Lucy Herrett - Interim Manager

Lucy Herrett spent seven years in a variety of internal communications roles with BT before making the transition into interim management. Here, she tells us about the move from permanent employee to interim manager:

During my time with BT I was assigned to various business units, so I suppose I was acting as an interim manager without actually being one! It was here I learnt that I'm a natural problem solver. I absolutely thrive on going into new environments, assessing the current situation and coming up with plans to either improve or meet new business objectives. So after seven years I decided it was time for a new challenge and a completely different sector.

I knew I wanted to be an interim manager. That sense of being on 'borrowed time' and needing to make an impact quickly really appealed to me and of course, played to my problem solving abilities.

I contacted VMA Group because I know they're the market leaders. Many consultancies offer broad brush approaches to communications recruitment, but VMA Group really understands internal communications and the mechanics and challenges of working as an interim manager.

The opportunity to meet with Cancer Research UK came very quickly and I was offered an initial three month contract.Unsurprisingly I found the third sector to be completely different to telecommunications and so I knew early on that this was going to be the right challenge for me.

The nature of interim management usually means that you're hired to meet a specific challenge. At Cancer Research UK I had to evaluate the internal communications function and write a new internal communications strategy, I then helped with hiring my permanent replacement. The whole assignment took 14 months to complete.

There was also an added impetus to the role because of the nature of the organisation. I felt compelled to justify to myself that I had earned every single penny of my day rate. It was a very powerful motivator, especially as I could see first-hand how difficult raising funds could actually be. It's a really diverse organisation employing a range of staff from fundraisers to scientists, so you had to be very mindful of this diversity in all your activity.

I got great exposure to the Executive Board. One of my greatest achievements in this assignment was getting board sponsorship for a project I was leading. Consequently, internal communications was acting at a strategic rather than at a channel level.

Not having those long-standing work relationships can be a downside of being an interim manager but I've made sure that I've developed my networks. VMA Group helped in this by staging a number of events where I've been able to make contact with very senior internal communications professionals across a variety of sectors.

Thankfully the positives of being an interim manager outweigh any negatives. The constant challenge, the different places you visit and people you meet, plus finding out how an organisation works is really exciting. It is very refreshing to be able to speak with authority and to have the person on the other side of the desk know that you aren't trying to build an empire or manage the fall-out from a previous, historical decision.

The most satisfying aspect however, has to be leaving a legacy to an organisation in the systems, practices and processes you set up. It is so gratifying to know that you've made a positive mark on an organisation before moving on.