| Greetings!
Welcome to the first Edition of The Funnel from Interim Assignment.
Over the last two years I have had the opportunity to  work with over 500 senior executives who attended the IMA Interim Management Induction Workshop. It became clear that many of them had the skills, knowledge and experience to deliver successfully on assignment but that they were being held back by the confidence and ability to market and sell themselves effectively. For this reason I decided to set up Interim Assignment, which is committed purely and simply to helping Interim Managers win lucrative assignments. As far as I am aware, we are the only company specialising in this.
We believe that what we offer will be of particular value to those who are seeking their first assignment (notoriously difficult!) or who find themselves in a temporary slump (as we all do at some time in our careers!). Please take a look at our website ( www.interimassignment.com) and come back regularly as we'll be constantly adding to the products and services we offer (some of which are free!!) I hope you enjoy the newsletter and find it valuable.
Please stay in touch and if you've any suggestions for articles or would like to submit one yourself, then please call me on 07768 596026.
All the very best
Simon Berry
Director
Interim Assignment |
| THAT ELUSIVE FIRST ASSIGNMENT |
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| First Assignment Research
We recently conducted research of the attendees on the IMA Interim Management Induction Workshop which we run for Results in Business.
We were looking to find out:
- How many decided to pursue a career in Interim Management once they the facts about the life
- How those that had decided to pursue the career were progressing in finding assignments
- Of those that had found assignments - how had they found them (own network or service providers), their daily rates, the type of assignments and sector
- The challenges they faced/are facing in finding their first assignment and the advice they would give to those just starting out
We have consolidated the results and they make fascinating reading. To read the report please click here |
| PERSONALITY TRAITS OF INTERIM MANAGERS |
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 What makes a great Interim Manager?
In many ways this is an impossible question to answer as assignments are so incredibly varied. However in conjunction with Competex, we profiled 50 practicing Interim Managers using the DISC profiling tool from Thomas International. Whilst the report will not tell you if you'd make a successful interim or not (and anyone claiming psychometric tools ever could do this should be ignored!!), it does, along with some honest self-analysis help to highlight some of the challenges you might personally face and the type of assignment that may suit you best. To see the full report please click here. |
| CONSULTANT OR INTERIM? |
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Does it matter?
We believe it does. Prospects often have very strong (and often unfavourable) views of consultants. The sort of comments you often hear are: "They borrow your watch to tell you the time", "When you've signed the contract and get down to the real work, a bunch of spotty-faced graduates turn up", "They seem more interested in seeing how much they can bill me rather than solving my problem". I've not included the more derogatory ones. We believe that these objections can easily be handled by interim managers.
- Interim managers actually implement the work and get results rather than just helping design it
- The interim manager you select is the one you get, there are no substitutions
- The interim manager is on a contract to get results and that is where they put their focus
A tool we have found useful is the Performance Improvement Process: Analyse the Problem - Design the Solution - Implment the Solution - Manage and Continuously Improve the business. It has helped us on numerous occasions to explain where the differences are. Of course, as an interim, you can and do operate in all areas, whereas consultants tend to stick to the analysis and design phase. To download the process overview please click here and select the Consultant or Interim? article from the free downloads. |
