As an interim you would be expected to quickly engage and connect with the people around you as you lead them in pursuit of positive change within the organisation. The balance of interpersonal connection and implementing a thoughtful strategy can be difficult to navigate. So, how do you ensure you are delivering effective leadership as an Interim Manager?
Prepare a leadership strategy
- Conduct an external and internal analysis to identify strategic issues, strengths, and weaknesses within the company.
- Outline your mission and establish strategic goals for the remainder of the placement.
- Identify how those goals will be reached considering strategies, objectives and timelines.
Fast-acting results
Following the implementation of a strategic plan, complete a strategic analysis process to determine the effectiveness of the results. Assess whether the strategy has failed or succeeded, if the goals have been met and whether or not the strategy aligns with the initial mission. Depending on the results, formulate a plan to either continue the process or propose strategic alternatives
Effective stakeholder management
- Identify and acknowledge your stakeholders and make every effort to engage and build relationships.
- Establish the purpose that you want to achieve with your stakeholder engagement.
- Identify problems and obstacles and create a management plan to solve them.
- Keep assessing each stakeholder’s performance to understand what adjustments need to be made.
- Take feedback from stakeholders; it will help you understand the situation and changes you need to make
Long-lasting knowledge transfer
- Collect knowledge on the culture of the business by seeking input from team members and brainstorming ideas.
- Proper knowledge capture and knowledge management is important. You need an infrastructure that can make access to that knowledge fast and simple.
- Once the knowledge has been captured it needs to be shared to other people/departments in the organisation effectively and efficiently.
Ultimately, a successful leader must have the drive to relentlessly pursue positive change within the organisation that they lead. It is possibly the most important trait to embody, as leading a team through uncertainty whilst simultaneously implementing a strategy to achieve positive results, requires both ambition and commitment.
A clear head and a strong focus on the task at hand is imperative. Avoid a transactional mentality and make sure the effort is made to build strong relationships with the team. It’s also important to take care of your physical health, social and wellbeing needs so that you have the energy required to lead and manage a team.
