Leadership Recruiting Approach
A good leadership search starts with understanding what the company actually needs, not simply what appears in the job description.
Leadership positions carry more consequences than most hires. The right person can improve a team or an entire part of the business. The wrong person can create problems that take much longer to fix.
That’s why we spend time understanding the position before we start looking for candidates, go beyond the people who happen to be applying, and stay closely involved throughout the search.
We Start by Understanding Your Business
Every successful search begins with listening.
Before we start identifying candidates, we want to understand the business, where the position fits, why you’re hiring and what the person will actually need to accomplish.
We work to answer questions such as:
- What does this person need to accomplish?
- Why has someone succeeded—or struggled—in this role before?
- What will tell us a year from now that this was the right hire?
- What kind of leader will work well with the team already in place?
Those answers give us a much better idea of who we’re actually looking for.
Some Positions Matter More Than Others
Not every vacancy requires the same recruiting strategy.
Our work tends to involve positions where leaving the job open, or hiring the wrong person, creates a real problem for the business.
These may include:
- Executive and senior leadership
- Vice Presidents and Directors
- Department and functional leaders
- Sales, Finance, HR and Operations leadership
- Manufacturing and technical leadership
- Difficult-to-fill professional positions
The reason for the search matters too. Replacing a retiring leader is different from hiring someone to fix an underperforming operation or building a leadership team during a period of growth.
We Recruit Passive Candidates
Many of the strongest candidates are not actively looking for a new position.
They’re usually busy doing their current jobs well and may have little reason to look at job postings.
That doesn’t automatically make a passive candidate better than someone who’s actively looking. But it does mean that limiting a search to applicants can leave a large part of the potential candidate pool untouched.
Our recruiting process emphasizes:
- Researching the market
- Identifying people with relevant experience
- Approaching them directly
- Having a real conversation about the opportunity
- Understanding what it would take for them to consider a move
Quality Over Quantity
We don’t measure progress by how many resumes we send.
We’d rather present a small group of people we believe are genuinely worth interviewing.
Experience matters, but we also want to understand how someone leads, why they’ve made the career decisions they have, why they’re considering this opportunity and whether the move makes sense for both sides.
The Process Has to Adapt to the Search
No two searches are exactly alike. A CFO search for a family-owned company isn’t the same as a VP of Sales search for a growing manufacturer. The candidate market is different, the reasons someone might consider the opportunity are different, and the way we approach the search has to reflect that.
We use a consistent process, but we don’t force every search into exactly the same formula.
For a detailed look at each stage, see Our Search Process.
Communication Matters
Clients shouldn’t have to wonder where a search stands, and candidates shouldn’t have to chase a recruiter to find out what’s happening.
We keep both sides informed, even when there isn’t much new to report. That’s especially important with passive candidates, because how they’re treated during the search becomes part of their impression of the company we’re representing.
What You Can Expect From Us
- A search built around the actual position, not a generic template
- Direct outreach to people who may never apply
- A focused group of candidates worth interviewing
- Honest feedback about what we’re seeing in the market
- Regular communication throughout the search
- Respectful treatment of every candidate we approach
Frequently Asked Questions
Planning a Leadership Hire?
If you’re replacing a leader, adding a new leadership position or dealing with a search that isn’t producing the right candidates, we’d be happy to talk through what you’re seeing.
We’ll talk about the position, what you’ve tried so far and what the candidate market is likely to look like. From there, we can determine whether a targeted search makes sense.