As an interim manager, I often begin my work in a tense or critical situation: the company needs quick results – whether to bridge a personnel bottleneck, to solve acute problems or to implement important projects.
How do I meet this challenge and how does the company benefit?
Imagine you are joining a new company and only have a short amount of time to familiarize yourself – but you have to be able to act immediately. In addition, you have a team that is skeptical or insecure – and you need to build trust quickly. How do you tackle this ?
As an interim manager, this is exactly the kind of situation I encounter. Time is always a scarce resource and I have to develop a feeling for people and team dynamics, recognize strengths and actively involve employees.
What do I do?
Powerful: together and under pressure
Business, goals and value creation naturally come first in companies. However, in order to successfully implement desired or necessary changes, you have to like people first and foremost – because they are the ones who implement these changes.
Especially in uncertain times, it is therefore important to communicate clearly and transparently in order to reduce fears and reservations. A precise, action-oriented focus helps, as does continuous feedback. You can’t achieve anything by giving orders – but you can achieve a lot with clear expectations and requests.
Sometimes this requires the courage to question established assumptions: only when I understand conflicts can I pave the way for new possibilities. It’s also about slowing myself down in getting the situation under control as quickly as possible. Otherwise you fall into typical pitfalls – without thinking things through more carefully and with the risk of actionism.
Appreciation and respect are key here, because only a motivated team will support and help to bring about change. As an interim manager, you should therefore create trust and formulate clear goals – the basis for productive collaboration and sustainable results.
I would like to give you a concrete example:
In an international post-merger integration project, two fiercely competing brands with different sales structures were finally merged after a long period of hesitation. The consistent focus on customer benefit led to completely new roles and rules of the game – despite considerable risks, internal conflicts and high time pressure. A stringent approach and the full involvement of key employees were crucial to success. Discussions, even about details, were conducted quickly, purposefully and in a solution-oriented manner. Unpleasant topics were also addressed openly instead of being dragged out.
This was ultimately appreciated by customers and employees.
Big picture beats logic
There is no doubt that a logical approach brings results. But using the right time, bringing the right intensity and setting the right pace: that’s what makes a huge difference.
