Leadership thoughts: the most expensive chair is the empty one

In 2025, many organisations in Belgium did the same thing when budgets tightened.

They put interim management on hold.

According to Federgon, turnover in the Belgian interim management market fell by an estimated 12%, after nearly doubling between 2015 and 2024 (+96%).

We understand the reflex. External leadership looks like a cost you can postpone.

But we believe it is one of the most expensive savings an organisation can make.

Because the most expensive chair is not the one you pay for.

It is the one that stays empty.

I have seen this decision from every side.

Over the past 14 years, I worked as a financial consultant inside companies, spent five years in the Big Four and nearly seven years at Robert Half, where I led the Interim Management business across the Brussels, Diegem, Groot-Bijgaarden and Limburg offices.

Today, as Managing Partner at Skill&Will, I see organisations in Brussels and Flemish Brabant face the same choice again: wait, or keep moving.

When a manager leaves, the work goes on. Colleagues step in, everyone does their best.

But direction disappears.

Decisions are postponed. Projects lose pace. Conflicts linger because nobody has the mandate to settle them. And the strongest people, the ones with options elsewhere, start to wonder where the team is heading.

That risk is real: nearly four in ten Belgian employers (38.6%) already fear losing their best people this year, according to Acerta.

None of this shows up on a balance sheet.

But it is felt in every team meeting.

There is a comfortable assumption in a cooling market: if there are fewer vacancies, the right leader will be easier to find.

The figures say otherwise.

Vacancies are falling: down 13% in Brussels and 9.1% in Flemish Brabant over the past twelve months (VDAB). Yet VDAB’s 2026 list of shortage occupations still includes production managers, engineering project managers, logistics managers and ICT managers.

A quieter market does not make leadership less scarce.

It only makes the wait feel more acceptable.

For a long time, interim management answered one question:

“Who fills the chair until we find someone permanent?”

In our conversations with organisations in Brussels and Flemish Brabant, we hear a different question more and more often:

“Who can help us move forward, right now?”

The market reflects that shift:

• Two thirds of interim managers in Belgium work in finance, administration and legal, followed by HR at around 12% (Federgon).
• Worldwide, 42% of assignments now last longer than six months, up from 27% in 2021 (Heidrick & Struggles, via Nextconomy).
• 75% of interim managers are actively learning new AI tools, according to the same survey. We see the same in our daily contact with interim managers in Brussels and Flemish Brabant.

This is not a stopgap profile.

It is a leadership profile.

AI is changing what organisations expect from an interim manager.

Around one in three Belgian companies (32%) offered their staff AI training in the past year, according to Acerta.

AI can already speed up analysis, reporting, forecasting and decision support.

But it cannot build trust. It cannot overcome resistance, align nervous stakeholders or take responsibility for a difficult restructuring decision.

That is why the profile is shifting. Organisations in Brussels no longer look for experience alone, but for a combination:

Experience + technological fluency + human leadership.

And before AI goes into any workflow, someone has to map, optimise and document the processes it will run on.

More and more often, that is the interim manager’s first task.

At Skill&Will, we look at every match along two axes.

Skill is what an interim manager brings from day one: the experience to stabilise a team, keep projects and stakeholders on track, and make decisions that cannot wait.

Will is what makes the difference after that: the drive to leave an organisation stronger than they found it, whether the task is bridging a vacancy, steering a transformation or bringing in new expertise.

And there is a third benefit that is often overlooked.

Interim management takes the pressure off the permanent search.

Because the worst moment to choose a leader is when you feel you have no time left.

It is worth asking:

• What does a month without leadership cost this team?
• Which decisions are waiting that nobody is mandated to take?
• Who in this team is most likely to leave if nothing changes?
• Are we choosing a permanent leader carefully, or quickly?
• Is the saving real, or only postponed?

If several of these questions are uncomfortable to answer, the empty chair is probably already costing more than an interim manager would.

Interim management is no longer about filling a gap.

It is about making sure the gap never sets the pace.

Stabilise first. Move forward where needed. Then take the time to find the match that lasts.

Because purpose defines the match.

Is a leadership role in your organisation open, or about to be? Before you decide to wait, it may be worth a short conversation. We are happy to think along with you, informally and without obligation, about whether interim management can keep your team moving while you find the right permanent match.