The engagement of interim senior leaders represents a unique challenge to corporate self-protectionism.
While organisations recognise the need for transformational change, their protective instincts often create barriers that prevent them from fully leveraging the expertise and experience that interim leaders bring to the table.
David Hazeldine provides crucial insight into how to maximise your ROI and create lasting transformation impact when engaging with interim professionals.
The Interim Leadership Paradox
Organisations typically engage interim leaders and managers for their expertise in driving transformation, yet simultaneously establish barriers that limit these leaders’ effectiveness.
“The most successful interim engagements occur when organisations recognise that temporary leadership doesn’t mean temporary commitment to change.”
This creates a fundamental paradox: companies invest in high-calibre interim talent but often fail to create the conditions necessary to maximise success. Some of the common protective mechanisms include:
Organisational Resistance
1. Information Gatekeeping
- Restricted access to sensitive data and key stakeholders
- Limited visibility into historical decision-making processes
- Selective sharing of organisational challenges and politics
2. Authority Constraints
- Unclear decision-making parameters
- Limited mandate despite senior position
- Ambiguous reporting structures
3. Cultural Barriers
- “Not invented here” syndrome
- Resistance to external perspectives
- Protection of departmental territories
Potential Impact of Organisational Protection
Organisations don’t always understand the potential short-term and long-term impact of the true cost of protection:
Immediate Impact
- Delayed project initiation
- Reduced effectiveness of transformation initiatives
- Missed opportunities for quick wins
- Higher costs due to extended timelines
Long-term Consequences
- Incomplete knowledge transfer
- Superficial rather than fundamental change
- Reduced return on interim investment
- Perpetuation of organisational problems
How to Maximise the Value of Interim leadership and engagement
Pre-Engagement Phase
1. Clear Mandate Definition
- Explicit scope of authority
- Defined decision-making parameters
- Clear success metrics
- Agreed transformation boundaries
2. Stakeholder Alignment
- Executive sponsor commitment
- Key stakeholder buy-in
- Clear communication of interim leader’s role
- Established escalation paths
During the Engagement Phase
1. Enabling Environment
- Immediate access to required resources
- Direct communication channels to key decision-makers
- Regular executive sponsor engagement
- Removal of organisational roadblocks
2. Knowledge Integration/Transfer
- Structured knowledge capture process
- Regular sharing of insights and findings
- Documentation of transformation approach
- Skills transfer to permanent team members
For a lot of organisations, the need to engage Interims is a rare event (and often occurs when there is a burning platform and/or a certain amount of chaos), so it is useful to identify some best practices to help maximise the impact and ROI.
Maximising Your ROI
Cultural Preparation
- Acknowledge the need for an external perspective
- Communicate the value of interim expertise
- Create psychological safety for change
- Foster an environment of learning and adaptation
Structural Support
- Establish clear governance frameworks
- Define explicit decision rights
- Create rapid escalation paths
- Enable direct access to key resources
Success Metrics
- Define clear transformation objectives
- Establish measurable milestones
- Create feedback mechanisms
- Monitor progress against goals/Statement of Work
Recommendations on Driving Maximum Impact
For Organisations
– Start with clear problem definition
– Ensure executive sponsorship is active, not passive
– Remove organisational barriers proactively
– Create mechanisms for knowledge retention
For Interim Leaders
– Establish clear boundaries and expectations early
– Build relationships at all organisational levels
– Document insights and recommendations systematically
– Focus on knowledge transfer throughout the engagement
For Stakeholders
– Embrace an external perspective
– Support the transformation mandate
– Participate actively in change initiatives
– Contribute to knowledge retention
Enable Transformation, Don’t Obstruct it
The successful engagement of interim leaders requires organisations to consciously lower their protective barriers while maintaining appropriate governance.
The key lies not in eliminating all protective mechanisms but in calibrating them to enable rather than obstruct transformation.
The most successful interim engagements occur when organisations recognise that temporary leadership doesn’t mean temporary commitment to change.
By creating an environment where interim leaders can fully deploy their expertise, organisations maximise their return on investment and create lasting transformation impact.
For a conversation about hiring Interim Leaders, please reach out to me via LinkedIn or Email: david@procurementheads.com
