A CIO or Head of IT departure rarely puts the organisation into suspended animation while recruitment takes place. Decisions still need to be made. People still need leadership. Suppliers, projects and budgets continue. Incidents happen. Transformation programmes do not politely wait for the new CIO to arrive.
In some situations, the vacancy also reveals problems that had previously been contained by the departing leader. That is why the first question should not always be ‘Who should we recruit?’ It may be ‘What needs to be stabilised first?’
1. Restore leadership and ownership
The immediate priority is continuity. Someone needs the mandate to make decisions, set priorities and provide direction.
Without that clarity, responsibilities can quickly become distributed informally. Executives make technology decisions from their own perspectives, senior team members fill parts of the gap, suppliers begin driving decisions and important choices are postponed because authority is unclear.
A gradual loss of clarity is enough to slow an organisation down significantly. Interim leadership provides a clear point of accountability while the longer-term solution is determined.
2. Stabilise the organisation, not just the technology
Technology leadership is ultimately organisational leadership. That means understanding what is happening with people as well as systems: uncertainty in the team, overloaded individuals, unclear responsibilities, unresolved conflict, key-person dependencies and delayed commitments.
A good interim period should make the organisation more predictable. That does not necessarily require large-scale restructuring. Often the first improvements are simpler: clear priorities, clear ownership, clearer communication and faster decisions.
3. Assess what the permanent leader will inherit
Before writing the next job description, understand the environment: the technology landscape, organisation and leadership structure, governance, transformation initiatives, suppliers, costs and contracts, cybersecurity and operational risk, and the relationship between technology and the business.
This does not need to become a six-month consulting exercise. The objective is a sufficiently clear picture to distinguish urgent issues from structural ones, and symptoms from underlying causes.
4. Create a practical 6–12 month roadmap
The permanent leader should not need to spend the first months discovering every existing problem from scratch. An interim leader can create an initial roadmap for the issues that need attention over the next six to twelve months.
Some activity may begin during the interim period; other decisions should deliberately wait for the permanent leader. The aim is to improve the organisation without unnecessarily locking the next leader into choices they should reasonably make themselves.
5. Define the permanent leadership mandate
Only after the situation is understood does the permanent role become truly clear. Does the organisation need a CIO focused on transformation and business strategy, a Head of IT focused on operational maturity, a leader who can consolidate an international environment, or someone with strong supplier governance experience? Should the CIO, CTO and product structure itself change?
The title is less important than the mandate. Recruiting against an outdated job description may produce an excellent candidate for a role the business no longer needs.
6. Support recruitment and onboarding
A clearer picture of the situation improves recruitment. Candidates can be assessed against the actual challenges they will inherit; the board, CEO or executive team can explain the mandate with greater precision; and the permanent leader can receive a structured handover rather than months of accumulated uncertainty.
The outcome should be more than a filled vacancy
The difficult question is not whether capable candidates exist. It is which capabilities are right for this organisation at this point in its development.
A well-used interim period creates a deliberate sequence: leadership gap → stabilisation → assessment → roadmap → permanent mandate → recruitment → onboarding → handover.
Recruit the permanent leader, certainly. But first make sure the organisation understands what that leader is being recruited to lead.