Succession Planning Must Confront the Silent Strain on Leadership
Mental health in leadership isn’t just a personal issue anymore. It has become a performance issue, a culture issue, and increasingly, a succession risk.
In UK real estate, there’s long been an expectation that resilience means silent endurance. But the data tells a different story. According to Deloitte, 70% of senior leaders have considered quitting for mental health reasons. Burnout is no longer confined to junior staff under pressure; it’s also at the very top.
We’re now seeing a long-overdue shift. Firms like British Land and Landsec have begun embedding wellbeing into their ESG strategies, openly acknowledging that leadership resilience is part of long-term value. JLL UK took things a step further as far back as 2023 by introducing executive coaching and board-level mental health champions after identifying burnout as a clear risk to performance. At Madison Lincoln, we speak daily with board members, CEOs, and future leaders across the built environment. And the message is clear: if succession planning doesn’t account for the mental health of today’s executives and the pressures awaiting tomorrow’s, then their long-term prospects will be affected.
Forward-thinking boards are starting to shift when they consider what their succession planning looks like and how mental wellbeing and health feature in that. It is important to prioritise sustainable leadership. A great successor isn’t just strategic and commercially sharp; they also know how to lead without burning out. Boards need to look beyond track records and ask: What support systems has this leader built? How do they recharge? What are their non-negotiables for well-being?
Executive coaching used to be a “nice to have”. Its importance was rarely understood; rather, it was seen as more of an HR tick box exercise in some cases. That has changed. Coaching, therapy, and peer networks are seen by forward-thinking real estate firms as essentials. And they need to be in place long before a leadership transition happens.
The best succession transitions happen when outgoing and incoming leaders can speak candidly, not just about P&L, but about personal pressure points. If you’re not creating space for that conversation, you’re setting the next leader up to repeat the same cycle. The old archetype of tireless, always-on leadership is outdated. Real strength is setting boundaries, delegating wisely, and knowing when to ask for support. Succession planning must evolve to reflect that reality.
As the real estate sector continues to change, economically, structurally, and culturally, the demand on leadership will only intensify. If the next generation of executives is going to thrive, not just survive, we have to start designing succession pipelines that protect the person, not just the position.
Those already considering this know that the future of their business depends on it.