 |
| | | |
|
Best Practice In Project Management Article
| Interim Executive Management: Challenge and Change |
| By: Jakob Jelling |
A position in interim executive management is one of the most exciting and challenging jobs you’ll ever tackle. Because you have to slip into a position and immediately take up the reins, you must be personable and intelligent. Because you need to be able to perform almost any executive job with little or no preparation, you’ll need to have broad-based experience and education. And because your position may require a wide variety of different skills and management techniques, you’ll need to be flexible and quick to learn.
Interim executive management is, in short, more challenging than almost any CEO job you can imagine; and it’s a perfect way to prepare yourself to be a CEO.
Character Counts
One of the most important traits of a candidate for interim executive management is good character. You’ll be entering a variety of different businesses, some of who may compete with one another, and you will be privy to many of their trade secrets. You will, of course, have to sign confidentiality agreements with each employer; but it will be your character that determines whether you will maintain the letter of that agreement.
Honesty is vital for interim executive management; you need to be able to tell your employer the truth about his company, especially the uncomfortable ones that no one else will say. Whether his executive vice president is incompetent and passes all his work to his assistant, or the company’s finances are not quite as stable as the CFO would like everyone to believe, or even if the issues are more minor yet critical to the proper function of the company, the truth needs to be told in order to begin to mend the problems.
Strength and willpower will be important when carrying out your main functions in interim executive management. As effectively a temporary employee, permanent executives may try to push you around. Only if you push back as hard as they push you will you survive.
Education and Experience
The most important part of interim executive management education is your former experience as an executive. Only by being an executive can you understand exactly how to fill the role. Beyond that, an interim executive manager needs to be broad-based in his or her skills, so must learn everything possible about every aspect of business management. In today’s business environment, executive interim managers especially must be well-versed in technology, and understand how IT tools can maximize the potential of a company.
Rarely will a person without at least an MBA be able to enter interim executive management. A PhD is better. Often having a law degree will give you a real advantage.
Working With Difficult Situations
Interim executive management often involves dealing with difficult management situations, like downsizing and business change or acting as a temporary replacement for a bad executive. Your position will come with some heavy baggage, and you’ll need to overcome preconceptions your coworkers won’t even realize they have.
When you’re taking over the position of a fired executive, you must step in and make the position your own. The more quickly you can thoroughly replace the failed executive and begin reversing the damage he did, the easier it will be to gain the respect of your coworkers.
If you’re in a company that needs interim executive management because of business change – downsizing, offshoring, or other strategies that may be leading to the loss of jobs – you should remember to be tactful at all times. Even if you know who’s going to be let go, you need to treat all coworkers equally and divorce yourself as far as possible from that knowledge. It goes without saying that you also should never engage in any kind of gossip.
Each new position will not only be challenging in itself, but the peculiar circumstances surrounding it will provide further challenge. Interim executive management is one of the most challenging and interesting careers you can choose.
About the Author
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.managementpilot.com. Learn about change management, interim management, project management, corporate governance, management consulting and business development. |
|
| Keywords: project management corporate, interim executive, interim management project, project, management project management, management, project management, be able, http//wwwmanagementpilotcom, executive management |
Project Management News
BCE buyers finalize funding
TORONTO (Reuters) - Announcing what it said were "essential milestones" allowing the world's largest leveraged buyout to go ahead, BCE Inc said on Friday that its buyers had finalized funding and were sticking to their C$34.8-billion ($34.1 billion) purchase price.
Hyundai union calls for work stoppage next week
SEOUL (Reuters) - Unionized employees of Hyundai Motor Co will walk off the job for four hours next week to push for a pay increase, the auto maker's union said on Saturday.
Merrill nears deal to sell Bloomberg stake: report
NEW YORK (Reuters) - Merrill Lynch & Co may sell its 20 percent stake in financial news and data provider Bloomberg LP to a blind trust controlled by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, The New York Post reported on Friday.
French bank body fines SocGen $6 million over Kerviel
PARIS (Reuters) - France's Banking Commission on Friday fined Societe Generale 4 million euros ($6.3 million) for serious breaches in internal controls revealed by the French bank's 4.9 billion euro rogue trading loss.
World stocks fall on financial shares, oil drops
SAO PAULO (Reuters) - World stocks edged lower on Friday, getting no relief from a decline in crude prices as concerns of further banking write-downs weighed on financial shares.
Helpful Best Practice In Project Management Links
Best Practice Summary: Project Management Excellence: Growing and Developing PM Professionals
Best Practices Research -- Project Management Excellence: Growing and Developing PM Professionals ... Effective growth and development of project management professionals is important to ensuring ... document is focused on the best practice of aggressively deploying alternative delivery ...
Best Practice Project Management
Best practice project management - start with the basics, define your project well, and apply to ANY and allof your activities. ... Best Practice Project Management. Jump to any page on this site ... See About Privacy. Best Practice Project Management Starts With the Basics ...
Best Practice IT Project Management : White Paper
... Best Practice IT Project Management. A Long Adventurous Journey ... Abstract: This paper examines best practice information technology (IT) project management in terms of the five phases ...
Find in a Library: Franchising best practice in elder abuse program management : final project program.
... • Title: Franchising best practice in elder abuse program management : final project program. •. Publisher ...
Project Management Practice Inc.
The Project Management Practice Inc. ( PMPi) specializes in bringing efficiency and productivity through the use of cost-effective project management solutions. ... Management Institute and Microsoft Project Partner, we know the best practices in project management. Working with you ...
A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE FOR PROJECT MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES
... A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE FOR. PROJECT MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES ... resides in the stewardship of a best practice repository. ...
Software Project Management Best Practice
Contact Us Campus Map Library Directory ... practice sessions. Small group discussions also let participants share some of their project management-related problems and to identify which of the best ...
best practice project management
... best practice project management. Offers best practice project management with a product or service that ... or company online. Offers best practice project management with a product or ...
Best Practice Summary: Benchmarking Project Management: Performance Measurement, Processes and Tools
Best Practices Research -- Benchmarking Project Management: Performance Measurement, Processes and Tools ... to understand the best methods for project management and high performance rate ... Introduction Best practice research underscores the fact that every organization faces the ...
Best Practices Database in Improving the Living Environment
Best Practices Database in Improving the Living Environment Best Practices Database in Improving the Living Environment This is a searchable database of solutions from a United Nation's program that highlights outstanding urban initiatives ...
|
|
