Guest post by Mike Rush, Member of Greenlights’ Interim Executive Director Pool

The Greenlights Interim Executive Director Program adheres to the national best practice model of placing an Interim ED as a consultant with an organization, rather than bringing the Interim ED onto the payroll and having them serve as a regular staff member. In this placement, does an Interim ED function like a typical consultant during a transition or is the Interim ED process inherently different?

Image by genvessel on Flickr

While there are certainly many similarities with consulting in terms of analysis of data and problem definition, I would argue that an Interim ED placement of 4-6 months creates unique opportunities to better understand the dynamics of an organization and to provide better positioning for organizational change. The Interim ED has two advantages over the typical consultant’s role: 1) more time to creatively examine what an organization does and how it does it and 2) the opportunity to build trusting and revealing relationships due to the different nature of supervising the staff and directly reporting to the board.

The Interim ED uses the extra time in the placement to gather input from a very wide set of stakeholders and informants about the nonprofit mission, execution and impact. By looking at more than current realities—including past decisions as well as future options—the trajectory of the organization’s business plan can be better predicted and incorporated into a well-informed plan for the next Executive Director to lead. If the Interim ED finds critical information or completes a long-delayed interview from a knowledgeable person well into their placement, the information can still be leveraged. A typical consultant’s timeline is normally not as open-ended.

The Interim ED meets repeatedly with staff and board members, engaging in dialogue that evolves over time as trust is built. The development of trusting relationships is the most important task of the Interim ED, because it leads to better ideas and greater acceptance of the need for change, an inevitability in any leadership transition. People who need to make decisions benefit from the opportunity to voice opinions in the context of wide-ranging discussion of options. Good ideas freely discussed change minds and build support. An Interim ED’s job is not done until there is consensus for a clear vision moving the organization forward, ready to embrace the next leader.

View all the blog posts from our Interim ED series. If you have any questions or would like more information about Greenlights’ Interim Executive Director Program or succession planning, please contact Tara Levy.