The demand for interim leaders in the UK has experienced a surge of 151% over the past five years, with more people signing up to shorter term contracts.
But according to one leadership expert this shift in employment patterns can offer benefits to both employer and employee, particularly those who are looking for more flexibility in their career.
Drew Povey, an author and the founder of the Drew Povey Consultancy, also believes interim opportunities are now increasingly being driven by a need for rapid transformation in an organisation.
“15 to 18 percent of all incoming CEOs are now appointed on an interim basis, a staggering rise from 6 to 8 per cent in early 2024,” he said.
“Interim leadership used to be seen as plugging a gap but more recently it is becoming a deliberate leadership strategy.
“It combines the opportunity to ‘try before you buy’ which has been used for years with the loans system in professional football; hardly an inexperienced market place.
“While it is true that changes to employment laws and a more cautious economic environment may make businesses cautious, it’s also true that people’s working lives are changing.
“Organisations may need leadership for a specific period, or maybe for a project.
“And while talented people may increasingly value the flexibility rather than automatically wanting a traditional permanent role.
“We used to look down our noses at people who only held roles for a short period of time, assuming that perhaps they’d been fired or couldn’t stick. But more and more people are making the choice to work for a specific period of time on a project before taking a break and finding something new.
“For me, interim shouldn’t describe the ambition of quality of the leadership, only the initial length of time of the appointment.”
With this increasingly popular employment model, Drew has shared his top five tips for interim leaders who want to make an impact in a role.
- Know what you’ve been brought in to do
If you’re going into an interim role, you need absolute clarity on what they want you to achieve. Are you there to stabilise, grow the organisation or has something gone wrong which needs fixing? It’s hard to succeed if you don’t know what they think success looks like.
If you’re going into an interim job you need that clear direction so you can say, ‘this is what I’ve been brought in to do.’
- Understand the context
When you start a new interim role you need to quickly learn the sector, the organisation, the culture and the history of the business.
Make sure you know what cards you have to play, particularly around resources and finance. But it’s also important you don’t mistake speed for leadership. Moving quickly in the wrong direction isn’t going to help anyone. You need to understand a lot more about what you are leading than if you’re going into a permanent role with the luxury of time.
- It’s a sprint, not a marathon
People often talk about being able to ‘hit the ground running’ in interviews, but if this is a short term role, it’s something you need to be able to deliver on because interim leadership is more of a sprint than a marathon.
You don’t have that six months to come in, understand the role and establish yourself so you’ve got to identify the things that matter most and get yourself moving on the things that matter most. That’s where you’re going to make the most impact in the time that you have.
Interims need to become useful quickly, rather than simply looking busy quickly.
- Communicate with absolute clarity
An interim leader for me naturally creates uncertainty because they’re only there for a particular period of time. People will naturally wonder if they’ve got to accept your authority because you aren’t going to be around forever.
You’ve got to be very visible, and you’ve got to be very communicative particularly when it comes to telling people what you know and why you’ve been brought in.
It’s also vital to lay out what it is you expect from a team because you’ve got to work with people rather than simply saying, ‘go and do that.’
- Get some quick wins
Early wins create credibility and it creates momentum. Ideally, find these wins for three groups. Firstly, one which is good for you and provides the evidence and the confidence that you’re going to make an impact.
Secondly, a win for the team shows that you will be of benefit to them and is a real motivator. And thirdly, a win for the organisation and the hierarchy above you.
It’s evidence that your appointment delivering for everyone and even small wins can earn you the permission and trust to tackle the bigger, stickier problems.
