What is more important to the longevity or health of a credit union than cultivating the next level of CEO leadership? You would think every institution in our industry would have a long list of viable alternatives eager to claim the throne. Yet, unfortunately, an alarming number of credit unions are faced with a skills gap between the CEO and the ungroomed, ill-prepared top executives. Nearly half of all organizations have no viable internal candidate to permanently replace the CEO if required to do so immediately. In fact, we have even worked with institutions that hesitate to name interim CEOs during the transition process to avoid giving too much authority to an incapable C-suite executive.