51: Interim Executive Leadership and Leaving Well
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Transcript:
This is Leaving Well, where we unearth and explore the reality of leaving a job, role, project, or title with intention and purpose, and when possible, joy. I'm Naomi Hattaway, your host. Season 1 of this podcast features guests experiences and lessons learned about necessary endings in the workplace, and Season 2 features solo episodes sharing my best practices and Leaving Well framework.
Expect to be inspired, challenged, and reminded that you too can embed and embody the art and practice of leaving well as you seek to leave your imprint in this world.
On today's episode, we're going to talk a little bit about the idea, concept, and impact of interim executive directors. Now, before we get too far in, the concept of interim can be applied to any role, Quite honestly, so you can think about interim development directors, uh, interim program managers. Interim really is just the idea that someone who is not going to hold that position long term is stepping in for an interim time and space.
For the purposes of today's episode, though, I'll be referring to my thoughts and my comments and my expertise as an interim, uh, when it comes to executive director roles. So the first thing to get out there is that interim leadership can be provided for a numerous set of scenarios. It can be because of a retirement.
It can be because of a sabbatical. It can be because someone's passing the baton. There's been a termination, a death. All of those are situations where an interim person coming into the organization to provide leadership in that gap can be really important. I also want to share right off the bat kind of maybe a little bit of a sassy comment or a strong opinion, if you will.
I do not believe that for nonprofits who have a board of directors that a current and sitting board member should ever serve as an interim part of the staff. Oftentimes, it will be what feels like the only option, or it will feel like something that makes the most sense is to have a board member who feels very connected to the mission and very connected to the operations of the organization and the purpose of the organization.
It will make sense in some people's minds for a board member to step into that interim role in the case of something happening suddenly. But I think that is a harmful thought to entertain, and here's why. Board of Directors typically sit in a governance role. That means they are responsible to oversee the financial stability of the organization, make sure that the organization is acting in a legal manner, and that the bylaws are held in high standards and that in compliance with those bylaws.
What most board of directors duties do not include is the operations of an organization, the day to day decisions, the day to day nuance of managing staff and delivering programming, sometimes even without having any input into the fundraising and the development activities of an organization. So if you think about an interim leadership role, that person's coming in to step into the operations of the organization.
Now, if there is an outgoing board member, someone who's recently served as a board member, but is not a current member of the board, That's a possible scenario that I would say, okay, that's something that I could maybe get behind, but I unequivocally do not recommend a board member ever step into the role and the seat of an interim space.
Another reason for that is because it can cause all sorts of power dynamic and honestly weirdness issues, um, as it relates to the staff and the relationships that staff has with board members. Really healthy organizations, in my opinion. Um, have relationships and access points between staff and board members where board members can reach out to staff to offer support and resources where staff can reach out to board to say, I need some help or I have a question.
I would like your expertise and your advice. Now, when a board member who has a healthy relationship with the staff comes in as interim, especially in a CEO or executive director situation, that can disrupt that relationship quite significantly. It also makes it really, really hard when that board member leaves that interim role and goes back into their seat as a governing, a part of the governing body as a voting member of the board.
What I would say is if you find yourself in a situation where you feel like you don't have another choice, the only option to fill a very high profile or big leadership role in your organization due to a gap in leadership is to have someone from the board come in. Just think one more time about all the, all of the different options.
You could bring someone in who functions as a professional interim. For a time being, you could promote a current staff member into that interim space. Now, I've seen the meme going around, I don't know if you've seen it, where it says anytime a team can function and be successful during the six months that it takes you to hire the executive director or the CEO replacement should be considered as an internal candidate for promotion rather than hiring.
I think there's kind of some truth to that. It's in my opinion, uh, smarter to bring someone in from the team to promote into that a temporary interim standpoint. Now, I will have another episode on this podcast, season two, about the power of succession planning and how to do it so that it actually serves your organization, your mission, and the community.
But for now, just know that if you find yourself in a pickle and you need interim leadership. Highly recommend you do not have a board member, current board members serve in that role. Now, typically if it's a sudden departure, someone that you weren't expecting to go, whether that is because of a death, a termination, or a sudden departure that was their own doing, oftentimes you're dealing with a situation that BoardSource calls the hard to follow executive.
This is an opportunity where the scenario is such that it's maybe the departure of a founder, a really visionary executive that has been with the organization for quite some time and has been really, well, I guess it could be for quite some time or for not long at all, but where the vision is really what's driving the mission and the success of the organization forward.
It could be a long tenured leader. That's not the founder, regardless of any of those situations. Oftentimes it's an executive that has left that is going to be a hard act to follow. That departure often brings incredible stress with the major changes because the organization's culture, performance expectations, relationships, honestly, the foundation of the organization is going to be at risk with that departure.
Oftentimes also, if you have a really magnanimous or really engaging or really powerful leader who is left and that fill that leaves that hole, there's a lot of knowledge transfer that you're not going to have as an organization. So some of the key challenges in those situations are that you need to first ensure that the organization is stable.
