Having run searches across industries and continents, I can tell you that most failed executive hires are not failures of assessment. They are failures of definition. The search was lost before it began, because the organization never truly agreed on what it was hiring for.
The searches that succeed start with an honest mandate. Not a job description — a mandate. What must this person achieve in the first 18 months? What will the organization look like if they succeed? What kind of leadership does this specific chapter of the business require? When stakeholders answer these questions differently and nobody reconciles the difference, the search produces candidates who fit somebody's picture and nobody's need.
Speed of process is the second decisive factor, and it is chronically underestimated. Exceptional candidates are evaluating you while you evaluate them. Every week of delay between stages costs candidate confidence, and the best people — who always have options — are the first to withdraw. A disciplined process with committed dates outperforms a cautious process every time.
The third factor is honesty in both directions. Organizations that oversell the role lose their hires in the first year, when reality arrives. Candidates who are oversold to the organization fail publicly and expensively. The recruiter's job — my job — is to be the person in the middle who tells both sides the truth. That is what makes a placement last, and it is why the search model you choose matters as much as the search itself.
Written by Cejany De Aquino, Independent Executive Recruiter.
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