When writing, my instinct is to talk about the value of Interim Management, rather than to extol the virtues of individual Interim Managers, or to humble-brag about Valtus and my credentials as an operator in the space.
I’m not about to change.
That said, I think there’s some value in explaining what I do and why I do it.
In a recent article, I touched on why I chose to specialise in Interim Management rather than the safer route of Executive Search, which for many with my background would have been the default path. There’s definitely something that appeals to me about building relationships over the long term, rather than maintaining a wide circle of transactional contacts, acquaintances, and people who might have sent me a LinkedIn connection in 2006.
But it goes deeper than that – back into my own career and, without oversharing, into what I am all about.
I think I can remember Neil Armstrong walking on the moon at 03:56 BST on 20th July 1969. My mum insists I watched it live and ran into the kitchen to tell her, “He’s walking, he’s walking.” Whether I actually remember it, or just remember the repeated telling of the story, it’s stayed with me.
What resonates with me even more, although I didn’t watch it live, is JFK launching the Apollo programme in September 1962.
JFK could deliver a line. His words below inspired Americans back then, and it has stayed with me since the first time I heard it:
“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.” (John F. Kennedy, 12th September 1962).
The reason this speech stands out is because it’s completely nuts. No one seriously believed in 1962 that America could put a man on the moon within the decade, or even if it was possible at all. Even if they did, many assumed the Soviet Union would beat them to it. (Cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin had already been to space and made it back in April 1961).
But it did happen.
Sorry, to qualify, it did happen if you don’t spend too much time on the internet and not enough time in the fresh air.
Still, that’s not the bit that strikes me most. What strikes me is that someone in the most powerful office in the world went all in on something no one had ever done before. It was difficult. It might not have been possible. JFK committed.
People rarely do that.
Fast-forward to 1992, when I took my first step into Executive Talent. I started with Michael Page, and I learned a great deal that still serves me well. They trained people properly, and at a time when it wasn’t the norm, they invested in my professional development.
I did a lot of courses.
Much of that learning has stayed with me – rigour, courtesy, process, candour, under-promise/over-deliver. It’s all still in there. However, there’s one piece of advice I abandoned long ago:
“Don’t waste your time trying to fill difficult roles. Harvest the low-hanging fruit!”
Ha!
That might have been fine advice when Denmark were winning the Euros, but it doesn’t hold water now. In the world we work in today, anything easy is either being done by a bot or not worth doing at all. Clients will pay for services, but only if they provide true value and offer expertise that isn’t available on every street corner.
Which was a pretty good reason to focus on Interim Management when I left my alma mater just over 10 years ago.
More importantly, it feels worthwhile, because I find myself working with people who, within their own fields, are doing what Kennedy did and committing themselves to delivering the seemingly impossible in challenging circumstances.
Interim Management is not about taking the fastest elevator to the Executive Bathroom. It is not about comfort, security and recognition. It is about stepping into the middle of something potentially ugly – transformation, turnaround, integration, a sudden leadership absence – and getting results under pressure. Like blasting off in a tin can delivered by the company with the cheapest quote, Interim Management has jeopardy. Get it wrong and investors lose their money and real people lose their jobs.
This is where I choose to work and, thankfully, so do the significant number of highly skilled Interim Managers who now make up my network. Supporting them on assignment and helping them deliver to my clients’ expectations may not get my face on a stamp, but it is highly rewarding nonetheless.
I am not the one delivering the assignment, but I am accountable for making sure the right individual walks through the door. In this respect I share an element of jeopardy, and at Valtus we mitigate this by giving active and practical support to both client and Interim Manager from the start of the assignment through the end. To rather overwork the metaphor, and at the risk of co(s)mic aggrandisement, the Interim Manager can really benefit from Mission Control if they find it has asked them to fly Apollo 13!
The most rewarding moments in my career have not come from the easiest work. They have come from making a success of the roles and, latterly, the assignments where the path was unclear, the pressure was high, and the risks were real. Those are the missions I remember.
This is the kind of work Valtus chooses to take on. It requires focus, conviction and experience. It asks for more than good intentions. It demands outcomes.
As JFK said, we do not choose these challenges because they are easy. We choose them because they are hard.
That is why I do what I do.
Not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
And because it matters.
Steve
