Interim Manager can be in place within days. They are expected to be operationally effective within five days. They are often "sensibly over-qualified" for the role, meaning they have solved this exact problem before and don't need a learning curve
Interim Manager is a "special forces" operative. They are deployed rapidly into a high-pressure environment, have a specific mission to accomplish, and extract themselves once the objective is achieved, handing over a stable situation to the permanent team.
- Takes over a leadership role quickly (e.g., HR Director, CFO, Operations Manager).
- Manages a crisis or urgent situation (financial trouble, sudden departure, operational failure).
- Leads a transformation or project
- Brings specialized expertise for a limited period.
- They need someone immediately operational.
- They don’t want to hire permanently.
- A project requires temporary high-level expertise.
- A leader has left suddenly and they need a gap filler.
- The company is going through major change.