The majority of public sector interims are serious about developing and extending their skills beyond their current roles and to optimise the contribution they make to their assignment, a recent survey has revealed.
Anna Bishell, head of interim at Rockpools consultancy says: "From listening to interims it was clear that a lot of surveys concentrate on rates or different sectors but interims are rarely asked about what matters to them.
"It can be a very self-sufficient role and most experienced interims are very up to speed with the operational side they have a real interest in keeping up with leading edge leadership and professional development."
A recent survey of 340 public sector interim managers on their current development needs by Rockpools, a supplier of interim management services, found a strong interest in developing high level influencing and directing skills which could be applied across sectors.
Interims were particularly focused on developing their leadership impact (over 78% interested in developing this area) with 77% agreeing that developing the ability to act as mentor to their chief executive was important.
It looks as if interims are increasingly waking up to the need to do more than deploy professional expertise if they are going to build the reputations to sustain them in their chosen way of working.
Being a mentor to the chief executive arguably adds a lot of interest and no little kudos to the interim position. It is probably something that a number of interims have found themselves in on the basis of being a new face, senior and without any "baggage".
Others have perhaps realised the value of such roles through seeing them discharged in the interim world and now aspire to be up there too.
Also developing the ability to handle internal politics and internal relationships as an interim was important to 70% of the sample.
Dr Robert Edenborough, head of talent management at Rockpools said: "The strong degree of interest in handling internal politics may reflect the fact that this has often been regarded as an area of little concern for interims.
Escaping the political dimension
Indeed many of them have seen the interim life, among other things, as a way of escaping the political dimension in the workplace. So the present result may be due to the realisation that such detachment may be seen as a luxury in today's complex and rapidly changing world. The thinking behind the shift may not go as far as "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" but might be characterised as finding out how to "gang warily".
Also 80% of interims were interested in learning more about personal branding and image management. This suggests a stronger awareness of the need to build a personal positive and memorable brand in a competitive market which is growing more sophisticated in identifying interims who can work across sectors and specialisations and act as the 'face' of the organisation.
Interim managers were clearly interested in developing networking skills (over 75%) and there was a clear interest in receiving coaching to support their performance.
Considering the relatively short time interims have to get to grips with their roles it was interesting that around 60% of respondents wanted to be able to have targeted support in their first 90 days in a role.
This has traditionally been the 'onboarding' time period for senior permanent roles when new managers are expected to reach the breakeven point where the organisation needs you as much as you need the job. It is perhaps a sign of the level at which interims are entering organisations taking on increasing more politically and organisationally complex roles.
Leaving a lasting legacy without becoming part of the fabric of the organisation, learning from a professional 'turnaround' specialists and developing an effective online presence were all mentioned by interims as areas they would be interested in learning more about.
Commenting on the survey, Anna Bishell confirms 'there is a growing demand for interims in both the public and private sectors, especially in the voluntary sector and the NHS. Interims are highly skilled and accustomed to being parachuted into situations where they can make a rapid contribution. But they are clearly concerned too in their own personal development."
Jackie Switzer is a business psychologist at executive recruitment and interim management agency Rockpools
From Whitehall Watch
From Bubb's Blog
From Flip Chart Fairy Tales
