If Half of Senior Leaders Plan to Leave, Succession Is a Sourcing Problem
Gartner expects more than half of CxOs to be likely to leave their roles within two years. For employers, that is not a warning, it is a planning horizon.
Gartner's projection that more than half of CxOs are likely or extremely likely to leave their current roles within two years has been widely cited in 2026 search commentary. Read as a forecast it is dramatic. Read as a planning horizon it is simply operational.
If leadership turnover at that level is the base case, then a shortlist you can only assemble after a resignation is a shortlist arriving late. The organisations that handle senior departures well are the ones already holding current market maps for their critical roles.
Mapping is not recruiting. It is knowing, for each key function, who the credible external successors are, where they sit, what would move them, and which of them would decline. That knowledge takes months to build and minutes to use.
It also changes the economics of a search. A mandate that begins with research already done is faster, quieter and less likely to end in a compromise hire made under board pressure.
Confidential replacements are the clearest case. When an incumbent must not know a search is running, there is no posting, no advertising and no internal process, only quiet, direct, well-researched outreach.
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