Succession Planning that Measures What Really Matters

Neck Up gives boards both empirical data and observational insight to inform succession planning.

At Neck Up, we equip community banks to build leadership from the inside out. Our three proven curricula—MBTI® Personality Insights, TalentSmart® Emotional Intelligence, and The Leadership Challenge® by Kouzes and Posner—create a measurable framework for understanding how leaders think, connect, and act. By assessing, measuring, and training these dimensions, boards gain both the empirical data and human insight needed to make confident succession decisions. It’s a holistic approach that transforms succession planning from a compliance exercise into a culture-building strategy.

Understanding personality preferences helps boards see how potential successors make decisions, handle conflict, and communicate under pressure. This insight ensures leadership transitions pair not just skills with roles, but personalities with culture.

By measuring self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, and relationship management, EQ assessments reveal how well emerging leaders connect with others. These metrics give boards quantifiable proof of a candidate’s capacity to lead people—not just processes.

Grounded in five observable practices of exemplary leadership, this assessment identifies which behaviors future leaders already demonstrate and which need development. Boards gain a behavioral blueprint for coaching, promoting, and sustaining strong leadership at every level.

Why It Works

Designed for community banks — simple, scalable, and examiner-friendly.

Behaviorally grounded — integrates MBTI, EQ, and Kouzes & Posner’s research.

Actionable — Adds a needed human complement to the mathematics and compliance of banking leadership.

Board-aligned — supports FDIC/OCC expectations for management continuity.