It is the “age of interims,” as a recent story in The Chronicle put it. With budgetary, political, enrollment, and burnout pressures sparking administrative churn, colleges and universities have increasingly had to rely on temporary appointments to fill the leadership gap.
All too often, however, institutions drop the ball in setting up interim administrators to flourish in key senior positions. Misperceptions surround these short-term appointments, which often emerge suddenly and come with intense challenges. Interim leaders, The Chronicle reported, “face a daunting task. They are often asked to tackle longstanding problems without the full authority, mandate, or resources of someone in a permanent position, all within an abbreviated time frame.”
Leadership turnover is stressful, even when it comes with plenty of notice. As three academic leaders (two deans and a provost), we have each held interim positions in our careers. With a new academic year approaching — one that promises to be no less challenging than 2023-24 — we have advice for higher-ed institutions on what they can, and should, do to better facilitate unplanned changeovers.
Uncertainty tends to reign after a sudden leadership change. Does the ex-leader’s surprise departure signal hidden problems? How does a college maintain momentum if it’s unclear how long the interim appointee will remain in office? Should goals in the strategic plan proceed or be postponed? Will interim hires’ direct reports accept their leadership? How will shared-governance structures be affected?
During a stretch of internal upheaval, much of the planning is focused on the search for the permanent replacement, while deliberations about the interim period itself tend to be rushed. Colleges need a separate playbook to help them (a) manage the interim transition and (b) increase the odds of success for the temporary leader. Here are some factors to consider for your interim playbook:
Be clear, open, and quick in announcing an interim appointment. Change causes anxiety in employees, and vague statements only sow further discord. You can create confidence that the transition is being managed effectively by erring on the side of clarity:
- How long will the interim leader be in place?
- To whom will that person report?
- If the interim is an internal appointee (external interims are becoming increasingly common), who will take on the person’s previous duties?
- Will the interim be a candidate for the permanent position?
- What qualifies this appointee to step into the new role?
Such delicate questions require careful yet forthright responses. You may not be able to answer all of them immediately. But for each piece of information that goes unstated, people will speculate, which rarely serves institutions well.
Spell out the scope of the interim appointee’s responsibilities. The predecessor in the position is often unavailable to train the interim replacement. But that — and the fact that the appointment is short-term — doesn’t mean this key part of the process should be neglected. Leaving interim leaders to sort things out on their own immediately puts them on their back foot.
The interim leader’s supervisors should help establish clear and reasonable goals for the position. For example, one of us who served for a year as an interim provost spent that time focused on immediate operational and budgetary matters. A six-month appointment is probably not the time to take on gen-ed reform. Interim leaders need guidance on the job expectations (and limits) from Day 1.
Validate the interim leader’s authority to do the job. Aim to de-emphasize the appointee’s interim status in internal meetings or external activities. Senior leaders should refer to the position without the “interim” tag to signal that the person holding the job is in charge and has the authority that goes with the office. One of us once referred in passing to being “just an interim” and was gently corrected by a higher-up: Interim or not, the job’s full duties still need to be done.
Even simple gestures can send a message to buoy the appointee. For instance, after one of us was named interim dean of a college and was presiding over the first meeting of its faculty, the university’s president and provost showed up to tacitly offer their “stamp of approval.”
Identify mentors for the temporary leader. Institutions regularly assign peer mentors to new staff and faculty members, but the practice seems less common for administrators — especially the interim ones. Indeed, none of us were formally assigned mentors while holding interim positions. Two key reasons for that:
- The pool of potential mentors is fairly small. For some roles — such as interim provost — there is no immediate peer on the campus. Most colleges have multiple deans, of course. But deans of very dissimilar colleges may have little in common, and all of the deans may be in competition for resources.
- Institutions may not want to invest the time and effort necessary to find peer support for an administrator who is only temporarily occupying the office.
But leaving an interim without a trusted ally is a mistake. And institutions don’t have to limit the pool of potential mentors to their own campus. Groups such as the American Conference of Academic Deans, the American Association of Colleges and Universities, and the Council of Independent Colleges offer role-specific professional-development workshops throughout the year. A major benefit of those programs — aside from the training itself — is in offering an immediate network of new and experienced administrators to turn to for advice. Interim leaders may be able to speak more frankly to external peers. It’s a smart idea to give your interim leaders the gift of this network early in their tenure.
Pave the way for the interim leader. Faced with the surprise departure of a vice president or a dean, presidents and provosts often see their only role as to select a temporary replacement, and then step away to concentrate on other matters. Instead, they should stay involved and till the ground to prepare for the interim leader to take office. For example, a month before formally assuming an interim role, one of us was invited by the provost to attend leadership-team meetings and join in conversations with department heads, as a way to hit the ground running when it was time to lead.
If, as a senior leader, you have the self-confidence to do this, encourage the members of your leadership team to meet with the new interim appointee — without you in the room — to get that person up to speed on the culture of the leadership group and mode of conducting business.
Likewise, the people who will report to the interim leader are probably already unsettled by the abrupt departure of their old boss and anxious at the prospect of adjusting to a temporary leader. They’ll also be nervously eyeing who might be in line for the permanent position. According to a survey of 99 leaders who held interim academic positions, the greatest disadvantage — by far — of interim leadership was the “sense of anxiety related to instability among the faculty/staff.”
A confidential meeting to clear the air before the interim arrives signals to staff members that you respect their concerns and welcome their feedback. It will also project trust and stability. Remember, too, that while the appointment may be the interim’s first temporary assignment, longtime staff members will have typically experienced multiple leadership changes. They may view going through it again as stressful, frustrating, or discouraging.
Such staff meetings may also provide some information that will prove helpful in guiding the interim leader’s early decision making. And don’t forget about the staff members who worked with the interim in their previous role: They will feel anxious about the change and need some reassurance and clarity about plans for their unit.
Finally, when having onboarding conversations with the interim appointee, don’t discount the importance of simple guidance. Explain your management style and your preferred mode of communication. Do you like to delegate or be more active in decision making? You won’t have the luxury of lots of time to ease into your relationship with the interim administrator, so directness is the order of the day.
Create a succinct onboarding guide for interim leaders. Faculty handbooks and HR manuals often contain excruciatingly detailed language distinguishing between titles like “interim” and “acting,” but rarely do colleges invest the time and effort to produce a brief “cheat sheet” on interim appointments. Creating one could guide those who are onboarding interim leaders and get the interims up to speed in the first few weeks.
The word “interim” connotes provisional, temporary, and short-term situations. But the impact on institutions of these increasingly common roles is often felt for many years to come. It is up to the colleges and universities managing those transitions to decide whether those lasting effects will be positive or negative.
