I have led leadership searches with a wide variety of businesses ranging in size, locations, growth stages, and cultures. While I have had many successful searches, I have also had ones derailed due to a lack of transparency or open dialogue among the stakeholders. It's always frustrating to see a search fail but it's even more frustrating when it could have been avoided.
It's from this experience that I can share three important recommendations with my clients as I engage on new searches. These three aspects are what makes the difference between a successful search and one that seems to go on endlessly (or ends with a huge compromise made on talent).
Spend the majority of your energy on clarifying and researching.
Each executive search is unique - do not attempt to rinse and repeat.
The talent pool is finite - you have to be decisive from the get go.
Where To Put Your Energy
It's too often that I meet with a Hiring Leader who thinks we can launch an effective search from a quick 30 minute discussion. Many people think that most of the time and energy in a search needs to take place during the interviewing and assessment phases so they tend to hurry through the initial discussions to get the search kicked off quickly. If the goal is to hire a Leader who can keep the status quo, then this approach may work well. But for most organizations, the priority is to hire a Leader who can inspire and succeed in an increasingly competitive market while leading effectively in a unique culture. This means a tremendous amount of thought and focus needs to be placed on clarifying the mission and goals of the role, gaining buy-in and alignment with the right stakeholders, and conducting the right research ahead of going to market or even advertising the position.
While each search is unique, I typically aim to spend 50% of my energy at the front end of the process. I realize that this may sound like a large amount of time and energy but you are investing in the success of the search and the ROI is incredibly high. You can think of it this way - by the time the Recruiter starts to assess prospective candidates, half of the work should be completed. So if it takes a few weeks to get to this point, that's ok. On the flip side, if you don't put your energy into clarifying and researching upfront and you jump into the interviewing process too quickly, you may find yourself in a frustrating process of meeting with candidates who aren't the right match. Ultimately you'll need to go back to the drawing board or make compromises to the search criteria. This tends to lead to endless searches that take 9-12 months to close. In the meantime, there's a lot of lost opportunities.
Ok, so let's look at the research stage a bit more closely to understand what questions to ask and what we're looking for specifically. Pull down on each item below to view more details.
Clarify Purpose + Vision
What is the impetus of the search? Every aspect of the role is important to clarify before going to market with a search.
If it's a replacement ...
Why is the current (or previous) incumbent leaving the role?
What did the incumbent do well and what gaps might exist?
How does this role fit in the organizational strategy?
What is the current state of the team?
Conduct a skills analysis of the current team - what capabilities exist and what capabilities are missing?
What is the succession plan?
What is the health of the current internal relationships with peer teams, stakeholders, and partners?
What past issues might exist that will impact the new leader's success?
Define success and failure in the role.
If it's a new role ...
What is mission critical about this position?
Why is the role being created now?
What resources are available (or need to be hired)?
What makes this role attractive in the market?
What is the market perception of the organization and the role?
How are peer companies conducting this same work?
Do the title, level, and compensation structure align with the market?
Who does the role report to and why? What are their reputation, strengths, and weaknesses?
How much discretion will the new leader have in defining the new role's scope and success?
Define success and failure in the role.
Ensure Buy-In + Alignment
Having alignment and buy-in is critical for not only the search but the success of the new leader once they enter the role. The more senior level the role is, the more internal politics exist which heightens the risk level.
Who are the key stakeholders and decision makers? What do they think is needed in order to succeed in this role?
If needed, ask each key stakeholder for their perspective. This can be done in a group setting or individually but the goal here is to create an open and honest dialogue.
Get everyone in the same room and make sure everyone is in alignment with key criteria, goals, responsibilities, and scope of the position.
Does everyone agree on the level, title, resources, and timing of the search?
Who is funding the role?
Who will have a role in the assessment process?
Get alignment on the sales pitch for the opportunity to ensure a consistent message.
What is the health of the stakeholder relationships? Are there any issues that need to be addressed before making a hiring decision?
Once you go to market with the search, make sure that everyone's interpretation of the vision and goals are consistent.
Identify Success Factors
Don't hesitate to get granular on these. Many times my clients will tell me that they don't have the answers yet and, when the time comes and they have identified a final candidate, they can answer these questions directly with him or her. The issue with this approach is that strong candidates will already have lost interest in the role if they don't get a good sense of the impact of the opportunity. It's better to invest the time upfront in identifying success factors before going to market. Depending on the role, there are usually four different aspects to think through - financial, customer, process, and people.
