Stepping aside as a senior leader can so easily be misunderstood. To some, it looks like giving up. To others, it feels like failure. It can appear as though you have run out of answers or energy, or that you simply cannot keep pace anymore.
But, in reality, it’s something else entirely. At the top levels of leadership, transition is not weakness. It is succession. It is recognizing the end of one season and the beginning of another. It is making space for others to grow, while choosing to step into your own next chapter.
After nearly 20 years with Riggs Ambulance Service, I made the decision to step down as chief operating officer. Riggs has been my life’s work, my greatest joy and also my hardest fight. But my season there had reached its natural conclusion. And just as that realization settled in, LifeLine EMS threw me a lifeline. They invited me to step into their COO role, and with that invitation came not just a job, but a powerful reminder of what succession looks like when it is done with courage, kindness and selflessness.
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The journey
At Riggs, our organization faced seasons that would test any leader. With no CEO, CFO or CAO in place for over 24 months, much of the responsibility fell to me, and there were stretches when the hours seemed endless. Then, all at the same time, we negotiated a new RFP in one of our locations just as COVID swept in, bringing staffing shortages and hospital delays that reverberated through our system. Soon after, a LEMSA-mandated change to the system reduced our available response units, placing even more strain on an already stretched workforce.
Overlaying these operational challenges was a series of deeply personal and organizational traumas. We endured the unimaginable loss of one of our own leaders to murder in the very community we served, a call our crews had to answer themselves. Shortly after this without much notice our CEO retired, and we were not going to fully backfill this role. These moments shook us profoundly. They affected us as leaders, as colleagues, and as people, even as we carried the responsibility of guiding the organization forward.
When teams walk through experiences like these together, the bonds that form are extraordinary. We learn to depend on one another in ways that make it difficult to imagine carrying on without the people who stood beside us through the darkest hours. It feels almost impossible to continue without them, not because we are incapable, but because the thought of doing this work without them seems unthinkable.
What I have come to understand in my own transition is that this sense of dependency is really a reflection of how much we have grown to care for one another, how deeply we have learned each other’s strengths, and how unimaginable it feels to step forward separately after so much time spent together.
And still, even amid this pain and pressure, the work itself could not stop. Contracts still needed to be renegotiated. Systems had to be stabilized. Services had to be protected. At times, that meant writing nearly 600 pages of RFP responses almost entirely on my own, while simultaneously managing daily operations. It meant doing whatever was necessary to ensure our service endured for the people who counted on us.
There were moments when it nearly broke me. And yet, even in those darkest stretches, resilience revealed itself. One of those RFPs was awarded to us. The second scored within 30 points out of 1,500 against the largest for-profit EMS provider in the country, and came in ahead of another much larger provider than us. That was not about me, it was about a small nonprofit proving it could still stand tall against giants. It was about showing our employees and our community that persistence and commitment still matter.
The moment of knowing
In time, a quiet realization began to surface: too much of the responsibility rested with me. When that happens, growth slows for everyone, not only for the leader; but for the team as well.
My leadership team was capable and committed. Their hearts were for the mission, and their skills had been sharpened through years of challenge and resilience. Yet,l as long as I continued to carry so much, they had little space to step fully into their own leadership. I began to see that the best way to support them was not by holding on, but by letting go.
I also recognized that I was no longer in the right room. The board and county leadership were moving in directions that no longer aligned with the values that anchored me: kindness, collaboration and service to the greater good. Staying would have meant trying to fit into a space I had outgrown, and in doing so, keeping others from growing as well.
The lifeline
It was in this moment that Danielle Thomas reached for me. She was preparing to step away from her role as COO of LifeLine EMS. She could have clung to it, but instead she extended her hand. She chose succession, not competition. In doing so, she offered me a lifeline at the very moment I needed one.
By inviting me to step into her role, she ensured LifeLine would have a leader who cared as much as she did. She also gave me the chance to continue my own growth. One selfless act changed the trajectory of an organization of over 500 employees, my career and hers.
Saying yes lit something inside me that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. It was the same fire that burned when Riggs first hired me as an EMT. I picked up the phone, just as I had back then, to tell my dad the news. Two decades apart, once a young EMT, now a COO at LifeLine; both times I was glowing, lifted by the same spark of possibility.
The rescue boat
But succession is not only about where you go. It is just as much about what you leave behind.
At Riggs, I prepared a rescue boat:
- A strong leadership team.
- Systems rebuilt.
- Contracts renegotiated.
- Operations stabilized for upcoming seasons of the organization.
Even in transition, continuity remained the goal. Riggs is ready. My leaders are ready.
Succession, at its core, is selfless. It is intentional. It is the quiet work of making sure employees, communities and systems are not left adrift when one leader steps out.
Succession beyond the role
Through this process, I have also come to see that succession planning at the executive level does not end the day you leave the office. Sometimes, it means returning in a new role, one that looks different, but still serves the organization.
For me, that has meant offering myself back to Riggs in a different capacity, as a possible board member, where ultimate advisory and decision-making authority rests. That, too, is succession planning. It ensures that what I have carried at the COO level can continue to serve, without preventing others from stepping into their own leadership.
And that is, in many ways, the purpose of this writing, to encourage we mentor younger and newer leaders, to show them what it looks like to leave, to remind them that seasons do end, and to help them imagine what “after” can look like for senior leaders.
The leadership lesson
Succession planning at this level is not about filling a vacancy. It is about how you leave and how you prepare others.
Here is what I have learned:
- Recognize your season. Leadership has rhythms. Know when yours has shifted.
- Prepare the ground. Build teams and systems that can thrive without you.
- Step aside with grace. Passing the crown does not diminish you, it defines you.
- Support others’ growth. Make space for new leaders to rise, even if it scares them.
- Embrace your next chapter. Fear and uncertainty are not the end, they are the beginning.
Leadership has never been about the crown you wear. It has always been about how you pass it on.
Danielle’s selflessness, LifeLine’s trust, and my own willingness to release what had run its course all came together at the exact right moment. Succession does not mean quitting. When it is done with kindness and courage, it is the highest form of leadership.
For me, that means leaving Riggs Ambulance after nearly two decades, stepping into the role of COO at LifeLine EMS, and watching with pride as both organizations move forward.
Succession is not quitting. Succession is leadership.
