What this is
I take the seat. Not advising the team from beside it, but running it, carrying the number and making the decisions the role owns. Three to twelve months, full time or part time depending on what the business actually needs.
What usually brings people here
A leader has left and the search will take months, while the commercial rhythm quietly falls apart. Or the role is new, nobody yet knows what good looks like in it, and hiring permanently means committing to a job description written from guesswork.
The strategic choice
Whether to hold the position or reshape it. Most interim briefs are written as cover for the last person. The more useful question is what this seat should own by the time the permanent leader arrives, and that is a different answer.
What I do
I keep the commercial cadence going, because that is what decays fastest without an owner. I fix what is obviously broken rather than starting a transformation nobody asked for. I make the decisions that have been waiting for someone with the authority to make them. And I write down what was tried and rejected, not only what worked, because the rejected list saves your permanent hire a quarter.
How it runs
I want the numbers as the team uses them day to day, the three decisions currently stuck, and an honest account of who is thinking about leaving. Then a clear mandate. What this seat decides alone, what needs a conversation, what is off limits. Interim roles fail more often on unclear authority than on unclear priorities.
What you get at the end
A handover that leaves your permanent hire a better situation than I found, with the ground prepared rather than the mess redistributed. The last two weeks are part of the engagement, not a formality after it.