—paradoxically—fix every lingering issue the previous guy ignored. It’s a tightrope.
If she pivots too hard, she’s "disruptive" in a negative way. If she sticks to the script, she’s "unoriginal."
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The cultural inertia problem
Organizations have muscle memory. You can’t just tell a team of 500 people that the mission has shifted 5 degrees to the left and expect them to move instantly. They won't. They’ll nod in the meeting and then go back to their desks and do exactly what they did for the last decade. Continuing her predecessors work involves deconstructing that muscle memory without breaking the spirit of the team.
Leadership transitions are often studied by firms like McKinsey and Harvard Business Review. They consistently find that the "soft" factors—culture, trust, and historical context—are what sink a transition, not the "hard" factors like financial strategy. You can have the best spreadsheet in the world. It won't matter if the VPs are still texting the retired boss for advice.
Why the "first 100 days" mantra is mostly garbage
We’ve all heard the advice about the first 100 days. It's a cliché. It’s also often wrong.
Real continuity takes years. When we talk about continuing her predecessors work, we’re talking about the long game. Look at how Lisa Su saved AMD. She didn't just walk in and flip a switch. She spent years refining the roadmap laid out by those before her, while ruthlessly cutting the projects that didn't fit the new reality. She respected the engineering legacy but rejected the mediocrity.
- She listened to the engineers who had been sidelined.
- She doubled down on the "Zen" architecture that was already in the pipes.
- She stayed quiet until the products were actually ready to ship.
That’s how you handle a legacy. You don't scream about your "vision" on day one. You find the best parts of the existing work and you feed them. You find the rot and you cut it out, even if it was the predecessor’s favorite pet project.
Respecting the blueprint while changing the materials
Think of it like a renovation. The foundation is there. The walls are up. But maybe the plumbing is shot and the wiring is a fire hazard. A bad leader tears the whole house down because they want to say they "built it." A great leader realizes the foundation is solid and just upgrades the systems to handle modern electricity demands.
The psychological trap of "making your mark"
Ego is the enemy here. Seriously.
When a leader focuses too much on their own "legacy," they stop continuing her predecessors work and start performing for the board of directors. This is where things get messy. They launch a rebrand that nobody asked for. They restructure departments that were working fine. They use buzzwords like "synergy" and "transformation" to mask the fact that they don't actually understand the core business yet.
I've seen this happen in tech startups and non-profits alike. A founder leaves, the new person arrives, and suddenly the mission statement is five paragraphs long and means nothing.
Navigating the "Shadow"
Every predecessor leaves a shadow. If they were a "hero" leader, the shadow is huge. If they were a disaster, the shadow is dark and poisonous.
To succeed, you have to acknowledge the shadow. You can't ignore it. You have to say, "Hey, I know Steve did it this way, and Steve was a genius, but Steve isn't here anymore and the market changed." It sounds simple. It’s incredibly hard to do without sounding like you're insulting the person who hired half the people in the room.
Practical steps for genuine continuity
If you’re actually in the position of continuing her predecessors work, you need a tactical plan that isn't just "be nice to people."
- Audit the "Sacred Cows." Every company has them. These are the projects or processes that are kept alive purely because "the old boss loved them." List them. Figure out which ones still provide ROI. Kill the rest, but do it with a scalpel, not an axe.
- Interview the "Old Guard." Find the people who were there from the beginning. Don't ask them what they do; ask them what they worry about. They know where the bodies are buried. They know which clients are about to leave.
- Bridge the Language Gap. Every leader has a specific vocabulary. If your predecessor talked about "innovation," and you start talking about "iteration," you might mean the same thing, but the staff will think you’re changing the mission. Learn their language before you teach them yours.
- The "Three-Month Rule." Don't change a single major process for 90 days. Just watch. Observe how the work flows. You’ll find that some "inefficient" processes are actually vital social rituals that keep the team from quitting.
The nuance of the "Clean Break" vs. the "Smooth Pivot"
Sometimes, continuing her predecessors work actually means finishing the "cleanup" they started. Maybe the person before you did the hard work of layoffs and budget cuts, and your job is to be the "builder" who comes in after the storm.
This is what Satya Nadella did at Microsoft. Steve Ballmer had already started the pivot toward "Devices and Services," but it was clunky and aggressive. Nadella took that existing momentum and refined it into "Mobile First, Cloud First." He didn't abandon the work; he evolved it. He took the "work" of the predecessor and gave it a soul.
It’s about empathy for the past.
If you treat the previous era like a mistake, you alienate everyone who worked during it. You’re basically telling your employees they wasted years of their lives. Instead, frame the work as a "necessary stage" that has now reached its natural conclusion.
Avoiding the "Second-Guesser" trap
You will be compared. Constantly.
"Well, Susan wouldn't have done it this way."
"Under the previous administration, we always had Friday off."
You have to develop a thick skin. Continuing her predecessors work means you are the steward of the future, not a slave to the past. When you hear these comparisons, don't get defensive. Acknowledge it. "You're right, Susan did it differently. But we have a different set of challenges now."
Shift the conversation from people to problems.
Actionable insights for the long haul
If you want to rank as a leader who actually moved the needle, stop trying to be the hero of the story. Be the editor.
- Focus on the "Why," not the "How." If the predecessor’s goal was "customer satisfaction," keep that goal. Just change the tools you use to get there.
- Keep the winners. If a specific program is working, don't touch it. Even if it’s ugly. Even if you hate the name. If it makes money or keeps people happy, leave it alone.
- Communicate the "Thread." Explicitly show the team how your new initiatives are a direct evolution of what came before. "We are doing X because the work we did on Y was so successful."
Continuity is an act of translation. You are taking the goals of the past and translating them for a future that the predecessor couldn't see yet. It requires humility, a lot of listening, and the courage to stop being a "successor" and start being a leader.
The work doesn't stop just because the person does. It changes shape. It adapts. And if you do it right, the next person to take your seat will have a much easier time continuing her predecessors work because of the stability you built.