Passing the Baton: Managing the Process of Chief Executive Officer Succession

Product Information

The idiom "pass the baton" signifies the transition of authority, duties, or roles from one entity to another, drawing its origins from relay racing. It is a versatile expression appropriate in diverse contexts.

Good baton passers are like “guides on the side, not sages on the stage.” They do all they can to facilitate successful hand-offs, but ultimately, they must let go to allow the next runners to find their own strides. Martha met with me and a friend weekly. We went through a series of small books about basic Christianity. Later she led a Bible study at my house which was attended by some of my neighbors. Some years later she asked me to lead a Bible study. She really took a risk trusting me to teach women who were older and much more spiritually mature than I was, but it proved to be an enormous time of growth for me.The phrase has been in use as “pass the torch” from at least the 1800s. It’s thought that this changed to “baton” with the sport evolving into the Olympic event of baton racing. It’s a way of saying that you’re passing on your legacy to someone else, like your son. The meaning of the expression. The phrase may refer to the action taken of passing the baton in a relay race. Essentially, you’re passing responsibility and accountability for the project or task onto someone else. And the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. (2 Timothy 2:2)

Teaching a group how to pass the relay baton can prove to be an exercise in slowing down as much as it is speeding up the changeover. To properly develop technique, young athletes need to be walked through the process.As important as it is for the previous generation to set the pace by living authentically, at a certain point, a handoff must be made in which the next generation receives the baton of faith and begins to run with it. That handoff isn't as easy as it looks. It isn't automatic. It's the result of thousands and thousands of practice runs. She went on to devote her entire life to the spiritual development of children, and continues to do so today, teaching Sunday school in her 70's. It all began with two women who didn't have children of their own, but who cared enough for their niece to pass their faith along to her, over the course of many summers, and as the result of many prayers. Following her presidential term, she ceremoniously passes the baton of the leadership position to the new leader. Dr. Myles Munroe, a Bahamian evangelist, ordained minister, and leadership consultant, had a dream just prior to his unexpected death in which he saw a person lying in their coffin clutching a baton. Munroe said about the dream, “I was thinking, the young person who’s supposed to lead next has to go to the casket, pry the baton out of the dead man’s hand just to take it to the next leg.” The meaning was people die holding a baton instead of passing it on.