How interim management can benefit your company in a changing environment

Bringing on a new external senior executive into your business can seem like a daunting task, especially since a lot of unprecedented changes have taken place these past months, both in Denmark and internationally. Therefore, taking on what seems like a new risk may not be on the top of your agenda. However, hiring someone from the outside may in fact offer some unique and substantial benefits to your company, which you may not be aware of. Read the full article to explore the advantages of hiring an interim manager during these latest times.

What are the organisations struggling with in this time era, and how can an interim manager help the company with their challenges?

For many years, the classic issues that many businesses have to deal with is weak communication within the organisation, and rigid and bureaucratic structures resulting in slow decision making. These issues still prevail in businesses today, but have become more evident during the pandemic, where quick decision making has been required. Unexpected changes that are less predictable are expected to happen more frequently, and the businesses that cannot keep up with the speed of these shifts face the risk of being left behind due to the issues listed above.

Now managers also have to deal with additional challenges caused by the recent disruption, such as the way their employees work, their safety, restoration, and refiguration of their supply chains, and even figuring out what constitutes their business performance. This can be an overwhelming task for managers, as they not only have to fix short term challenges, they at the same time need to work on long-term strategies. Therefore, the need for added managerial resources are vital in these situations for the business to get back on a solid path.

The recent study on leadership for a new era, conducted by McKinsey & Co, has shown that it is imperative for businesses to make daring moves to achieve outstanding performance. Through their study they have found that making one or two bold moves more than doubles the plausibility of making such a shift towards outstanding performance. Their research continues to show that CEO’s who have been hired externally have a tendency to make bolder moves and have faster decision-making skills. They are able to achieve this partly because of them being free from any social pressures within the company that an internally promoted CEO may be faced with.

To thrive in this new era, it is important for businesses to recognize what the barriers to boldness and fast execution are. These barriers can easily be broken down by having a person come in with the right mindset towards what is possible, getting a fast idea of what people are willing to do, and finding out to what degree policies and bureaucratic chains of command can slow things down. The right person to do so is an interim manager.

Make bold but smart moves with an interim manager

What allows an interim manager to make bold moves that have a high success rate is based on several factors. First of all, an interim manager is a confident and well-knowledgeable manager within their field of work, and these traits have been developed by their years of executive experience. Nextt Management’s interim managers have worked in different fields and have had different managerial roles or have been entrepreneurs who have built a business from the ground up. Most of them have had rich past experiences steering operations through challenges and downturn. This makes interim managers qualified for the positions they take on,and are ready to make an impact from day one.

An experienced interim manager has learnt how to communicate effectively on all levels

An interim manager has the above-ability to motivate, lead, and understand people, which allows them to quickly gain awareness of what the employees at the company are willing to do. Good leaders in this new era, according to the Mckinsey & Co report, take on a role that inspires and makes those around them better. Interim managers focus greatly on empowering the people around them, so that when the interim manager leaves, the employees around them feel ready to carry on with new energy and a positive mindset. Since they have no ties with the company, the employees do not feel threatened by the interim manager, and hence the manager is able to quickly gain trust amongst the employees.

Being a leader now does not only mean showing up, but it also requires the leader to be transparent, have a grip of the situation, and to be reasonable on what is working and what is not. This is what an interim manager is specialized in and what they are able to bring to the organisation. Interim managers are integrated into the team in a way that they are able to communicate with people across levels. However, since they do not have to be bound by any social pressures within the organisation, they have a level of independence which allows them to be upfront and transparent. This unbiased, outside perspective keeps the interim executive focused on creating an action that someone, who is entrenched in the business, might overlook or simply avoid due to having too much on their plate.

Interim managers bring an independent and objective view on the company

Filling senior executives’ roles with someone from the outside is particularly important if an organisation is in a transitioning phase (e.g. cultural change, disruptive technologies challenging the business such as Industry 4.0/IoT/Digitalization, etc.). What makes the interim manager especially equipped to take on such challenges is that they bring a fresh perspective instantly, and due to their unbiased view and changing management experience, are able restructure teams and change the culture into a new direction. If there is a gap management in play, then once the desired state has been achieved, the interim manager hands over the company to the new permanent senior manager who has been selected to fill the role permanently.

Flexible & Project driven

What makes an interim manager special is that they are able to respond to rapid change and cost pressures. Interim managers are able to bring a degree of operational agility that allows the business to remain flexible. When dealing with a short-term gig where hiring a full-time executive becomes too expensive, an interim manager can make it easy to ramp up the workforce for the specific project and then ramp back down when the objective is achieved. This makes interim management more cost effective compared to other management solutions.

How does Nextt Management help your business?

Nextt Management are experts in Interim Management and have operated in the industry since 2003. Our philosophy is to provide top quality managerial solutions that help you achieve your desired results. Contact us today and have your interim manager start in your business within 10 days.

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