The context for leadership hiring is rapidly evolving. Organisations are increasingly relying on their internal talent acquisition teams to take on more responsibilities, and businesses are seeking flexible solutions including interim leaders and consultants. There’s a growing trend toward hiring for skills rather than traditional roles. Meanwhile, AI is revolutionising hiring, offering vast possibilities for improvement and efficiency while also presenting significant new challenges. Savannah CEO Katrina Cheverton lists four questions to help guide in choosing the right leadership solution for today’s dynamic environment.
1. What is the crux of the business challenge to be solved?
Defining the core business challenge creating the leadership/skills requirement is the first step towards a successful outcome. Too often, under time and other pressures, the start-point for addressing a leadership gap is the job spec of an incumbent. In any high-change environment, it is advisable to reassess the situation and how that is likely to evolve. Any solution starts with a clear articulation of the problem – in our world – often a candidate brief. When these are poorly defined and/or replicas of the requirements of the past, the chances of successful outcomes diminish drastically. The increasing complexity of the hiring environment is leading more organisations to invest in accurately diagnosing the challenge with talent intelligence before launching into an assumed solution.
2. How do we translate our future leadership requirements into accurate, compelling candidate briefs?
Once you’ve identified the core business challenges, what skills and competencies are required to navigate these challenges? How will the leadership needs evolve as the organisation grows or as the market changes? Accurately translating the identified leadership implications into specific criteria for candidates is a honed skill and the investment to getting this right pays dividends as you move through the process. The Brief should not only accurately set out the required skills, experience, and attributes, it should also effectively sell your organisation to the right set of candidates through attractive, authentic representation of your brand.
3. When does the business need the solution in place?
Timing is everything, in most things, including leadership hiring. Determining what needs to be delivered, when, influences the choice of solution and the urgency of the search. Interim leaders can often be appropriate to manage crises, fill unexpected gaps or new changes in strategy and the process should focus on candidates who can start right away. If the leadership requirement is longer term, for example any executive succession or building future talent pipelines, talent intelligence will likely be appropriate. Aligning the timing of the leadership solution with organisational needs ensures that the right skills are in place when they are needed, minimising disruptions and maximizing impact.
4. Should this be an internal or external candidate?
Deciding between internal and external leadership solutions involves understanding both how your internal capability stacks up to the business need and the prevalence, cost and mobility of the relevant skills in the external market. Although internal candidates are known entities which can have enormous benefits, on the flip slide, they may carry biases or be entrenched in the status quo, potentially limiting innovative thinking. External candidates, on the other hand, bring fresh perspectives and new ideas, but they require time to understand the company’s inner workings and build relationships.
Conclusion
Increasingly, we are seeing the benefits of investing sufficient time upfront on the diagnosis phase of addressing leadership and skills gaps. This is even more important for organisations experiencing high change or transformation. The effectiveness of solutions delivered directly relate to how accurately the business situation and its leadership implications are defined. A truism perhaps but still often not prioritised sufficiently.
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