Workforce Recruiting is pitching an article that suggests that temp executives make a lot of sense I agree – temp execs make a lot of sense IF you're in one of the following situations:
1. Stuff has got so messed up over the last couple of years that the only chance the board
has of figuring out what's wrong is to insert a complete outsider….
2. The board's thinking about selling the company or division in question, and the mercenary makes sense for that reason alone. Instead of bringing in a leader, you bring in the corporate equivalent of a guy/gal that does inventory overnight at a retail chain. They count the assets and do the evaluation thing for the change in control that's ultimately going to happen.
3. It's time to cut, and you can't afford for the ultimate leader you bring in to have the ugliness/splatter of the multiple downsizings on them. So you bring in an interim guy that's going to do the dirty work – leaving the ultimate leader you've identified to emerge like a Phoenix from the ashes… Think Al "Chainsaw" Dunlap…
So the temp exec does work, but only if you've got one or more of the needs outlined above. Of course, you might want to think twice about that plan if you want the following traits in your workforce:
1. Employee Trust
2. Employee Engagement
3. An executive who will own the results of his actions.
The moral? Temp execs can work, but only in the situations I've outlined above. If you're not in one of those situations, your temp exec better be "temp to hire" or you're going to have a steamy, problem-riddled morality play on your hands when their 12-18 months of tenure have ran their course.
Bet on that…
