Right now, CEO tenures are contracting rapidly.
The average tenure for outgoing CEOs in the first half of 2025 was 6.8 years, down from 7.7 years in the same period of 2024 according to Russell Reynolds data tracking leadership changes at over 1,800 leading public companies worldwide. This marks the lowest tenure level since the firm began collecting the data in 2018.
And while most large companies still select internal candidates, external appointments have been rising recently, signaling an increased appetite for transformation and a challenging market environment.
The So What
“CEOs today feel enormous pressure,” notes BCG managing director and senior partner Judith Wallenstein, who leads BCG’s CEO Advisory. “They have dramatically less time to show real, tangible value creation.”
The downward trend in CEO tenure reflects powerful pressures including:
- An increasingly unforgiving market environment, intensified by geopolitical uncertainty, shifting trade dynamics, and rapid technological disruption—especially from AI.
- Rising scrutiny of corporate performance and higher accountability for CEOs. In 2024 alone, 42% of CEO transitions in the S&P 500 happened at companies whose total shareholder return (TSR) was in the bottom quartile—up from 30% in 2017—according to a report from The Conference Board, ESGAUGE, Heidrick & Struggles, and Semler Brossy.
This shift in CEO cycles isn’t uniform, and there are significant regional and organizational exceptions. For example, in Asia-Pacific, where large family-owned businesses are prevalent, CEOs tend to stay longer. But globally, patience among boards has significantly dwindled.
The pressure felt by CEOs often cascades throughout the broader executive leadership team too.
CEOs typically overhaul most of their leadership team during their tenure. But reshaping these teams presents its own challenges. According to BCG 2025 research, fewer than half of executive team members typically change within the first 30 months of a new CEO’s arrival. That’s slower than many CEOs would prefer since leaders aim to strike a careful balance between driving necessary transformation and avoiding destabilizing turnover.
“Our research [a 2020 analysis of the tenures of 7,000 CEOs worldwide] finds that, among CEOs taking over underperforming companies in particular, those who were more aggressive about driving change in the executive ranks got better results,” says Wallenstein.
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Now What
This period of rapid leadership change creates significant opportunities—and responsibilities—for senior executives, boards, and human resources leaders.
Senior Executives. For executives aiming for any senior leadership role—including those with ambition to be CEO one day—there are three key areas to focus on. First, they need to be a talent magnet—a great developer of their people with the ability to spot and develop talent. Second, they must excel at stakeholder engagement, both internally and externally. Executives today are leading an increasingly polarized workforce and must manage public expectations around social and political stances. Boards look for leaders comfortable and credible in these environments. Third, they should adopt an enterprise-wide perspective, tackling initiatives that have impact beyond their specific business unit and contribute to broader organizational success. This requires continuous learning, curiosity, and genuine self-awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses.
Boards. Directors must sharpen their succession-planning skills in response to shorter CEO cycles. Gone are the days of managing just one CEO transition per board tenure; now multiple transitions are typical, demanding consistent preparation and strategic discipline. Boards should increasingly partner with current CEOs, people committee chairs, and HR leaders to routinely review potential succession candidates. Annual conversations about internal and external candidates, including assessments of readiness and development needs, are becoming essential. Succession planning should now be permanent, proactive, and strategic.
Human Resources Leadership. The chief human resources officer (CHRO) should actively drive talent strategy, focusing on developing future leaders, shaping the leadership pipeline, and identifying talent deeper within the organization. The CHRO or people committee chair, who are traditionally long-term oriented and apolitical, can also serve as a confidante and advisor to the CEO, helping them gain an unbiased view on executive team dynamics and the organization’s talent bench. They also have an important role in ensuring continuity and stability during leadership transitions.
For CEOs, directors, and HR leaders, the ability to perform their individual roles is critically important. But so too is their effectiveness at working together. “In an era of shorter tenures, a strong partnership between the CEO and both their board and HR leadership increases the probability that the company will succeed,” Wallenstein says.
