It’s one of the most important decisions you’ll make. I’ve aided in a number of successful leadership hires. Organizations can succeed or fail on this. Here’s how to hire the right leader:
Identify the top needs of your customers and employees
Identify the specific major challenges and opportunities of your organization
Describe in detail the type of leader best able to meet those needs, challenges, and opportunities – recruit and advertise for this type of leader – be open to any candidate who can successfully do these things
Recruit and advertise through the communications channels that reach those types of leaders
Sell the opportunity, organization, and community/customers you serve to attract applicants
If you fail to get the right talent pool, restart the search – don’t settle
Hire character and culture
Test for skills during the interview (real world problem-solving scenario)
Pay attention to how much they have researched your organization and community
Let everyone meet and interact with the final candidates (employees, customers) – listen to their feedback
Make internal candidates compete – if the internal candidate prevails, they will be validated by the competition – if they do not, it means you ended up with a superior candidate – if the organization is already very successful, then an internal candidate could prevail – if it is failing, it’s impossible to see an internal candidate as the right choice
Resist the temptation to rush or short circuit the search – hire who you truly need as opposed to hiring the familiar or your friend – it needs to be a real and professional search not a show or you’ll hurt the person you hire.
Sources: Abrashoff, 2002; Blanchard, 2011; Collins, 2001; Drucker, 2001; Grant, 2017; Kotter, 2012; Lencioni, 2012; Maxwell, 1998; Welch, 2005
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