Why hiring strategic interims will be key to an organization's success post-pandemic

We are thankfully beginning to emerge from the pandemic. How organizations have navigated this crisis, along with the key decisions they make in the coming months, will significantly affect their performance and profitability.

During times of crisis we gain amazing insights into the talents of leadership teams; this is when they are truly tested in their decision-making and ability to lead and inspire their teams. One of the most important decisions to be made is determining how this crisis has impacted their strategies, and how nimble they can be to pivot and navigate the challenges ahead.

I predict that there will be an increase in the number of strategic interims being hired during the recovery for a myriad of reasons. Organizations have hired traditional executive interims for decades as a solid hand on the tillers to steer them through a gap in leadership caused by a termination, illness or a resignation. Hiring strategic executive interims is second nature across Europe and is becoming better understood and leveraged in organizations across Canada.

A strategic executive interim is usually hired for 6-18 months to drive change and elevate the performance of a function, or to lead an enterprise wide project. The combination of specific skills and expertise the interim brings along with their objective assessment and insights means organizations can acquire the talents they specifically need on demand and with no exit cost. In Europe, most organizations have a core operational leadership group and augment this with 20% of leaders who are strategic interims looking to move the needle in key functions or to lead complex projects. This has given European companies a lot of flexibility when navigating change which seems to be a constant in today’s world.

In North America we have been slower to adapt to new resourcing strategies, but I have seen our business grow by over 300% in the last four years as more companies are beginning to understand and utilize executive strategic interims. This has been an interesting shift and has created new career opportunities, especially for the freedom 55 group. The financial crisis in 2008 led to the significant loss of senior roles across Canada as they were consolidated to global HQ’s in the US and Europe. For the most part, these roles have not been replaced and this talent pool—usually 50+ years old and with a wealth of expertise—have become the driving force in the growth of the executive strategic interim market. Their track record of success as interims over the last decade has convinced many first time clients of the value of hiring a strategic interim. In other articles I have written you will see examples of case studies and hints on how to approach transitioning from a traditional permanent career to be an executive interim.

There are many reasons why a client would hire an interim and I have listed a few below.

Post a termination or resignation to hold the fort during a permanent search process (4-6 months)

This is the traditional use of an interim and still very valuable to buy an organization some time to decide if they want to replace the role or reshape the team

To drive a project

Most projects are owned and managed off the side of an executive’s desk. I have not met any ELTs who have spare time and are sitting at their desk waiting for additional work. When there are new strategic priorities, they usually don’t have the time to turn their attention fully to it, or in most cases the expertise where they have specifically addressed that issue before so can quickly own the solution. Hiring a strategic interim who has experience navigating this problem before will enable an organization to put the right resources to the problem, solve it quicker and more effectively, and ensure they don’t burn out their teams.

Succession planning

Hiring an executive strategic interim to lead a function whilst coaching and inspiring an individual who is almost ready to step up into the role is usually a 6-12 months assignment. Managing succession planning is vital to any organization’s success. You should always promote internally where possible, but it is very dangerous to have a person acting up into a role. If they fail to land the senior position and must return to their previous role, they are unlikely to be good supporters of the new hire. The organization has said no to them and they now must be peers to people they were likely leading. Over 33% of people who were acting up and didn’t get selected leave within 6 months … hiring an interim will solve this problem and either support the person to help them get there, allowing the ELT to make a more informed decision before promoting them or provide good insights to the ELT and ensure the right person is hired and platformed for success

Instead of hiring a consulting firm or to elevate the performance of a function

When a new strategic direction is required, or a function is not performing traditionally, organizations hire a consulting firm to do an assessment. They spend $50,000 - $200,000 in the process and significantly disrupt their teams who are quite rightly defensive when a consulting firm is hired to assess them aka what they are doing wrong. The report then usually sits on a shelf as there is no one to implement it. There is a simpler, more impactful and cost-effective way to elevate the performance of a function… hire an Executive Strategic Interim. They will do an objective assessment whilst leading a function, creating far less disruption and gaining key insights in HOW to drive change. They will then own the solution and work with the ELT to make changes that are sustainable upon their exit, all for a fraction of the cost of the initial consulting firms work. The team will feel relaxed as they will trust this leader, knowing that their mandate is to coach and inspire the group and not provide a critique. Once clients have utilized this approach, I often hear “I wish we had done this sooner!” during our post-assignment reviews.

As you can see, there are lots of reasons why organizations will want to hire a strategic executive interim, especially post-pandemic when teams are stretched, and operational cost is king. Change is a constant and successful organizations will be nimble, cost-effective and innovative as they look to adapt to the needs of their customers. Hiring executive interims will be a key strategy in the coming months and years. If you have used this approach before, I congratulate you and I am sure I have been preaching to the choir in this article. If you have not utilized this approach before, please reach out to me as I would be happy to walk you through relevant case studies and other insights I have gained in my 27 year career.

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Another interesting point of view on this topic is explored by my colleague titled ‘The Coronavirus impact: Reinventing your business at warp speed’

https://youtu.be/K4-zwFq7rxY

I hope your family are all safe and well and wish you the best of luck navigating the rest of 2020