Hiring the right Interim Manager can relieve employee stress, avert workplace conflict and assist in managing change. It provides smooth guidance through a transitional phase by specialist experts in the field, carefully selected for compatibility with your corporate environment.
Hiring the wrong one can have the opposite effect, provoking conflict and stress at all levels. But the arrival of any Interim Manager is liable to cause stress in the early stages.
Not long ago, I ran some courses for a big Dubai swimming-pool contractor, whose CEO had died suddenly, and I got to know the Interim Manager, Zayed, fairly well. When he heard I was a stress consultant, he joked that he might be in the market before long. I asked him what the problem was, and he said there were three.
First, he was the only person around the office who had never known the director, and this inhibited day-to-day dialogue.
Second, they could remember two disastrous cases of Interim Management. One time, the agency had clearly sent along the first one out of the box, without proper screening or selection, and he turned out to know nothing about the swimming-pool market.
The second time was even worse, more like the ‘last one out of the box’ – a problem-personality who had been impossible to place elsewhere.
Finally, the Interim Manager is always going to meet resistance from individuals who feel threatened or merely envious. One embittered junior executive kept trying to find out Zayde’s salary, which was quite high, but which he did not have to reveal. Unfortunately this executive was also one of those classified as ‘dead wood’, which he would soon have to recommend for redundancy.
So there will always be some stress attaching to Interim Management. The advice can only be – find a reputable agent, and brief them sensitively about the aims and objectives of your employment agenda. And see how interim management can indeed relieve stress instead of causing it.
Have you heard of a bad case of interim management, causing stress in the team ?
Tell us what happened – or just what you think and feel about common workplace situations like this.
In our readers-comments box. Now.
How to support a team in shock – with ‘Crucial Dialogue at Critical Moments!’ – just one of Keynote Presenter, Carole Spiers’ presentations that have decisively changed attitudes and mindsets!
See Carole live at: http://bit.ly/TUWbX
Book Motivational Speaker, BBC Broadcaster and best-selling Author, Carole Spiers in person for your next conference, for a charismatic, high-impact presentation on proven stress management and organisational change strategies.
Tel: +44 (0) 20 8954 1593 or email: [email protected]
Or check-out our latest professional stress reduction products at: http://bit.ly/FjL5L and stress management services delivered to blue-chip clients from Bank of England to Abu Dhabi Marine Operating Company in UK, UAE and worldwide at: www.carolespiersgroup.co.uk
