Interim Chief Executive — Leadership and Decision Rights Reset

The appointment is for a leader who can resolve ambiguity

The remit requires more than facilitation. The interim leader must make choices, assign responsibility and hold colleagues accountable, while recognising which decisions belong to the board. Experience in a particular sector will be assessed against the actual business requirements rather than assumed.

Separate disagreement from lack of authority

Review the recurring decisions that stall, return repeatedly for discussion or produce inconsistent action across teams. Identify whether the cause is missing information, conflicting incentives, insufficient capability or genuine uncertainty over who can decide. Avoid solving every issue by centralising it with the chief executive.

Agree a small set of enterprise priorities with the board and translate them into executive responsibilities. Clarify where consultation is required, who makes the final decision and how disagreement is escalated. Ensure leaders have the resources and information needed to discharge their mandates.

Change the operating behaviour

Use real business decisions to establish the new arrangements. Resolve outstanding trade-offs, set expectations for evidence and stop repeated reopening of decisions without new facts. Address leadership performance where ambiguity has become an excuse for inaction, but also correct unrealistic mandates created by the organisation itself.

The interim chief executive will maintain close attention to customers, cash and delivery while changing the leadership system. A clearer organisation is not an end in itself if business performance continues to deteriorate.

Handover should reduce dependency on the chief executive

Leave a functioning executive team, an explicit allocation of material decisions and a reliable way to track commitments. Document remaining capability gaps and decisions requiring board attention. Major strategy, funding or structural changes remain subject to appropriate approval throughout the assignment.

Success will be evident when leaders can resolve normal conflicts at the right level, make commitments they can deliver and escalate exceptional issues promptly. The organisation should not require the interim's personal presence in every meeting to keep work moving. Applicants should be prepared to demonstrate how they have created that form of durable accountability in a previous mandate.