There are a number of reasons to bring in an interim manager (IM) but in many cases it’s done to urgently fill a vacated position. Although this need is genuine and the IM can provide value, there are also cases where you just have a body filling a time gap until a permanent hire or alternate solution can be found and you are maximising your opportunity to get value. There are a number of reasons for getting a good IM, that border brining in consultancy, but are worth considering and bring value beyond just temporarily filling a role: –
Assessing the IT Strategy for the function they are running
The IM hopefully brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with them. Using this they can assess the current strategy being followed with an aim to define what is needed to elevate the maturity levels. They can do this with no legacy baggage and develop a clear path to move it forward.
Assessing the team
Do the people in your teams have the skills and behaviours to mature the operation and deliver on the strategy. For many reasons and organization can become stuck and basically operate in a keep the lights on mode and anything resembling change falls into the too difficult bucket. Again, the IM can independently assess the team and their capability to deliver change and make recommendations accordingly.
Maturing the Operational Services
An IM has the unique position of being able to see the team at work and bring in the Key Information monitoring as well as Key Performance Indicators & Key Risk Indicators. This can then be used to get on the path to maturing operational services and embed continuous improvement as a practise with the team able to measure and see their own performance.
Maturing the Change Capability
Does the current team respond well to change and delivering projects that are their own projects as well as supporting others. Is the IT Operating Model working for the team and the business and where there are gap, what needs to be addressed to fix it for the long term. Depending on company size and maturity, you may not have a process for delivering change that recognises supply and demand needs and plans accordingly.
You IM should be able to assess how change is delivered and make recommendations for maturing the capability.
Finding the right Replacement
Rather than rush to fill an open head or replace a leaver, the Interim Manager can do the job for you but also look for the replacement. As the IM gets to grips with your company culture and identifies the skills needed for the role to be successful, they can turn this into the recruitment criteria and deliver a short list of potential replacements able to take things forward.
Elevating the Team Capability
An IM can help the whole team develop. Their experience should bring good human management skills and alongside other assessments highlighted here, can have direct conversations with team members to help them develop both in their roles for the company and their career. You should expect the IM to have a positive impact on team performance in terms of goal alignment and how they deliver value.
Coaching/Fractional Management
You may have a manager in place that has great behaviours and you believe that can be successful but they need coaching, mentoring or even help shaping what they have to do. A good IM can help with this and then slowly transition to fractional management working on a part time basis and then mentoring provided weekly or monthly. This gives your manager every chance or success and means that your cost for supporting the individual taper down and minimize.
Conclusion
If you need an interim manager, make sure you find one that can bring more to the table than just filling a time gap until a permanent solution is found. Depending on the time you bring them in for, they could identify positive changes and start their implementation in a way that can be continued after they exit.