Step 2 : what vision does the incumbent leader have with regard to his new role ?
It is of decisive importance that the incumbent leader thinks carefully about the new role which he wants to play. The following questions can help in this process:

• What new role does the incumbent leader want to play in the family business?
  Research shows that most incumbent leaders do not want to simply disappear from the family business overnight. Most incumbent leaders will prefer to play a new role in the family business : chairman of the board of directors, member of the board of directors, advisor. The latter role occurs very often in practice.
• What are the rights, duties and limits entailed by this new role in the family business ? In order to avoid conflicts with the successor, it is advisable that these be precisely defined.
• What new activities will the incumbent leader develop outside of the family business? The possibilities are endless : travel, sports, at last devoting yourself to a hobby which you never had time for earlier, spending more time with the children and grandchildren, teaching, and so on. But the incumbent leader can also become active in ways that constitute an extension of his earlier entrepreneurship : accepting mandates as a director in other companies, being a director in a non-profit organisation, professionally initiating and supervising philanthropic projects.
• How does the life partner see the incumbent leader's new role and her/his own role in the future ?

Step 3 : what does the incumbent leader´s financial situation look like after the transfer ?
In most cases, the financial situation of the incumbent leader will change after the transfer. Compensation and other benefits deriving from the family business generally fall away. Good financial planning - in collaboration with the accountant, banker or financial planner - is important.

Step 4 : from "I" to "we"
This step requires a change in the thinking of the incumbent leader. In many cases, the incumbent leader will have been the person around whom the family business revolved for decades. One consequence of succession is generally that this will change.

Instead of being the pivot point, the incumbent leader becomes one part of the whole : chairman or member of the board of directors, advisor alongside the successor and his team, member of a family forum. The incumbent leader must realise that this development forms part of the change of role which takes place in the succession process. For many incumbent leaders, this requires a mental maturation process which does not always occur in a straightforward manner.

In this phase, it is important that the incumbent leaders:

• stick to the role which has been agreed;
• give room to the successor(s);
• respect the powers of the successors;
• respect the functioning of the governance bodies, which generally receive new power as a result of succession (usually the board of directors and the family forum).

In many family businesses, this step-by-step plan will be implemented more smoothly when it is guided by an independent third party, such as a specialist in family businesses.