5 Steps To Hiring A CEO
19 / Aug / 2021
Hiring senior leadership doesn’t need to be a complex, drawn-out and costly process.
In fact, the longer and more repetitive your interview process is, the higher the chance you’ll turn off the best candidates.
Here are my five essential steps for hiring everyone from your CEO to your departmental managers.
By: Craig Elvin
1 – Where are you going and what’s stopping you.
You need to be clear about what your goals are.
Where do you want the business to be in three and five years?
Work with the board, and/or shareholders, to ensure that the ambitions are aligned and to understand what the biggest challenges are that are stopping you from getting there.
A word of warning, the incumbent may not be the best person to help you understand these!
2 – What behaviours do you need?
Too many senior hires are made based on someone’s past skills, experience, and results.
To make an informed decision about someone’s future capabilities you need to understand what behaviours you need in the role in order for someone to be successful in the future.
Be prepared to measure and test these for all the candidates you are meeting, not just the last two.
3 – VM2
To attract the best talent, you need to be able to sell the opportunity to a discerning audience.
Using the pneumonic VM2 will help you sell the Vision for the business, the Mission that someone needs to undertake, the Values of the business and why they are important and finally the success Milestones that you need someone to hit.
4 – An efficient interview process.
Design an efficient interview process that is well thought out and creates an excellent impression on the candidates in the process.
Don’t cover the same ground in each interview, ensure the dynamics mean that you are selling the opportunity as much as quizzing the candidates.
Neither your team nor your candidates want to be in an elongated, repetitive or uninspiring process.
5 – Onboard effectively.
Once you’ve decided upon your ideal candidate now is your chance to make a fantastic impression.
Ensure that your offer letter and contract go out promptly.
Follow up with a congratulation message and welcome to the team call.
Invite them in for prevalent meetings or social events to start the onboarding process early.
Finally, assign them a coach or mentor to help accelerate their performance during the 90-day dip.
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