From Placeholder to Partner: The Expanding Role of Interim Leaders
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Since the pandemic, the roles of interim leaders in higher education have changed, at first gradually and now steadily. This is for several reasons, a principal one being that the status quo in college and university leadership is less able than before to meet the escalating needs of students, faculty, staff, and donors.
It is documented that presidents serve shorter and shorter terms, and provosts face a quick end if they lean too far back toward the faculty, or, alternatively, transparently do the bidding of a CEO-type leader. For their part, CFOs are finding the financial challenges on campuses as complex as in corporate environments and without the larger compensation.
Enter interims. An experienced interim leader -- who comes to campus to serve solely as an interim without interest in the permanent role -- is now more valuable to rapidly changing institutions. Traditionally, trustees, presidents, and provosts have branded interims in a few stereotypical ways: placeholder, train conductor, substitute, but there are now more powerful roles for interims. As background, the first three below represent the traditional responsibilities, and the second three represent new models of interim leadership.
Traditional Roles for Interims
1. The Placeholder
This has been the most well-known and heavily utilized role for an interim. In this capacity, the interim is appointed essentially to keep things as they are, for better or worse, for a pre-determined period. This model of leadership is expected to stabilize the institution in minor ways and does not contemplate any changes of medium or large size. Faculty continue to teach, their handbooks remain unedited for the most part, and enrollment planning remains familiar. Placeholders come and go, hopefully, without incident(s).
2. The Train Conductor
This has been a useful, if now dated, approach to interim service. These interims are also not charged to make major changes to campus life and systems, but they are given the go-ahead to address perhaps dated policies in student life or an academic budget that fails to address the needs of new degree programs. Train Conductors are valued for their years of prior experience and broad institutional perspectives on the politics surrounding student life, the various risks of litigation, academic departments overdue for external review, and numerous budget "clean-up" projects. Still, they are generally not perceived as serious campus change agents.
3. The Chess Piece
This role for an interim is more subtle and future-oriented. When boards reach agreement on the need for institutional change, it is usually on multiple levels. When the president or provost leaves, trustees will seek an interim leader for a semester, or more likely a year. In these instances, the interim may be essentially used as a chess piece who is brought in to, as quickly and quietly as possible, begin a reset of key strategic operational directions that have gone off-track. This model of interim leadership goes beyond that of a placeholder: The Chess Piece sets the table for a new president or provost to arrive on a campus prepared to undertake significant change.
New Models of Interim Leadership
The three above are traditional roles for interims, while below are three new models of interim leadership, all focused on more serious academic, budgetary, and cultural change.
1. The Change Agent
Where in the past, an interim was called to keep things in their places, the Change Agent is called to move things out of their places immediately and to prepare the school for visible changes before the permanent leader arrives. For instance, assignments such as collaborating with the CFO to revise and streamline the budget or to eliminate duplicative positions in academic staffing may be early priorities. The expectations for interims placed as Change Agents are typically precise and fully spelled out, with measures of accountability by month and semester.
2. The Partner
With an even broader charge than simply bringing change within a relatively tight timeframe, an interim serving as a Partner is asked to take a longer view of what is strategically best for the college or university. This interim will hold a seat at the leadership table, and the assignments she or he undertakes will be more strategic than strictly operational, more long-range than immediately tactical. This type of interim can help an institution in a multitude of ways, and if the individual is a true interim and not applying or rehearsing for the permanent position, then the work product will focus to a large extent beyond the timeframe of the interim's assignment, and in some cases may include participation in the selection of the eventual permanent leader.
3. The Permanent Link
Effective interims are increasingly called upon to work with the institution's leadership to identify and onboard the upcoming permanent leader. As such, the interim serves as one of the key administrators in updating the permanent position description and working with a search firm to complete the transition to the permanent decision-maker. This model of interim leadership looks beyond the institution's immediate needs to challenges in the next two to five years. If done well, the work of the interim will be completed both seamlessly and strategically, as they play a powerful role in the completion of one institutional chapter and the start of the next.
While all six of the roles above can be effectively filled by interims, the three final ones represent expanded leadership roles designed to help colleges and universities navigate an uncertain future in flexible, cost-effective ways.
