Ahead of leaving a role, an executive inventories the promises and favors accumulated along the way, settles some, bundles others, and hands the rest to a successor who agrees to take them on.
Borderline: whether this move is justified depends on the situation, and only the person in it can judge.
An example
Ninety days' notice was what a division president at a home goods retailer had left after accepting a chief executive role elsewhere. In the first week she wrote down every open commitment from six years in the job: a promised promotion for her head of merchandising, a budget concession owed to the stores division for absorbing a failed pilot, a side agreement with the e-commerce head on fulfillment costs, and a pledge to back the chief financial officer's candidate for a regional role. She delivered the promotion before leaving. She combined three smaller debts to the stores head into one visible favor, her support for his capital request at the next executive committee. She walked her successor through the remaining list line by line. The successor accepted two items and declined one, which she settled herself before her last day.
Why it works
Managing the debts deliberately makes an orderly exit look better: obligations get cleared when they count most, and a bundled favor buys more than scattered ones. It also makes the exit easier, because settlement, bundling, and transfer lower the executive's personal cost. Letting obligations come due at random looks worse, and costlier, since unpaid promises crystallize after the executive has lost the standing to honor them, lowering the value of the exit. The discipline depends on an accurate inventory, a successor willing to accept the transfers, and counterparties willing to accept the trade.
The thinking behind it
Robert B. Cialdini Reciprocity, from Cialdini's Influence (1984): people feel obliged to repay what others give them. An executive's accumulated favors and concessions are obligations running in both directions, and settling the ones owed before leaving keeps them from souring into grievances. Bundling several small debts into one visible favor settles them in a form the other party is sure to notice.
Jeffrey Pfeffer Resource dependence, from The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective (1978): whoever controls a critical resource gains power over those who depend on it, and people act to manage those dependencies. A departing executive's promises are dependencies that will outlast the executive's control. Inventorying them, and transferring only those a successor accepts, manages the dependence before the power behind the promises disappears.
When it fits
Any leader with a known departure date (a promotion, an exit, the sale of the business) whose tenure has run long enough to accumulate real obligations is the reader it fits. You need an accurate record of what is owed and to whom, enough remaining authority to settle the important debts before you go, and a successor or counterparty willing to take on what you cannot settle.
How to use it well
Start with the inventory. Write down every promise, favor, and concession you owe, and to whom. Most people keep a vague mental list and lose to those who keep a real one.
- Sort each item: settle it yourself, combine it with others into a single favor timed for when it counts, or transfer it.
- Settle the obligations that bind people to you personally, such as promises about their careers, before you go.
- Transfer only with consent: walk the successor through each item and let them accept or decline.
- Tell each counterparty what will happen to their debt and who now holds it.
Whatever the successor declines is still yours.
What it costs and where it backfires
Settling debts takes remaining authority and time you may want for other things. Some promises are personal and transfer badly, and a counterparty may take offense at being handed to someone else. A successor who feels loaded with your commitments starts with less trust in you. The clean version rests on disclosure and consent. Leaving obligations hidden for a successor to discover, or walking away from promises, is a default, and the people you owed will describe it that way.
When it is used on you
Before you take over from a departing executive, ask for the full list of open commitments, and confirm with each counterparty what was promised. Accept in writing the ones you are willing to honor, and decline the rest openly. A transfer works only if you accept it, so a debt you never agreed to stays with your predecessor.