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Evaluate a new CEO against a written mandate grounded in the firm’s actual starting point—not against a generic checklist or the mere visibility of new initiatives. First establish whether the board and partnership expect continuity, evolution, or corrective change; clarify the CEO’s authority; then assess strategic judgment, execution, governance, client confidence, partner alignment, talent, risk, and communication using documented evidence over time.
Start with the firm’s baseline and the CEO’s mandate
A new CEO rarely inherits a blank page. Spencer Stuart’s guidance on leadership succession in professional services recommends beginning with the firm’s strategy, then considering its organization, the CEO role, and the capabilities needed for that role. That sequence helps prevent a common evaluation error: judging the leader’s choices before establishing what the firm needed the leader to do.
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Before assessing performance, write down the firm’s strategic baseline and the outcomes expected from the transition. Include current priorities, constraints, and areas where the direction may need reconsideration. Where the strategy has not been reviewed recently, Spencer Stuart advises seeking input from the partnership rather than assuming the prior direction still has broad support.
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Highwire’s May 5, 2026, transition-communications framework distinguishes three possible contexts. They are useful prompts, not exhaustive categories or a validated test of CEO effectiveness:
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| Transition context | What the mandate should make clear |
|---|---|
| Continuity | Which strategic principles and commitments should remain in place, and what the new CEO is expected to improve without changing the direction. |
| Evolution | What is changing in the strategy, why the firm needs to change, and which parts of the existing direction remain relevant. |
| Corrective change | Which problems or risks require intervention, what the CEO is authorized to change, and how progress will be judged. |
The categories help make the standard of judgment explicit: a CEO who preserves a sound strategy may be doing the right job, while a CEO tasked with correcting a troubled course should be assessed on whether meaningful changes address the stated problems.
Define what the CEO can decide
Performance cannot be separated from authority. Record the CEO’s responsibilities, decision rights, reporting relationships, and relationship to the board, partnership, and other governance bodies. Clarify whether the role itself has changed—for example, whether the CEO now has a different remit or faces a different ownership or alliance structure. A leader should not be credited or blamed for decisions outside the role’s control.
For a firm with a geographic and service-line matrix, specify how strategic choices are expected to work across those units. The mandate should identify where the CEO can set firmwide direction, where local or practice leaders have discretion, and how disagreements or resource trade-offs are resolved. Spencer Stuart’s strategy-first, role-second approach is particularly useful here: define the work the firm needs done before deciding which personal qualities to reward.
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Test whether the strategy fits the firm’s conditions
Assess the reasoning behind the strategy, not the volume of announcements. Heidrick & Struggles identifies pressures that can reshape professional-services firms: matrix complexity, changing ownership and alliance arrangements, M&A, AI-enabled automation and productization, and regulatory, governance, ethical, and profitability demands. The relevant question is whether the CEO’s priorities and investments respond coherently to the firm’s particular exposure, capabilities, and strategic baseline.
- Market and operating model: Does the plan explain how the firm will compete across its service lines and geographies, and how its structure enables or impedes that direction?
- AI and service delivery: Does the CEO explain which services or workflows may change, what capabilities or investment are required, and how the firm will address quality, ethics, and client expectations? An AI announcement alone is not evidence that the strategy is sound.
- Ownership, alliances, and M&A: Do proposed changes fit the firm’s governance and operating realities, and is their strategic purpose clear?
- Regulation and economics: Does the plan account for applicable obligations and show how growth ambitions relate to sustainable profitability?
These questions should be answered against the firm’s mandate and circumstances. A strategy can be ambitious yet incoherent if its investments, operating choices, and stated priorities do not fit together.
Use a scorecard that connects claims to observable evidence
The following comparison axes synthesize practitioner guidance; they are not a scientifically validated or universal scorecard. For each one, record the mandate, the evidence observed, and what remains uncertain. Agree on review points appropriate to the firm’s decision cycles rather than imposing a universal timetable or threshold.
