This newsletter shares insights from executive coaching, successful organizations and impactful leadership. Every week, you will receive a new email that is jam-packed with leadership insights, strategies and actionable steps for senior leaders and aspiring ones. Thank you for being a part of my journey, and I look forward to sharing my most valuable content with you!

And almost no one is talking about it 📉

​Russell Reynolds Associates' 2025 Leadership Confidence Index — 732 CEOs, measured across leadership team readiness. The trend line is unmistakable
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CEO confidence in C-suite future readiness has fallen an average of 2.8 points EVERY year since its 2021 peak of 75.1, it now sits at 64.0
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An 11-point drop in only 4 years. In the room where the biggest capital allocation decisions get made
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🚨 The headline most CEOs will not admit at their next board meeting:
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Only 36% of CEOs report having a successful C-suite succession strategy, down from 45% in 2022

Confidence in leadership succession sits at 50.5 — one of the lowest-scoring dimensions in the entire index

79% of leaders say transformation is crucial to future survival. Yet only 44% of CEOs feel their organisation is actually successful at it
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54% of CEOs name technology as the 2nd most significant factor shaping organisational health. But only 40% believe their leadership team is prepared to address it
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So, CEOs see where the business needs to go, but they're losing faith that their team can get it there

And this is not a soft issue. It is a commercial one 💵
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CEOs with HIGH confidence in their C-suite teams are:

→ 2.8x more likely to consistently meet or exceed financial goals

→ 2.3x more likely to be ahead of competitors on innovation

Confidence in the team is not a feeling, it's a leading indicator of performance

One more thing: Confidence in sustainability dropped 3.6 points in a single year to 58.9 — the sharpest fall in the entire index. As if CEOs have quietly moved sustainability from "central to strategy" to "somewhere on the stack"

In my coaching conversations with CEOs, the pattern is this: they inherited or appointed a team for the problems of 2019-2021. They are now running the business of 2025-2026. The roles are the same. The scoreboard is not 📊
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❓ 3 questions I ask every CEO I work with:​
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1️⃣ Which 2 members of your ExCo would you rehire today, knowing what you know now?

2️⃣ Which role on your leadership team is built for the company you WERE, not the company you are becoming?
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3️⃣ Do you have a named successor for YOUR role — & has the board met them yet?

If you hesitate on any of these, the confidence index is describing YOU 🎯
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📣 Did you know that I have coached LTs in companies such as Nestlé, Unilever, CCLA Investment Management, ABB, & many others?

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But don't take my word for it. Take it from a recent CEO client of mine:
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💬 "The team coaching has really helped me to think through & understand context, leadership & people, materially better. The coaching has helped me to further mature in my relationship management, decision making & people leadership. Our work has been tremendously useful & I’m confident that it will continue to remain useful both for me & for my executive leadership team”

#LeadershipConfidence #CEOSuccession #MasteringExecutiveTransitions​
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About Navid Nazemian
​Ranked as the world’s #1 Executive Coach by CEO Today for the third year running, I partner with senior leaders to navigate complexity, accelerate performance, and lead through critical transitions. Over the past two decades, I’ve supported hundreds of executives in overcoming unproductive thinking and solving their most complex leadership challenges—helping their organizations build world-class cultures and create lasting value.
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If you’d like to reflect on a leadership challenge, an upcoming transition, or how I might support you, you’re very welcome to reply directly to this email.​
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​You can also:

1. ​Connect with me on LinkedIn for additional leadership insights
2. Explore my international best-selling book ‚Mastering Executive Transitions: The Definitive Guide‘ described by Dr. Marshall Goldsmith as “THE ultimate guide to executive transitions to help leaders achieve their highest potential”
3. Leave a review for my book here​

What's Next? More insights on leadership, transitions, and executive effectiveness are coming your way next week. I’d genuinely value your perspective—feel free to share your reflections by replying to this email. I read every response.

Navid

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