New director of Interimwomen.com appointed and top tips for success revealed in new report

New director Diane Morris appointed

InterimWomen, the business forum for women working as interim managers, established by interim provider Russam GMS, has appointed Diane Morris as its new Director.

Diane brings to Interimwomen over 20 years' experience in organising and promoting business and women’s networks both in the UK and Asia. She was recently the Chairman of the judging panel for the European Union Women Inventors and Innovators Awards. She is the immediate past President of The International Alliance for Women, a global umbrella network of women’s organisations, a former Chair of the LSE Female Alumni Network and past President of City Women's Network.

Diane is an accomplished marketing and advertising sales professional working for IPC Women's Magazines and Gillette in the UK. She spent many years in Japan, where she was appointed advertising manager to Japan International Journal. She also set up her own advertising sales agency in Tokyo working with clients BBC World and Time Inc. While based in Singapore, she was appointed Regional Director (SE Asia) for DNM strategies, organisers of the BusinessWeek conferences in Asia. On returning to the UK, Diane founded her own marketing and sales consultancy specialising in conferences and speakers for the Asian market.

Diane will lead Interimwomen with the aim of growing its membership and promoting the organisation to women working as interims and those considering it as a career option.

Charles Russam, Chairman of Russam GMS, says, "Diane is highly regarded in the City and in business circles for promoting the advancement of women to senior management appointments. She also has a wealth of experience in developing women’s networks and will be a tremendous asset to Interim Women in its next exciting phase of development."

Diane says, "I am delighted to join Interimwomen as its new Director. Interim management is a growth industry and I am excited about the potential development opportunities. Our goal is to attract a greater number of women into interim management and provide them with the support they need to get established and achieve business success. We are already working on an exciting events programme for 2012."

In addition to a Masters in Communications, Advertising and Marketing from the College of Distributive Trades (now London College of Communication), Diane also has a Bsc Econ(Hons) in International History from The London School of Economics. She has been awarded the Freedom of the City of London, and is an active member of the Worshipful Company of Marketors and the Worshipful Company of World Traders.

The report

InterimWomen has recently published a report titled 'Women in Interim Management – how to succeed, the opportunities and challenges', which is an in-depth piece of market research among 1,600 women on the Russam GMS database to gain insight into the realities of working as a woman in Interim Management today. The report looks at the attractions, benefits and drawbacks of working as an interim manager.

The report contains a lot of advice for individuals going into interim management. The following are some of the respondents' top tips for success:

It is always harder work than permanent employment
Make sure that you have enough money to support yourself for at least 6 months
Make sure you can deal with the uncertainty of the work and cash flow - some people can't and permanent employment is a better option for them
Take a long time to make your decision and consider all your options. Make sure you have a financial cushion of at least a year's outgoings before you take the plunge
Do it only if it is a career choice not just as a fill in until you find a permanent role. The mind set has to be different.
If your work style tends to be 'full on, million miles an hour' this is not going to change when you become an interim! Accept that certain traits of your personality are given, and just changing your method of employment will not give you a better work life balance!
Only try interim work if you really won't be anxious about not working every day and having up to a three month gap between contracts
Present yourself as a complete professional, Meet and get registered with the main Interim Management agencies and have a clearly defined service offer
Be flexible; remember that there is likely to be a "hidden agenda" for client deciding to enlist an Interim. Usually, difficult people-management problems that permanent staff just can't handle so need a non-political "outsider" who can sort it!
Prepare a business plan
Think about the down time particularly in this market as it can go on for longer than you expect.
Do not consider Interim Management as a "stop gap" career. Make sure you remain independent; in this way you can provide neutral advice to the client. This is not possible if you are fishing for a permanent role. Make sure you can overcome long periods of "economical inactivity" to avoid getting into panic mode.
It is becoming more unstable and you would need to be able to live whilst the market still picks up, The grass is not always greener
Be flexible and ready to learn new skills.
Don't do it for work/life balance or for the money
Be serious about what you want to achieve. Don't use interim as a 'stop gap' for your next permanent role - do one thing or the other
Be clear about your skill set. Choose your interim agency carefully. Network.
Apply for lots of credit before starting - sort mortgage etc - because it will take 2 years to build up the credit rating again. Register for VAT before making any purchases.
Be sure that you can cope with the uncertainty of not knowing where the next job will come from.
Be very honest about why you want to be an interim - then be really honest if interim will give you this, Be sure you want to have periods of non paid time and understand clearly how you will use this non-paid time
It is not easy as you are often working in roles that are not as senior as you are led to believe.
Understand why you want to be an interim, what you have to offer and be prepared to network hard especially in the current market
Once you are sure this is what you want to do stick at it and don't give up.
Don't get disheartened when roles are not immediately available - keep extending your network
Think about the risks as well as the opportunities. It's not an easy option. Your reputation is hard to gain and easy to lose
Only if you are good enough - it is not an alternative career or stop gap and you risk devaluing the interim market
Think carefully of your motives. It is not the easy option but very rewarding if you go in with a realistic view of interim management.
Talk with as many other interim managers as you can to get a good 'feel' for what being an interim is like.
You have to be able to get past the "wage slave" mentality. It is a different way of working and anyone who is very risk averse will struggle.
You need to be able to be self motivated and get on with the job of generating business - even though you may not always feel like it. Ensure you have a good network of contacts - join Linked-in!
Get your house in order before embarking on this as a career
Do your homework before deciding to make sure it is the right career choice for you i.e. - What benefits will you bring to a client? - What are your strengths? - What are your needs? - Is there a market for what you have to offer? - Do targeted networking and spread the word about what you do
Only do it if you are confident, can manage ambiguity and are outstanding at delivery

Download the full report here.

About Interimwomen.com

Set up in 2008, InterimWomen is the very first forum website for women working as Interim Managers, as well as aspiring Interim Managers.
It aims to promote Interim Management as a career choice for women and to promote women in Interim Management.
Interimwomen.com offers women working as Interims or those new to the industry a support network, careers advice and networking events.
Russam GMS, the leading mainstream provider of Interim Managers is the founding sponsor of Interimwomen.com.