Life as an Interim Manager 2014

1. Chris Gill
Update June 2014© J C Gill and Co Limited.

2. “Being in control of your life and having realistic
expectations about your day-to-day challenges
are the keys to stress management, which is
perhaps the most important ingredient to living a
happy, healthy and rewarding life”.
Marilu Henner

3.  Be clear and honest with yourself
 Lots of questions:
◦ ask yourself why?
◦ what’s got you to this point?
◦ are you between permanent jobs?
◦ what are you really offering?
◦ what are you really wanting?
◦ and for how long?

4.  Your skills
 Your experience
 Your toolkit
 Your proposition to market
 Working at or within your capability
 Not being the boss anymore?!

5.  Write a business plan
 Set up company and office
 Business bank account, tax, dividends, VAT
 Personal development
 Constantly refresh CV
 Homeworking – develop sense of place
 Effective networks and referrals
 Routes to market – ISP, Direct Sourced
 Service excellence

6.  Fix a named client
 Jointly sign off performance agreement
 Risk assess
 Work programme/transition plan
 Monitor, review and sign off

7.  Bring your own
- quality assurance
- performance management framework
- project management skills
- improvement/transformation
management templates

8.  Excellence – aim to be the best
 Under promise over deliver on outcomes
 Provide additional services and critical friend
support to staff at all levels
 Don’t overstay
 Manage a sustained exit
 Stay in touch
 Good news travels, bad news travels faster

9.  Critical – but rarely taught
 Talk to Chief Executive
 Work with and support members
 Earn your keep prove your worth
 Discretion and diplomacy

10.  Act with integrity
 Always provide a high standard of service
 Act in a way that promotes trust in your
profession and interim management
 Treat others with respect
 Take responsibility

12.  Clarify personal outcomes
 Constantly review
 Manage boundaries
 Focus on downtime, plan and make the most of
it.

13. Dealing with drift:
 3 days a week for 3 months;
 extended for a further 6 months; and
 can you do an extra 2 days a week;
 and………………………………..!!

14. Dealing with uncertainty:
 awareness of current climate
 tempting to over commit or pitch when you are
not qualified for the role
 be prepared to wait
 all the calls come at the same time!
 make a business based choice but always act
with integrity

15.  New work opportunities and lifestyle but maybe
some myths too:
◦ Some great projects?
◦ See some great cities?
◦ Stay in some great and not so great hotels?
◦ Keep your weekends free?
◦ Maintain work/life balance?

16.  Adverse Press Coverage
 Driving 36,000 miles in 9 months
 Proposed amendment of IR35 legislation to
cover ‘office holders’
 Be honest with yourself
 No one owes you a living
 Absolutely right decision for some but not all

17.  Those who make a long term success of interim
management tend to relish the chance to do
something interesting between assignments
including:
◦ Voluntary work
◦ Holidays
◦ Sports
◦ Building another business
◦ Gardening
 Those who spend the break sat in their study
looking at LinkedIn are usually the ones who leave
the interim market and join the ranks of the
employed.

18. “When you're in the car, how well you do is down
to you and you alone-no band, no
management……..”
Nick Mason

19. Chris Gill BSc(Hons) MBA FRICS FCMI MIIM
Director
JC Gill and Co Limited
Chartered Management Consultancy Surveyors
Interim Managers
07783 896634
01325 283184
chris@jcgill.co.uk
www.jcgill.co.uk
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisgillatjcgillandcoltd
OPTIMISING ASSET EFFICIENCY : TRANSFORMING SERVICE DELIVERY