Become an Interim Manager for the right reason

I would say that we get about 30-50 interim management candidate registration forms each week from people wanting to become interim managers. However when you sort through them a lot of the applications are from people who have been lured into the interim management arena by the attraction of high day rates and tales of gold at the end of the interim rainbow. This may well be true for a small number of well qualified, exceptionally talented individuals but for most aspiring interim managers the early days can be very hard and extremely challenging.

I know a number of people which have had very successful permanent careers but failed to transfer that success to their interim management career. Why I hear you ask?

Oh, there are many reasons. I have listed some of the more common ones below that I have come across:

Ø Self-Marketing – the inability to market your skills and abilities in a down to earth, common sense way

Ø Arrogance – some people expect clients to be falling over them, it doesn’t work like that, you get out what you put in

Ø The Professional Qualification Brigade – some people assume that because they have lots of initials after their name that this is what clients want when in reality in my experience clients actually want interim managers who have hands-on practical skills to help them make a difference. This needs to be coupled with strong people management skills and profound common sense.

Ø Hard Work – not prepared to put the time into networking, writing letters, making telephone calls etc

Ø Family & Geography – not prepared to travel or stay away from home. It is very likely this will be a fixture of your interim career.

Ø Multi-tasking – you need to be able to cope with marketing, sorting your taxes out, paying VAT as well as being self-sufficient in a whole host of the tasks

Ø Loneliness – Some people miss the cut and thrust of daily office life in a corporate organisation

Ø Between Jobs – Likes the idea of interim as a safety net until that magical permanent role comes along

I firmly believe that if you are attracted to interim management for the right reasons, you work hard and show a degree of flexibility you will ultimately succeed but understand that it will not be any easy path until you are established and have some credibility in your chosen field.