Why some firms are letting younger employees ‘shadow’ the C-suite — and winning

New perspectives, improved strategy, empowered colleagues… these are just some of the many benefits a shadow executive team could bring, say former shadows execs Sarah Jackman and Phil Knight. 

There’s a saying about being afraid of one’s own shadow, meaning to be frightened of things in a way that is neither reasonable, nor necessary. 

This idiom might well be applied to the excessive caution of some leadership teams, who make decisions within a tight circle and are afraid of other points of view that might expose weaknesses in their reasoning or lay bare a lack of diversity in their thought processes. 

For some businesses, however, embracing rather than fleeing from those shadowy unknowns is proving a force for positive change and is part of a growing trend of adopting ‘shadow executive teams’ – or boards – as a commercially advantageous and engaging tactic. 

Team players  

A shadow executive team is a group of often young(er), non-executive employees who are tasked with working on strategic initiatives, many if not all of which will be board-level issues. 

These shadow teams are designed to introduce a company’s leadership team to different perspectives and insights, thereby helping to drive strategy. As well as contributing to core business projects, shadow executives can also help to shift corporate culture by creating transparency in executive decision-making processes. 

The shadow executive format can also help prepare the next generation of leaders by cultivating leadership potential in talented individuals across the firm and introducing them to executive leadership thinking. 

For professional services businesses such as law firms, key areas of focus for shadow executive teams may include enhancing internal collaboration to improve client experience; redefining service delivery; and promoting wellbeing for a high-performance culture. These focus areas will likely evolve over time as fresh cohorts of shadow executive teams come through, and different types of organisations may have different priorities. 

What is essential, however, is that a shadow executive team is clear on its organisation’s strategy and fully aligned with it from the beginning of the process – even if its work ultimately contributes to tweaks to that strategy. 

Strategy for success 

Shadow executive team members can be selected in different ways – for example from nominations or applications, or a combination of both.  

Depending on what the business wants to achieve from its shadow executive, the pool of potential candidates may be senior colleagues or more junior employees who are keen to engage in open, honest, curious debate to drive the future of the business. Formal or informal interviews can be used to identify aptitude for the role. 

To ensure shadow executive teams can hit the ground running, it is often a good idea to provide an induction session where members are briefed by the executive leadership team and receive training (internal and/or external) on running effective meetings and how to influence the executive team.  

It can also be helpful to match individual shadow executive team members with a mentor from the executive leadership team to provide one-to-one support and advice. 

Engaged employees 

While the concept of shadow executives is still in its relative infancy, especially in traditionally hierarchical professions such as law, anecdotal evidence from early cohorts is encouraging. 

Shadow executive team members report feeling that their ambitions have been recognised by being selected for these programmes and a sense that they had contributed to key decisions and changes within their organisations, as well as getting to know new people across the business and enjoying their experience. 

Shadow teams tend to be more diverse than actual executive leadership teams, so a challenge for business will be to ensure future generations of real executive teams resemble these shadows. 

The danger of shadow executives is that if their ethos is not embedded in the business to some extent, they risk becoming lip service and breed cynicism among those the programme sought to engage. 

Happily, the signs are that shadow boards are working well among UK businesses, including in law, and employees feel empowered, engaged and involved – helping to future-proof firms and contribute to long-term business objectives. 

Sarah Jackman is a counsel in the People, Reward and Mobility team in Dentons’ Glasgow office; Philip Knight is a partner in the dispute resolution team in Dentons’ Edinburgh office. Both were members of Dentons’ inaugural Shadow Executive Team in 2024-2025.