What role do you want this business to play in your life, and what role do you want to play in the business?
You may want to remain CEO with fewer recurring approvals, retain a specific customer or product role, or hand company leadership to someone else. Each choice has consequences for your week, income and responsibility.
In Module 9, you bring the earlier work together around the role you want to have. Your goals establish the destination. The financial plan tests affordability. Strategy defines what the company needs. Leadership and compensation support the people who will carry it.
Prepare yourself and the company together
The company may be ready for a change before you know what you want to do next. You may feel ready before the leadership or financial support is in place. A useful plan works on both.
| Milestone | The question | What completion establishes |
|---|---|---|
| M25 · Role Transition | What work and life am I moving toward? | An agreed role-transition plan in use, with personal preparation and company readiness conditions. |
| M26 · Capital Allocator | How do my ownership goals guide the company’s resources? | Ownership direction, CEO accountability and a supported capital decision made and followed up. |
| M27 · Succession | Has someone else actually taken responsibility for leading the company? | An effective CEO handoff, honored owner boundaries, completed review and rehearsed emergency continuity. |
You can complete M25 and M26 while remaining CEO. M27 describes a handoff that has happened. Choosing to remain CEO is legitimate; record succession at its actual stage.
Use three working plans for three different decisions
The Role Transition Plan connects your future week, responsibilities and next agreed step across three pages. The Capital Allocation Plan connects ownership direction, the CEO arrangement, a specific choice and follow-up across three pages. The Succession Plan covers selection, handoff, actual review and emergency continuity across four pages.
Use existing records when they answer the same questions. Keep the role and succession work with Your Leadership Team / CEO company plan, the capital plan in The Numbers, and dated decisions in The Rhythm. Your Owner’s Playbook connects them.
Begin with a change you can put into practice
For example, you might transfer preparation of the weekly delivery update to the COO while you remain CEO. Agree what the COO prepares, what they may decide and when you will review the result. Put your intended use of the recovered time on the calendar too.
That experience helps you see what support is missing and how you respond when someone else carries the work. A larger handoff can follow when the evidence supports it. There is no required eighteen-month timetable or emotional-readiness score.
Keep your choices connected to current evidence
Handing over management does not require selling your shares. Selling shares does not necessarily end your employment. Emergency continuity prepares for unexpected absence. Keep the three decisions distinct.
Monthly reviews examine current work. Quarterly reviews reconsider priorities and larger trade-offs. Annual planning reconnects your role with staffing, compensation and funding. A significant leadership or personal change can require an earlier review.
The purpose is to understand and prepare for choices that fit your goals. A completed plan cannot guarantee a buyer, a particular valuation or every possible ownership option.
Choose your next step
Review the wider system. Use the Ownership Assessment to connect this work with your goals, financial foundation and leadership readiness. Choose the next useful capability from the evidence.
Build the connected plan with support. The 90-Day Boardroom Blueprint brings ownership direction, the financial foundation and decisions into a first usable Playbook. You can explore support directly; a future CEO handoff follows your circumstances and readiness.
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