There needs to be some very specific actions that are taken in that interim space to ensure that funding, uh, financials are in order, that any grant agreements, that any current fundraising efforts are someone steps in to kind of swoop that together and hold it together. Even the most stable of organizations that are really, really legit and they have been offering services in the community for some time.
They have a high reputation. They are well known in the community. All of that can crumble really quickly, honestly, when there is an executive transition that is not navigated and handled well. One of the things that I do when I go into an organization as an interim is to first do an assessment and a nonprofit snapshot.
I do a quick, uh, interview with existing board members. I do a quick interview with staff and what that gives me using a really great tool from third sector, um, is it gives me a snapshot of what's going on in the organization, where there might be vulnerability gaps, where there might be risks. And then the The next thing I do is to start simultaneously, as I'm also stepping into management, uh, and operations, I'm also building out a structure to address those vulnerabilities and those risks.
You'll also want to make sure that, as a challenge, that you also take the opportunity to reassign responsibilities. Sometimes, um, folks can take on a little bit more in that interim space, just to help smooth out operations, or to make sure that programs are still delivered and make sure that the community still has a continuity of services that they are expecting.
In those instances where you're asking someone from inside the organization who is a current staff member to step into duties and roles, consider whether a bonus structure might be appropriate down the road to acknowledge and compensate them for that additional set of duties. I never recommend that you just entertain a role adjustment or a salary increase because the idea of interim is that it is short and time limited.
But Think about whether your budget can handle, and if it can't, consider a fundraising campaign to help support compensation in the form of a bonus for those staff members that step up. This is also a really powerful opportunity in this interim space to rethink roles altogether. One of the biggest challenges during this time is how do you both keep everything operating business as usual so that the community isn't impacted, but also take the opportunity, which is sometimes once in a lifetime for an organization opportunity to really look at the foundation.
Where are there crumble moments? Where are there opportunities to. Build up and re fortify some of the things that you've been doing in your organization. Is this an opportunity also to introduce some innovation? That's one of the really powerful things that happens when you bring in a professional executive interim for that leadership gap is that there's some innovation that maybe you've been wanting to do for a very long time, but you've never had the ability to do it.
This interim space is a beautiful time to look at innovation. Some of the other things to think about and keep in mind during interim leadership is the emotional transitions. This is huge, especially if there's been a termination or a death. Even if it's that the executive leader has left on their own accord, but it's sudden or it's not planned for, there can be massive amounts of grief.
There can also be massive amounts of anger, feelings of abandonment, a loss of mentorship. All of those come into play when we think about that continuity of services and your team showing up in their best ability to continue doing the work. Depending on the situation and depending on who you bring in for that interim space and honestly, depending on your culture of your organization and the values that you espouse, it might be a good idea to consider holding some specific sessions and bringing in someone that's an expert on workplace grief or workplace culture.
Um, maybe there are employment benefits that your team can take advantage of, whether that is access to therapy or access to some other wellness benefits. When you're thinking about bringing in a professional interim, make sure that as you're interviewing them, you ask how they help the team navigate through the emotional part of the transitions.
Yes, it is important to keep, uh, business continuity. Of course, like I've said several times, it's important to keep operations going, but it's also really important to consider how you can be a human centered workplace in the time of this change in transition. Another thing to keep in mind for someone who's coming into your organization as an interim is there is going to be a massive trust bridge that's going to need to be built.
For my examples of the organizations that I've done this with, it's really important that trust building happens right away. And some of the things that I do is to hold space for the exiting leaders, um, legacy. honor their legacy, ask questions during those one on one interviews about what did you most appreciate about the exiting leader, um, especially, you know, in times of death or, um, sickness or a termination, that can be an opportunity for the staff to process through, uh, some of those grief moments or some of those abandonment moments when asked what legacy should we uphold for this leader going forward.
One example that I'll share with you from a very recent interim gig As we were doing this trust building exercise, and I was asking questions about what things that they most appreciate about this leader who had, um, sadly, unexpectedly passed away. And the same things kept coming up as I was doing one on one interviews.
It was the way that she would interact with clients in this very specific way. Many, many people mentioned the same thing. Another thing that kept coming up is her relationship inside the community and her desire to put her own goals and aspirations aside. In service of the mission of the organization.
So what we did was honor and memorialize some of those things, especially because they kept coming up over and over and over, and we named it Katie's way to honor the departing leader, and hopefully those things might stay, uh, long into the organization's future. But trust building can happen a number of ways.
I know that many of you will be familiar with the concept that trust moves at the speed of relationship. And you can't have a movement, you can't have continued success and impact in the community if there's not trust. And so one of the things that you'll want to look out for if you need to bring an interim into your space is that they are well equipped to build trust quickly and transparently.
Speaking of transparency, timelines is another thing that you should be really, really mindful of with an interim leadership opportunity. It does no one any good to guess about timelines. If you think that it's going to be a year that you have an interim in place, say that you think it's going to be a year.
If you're going to move very quickly and you're going to start searching for the next leader, uh, and by the way, I never say that you should search for the permanent. Insert the name of the role. Permanent executive directors don't exist because everybody leaves. That's a reality. Um, so instead just say the next or the incoming.