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| Evaluation axis | Evidence to document |
|---|---|
| Strategic coherence | Whether the direction follows from the firm’s baseline, market conditions, and transition mandate. |
| Execution and resource alignment | Whether people, investment, and operating choices support the declared priorities. |
| Leadership and governance | Whether the CEO aligns the top team and works constructively with the board, partnership, and governance structures. |
| Client and talent continuity | Whether client confidence and service continuity are managed, partners are aligned, and talent is retained and developed. |
| Risk, regulation, and ethics | Whether relevant regulatory, governance, and ethical obligations are reflected in strategic choices. |
| Communication | Whether internal and external stakeholders receive a clear account of what is changing and why. |
For each axis, distinguish an action from an outcome: announcing an initiative is an action; evidence that resources, operating decisions, and stakeholder understanding are aligned with it is more informative about execution. Record both progress and unresolved risks, and avoid treating a single result as proof of overall leadership effectiveness.
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Baker Tilly’s February 25, 2026, succession-planning guidance emphasizes that professional-services value is closely tied to client trust, partner expertise, reputation, and culture. Unlike a business where customer relationships are always held centrally, important client relationships may be closely connected to individual partners. A leadership transition can therefore affect continuity even when the firm’s formal strategy appears unchanged.
Examine whether the CEO maintains service continuity and client confidence while aligning partners and governance bodies. Also consider how leadership decisions affect ownership, compensation, voting rights, and retirement economics: these arrangements can influence whether partners support the direction and remain committed to the firm. Track talent development and retention alongside those relationship and governance effects; no single measure captures them all.
Combine structured assessment with observed leadership
Heidrick & Struggles describes executive assessment, psychometrics, and 360-degree feedback as possible tools for assessing leaders. They can add structured perspectives, but none should be treated as decisive on its own. Compare assessment findings with observable behavior and outcomes: whether the CEO aligns the organization, leads the top team, works effectively with the board, and represents the firm to external stakeholders. These responsibility areas are also identified on McKinsey’s CEO Excellence page.
When using feedback, state who was asked, what role they have in the firm, and what the instrument can and cannot establish. A collection of opinions is not equivalent to evidence of strategic execution; equally, a financial or operational result alone may not reveal how leadership decisions affected clients, partners, or the organization.
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Highwire recommends aligning internal and external transition communications with the context—continuity, evolution, or corrective change—and presenting the outgoing leader’s legacy alongside the incoming CEO’s mandate. Evaluate whether messages explain what is changing and why, and whether they remain consistent with subsequent decisions.
Best Value
“In professional services, reputation and relationships are the business. A CEO transition puts both in the spotlight simultaneously. Done right, it’s a chance to deepen trust with every audience that matters, and to show the market exactly who you are and where you’re headed.”
—Keri Toomey, EVP and Professional Services Sector Lead at Highwire
The statement is a communications perspective, not proof of a guaranteed transition outcome. Use it as a reminder to compare what the CEO tells stakeholders with the firm’s actual priorities and conduct.
Keep succession-planning statistics in their proper context
Deloitte US’s December 2023 Board Practices Quarterly describes survey respondents representing 102 public companies across varying sizes and industries. In that survey, candidate criteria were included in planned CEO succession plans by 34% of large-cap respondents and 56% of mid-cap respondents. The report also says nearly half of respondents reported candidate criteria and/or development and readiness plans, with differences by market capitalization.
These figures describe succession-plan contents in a general public-company survey; they are not professional-services-only findings and do not measure CEO performance. They can inform a discussion about whether a firm has defined leadership criteria, but they are not benchmarks for judging a new CEO’s effectiveness.
Use a firm-specific verdict, not a universal threshold
At each agreed review point, compare documented evidence with the written mandate and distinguish what the CEO directly controlled from wider market or organizational conditions. The cited practitioner frameworks support a structured, firm-specific evaluation, but they establish neither universal performance thresholds nor a causal formula for CEO effectiveness in professional-services firms. McKinsey’s CEO Excellence material offers optional further reading on CEO responsibilities, though it is not specific to this sector.
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