Moving someone from the front line is one of the most expensive decisions a manager makes, and it's almost always made alone.
It's not just the position. It is the signal that the departure sends to the rest of the team, the history that that person built within the company, and many times a relationship of years. That is why the decision is postponed: it is talked in private, it is taken one more time, it is waited for one more quarter.
The decision to move an executive is rarely charged with criticism. It is, although it does not appear on any board.
Postponing it has a cost that does not appear in any report: the team knows before the board, and the lack of decision is read as a lack of judgment. Doubt erodes more than change.
Accompanying that decision is not pushing it. It is putting method and counterbalance: separating performance from affect, anticipating the effect on the rest of the line, and preparing both the exit and the entrance with the same care.
The one who decides should not decide alone. Less when the decision has a first and last name.