Time bound responsibility
Immense authority entails great responsibility. This is because followers are far more inclined to trust a leader who has exhibited certain abilities to lead them and get through obstacles whenever and wherever they may emerge. In the circumstance, it is expected of a leader to be the most proficient at solving issues swiftly. Introducing a role of an expert on demand can benefit organisations much, and Gig CXOs will benefit from the freedom, adaptability, exposure, and authority that comes with it. The challenging element is managing people and time. Time is always a constraint on an organisation since without it, all of its procedures would be rendered useless while an interim leader has to enhance processes & innovate within a short period of time whilst maintaining the current cycle of an organization.
Understand organizations and people
As hectic as it may sound, an interim leader, above it all is expected to manage resources well in order to make the seemingly impossible achievable. Top of the resources being people. While processes can be automated which results in the replacement of manpower, machines can always be maintained or replaced quicker than in case of people. To have the right resources, get the best out of them and delegate work is a lengthy process, which requires a leader to be seasoned and have a much better understanding of the organization so that the resources are aligned with the goals of the organization. In case of an interim expert, they are expected to not only understand the organization in no time, but lead others according to the vision of the organization.
Underrated soft skills
Today, organizational behaviour, human resource management & communication are most crucial prerequisites for C-Suite leaders. They need to strike the perfect balance between the grievances of the people and needs of the organization with the right amount of motivation. The recipe is simpler to grasp than actually make. Let’s take the recent account of Byju’s, the ed-tech giant who has joined the layoff bandwagon by announcing the termination of 500 employees in WhiteHat Jr, 1,100 in Toppr and reports suggest the number may be as high as 2500 across its group of companies. Even while the prime reason for the layoffs is resource efficiency, it nevertheless puts the employees in a dreadful situation where they could wake up every day fearing for their employment. As a result, maintaining order in the midst of turmoil brought on by fear and uncertainty is an extremely fragile task for leaders.
Supporting internal stakeholders
Given the complexity of such situations, companies must support their process of managing people and resources in the case of a Gig CXO. Even though they haven’t always been a part of that particular organization for a long time, experts bring experience that can help them remain composed and come up with solutions that have been tried and true in the past, solutions that are entirely original, or solutions that combine successful past practices with modern practices. On order to support the efforts of Gig CXOs, organizations need to come up with better provisions, better resources that accelerate the implementation of strategies put forth by the experts and most importantly have a great belief in the expertise and the experience of the interim leader. Like people management is an important function of any C-Suite expert, it is an organization’s responsibility to communicate better with the CXO and understand their needs.
With competent experts and supportive institutions, let’s create better organizations.
