Why Executive Searches Fail – and How to Avoid the Pitfalls
Consider the time and fees wasted on the wrong executives and the lost growth execution runway. Think about the confused and demoralized staff.
A search might fail in the sense that you spend many months looking for executives but, in the end, do not successfully hire a candidate.
Or a search might fail in the sense that you hire a promising candidate, only to find that you have mis-hired and the chosen candidate is actually not a fit.
In our experience evaluating tens of thousands of executives and recruiting more than 1,000 leaders for technology and SaaS companies, we see a range of reasons that these mistakes happen.
Mistakes Made During the Search Process
Lack of Stakeholder Engagement
Not involving key stakeholders in the company during the process will lead to a lack of buy-in for the chosen candidate. That can completely derail or lengthen the process.
Lack of Scorecarding
Defining the scorecard with the key stakeholders is critical to drive alignment through the search. Once defined, the scorecard is an internal document used to assess executives and prioritize the factors that are most important to the company.
If the scorecard is not clearly defined or understood by everyone, the judgments made in the process will be misaligned.
Rigid Adherence to the Scorecard
A search that is fixated on finding the “perfect” candidate profile without considering alternatives can become extended and even fail altogether if the “unicorn” candidate isn’t available. Instead, flexing on some parts of the scorecard can broaden the talent pool, drive top of funnel, and reveal diverse, dark horse executives who can be highly successful.
Inadequate Process
Upfront alignment on process throughout the search is important. This leads to consistency throughout the search, ensuring key stakeholders know their part in the process and are committed to executing it.
Market Misunderstandings
Talent is a market and not appreciating the changing market conditions and trends can lead to unrealistic expectations, especially when you consider compensation. Like in any market, supply and demand shape the compensation levels for executives.
Poorly Defined Role
If the role is not clearly defined or evolves radically during the search process, the search committee and candidates may be confused or have radically different understandings of what is expected in the position.
Ineffective Communication
Like in every business process, poor communication during the recruitment process can lead to misunderstandings or misinterpretations, delays, and missed opportunities to land great candidates. A high sense of urgency from all parties is important to keep momentum.
Inadequate Referencing
Surprisingly, there are many companies, search firms, and sponsors who do not perform in-depth referencing to gather a complete dataset and 360-degree view. Maybe it seems to be enough to find an executive who has a few verifiable career highlights, like great exits or acquisitions or growth. But this misses a huge range of factors that are critical to a leader’s success, such as leadership skills and style, teamwork ability, communication skills and much more.
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Problems That Emerge After a Candidate Has Been Hired
Misalignment of Expectations & Strategy
A lack of clear understanding between the hiring company and the executive about the role’s responsibilities and objectives can quickly become a showstopper.
Poor Culture Fit
A mismatch between the executive’s style and values and the company’s culture will not only lead the executive to fail but can be severely damaging to staff morale and the culture. Conducting behavioral assessments are highly recommended in the search process.
Overemphasis on Technical Skills
Focusing too much on technical qualifications and not enough on leadership qualities, “soft skills” and cultural fit. For example, it’s possible to over-index on a candidate’s great strategy acumen, but not appreciate that her leadership style is out of sync with the company culture.
Insufficient Candidate Evaluation
It seems obvious that thorough evaluation is a must. But surprising numbers of hiring companies rush the process and don’t thoroughly vet candidates for their skills, experience, leadership style, and fit for the role. For example, we highly recommend case study style interviews in the search process. They can be time-consuming to arrange and execute, but they reveal amazing insights into leadership style and aptitudes.
Inadequate Onboarding and Support
A seasoned executive will most likely bring their own playbook of strategies and processes to the new position. But there are many other aspects of onboarding that can set up the executive for failure.
A thoughtful and thorough onboarding process will integrate the candidate effectively and enable them to start executing earlier.
How to Avoid the Pitfalls
Advanced Scorecarding
Every search starts with careful calibration to reach shared understanding of what matters most in the scorecard. Our scorecarding technique allows us to consider where parameters can be flexed to broaden the talent pool.
For example, step-up candidates who are ready to take a more senior role can often be missed by rigid scorecarding. Our scorecarding and research efforts cases the widest possible net for applicable candidates. Using our in-depth candidate knowledge, and an AI driven research tool we can quickly identify those who are not only ready to step into the role but have the highest probability of reaching the investment thesis.
Proven Process
Our searches follow a well-defined, proven process, with specific check-ins and reviews that give you unmatched visibility into search progress. We base this on our experience with thousands of successful searches, combining best practices into an efficient workflow.
The result is predictability, clear ownership and responsibility, and timelines to keep everything on track.
Deep Validation
Two features of a Bespoke search provide levels of insight into a candidate you can get nowhere else.
First, our backchannel referencing process investigates candidate backgrounds to validate their achievements and capabilities. The true value here lies in our existing network and ability to get in contact with previous managers, peers and employees to gather an unpolished and 360 view to confirm everything we know about the candidate.
Second, our process can incorporate behavioral assessments and leadership evaluation techniques. These can yield insight into a candidate’s personality and how their style will fit into the corporate culture. For example, on a recent CEO search a client was apprehensive that their front runner candidate would be stepping down in scale. Our assessments highlighted characteristics such as humility, agility, a true desire to be hands-on and a passion for mentoring. When these traits were confirmed by references and aligned with other data points collected throughout the search, the client sealed the deal, and the board was extremely pleased with the placed candidate’s performance in the first ninety days.
Conclusion
In the end, the pitfalls that can cause a search to fail are well known and can be easily avoided with the right process and the right search partner.
Bespoke Partners Named in Top 10 of the “Top 49 Retained Executive Search” 2-Years Running by C-Suite CV Secure.
Author:
Katherine Baker
Partner, Co-lead of CEO Practice
Katherine helps build executive teams for private equity backed software & tech companies. Over the last 6 years Katherine has completed over 100 searches for firms such as WCAS, Francisco Partners, Clearlake Capital, Insight Partners, TA Associates, Providence Equity, and more.
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