We’re used to talking about the gig economy in terms of Uber drivers and freelance designers. But in 2025, it’s the CEO role that’s starting to look more like a contract gig. And the implications for culture are bigger than most people realize.
So far this year, a third of new CEO appointments have been interim or short-term. That is not a rounding error. It is a sharp departure from the norm. In the past few years, that number hovered between 5 and 9 percent. Now it has jumped to 33 percent, according to Challenger, Gray & Christmas. Boards are no longer looking for the ten-year captain to guide the company from crisis to stability to growth. They are hiring for phases. One CEO to make the cuts. Another to restore morale. One to absorb the backlash. Another to rebuild the trust.
This approach might reflect the volatility of the market, but it also reveals a deeper truth. Boards are treating leadership like task management, not transformation. They are segmenting the job into short bursts of control rather than committing to a vision. It mirrors the rise of fractional roles across the C-suite, but the stakes at the top are different. Leadership is not a relay race. Culture is built in the handoffs. When each phase comes with a new face, the organization struggles to believe in any of them.
This isn’t a theory. It’s the playbook. John Frehse and I explored this approach in our conversation about leadership in distressed environments. You can listen to that episode here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/culture-in-a-distressed-environment-with-ankuras/id1802901757?i=1000700619364
But this model is no longer limited to distressed assets. It’s expanding to companies that are doing just fine. In fact, some of them are leaning into layoffs as a sign of discipline and strategic focus — not desperation. The Wall Street Journal covered this in a recent article on how workforce reductions are now being used as growth signals.
We’re not watching a reaction. We’re watching a trend take root. Here’s how the model works.
Act one is the Cleaner. This CEO is brought in when things are in flux. Layoffs, divestitures, restructures. It’s a role that some leaders avoid entirely — and others make their name on. Their job isn’t to build morale. It’s to make the hard calls and execute them quickly. Cut costs. Trim headcount. Get the financials back in shape. Whether employees trust them isn’t really the point.
The role is often temporary. The CEO knows it too. These are high-burnout, high-accountability jobs where results are measured in numbers, not loyalty. And once the tough stuff is done, they move on. That’s not failure — that’s the plan.
Then comes act two: the Fresh Slate. This leader walks into the aftermath with a very different energy. They weren’t the one holding the axe, which means they have a shot at building trust. They talk vision. They set a new tone. They represent the emotional recovery. Employees are relieved it’s not more bad news. Boards and investors embrace the idea of a reset. Momentum returns — or at least, that’s the hope.
From a culture perspective, this structure might actually work. We talk constantly about how experiences shape beliefs. When one CEO creates the hard experience, and another comes in to reshape the story, it gives employees something to believe in again. It’s good cop, bad cop. And it creates room for each leader to succeed on their own terms.
But there are trade-offs. Leaders get typecast. Once you’re the Layoff CEO, it’s hard to be considered for anything else. The career upside might be there — but the personal narrative gets flattened. Boards start thinking about CEOs less as long-term culture stewards and more like phase-specific specialists. Employees end up bouncing between leadership styles without ever knowing what the company actually stands for.
When boards are under pressure, they often retreat to the familiar. That is why we are seeing the rise of the boomerang CEO—former leaders brought back to steady the ship. Bob Iger at Disney. Howard Schultz at Starbucks. Even Kevin Johnson was a boomerang executive before taking over. But let’s not confuse familiarity with effectiveness. A study from MIT Sloan found that companies bringing back former CEOs see an average ten percent drop in market-adjusted stock performance. Second acts rarely deliver the transformation needed because they rely on what worked before, not what is required now.
This is not about age or experience. It is about creativity and courage. Bringing back the same leadership in a new context can feel like a safe move, but it often signals a lack of imagination at the board level. Stability might calm investors in the short term, but it rarely sparks long-term growth. If culture drives results—and it does—then recycling leadership can stall progress at the exact moment innovation is most needed.
So what does this mean for culture?
It means we have to stop pretending that one leader can be everything. It means understanding that adaptability is the real skill companies are hiring for — in the business and in the C-suite. The CEO who comes in after a layoff isn’t there despite what happened. They’re there because of it. The Cleaner lays the foundation. The Fresh Slate brings the rebuild. Each role matters. Each one shapes the experience.
When employees understand why a leader is there and what their purpose is, trust doesn’t have to be rebuilt from scratch. It can evolve. That’s not softness — that’s alignment. It’s a strategy that acknowledges both the operational and emotional sides of leadership.
This isn’t the collapse of leadership. It’s the evolution of it. We’re seeing companies embrace modular leadership. Not because they’re indecisive — but because they’re learning to match the right leader to the right moment. And when they do it with intention, culture has a better chance of surviving whatever comes next.
Elsewhere in Culture
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-late-show-stephen-colbert-end-may-2026
CBS canceling The Late Show with Stephen Colbert is being positioned as a financial decision, but let’s be honest. This is what it looks like when ‘data-driven’ becomes a shield for short-term thinking. I’ve worked in organizations that worship data, but more often than not, it is just a tool to justify the decision you already wanted to make. CEOs are handed reports and ROI models that point to cost savings, while ignoring the strategic value sitting right in front of them. Colbert may show up as a loss leader in a spreadsheet, but he also brings cultural capital, audience loyalty, and credibility that cannot be measured by ad revenue alone.
In many companies, data is not an objective guide. It is a weaponized narrative. Executives hire market research firms not to discover the truth but to validate what they already believe. That is not strategy. That is fear dressed up as logic. Canceling Colbert may make sense on paper, but it strips away one of the few mainstream platforms where cultural relevance and influence meet. Thought leadership does not always show up in quarterly earnings. Sometimes it shows up in trust. And that is much harder to rebuild once you have cut it.
https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2025/07/24/recommitting-to-our-why-what-and-how
Satya Nadella’s message is a masterclass in how to lead through complexity without losing clarity. At a time when many leaders avoid hard truths, he addresses them directly. He acknowledges the tension between growth and layoffs, performance and pain, and then connects that tension back to purpose. By returning to Microsoft’s why, what, and how, he reminds employees that culture is not something that happens after results—it is what drives them. This is not performative empathy. It is clarity, and it is rare. When leaders speak with this kind of honesty, people listen because they know it is coming from a place of grounded conviction.
What stands out most is the invitation to learn, to rethink, and to recommit. Satya is not hiding behind artificial intelligence as a magic solution. He is pointing to the real work ahead—shifting mindsets, rebuilding trust, and scaling innovation through people. Transformation is not clean. It is often disorganized and emotional. But that does not make it any less valuable. Microsoft is not succeeding in spite of its culture. It is succeeding because of it. That is what leaders across industries need to understand. Culture is not what you preserve while you grow. It is what allows you to grow in the first place.