Temperance: the interim manager’s No. 1 asset

Everything goes fast, very fast, too fast some would say…

Who still remembers our annoyance every time we had to queue at the ticket offices of SNCF stations to buy our tickets. Now in three clicks and 10 minutes before the train departs, our tickets are on our smartphone…
This is one example among others and with a little hindsight, there are many. And that’s quite normal… It’s convenient.
Booking a show, renting a car, buying a trip, etc., everything that used to consume time is now 3 clicks away. So it’s convenient and we save time.
However, everyone is aware that despite the previous observation, time is accelerating.
The cause of this feeling is also often due to infobesity. Unless it is an aggravating factor. It surrounds us and it is difficult to avoid it: notifications on our smartphones, emails, text messages, etc…
Managers and employees are increasingly expressing the feeling of being confronted with an overabundance of information that they can no longer absorb, process, prioritize and that generates stress.
In 2010, it was stated that “humanity has produced more information in the last 30 years than in 2,000 years of history and this volume of information doubles every 4 years”.

 

And that was in 2010.

So everything goes fast, very fast. Too fast, some will say… Huh, my poor Lucette!!!
All companies are adapting, digitizing, blueprinting, if I may use the neologism. It’s a question of survival.
Executives, top managers, managers, employees, all get annoyed for different reasons by this temporal disruption and this information overload.
They want everything, right now. It’s order/counter-order. We do, we undo” we hear too often.
This probably also explains fatalism and aquoibonism. But also burnout in companies that must constantly innovate, transform and restructure. It is an obligation.

 

The observation is implacable, unavoidable.

Internally, managers have to make sense, explain the strategy, deploy tactics and are often confronted with team inertia when it comes to execution.
Everything goes fast, very fast. Too fast, some will say… Huh, my poor Lucette!!!
By questioning many leaders and managers, it appears that everyone is totally aware of the need to continue the march forward. But many point out that we need to change the way we bring it to life internally with the teams.
What often comes out without it being clearly expressed is temperance.

 

Temperance is one of the 4 cardinal virtues.

It is defined as a voluntary moderation or restraint of oneself.
It’s not easy when you’re in charge of moving teams, projects, an entire organization forward.
However, it is an important lever for putting things into perspective, giving courage, and agreeing to investigate complex and energy-consuming subjects.
This is also the reason why companies are aware that interim executive management, which was mainly a solution for restructuring, “turning” a situation or dealing with the temporary absence of a manager, is now an opportunity to carry out strategic projects. These experienced managers intervene and bring this temperance to the teams.
Through their hindsight, their “business” expertise and their ability to interface with company managers, they lead projects with the aim of engaging everyone.
Moving from a “statutory” logic to a “contribution” logic, they act by taking into account the 360° challenges of projects and they temper at all levels. Without ever forgetting to move forward.
The FNMT (National Federation of Interim Management) but also our colleagues, the recognized players in the market such as Valtus, X-PM, EIM, Delville, Nim are seeing this more each year.

Interim management is becoming a new form of management.

Jean-Marc Louis
, Associate Director