Top 3 Signs Your Company Can Win by Using Leadership on Demand

Company owners and investors call us wanting to brainstorm about the type of leaders they need, which is great – right up our alley.

Why do companies call us saying they need an interim executiveA top interim put it this way: companies show up because something is going really, really right. Or because something has gone really, really wrong.

Fitting into one of those categories is just the start of the conversation. We also must determine if an organization is the right fit to work with InterimExecs RED Team.

We have invested 12 years and thousands of man-hours screening, ranking, and choosing the most talented CEOs, CFOs, COOs, and other executives across the C-suite to form the RED Team. That work continues every day, curating top talent for leadership on demand. These relationships are dear to us, so just as we screen executives, it’s important that we also screen companies that want to land a great executive.

Would your organization be a good fit for us and the RED Team? We have listed the top three factors we seek in both executives and companies we choose to match for talent.

Let’s explore this together and see how we match up in our leadership on demand values and your company’s goals:

1) Integrity 

In simplest terms: we’re not going to work with people who do not honor their word. Everything may not be in tip top shape at the company, and let’s face it, there are no perfect organizations out there — none without challenges and mountains to climb.

But, if you’re not willing to tell the truth and give us the lay of the land, we are not the right resource for you.

Progress begins by telling the truth, and a RED Team executive would expect a full briefing to understand where you’ve been and where you want to go.

2) Bias for Action

Interim executives are wired to not just advise or consult, but to take action, to implement and execute, to be held accountable. To take charge of teams, projects, clients, initiatives and entire organizations.

We can sit and talk about what needs to get done, but until the board and owners are ready to move forward, better outcomes are impossible.

If you are willing to make decisions and endorse a plan of action, you are on the right track. That’s the whole goal of our leadership on demand. 

3) Results Count

To make a great match between an interim executive and a company requires a shared commitment to producing outstanding results.

RED Team executives are not warm bodies used to fill a seat. Those are not the types of engagements we take on. We focus on pairing ambitious, striving, seeking companies where improvement is not nice-to-have – it’s a must – with like-minded accomplished capable leaders.

The work counts because it has to count, whether it’s saving a division or product or company, or where a new marketing strategy or sales channels are needed; where there are new products to launch, markets seized, customers to be won over; where finances must be improved or it’s the perfect moment for IPO or company sale or merger.

Those are challenges to get excited about and ones where an expert interim will have big impact in a company, while improving teams, customer engagement, and overall success.

Whether the right solution is a month engagement, a year, or multiple years, we make choices around who we choose to deploy, where and when. We only get one shot at it, one chance to make this day count.

About the Author

Robert Jordan

Robert Jordan is CEO of InterimExecs, matching organizations around the world with executives who specialize in growing and transforming companies. Jordan got his start in business by launching Online Access, the first magazine to cover the Internet, landing on the Inc. 500 list of fastest-growing companies. After selling Online Access, Jordan took on interim CEO engagements and authored a book of interviews with 45 company founders who had created $63 billion in value from scratch, titled How They Did It: Billion Dollar Insights from the Heart of America. He is the publishing partner of Start With No (RandomHouse), a best-selling book on negotiation and is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.