I’ve had many conversations lately about change management. Many professional service firms are struggling right now with the advancing age of their senior leadership, of their rainmakers, of their strategic plans.

This is the season of change. As the need for succession planning intensifies, and finally reaching a point of no return, much pain and difficulty can ensue.

The longer change is put off, the more difficult and painful it becomes.

It may be summer in our season, but we all recall that our trees will shed their leaves in the fall. The strong windstorm comes along and fills your yard with leaves, much like the many facets of change landing in the lap of the leadership.

The clean up is intensive, and often requires more effort than any one person enjoys.

If your organization is struggling with succession planning, consider this as the time to grow new leaves. The opportunity to develop leaders for the next generation of your organization, and begin investing accordingly. Offer leadership development to your Associates, include financial conversations in your ascension process.

And, if you haven’t developed an ascension program, please consider the value of creating a leadership pipeline.It’s the one way to guarantee the new leaves keep growing.