High-Stakes Growth: Interim Leadership Roles in Higher Education - Part 3: Your Why + Key Skills
What is your Why?
It feels good to be tapped for an interim role. The offer feels like affirmation of your hard work and contribution to the organization. All those hours of demonstrated commitment being rewarded with opportunity! Soak it in. After you allow yourself to bask in the moment, and then check your ego by examining a few important questions as you seriously consider the opportunity.
How does this opportunity fit into your goals? I have clients I coach make a list of the Pros/Cons and Questions to help think through what’s being offered. Questions help them identify what more they need to know to make a fully informed decision and what to negotiate for if the decision is to move forward.
How will this opportunity provide growth and expansion? The key here is to not do more of the same. Oftentimes clients I coach immediately begin to list all the qualifications of what they can do in the role, proving they’re the right person. If you’ve been offered the opportunity, you’re not interviewing for the interim role; it’s yours already. Shift into making a list of things the role can do for you. Get clarity about whether putting in this effort will be worth your time. Understanding what skills and experiences, how partnerships, collaborations, and new projects will expand your leadership and resume helps you think clearly about the role.
How will this help you make moves in the organization? Building relationships across the organization and showing your skills and abilities to create actual change expand your reputation as an effective leader. All the while you learn about opportunities in other areas you may not have considered. Suddenly, being the internal candidate is not the only pathway to take.
What are the risks? The context is sometimes filled with peril. Someone wanted the interim role but you were offered instead and now you’ve become the target of their ire. Other senior leaders don’t welcome you into the circle because you’re an outsider who threatens their status quo. Or you are tasked with cleaning up someone’s mess and everyone is ready to point fingers and throw you under the bus to save themselves. The politics of the interim role can be daunting. The pressure to perform can also feel heavy. It can feel like failure is not an option. Navigating the politics will most likely be your greatest challenge so have a support team including an executive coach, mentor, or confidante outside of the organization as a sounding board, or trusted peers to consult in your organization to get feedback.
Can I say no? (Yes you can.) When I point out to clients I coach that saying no is an option, almost all of them tell me that they didn’t know that was an option. They ask, what are the consequences of saying no? This kind of pressure has been reinforced through the manipulation of power through acceptable acts such as being volun-told what to do. While volun-telling is not unique to higher ed culture, this lack of individual agency is retold in stories over and over and feels like a rite of passage, like professional hazing you cannot escape. Yes, you can say no gracefully, but before that, consider what you want to negotiate.
Key skills to consider
As you are weighing the opportunity, it is also helpful to reflect on the key skills needed to be successful in this interim role. Realize you already demonstrate many of these key skills and abilities that will help you be successful:
Ability to learn rapidly
Project management
Ability to cultivate trust quickly
Identify issues and pain points quickly
Active listening
Empathy/compassion
Ability to set strong boundaries
Unintimidated by leadership, unknowns, chaos, extreme personalities
Knowing enough to be dangerous: A common concern I hear is, “I don’t think I can do it because I don’t know all the areas!” While this might be technically true, I point out that the offer has been made so someone believes that they can do the job! Familiarity helps you know just enough to ask the right questions that might sound like, “help me understand how we do this…” or “I’d like to fully understand your approach so I can better understand how to support you and your team…”. Those who lead departments can be your guide during this time if you approach your lack of knowledge and understanding with humility and openness.
Are there things on the list that need to be strengthened? What is missing from the list? Unless the environment is toxic, people will respond to your courage when you demonstrate humility and transparency in learning from them what you do not know. You already have many of the key skills to be successful.
