Nearly 60% of CEOs plan to replace a senior leader within six months

“I don’t think it’s necessarily a referendum on those individuals,” Dhar said. “A helpful way to think about it for this finding is CEOs are saying, ‘Is the team that I have now appropriately skilled, ready to meet the needs that the company will have next?'”

Those needs are especially tied to AI transformation, she added.

A leadership shake-up isn’t necessarily a warning sign

Donald Hambrick, a professor of management at Pennsylvania State University’s Smeal College of Business, said the statistic isn’t unusual or alarming.

With senior leadership teams typically comprising six to 10 people, he said, replacing one member in any given six-month stretch would not be unusual. At the same time, geopolitical uncertainty, technological change and AI are putting pressure on companies and potentially prompting CEOs to question whether their teams are equipped to respond.

“The more centrally influential the position is for corporate health and prosperity, at least in the eyes of the CEO, the more that he or she is going to be under fire and a convenient scapegoat,” Hambrick said.