If you plan on doing that very quickly and you're starting the search for the incoming leader to fill that role quickly, tell the team that. It's also helpful I think to normalize a little bit around What you anticipate happening, if you're going to have a quick timeline, say that it might feel messy.
Tell the team that it's we're gonna move Really really quickly through this process. We know who we want. We know the type of person We want to fill this role and we're going to move quickly. So that might mean maybe for you It might mean that you'll be less available to attend the weekly team meetings because you're going to focus and prioritize The interview and onboarding process.
If it's going to be a long tenure, Why is it going to be a long tenure for that interim? Is it because you want to do a deep dive into the strategic plan and look at innovation opportunities? Is it because you want to right side a funding campaign and get some efforts newly invigorated, such as a plan giving or a monthly giving campaign?
Be transparent with your timelines and communicate the why and what you imagine that the team might anticipate because of these timelines. Another thing to keep in mind, especially as you are thinking about bringing on a professional interim executive director, is to make sure that you are establishing boundaries.
Your interim, your professional interim should come in with their own ability to hold strong boundaries around relationship building, access to them, they will also need to be able to enforce and uphold boundaries that are appropriate with the board of directors and the staff, um, creating runway, uh, and lanes for everyone to operate in, but it's also really important that there are interim boundaries.
Um, the board needs to be able to be very clear with what you expect from the interim leader. Is this an opportunity for, for you? For the board to have continued engagement as you did with the past leader, or is this an opportunity to maybe you need more frequent updates or engagement? Maybe you need less.
This is a really good time to sit together. Just like in my onboarding episode, I believe it's episode 49, sit down and talk about expectations with the person that you're bringing in for interim and vice versa. That interim should have a list of expectations for the board regarding how they like to navigate their interim engagement.
There's also the idea that we talked about early on in this episode about promoting someone internally, and we'll go into that much more deeply when I have the episode on succession planning. But to give you a little sneak peek, if you're listening to this episode, And you do not currently have a need for an interim.
One thing that you can do today to shore up your foundation and your capacity for future workplace transitions is to have a conversation with your leadership team or those that are at a director level or above, for example, and talk through what it might look like if you needed to bring in someone on an interim basis.
for two weeks. What does it look like when your current CEO goes on vacation, for example? And if you're listening to this and you are thinking, Oh my goodness, our ED or CEO hasn't gone on a vacation in quite some time. It's another conversation for another time. But, um, think through what practices you have in place currently for short times like that.
And then explore and get creative and think about what would we do if it was four weeks? Maybe what would we do if it's four weeks and it's planned versus four weeks and it's unplanned? What would we do if it's a sabbatical situation and someone needs to go away on a sabbatical for either a work project based sabbatical or a rest sabbatical?
How would we function and behave and how would we continue to work through operations? What would we do if it was six months? What would we do if it was a year? And then if you're listening and you're a team member, What can you do inside of that conversation to document your thoughts? How can you give some assurances to the Board of Director members to say, We got this.
We have a plan in place. If you're listening to this and you're a Board of Director member, rather than recommending that you create this plan for the organization, send them this email. Episode. Encourage them to listen to it and better yet, find the episode on succession planning in the future, make a note of it, send that also to the team.
It's most important that the team, the operations team, the nonprofit staff, that they are the ones that build the succession plan. The board of directors can be notified that it exists and they can be notified of what it is and what can be done. And so it's not just the individual plans to put into place, but it should be the team that is creating the interim plan.
I've got a lot more to say on this topic, but if you are in the need, if you are in the space of needing an interim executive director, reach out. You can go to my website, NaomiHadaway. com, and fill out the contact form. If you are interested in an interim executive leadership and you'd like to learn more about becoming one yourself, you can check out the third sector website, that's where I got my certification from and do my continuing education through there, an incredible organization.
Later in season three, you'll be able to hear from Joan Brown, one of the, um, people involved with third sector. And if you are not yet in need of an interim executive leadership, Leadership scenario at your organization. I highly recommend that you listen to other episodes of the Leaving Well podcast and get yourself prepared.
Get a plan in place. Think about what you would need to cover as the most important components of an interim plan. And then put it into practice. You know, as I say, there's a lot of correlations of leaving well in the workplace to leaving well when it comes to death and dying. And the worst thing that can happen is that someone does not have their wishes written down and documented, uh, in a will or in an estate plan.
The second most, uh, worrisome thing in that situation is that the people involved in that person's life don't know about the will or don't know what their preferences are. So document, think through what that plan could look like, And then share it with the people that are involved in the transition plan.
That's all I have for now. Thanks for listening and until next time. If you've not yet taken the workplace transition archetype quiz to discover your natural relationship to change and transition, you can do that at naomihattaway.com/quiz to learn more about leading well and how you can implement and embed the framework and culture in your own life and workplace.
Visit naomihattaway.com. It's time for each of us to look ourselves in the mirror and finally admit we are playing a powerful role in the system. We can either exist outside of our power or choose to decide to shift culture and to create transformation. Until next time, I'm your host, Naomi Hattaway, and you've been listening to Leaving Well, a navigation guide for workplace transitions.
