Interim Leader as a Steward By Dr. Brian S. Simmons

Lessons on How to Be a Faithful Interim Steward

I seek to be a faithful steward in all areas. In this fourth quarter of my life and career, my goal is to look ahead to the finish line. I want to finish strong as a steward leader. I am seeking the purposes of the Lord for all He has so graciously entrusted to my care.

Following my retirement from higher education, I have taken on a new role. I have served twice now as an interim head of school for two different K-12 Christian schools. Before my first of two interim experiences, I also witnessed firsthand, as a university vice president.

To state the obvious, an organization needs an interim leader after coming through a rough spot. This rough spot may appear to be a failed search. It was the firing of the previous head and its surrounding fallout, or similar circumstances. You get the idea.

The Inflection Point

Because of organizational turmoil, an interim takes over to manage the organization (some stakeholders mistakenly expect the interim to fix it). The risk is that it may be going in the wrong direction. This scenario presents a unique and challenging assignment, albeit crucial! The work of the interim takes place at an organizational crossroads, that is, an inflection point. I have used calculus to find the points on a function’s graph where the second derivative is zero or undefined. An inflection point is a point on a function’s graph where its concavity changes, meaning it switches from bending upward (concave up) to bending downward (concave down), or vice versa.

From an organizational perspective, this means the organization nearing an inflection point will either move forward or fall backward. Simply put, an inflection point is a turning point! In organizations, there is no neutral!

When an inflection point is clear, it is often a sign that the affected organization must make specific, fundamental changes. If organizations are not able to adapt to an inflection point, they will fail to keep up with competitors. They may cease operations altogether. For those who can adapt, inflection points can be an advantage, ie, the beginning of a new season of effectiveness.

More specifically, an inflection point is a critical juncture at which an organization must fundamentally change its strategy, structure, and direction to adapt to new circumstances or risk decline. This means that by serving God and others as an interim CEO, a steward leader can play a key role in helping the organization move to concave up!

Here are a few of the lessons I have learned from my experience.

Address Challenges First

The role of the steward interim falls into four distinct seasons. The first quarter is the hardest. The organization needs the interim CEO to address organizational challenges boldly and faithfully as a steward leader. This season is characterized by discovering organizational problems and their root causes. Many, if not most, organizational problems wear a face! So, in season one, the interim leads with clarity in addressing organizational issues. Some people move into new areas where they can be effective, and some opt out. Then some of these stir up discord on the way out, and some receive notice to leave.

Build A Strong Team

In season two, the interim builds a new senior leadership team on the foundation of those who themselves are effective and faithful steward leaders. This season is characterized by rebuilding and strategic thinking. The effective interim leader will preserve the mission, core values, and beliefs while driving strategic change. They force leadership to reassess and often redefine their initiatives and SMART goals, market position, and future direction, leading to necessary strategic overhauls. Strategic planning sets the organization on a concave-upward trajectory, and an essential step in this process is collecting and analyzing organizational data to make data-driven decisions later.

But leading change is no easy task. People resist change to the degree to which they think the changes will negatively impact them! And some organizational stakeholders aggressively resist change, even questioning the interim’s actions, motivations, and character! During this season, it is healthy and helpful to focus on the Master’s will. Seek to please an audience of One!

Take a Strategic Approach

In season three, the interim steward must begin to lead strategically, listening to stakeholders and their views on the organization’s current state. From this SWOT analysis, a strategic planning process emerges. Bringing this plan to life is the primary tool the interim uses to revitalize the organization. And by this time, the permanent head has probably been identified so that this person can take an active role in the new strategic planning process.

Prepare for Succession

Season four looks like an intentional passing of the baton from the interim head to the permanent head. Likely, some key organizational roles were deliberately left vacant so the permanent head could weigh in. After all, as an interim, as you hire people, you are building the permanent head’s team! 

This final season is the time to fill organizational gaps and create new, effective systems and processes. Finally, the permanent head can launch the new strategic plan and claim some early wins!

Insight – Don’t Raise Your Hand

The worst thing an interim can do is put their hand up for the permanent role. The reason for this is that an interim who decides to raise their hand for the permanent role will constantly be under pressure to make every decision, weighing what is best for the organization versus what is most likely to result in being chosen for the permanent head role. This is a lose-lose scenario. So, when an interim raises their hand, they mess up the entire search process!

Insight – Seek God

The steward must regularly seek the Lord’s will on how deep a scoop to take to correct organizational problems that lead to wrong organizational direction. More needy organizations require a deeper scoop!

Insight – Focus on People

Effective interims focus on people, programs, and places in that order. Stakeholders will push the interim to identify and solve problems quickly and unilaterally. This is absolutely the wrong action for the interim to take, however, because only what is done collaboratively will stick after the interim leaves!

Insight – Know Your Role

Realize you did not create the problems you were hired to help solve. Some disgruntled stakeholders will blame the interim for the issues he was hired to address and ultimately solve. Just realizing this helps the interim ignore noise and focus on the tasks at hand.

Suppose the board has learned the behavior of allowing disgruntled stakeholders to go around the head and come to them, expecting intervention. In that case, the interim must correct and train the board in effective governance. Or if the board, during the rough patch, became operational, the interim must help the board back to doing “board stuff,” so the CEO can do “CEO” stuff. It is often challenging to help board members return to their proper roles once they have sucked on the fumes of operational leadership.

Insight – It Is Not About You

 Remember that your primary job is to work yourself out of a job successfully. It is not about you! When the new leader comes in and is embraced, you will know you succeeded. When you leave, you will carry with you the knives in your back you willingly took, so the permanent head would not have to! 

Closing Thoughts

Depending on the organization, the job of an interim head can be extremely rewarding or very challenging. In any case, the faithful steward leader looks beyond the organization and its stakeholders, realizing that we love and serve God by loving and serving others. At the end of the day, what matters most is the lives of those we have touched with the good news of the Gospel.

My deepest desire is to one day see ALL of those I have loved and served in heaven and spend eternity with all of them! They will be my crown and joy. What does not matter at all in light of eternity are the failings of various aspects of the organizations I have served or the fallible people in each along the way!

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Dr. Brian S. Simmons is a consultant on effective governance and strategic planning, an executive coach, and the founding Head of School for Lakeside Christian Academy. He exists as a visionary builder, furthering the kingdom of God through Christian education, teaching, and influencing others.

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