How do interim leaders drive meaningful change?

Interim leadership is often talked about in terms of stepping in during uncertainty. We’ve explored why so many organisations now turn to interim leaders when they need continuity and help deciding what really matters.

This piece looks at what happens once an interim is in post and how the impact of that work often carries forward after they have moved on.

When an interim leader starts

The early days shape how people respond to interim leaders. Staff notice how the interim listens, how they make sense of what they’re seeing and how they involve others in their thinking. As the direction becomes clearer, confidence tends to grow across the organisation.

Leaders and boards play an important role here. When they set out what matters, share the right information and make themselves available for honest conversations, the interim can move at a pace that suits the organisation. It helps everyone settle into the change and understand how the work will progress. For boards, CEOs and senior leaders sponsoring an interim, understanding the desired impact helps you get far more from each appointment.

Case study – Interim CEO, Public Law Project

Public Law Project is a respected social justice charity. While the chief executive took parental leave, the board wanted more than a caretaker. We supported them in appointing Jamie Peters as Interim Chief Executive. Jamie was tasked with maintaining momentum and leading the implementation of a newly launched strategy. His brief was broad: champion culture, impact and inclusion, empower the senior team, strengthen the charity’s external voice and unite people behind a shared purpose.

An effective interim mindset

Interim leaders who make a real difference tend to approach the role with a people-first mindset. They arrive curious, listening carefully to piece together how the organisation really works, which helps them to spot where clarity is missing and where teams need more support.

A few patterns show up often in successful interim assignments:

• They move quickly, focusing on results that matter to staff and service users.
• They use a coaching approach to strengthen the organisation and its governance, helping people find clearer ways of working.
• They speak plainly with boards and senior teams, which encourages more open conversations.

Over time, they involve people more directly in shaping the work, which helps teams understand the direction and reduces the sense that change is being done to them. It also creates space for more honest conversations about what is working and what is not.

Strengthening culture and confidence

Good interim leaders pay close attention to both culture and structure. They learn how people work together, how decisions are made and where the pressure points lie to understand how people can function with greater clarity.

They support teams through change by being steady, available and honest about what they are seeing. With a mix of empathy and firm decision-making, interim leaders give people a sense of direction at a potentially uncertain time.

Many teams we’ve worked with describe this as the point where the organisation’s work starts to feel more manageable and less reactive.

Over time, interims tend to leave behind improvements such as:

• Stronger governance and clearer accountability.
• A more resilient and motivated team.
• A shared understanding of what the organisation is working towards.

These changes often remain in place after the interim has moved on because they make day-to-day work feel easier and reduce friction. In some organisations, they also help emerging leaders start to spot patterns that might otherwise be missed. Teams are often working on simpler plans that feel possible to deliver.

Preparing for long-term success

Interims play an important role in setting up the organisation for what comes next by focusing on the practical conditions a permanent leader will inherit. This can include improving essential processes, strengthening how the senior team works together or bringing long-standing priorities back into view.

We see this often at Peridot. Interims help organisations steady their operations and make governance clearer. Over time, this changes how decisions are made day to day and gives an incoming leader something solid to build on once the handover has happened.

The first ninety days

In longer-term senior interim roles, often at director or CEO level, the first few months tend to set the tone for how the organisation responds.

People look for cues in the interim’s behaviour long before they look for plans or documents. They notice whether the interim is listening, how they handle pressure and how they bring others into the work. These are early signals that tend to shape how people engage in the weeks that follow.

Across organisations and sectors, the early steps often look similar:

• Week one: they spend time listening, meeting people and understanding how the organisation has been working and what people hope will change.
• Weeks two and three: they start to build a clearer picture of the issues that need attention and the routines that are slowing progress.
• Month two: they work with the board and senior team to confirm the priorities that matter most and the support required to achieve them.
• By month three: they focus on visible improvements, whether that’s simplifying a process, fixing a long-standing bottleneck or rebuilding key relationships.

Making change stick

Once the early work is underway, interims usually start paying attention to what teams will rely on day to day and the routines people will keep using after the interim has stepped away.

A few approaches tend to make the biggest difference:

• Short, practical plans that link purpose to day-to-day priorities.
• Governance routines that bring decisions and risks into clearer view.
• Lighter, more consistent team check-ins that keep work moving.
• Coaching that helps managers build confidence and handle challenges effectively.

These ways of working are usually simple. What matters is that they feel usable and consistent, so progress does not depend on the interim still being in post.

How this plays out in practice

We recently appointed an interim operations lead at a social justice charity experiencing funding pressure, where they focused on simplifying caseloads, rebuilding relationships with key suppliers and bringing in short weekly “huddles” to help the team stay aligned. Over time, staff felt better supported and referral times began to fall. When the permanent leader stepped in, the team chose to keep these routines because they made the workload feel more manageable.

How to support your interim day-to-day

The success of an interim appointment will depend on how the organisation supports them. Even experienced leaders benefit from simple, steady structures that help them make decisions and build trust quickly. Small actions from sponsors and senior teams often make the biggest difference.

A few things help interims stay effective:

• Champion the interim’s mandate in public.
• Regular check-ins to unblock issues.
• Invite candour and thank people for speaking plainly.

A shared focus on outcomes that matter to people using the organisation’s services also helps. It provides the interim and the wider team with a common reference point, especially when decisions are difficult or contested.

This kind of support makes it easier for interims to focus on the work itself, and staff tend to feel more supported as the organisation moves through the transition.

When it is time to hand over

Great interims work themselves out of a job, so a thoughtful handover is a key part of interim leadership. It helps the organisation carry progress into the next phase and gives the incoming leader a clear starting point.

By this stage, the interim has a strong sense of what is working and where attention is still needed, so their insight can be invaluable. A good handover usually covers:

• What has changed during the assignment, and why those decisions were made.
• The priorities that remain active and who now owns them.
• Any emerging risks or dependencies that the new leader should be aware of.
• Reflections that can help the organisation understand how it has grown.

Taking time over this stage helps staff feel continuity through the change and gives the new leader a steadier starting point.

Building on interim leadership impact

Interim leaders play a distinct role during periods of change, and their impact often lasts well beyond their time in post. Their ability to steady teams, create clarity and build practical routines gives organisations room to grow with confidence.

In my next blog, and the final part of this series, we will focus on how to recruit interims in a way that brings those strengths to the surface. We will look at how a values-led process supports better decisions, and how thoughtful recruitment helps organisations find leaders who can guide them through demanding moments.