Every week I get a few requests to help people out in different ways. The most common request is to recommend candidates from my rolodex for job searches. They are usually CEO or c-suite roles. The requests always include a desired profile of the leader. Almost always these concentrate on past roles and category experience. People take great confidence in the seats you’ve occupied far more than achievements or leadership style. There is then typically a blunt description of the situation leading to needing a new leader and the constraints and culture they will operate with. I do my best and am always happy to help my network. A recent request triggered me to think that this week I would share a few thoughts about finding great talent, learned the hard way (as ever).
My first move is filtering. Just like spam email writers work to get as quickly as possible to the very few who will engage, so I look to filter out two extremes of leadership. On one extreme are the micro-managers that insist on being involved in everything. They test everyone endlessly on minutiae and generally demand equivalent intensity from their favorites. My coach always tells CEOs to work on the business, not in the business. Wise advice. At the other extreme are the figureheads. Leaders in it for the title and prestige but little interest, intensity or involvement in the day to day. There are many less of these leaders than twenty years ago. A dying breed and that’s no bad thing. My advice on your search is work as quickly as possible to filter candidates anywhere near either of these extremes.
Once you have filtered, look for people who talk openly and fluently about three things: their values, their motivations, and the outcomes they have delivered. The first is critical. If all you learn about someone is their business resume and the chronology of their career you know nothing at all. You may as well read their LinkedIn and make your offer on that basis. Equally, what energizes them, captures their imagination, and encapsulates their ambitions is the essence of whether they fit with your strategy and culture. Finally, anyone can take credit for corporate success and periods of good results. What you want to hear about should have a start, a middle and an end. Here is the opportunity I saw, here’s how I built a team to pursue it and here are the outcomes we designed and delivered together. It sounds obvious, but I can promise you it’s extremely rare. I remember 10+ years ago working with an expensive “a-list” search firm to find a leader to build an eCommerce division for me. Almost every person talked about role boundaries, technologies, marketing tools and titles. I hired the person that talked constantly about revenue and P&L development enshrined in a playbook, delivered multiple times. It was compelling, but even more so compared to other leaders who never mentioned making a sale at any point in the conversation!
My final filter is rarer still. Leaders who know their strengths (professional and emotional) and create balance around them. I say, “take the complement.” Know your strengths and respect the complementary strengths in others to compensate and augment. Build a high-performing team that is genuinely better together, built on excellence and mutual respect. What this means for hiring is the best leaders will want to bring people with them or will talk about how they organize to build the ideal team around them. Never feeling anxious or insecure that they don’t know everything, do everything or take credit for everything. The very best build great teams and step-back to let them express themselves and do their best work. These are the leaders I would hire in a heartbeat.