What's the budget?
What are the financial or sales goals?
How is performance measured?
How is this role linked to the business strategy?
What are market share goals with customers?
What are service goals with customers?
What are process improvement or fulfillment goals?
What are team performance goals?
What are the cultural goals?
Identify Key Relationships
Relationships are incredibly important to assess and I go into a lot more detail in a separate post "Building Your Leadership Power Base". But, at a high level, here are a few areas to discuss.
Map out the relationships and partners that this person will need to interact with.
What is the current health of these relationships?
Who are supporters or who might create barriers for the new leader?
What is the power of influence that each partner or stakeholder has on the new leader's success?
Is there anything we need to know about these ket partners and their role? For example, are any of them new to role or getting ready to move into other roles?
Develop Targeted Strategy
Prioritize the search criteria and create a targeted search strategy for the research team or recruiter to focus on.
Specific experience - building new teams, launching new products, start up vs. scalability, etc.
Specific industry and audience - B2B, B2C, D2C, private / public sector, profit / non-profit, etc.
Specific size and scope - organization size, market size, geographic reach, financial accountability, and growth rate.
Specific accomplishments - implementation, entry to new market, build new process or team, new product launch, etc.
Specific companies - competitors, peers, or those you want to recruit from.
Specific locations - which areas can the role be based and/or will need to travel often.
Specific environment - consumer driven, public vs. private, sales driven, start-up vs. traditional, etc.
Which of these are critical and which are secondary?
Prioritize Research Results
The Recruiter or Researcher can use the information above to conduct their initial market scan or research. Based on their findings, they should prioritize the results into three categories - recommended profiles, medium, and low priority. The recommended profiles should be a short list that matches all or most of the search criteria requirements and can be used to calibrate in the next step.
Calibrate + Adjust
Armed with real-time market data, the Hiring Leader and Recruiter can now calibrate and adjust their search strategy accordingly. Start with the recommended profiles from the previous step and discuss next steps. If needed, adjust the search criteria to gauge what might develop the best search results.
Go To Market
Starting with the highest priority and recommended profiles, the Recruiter should now go to market with the search. This is the best time to test the market and gather intel on the attractiveness of the role, the reputation of the organization, the strength of the sales pitch, and timing of the search.
Each Search Is Unique
Sometimes the search will seem similar to one that was done in the past. Maybe the incumbent was only in the role for a short period so the Hiring Leaders reverts to the previous search results as a starting point. While this might make sense on occasion, don't be too quick to skip over the important questions above. It's likely best to start with a fresh perspective since many things could have evolved. Maybe the business focus has shifted, the team members have changed which results in a different dynamic, the key partners are different, the relationships have shifted, and the candidates from the previous search may be at a different moment in their careers. Let's also consider that the incumbent may have been in the role a short period because there was a mistake made in the previous search and needs to be addressed before initiating a new search.
Regardless of what the details are, each search is unique and should be treated as such. Make sure to invest in the process.
The Talent Pool Is Finite
Once the clarifying and researching phase has been completed, everyone should be in a ready state to make a hiring decision. We have all seen this situation before - a Hiring Leader has met with 2-3 really strong candidates but they want to meet with more just to make sure they're hiring the right person. If you've done the due diligence at the beginning then a successful search will present you with the top candidates from the get go. Do not dampen the process with hesitation. The talent pool is limited and the market is highly competitive so once you have identified the right leader you should be decisive and invest in that person quickly. Make a compelling offer that will stick and then focus on providing the support this person needs to be successful.
Personally, when I lead a search, my goal is to recommend a short list of 2-4 candidates to the Hiring Leader, no more. I feel very strongly about this as the purpose of my role is to be as efficient and effective as possible. I aim to move quickly while saving the client time in assessing too many candidates. The right candidate should be in this short list of prospects after doing the deep work upfront in the clarify and research phase.
Invest In Candid Discussions
In a time when things are continuing to move at a fast pace and becoming increasingly competitive, we need to be transparent and candid with everyone involved. Going to market with a search before putting in the time and effort in clarifying the details of the role and educating yourself on the talent market will result in wasted time, money, and opportunity. Investing in the discussion upfront will lead to a well crafted search and a successful new hire.
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