Growth-capable devolution needs a bigger interim leadership market
The next phase of English devolution will test leadership capacity as much as institutional design.
New and emerging strategic authorities are being asked to establish themselves quickly while taking on greater responsibility for growth, infrastructure, transport, skills, investment and public service reform. At the same time, local government reorganisation, financial pressure and technological change are increasing demand for many of the same leadership skills.
For organisations in start-up and scale-up phases, interim leadership will be particularly important. Interims can provide experienced leadership at precisely the point it is needed most: establishing new functions, designing operating models, building teams, creating governance, accelerating major programmes and providing additional capacity while permanent structures are developed.
The challenge is that the interim market is already relatively shallow. Searches can repeatedly draw on a familiar group of senior leaders with experience across local government, combined authorities, central government and the wider public sector. If demand is going to increase, simply moving the same people around the system will not be enough. We need to grow the market.
Looking beyond the traditional interim pool
One opportunity is to make it easier for senior leaders from the private sector to take on public-sector interim assignments. Many bring precisely the capabilities that emerging strategic authorities need: commercial judgement, major programme delivery, organisational transformation, infrastructure, investment, technology and experience of building organisations at pace. However, successful transition requires more than importing private-sector techniques. Public leadership brings democratic accountability, political scrutiny, transparency, complex governance and multiple stakeholder interests. The strongest cross-sector interims will therefore combine commercial experience with curiosity, adaptability and the ability to lead through influence rather than hierarchy. Of course, the exchange works both ways. A period in public service can give a private-sector leader experience of political judgement, systems leadership, complex partnerships and delivery under intense scrutiny. Those capabilities can make them stronger leaders when they return to business.
Interim as a route into public leadership
This is where the interim market has a particular opportunity. An interim or fixed-term appointment can offer a practical route for executives considering a move between sectors. Organisations gain access to new capability without assuming that a permanent appointment must be the starting point, while leaders can experience public service without committing to a permanent career change. Recruitment practices need to support this. Rather than defaulting to previous local government or combined authority experience, organisations should distinguish between experience that is genuinely essential and experience that has simply become familiar. Greater emphasis should be placed on transferable capability: scaling organisations, transformation, commercial judgement, governance, partnership working, systems leadership and delivery in complex environments.
Creating a bigger leadership ecosystem
Devolution will need experienced leaders who can step into organisations at different stages of maturity, build capability quickly and then hand over to the leadership teams that will take them forward. That means developing existing public-sector talent, but it also means opening the interim market much more confidently to leaders from business and other sectors.
Growth-capable devolution needs growth-capable leadership. If we want enough of it, we need to stop thinking about separate public and private-sector talent pools and start building a genuinely cross-sector interim leadership market. For emerging strategic authorities, that could be the difference between simply establishing new structures and building organisations capable of delivering from day one.
George Agyemang is Partner, Executive Interim, at Faerfield Limited.
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