Recent Fas Resignation: How Organisations Deal With Sudden Departure of Executives
The more senior the level, the bigger the issue. Sudden loss of a CEO is clearly a problem for any organisation, but other departures on the senior team can also be difficult. For example, no-one wants to lose a Human Resources Director in the middle of a staff dispute. Similarly, a departing Finance Director would be the last thing a CEO needs when in the middle of a merger or acquisition.How do organisations find the people they need, at short notice? The answer depends to some degree on size. Smaller companies might for example replace their CEO with the owner / Chairperson until a replacement can be found. Another solution is to step up someone else on the team. This can be difficult however. There may be no-one who is ready for the more senior role, and even if there is, it can build the wrong expectations.
This gets worse with large organisations. There is the additional problem that steeping someone up temporarily can have a domino effect down through the organisation the Finance Director who steps up temporarily to CEO also has to be replaced, and so on. It is not unusual to have one senior departure resulting in 4 or 5 consequential moves, creating huge upheaval.
Increasingly, organisations are turning to professional Interim Managers to fill temporary gaps. In the Fӡs example, an external Interim Manager, experienced in this type of work, would be employed by the Board to lead the company until the permanent replacement is found and takes up position. These Interim Managers bring great experience gained over a number of years, do their job, and leave again. Typically they have no interest in long term careers with the recipient company, do not get involved in company politics, but know how to recognise it and work round it. The best of them are people who can hit the ground running, quickly gaining the confidence of the Board, management, staff and the other stakeholders.
Who are they, and why do they work this way? An Interim Manager typically has 15-20 years senior management experience. They have decided to have a more flexible career structure, which allows them to choose from a variety of interesting roles, in different types or organisation, as they arise. Lifestyle can also be a motivator some Interims might choose not to work during the summer for example, if they have a home abroad. Some will be senior women returning to the workforce after raising families; some will have fallen into an interim career after redundancy. The late departed Celtic Tiger also created Interims for example the person who made money selling a business and then departed for the golf course, but then begins to realise that they want to be involved in occasional interesting projects, but not a long term career.
Inevitably, developments in corporate Ireland over the next few years will lead to increasing organisational turmoil, senior staff turnover, and the need for gaps to be filled. Interim Management in Ireland is much less prevalent than in the UK or the US, but it is certainly set to take a more central role as a way of coping with changing times.