First, the findings:
65% of leadership roles fail.
Industrial and organizational psychologists have uncovered that to effectively market to management, your messaging must ultimately be that with you, ‘they will not fail’ or with you, “they will be left the hell alone” (yes, this is a quote) rather than marketing to them for any success or performance outcome.
Unsettling? I hope so. Surprising? If you are reading this blog post, likely not. So what does this all mean? It means for the success not only of your company and function but also for the success of EVERYONE (employee, customer, vendor, partners, etc.) that reports or connects to that leader ..it is vitally important to hire the right person.
How do we do that? It isn’t easy. After almost twenty years of sourcing at the highest levels (both executive as well as high-impact individual contributor roles), here is what I have learned:
1- Leaders should not hire an executive search firm. I realize that I offer executive search services, so yes, this statement is a bit awkward. That said, in truth, leaders should do this themselves. Why? Because no matter how hard we try, we can never be them, and no matter how much we care, we will never have that level of intimacy with a search strictly because we will likely not work with this person quite as much as the leader hiring them will.
2- Proven past does not mean a proven future. I have seen executives who have absolutely killed it at a previous startup crash and burn before they even make their first meeting. It happens.
3- The best executives play up. If you want a great VP, hire a Senior Director or a Head of ___; if you want a great CTO, look at VPs or Heads of Eng with large product or division ownership. These leaders will be hungry, play up, and often outperform their incumbent piers.
4.- If you have to hire an executive search firm, don’t outsource your leadership simultaneously. Conducting an executive search, I act as the hiring manager, but I am just a proxy of the real hiring manager. It’s important that the executive search act as an extension of your office and not a replacement of. The search should feel more like a conversation versus a transaction.