Companies like to squeeze as much as they can out of all opportunities, so sometimes they ask people to fill two roles at the same time. More and more, consultants are filling hybrid roles and acting as interim leaders during their engagement. While an interim leader and a consultant are different, there is a lot of cross-over. This can create challenges when the two positions they are asked to fill are fundamentally different. This means that a person must know when to act in each role and what the differences are. Sometimes this is day by day, but sometimes it can be multiple times during the same one-hour meeting.
The Interim Leader
Normally the reason a company calls for an interim leader is because the company is having trouble filling a permanent position or undergoing a management transition. An interim leader can come in to keep things moving while also bringing expert guidance during a transition.
An interim leader is brought on to keep daily operations moving. This role often has direct reports, which means more small but real change to each decision made. An interim leader does not usually get deeply involved in larger projects, but can have an effect on overall projects through small incremental changes. This role is often involved in weekly or monthly strategic meetings to fill the role that the permanent employee will fill, but should be mindful of their temporary status. When an interim leader's engagement is finished, they must return all equipment on loan from the client. An interim leader might be asked to play a part in the onboarding of the permanent hire that replaces them.
The Consultant
In contrast, a consultant is usually brought in to fill a temporary requirement and then move on once that is fulfilled. The consultant will not be later replaced by a permanent hire — rather, the consultant is there to address a problem or move the company over an obstacle.
A consultant is asked to run a special project and bring expertise to a particular issue the company is facing. The consultant will not have any direct reports unless they are other consultants who are also external to the company. A consultant is not normally engaged in daily tasks unless they are feeding into the larger goals of the engagement. When a consultant's engagement is finished, the consultant ensures all deliverables are in the client's possession, any wrap-up reports are sent, and equipment on loan to the consultant has been returned.
The two roles have different objectives, different responsibilities, and a different level of liability. Imagine the complexity added when a consultant is asked to fulfill both simultaneously.
Side by Side
| Interim Leader | Consultant | |
|---|---|---|
| Reason | Gap in permanent role | Gap in temporary skill |
| Scope | Daily decision making | Strategic guidance |
| Type | Temporary employee acting in a permanent role | Temporary employee acting in a temporary role |
| Responsibility | Daily operations | Short-term goals / long-term projects |
| Limitations | Defined by role | Defined by contract |
| Communication | With operations team to direct the team | With management to update on status and next steps |
| Authority | Strategic decision maker | Strategic guidance only |
Examples in Practice
Joe signs on to be the interim plant manager. Joe is involved in the morning operations meetings and asks a lot of questions. He ensures the plant is putting safety concerns first and drives maintenance to keep up with all preventive maintenance. Joe pushes the managers around him to make good decisions. He is current on all facility data and directs resources to problem areas. He is involved in weekly strategic planning meetings with corporate.
An eCommerce company has asked Sue to come in as an interim business development lead. Sue leads the sales team to drive new business on all full-time employee responsibilities. Because Sue is in an interim position and has many years of experience, her focus is to keep the team moving forward, bring insights from her past experience, and she documents process notes to expedite the future transfer of her role.
Melissa is brought in to lead the installation of a new performance system while all current operations continue. She visits her client regularly to teach the principles and show examples. She shares a schedule of milestones and reviews status at each visit. The company is scored against the milestones. The project ends per the schedule.
Paul has been commissioned to implement a new CRM system into a large multinational company. Paul organizes the team, conducts the daily stand-up, and manages the backlog. He is responsible for communicating status to both the team and the client. When the system is implemented, he processes feedback for correcting issues and monitors for any long-term problems. Once the system is stable, the project is closed and he hands off to the support team.
The Hybrid Role
Since many consultants have years of experience in the field they are now consulting in, sometimes the consultant is asked to play a hybrid role, where they are both interim leader and consultant. This can be tricky since sometimes their roles are in conflict with each other, especially when it comes to ownership of daily tasks. Since an interim leader is closer to a full-time employee than a consultant, there is more direct influence on decisions. There is also a difference in the liability the person should be accepting.
In this type of situation, it can sometimes be difficult for the consultant/leader to switch roles. For instance, in a single meeting on a single topic, it might be necessary to change roles several times. The leader will be leading the employees down a path, but the consultant must jump in and pull back on leading. After all, the employees must own the project or decision, not the consultant. While it is understood that neither the interim leader nor the consultant will be there long term, the interim leader is asked to act as if they will.
How to Navigate It
Consider someone who has signed on to play a dual role of both consultant and interim leader. They attend all operations meetings but only attend strategic meetings when invited — though sometimes they must insist on an invitation when it is relevant to one of their functions. They make themselves available to anyone in the organization to offer guidance but keep their focus on the original scope of work. When in a meeting within the scope, they make sure to give guidance up to the point of decision making, then hand the guidance back to the employees who will carry the project after they are no longer at the company. They act as a full-time employee until they recognize the boundary of long-term ownership.
Performing two roles that are in partial conflict can be difficult. There is no equation for processing these conflicts. It takes understanding the restrictions on the roles and experience to know when and how to address each situation. It requires constant reassessing and agility.
With clients expecting more flexibility from their resources, these complex hybrid roles are on the rise. Understanding the complexity of these roles will increase the success of such engagements.