I have discovered one of the best ways to help companies grow and overcome tricky situations. It is by using an interim leader; an experienced freelance leader, who works in an operational role within the organization for a period of time or part-time. This is quite different from being either an employee or a consultant, although it combines the best of both worlds. An interim leader is objective, like a consultant. She needs to provide external views, alternative paths, and novel solutions. Simultaneously, she needs to understand the company dynamics, culture, and employee commitment. Her coworkers generally consider her as one of their own. She is often presented like an employee externally and she has authority to make decisions. This assures her a strong buy-in.
Often an interim leader works as a Chief Financial Officer, Chief Strategy Officer, Chief Digital Officer, Chief Technology Officer or as a Program Manager for a demanding transformation program. I have myself done a interim Commercial Director, Executive Director and Relationship Management cases, but those are a bit more uncommon in the Nordics. Chief Growth Officers have become trendy, and the role is perfect for an interim leader as no company should have a full-time, permanent growth officer.
Interim leaders are often used to solve situations, that require excellent implementation in the organization or a coach for leaders and teams. A consultant can effectively support in creating a strategy, a sales process or an operating model. An interim leader will do that too and will stay onboard to assure it also gets implemented and adjusts when needed. Although the best consultants can offer this kind of a service as well, my experience is that the success rate is greater with interim management. Consultants hardly ever have experience in working inhouse and they are trained to work in different ways. Therefore, I believe that in order to succeed as an interim leader, you benefit for having experience both as a consultant and as an employed leader.
Another reason for the high level of success is that interim leaders are often “overqualified” for the job. You might not be able to hire them but can benefit for their expertise for a period of time. Surely various executive advisors can help as well, but instead of whispering great wisdom, an interim leader rolls up her sleeves and gets the job done with the same level of wisdom. An interim leader also understands to leave when the customer organization manages on their own. She does not have an interest or incentive to overstay her welcome, nor to take part in organizational games.
It is worth mentioning, that interim leaders are not suitable for certain tasks, which require a full arms-length approach like auditing, due diligence or assurance services. Sometimes it is also better to use an external professional to evaluate serious conflicts within an organization.
So why are interim leaders still quite rare? Well, they actually are used a lot in Central Europe and the US, they are just not extremely visible. Freelancers are common in creative industries and a long-term external project manager is not far from an interim leader either. I believe that we will see more interim roles as the nature of work has changed and is continuously changing.
Working as an interim leader is also extremely rewarding as you too get to experience the best of both worlds, with various customers and situations.
If you got interested or are looking for an interim leader for Strategy, Growth or Transformational roles, let’s talk!