Nov. 13, 2025
By Sam Young
When I speak with business leaders across Europe, one phrase comes up time and again: we cannot afford to wait.
Yet all too often, organisations do exactly that. They wait for certainty, delay decisions, and hope for stability in an uncertain world. The truth is that waiting often costs far more than hiring someone to lead through change.
I have seen it firsthand this year, speaking with leaders in January to hear, “We are going to hold off until things are a little more stable”. To then speak with them in the last few months when things have now really gone bad and they need some one in yesterday.
Why Standing Still is Risky
The cost of inaction is not always obvious. It appears in lost market share, slowing innovation, morale dips, and missed opportunities. Many leaders only realise it when a crisis forces urgent action, by which point the costs have compounded.
In my work placing interim leaders across sectors, I see this repeatedly. Organisations that hesitate end up reactive, patching problems instead of shaping strategy. Those who act decisively through interim leadership gain momentum, perspective, and optionality.
Flexible Leadership in Action
Flexible leadership is more than filling gaps. It is about enabling transformation and sustaining change beyond a contract. Interim leaders bring:
Momentum from day one – They start delivering results immediately without waiting to climb internal ladders.
An external perspective – They challenge assumptions and identify areas that internal teams often overlook.
Risk containment – Organisations can pilot strategies or new structures with interim leaders before committing long term.
Across Europe, this trend is growing. According to a survey in 2024 conducted across Interim Management Europe, 43 percent of companies plan to increase interim hiring in the next 12 months. This demonstrates a clear move toward agile, flexible leadership.
- Companies are increasingly using interim executives for strategic projects rather than just covering vacancies.
- There is a growing appetite for sector and role specific expertise in transformation, digital adoption, and supply chain resilience.
- Market maturity varies across countries. Northern Europe often uses digital platforms to source interim talent with technical skills, but Interim leaders are still heavily based on personal networks.
Not everything is captured in surveys. From my conversations and placements, waiting for permanent certainty almost always slows progress. The risk is compounded when organisations face complex transformation, regulatory change, or disruptive market forces. Interim leaders often prevent these risks from escalating by introducing immediate, structured, and focused leadership.
Flexible interim leadership is not just a stopgap. It is a way to maintain momentum in uncertainty, safeguard strategic projects, and give organisations the breathing space to make informed decisions without being paralysed by risk.
Question for my network: What is the most significant cost you have observed when a business waited too long to act? How could interim leadership have changed the outcome?
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