Hiring in the C-Suite

Author: Todd Harris, Ph.D.

What Must Go Right

The good news is that companies can take concrete steps to improve the efficacy of these high-stakes selection decisions. Research indicates that companies who are particularly adept at selecting C-suite personnel consistently do the following things:

ü      Comprehensively analyze the context that the person will be operating in. Many companies make the mistake of devoting too much time to evaluating the “internal” attributes of potential candidates, characteristics such as personality, experience, decision-making and intelligence, and too little evaluating the environment that the person will be operating in. A CEO whose primary strategic mandate is to restore investor and employee confidence may be different than one who needs to revive a tired brand. A 50/50 balance between time spent analyzing the “external” environment and the “internal” attributes of the candidates is a good rule of thumb.

ü      Seek a multi-level match. Effective executive selection decisions are complex, more like playing chess than checkers, because they assess “fit” at multiple levels, as opposed to just looking at how the candidate matches the position.  Questions to ask include how well will the person fit with his or her fellow executives? With the culture of the company? With the operating environment of the country? For example, does the company promote spontaneous, autonomous decisions or does it favor collaborative and more deliberative approaches?  Is the company culture “fun and flexible” or “proper and reserved?”

ü      Use a disciplined, rigorous and data-driven process, in which candidates are assessed using a wide variety of structured and well-validated tools. Companies get into trouble when they make decisions based on personal biases, intuition, and hearsay, as opposed to logical reasoning and objective data. Additionally, research has shown that selection decisions are more accurate when job candidates are assessed simultaneously as opposed to sequentially, and when there is consensus on what the key success factors for the role really are.

Following these guidelines should increase the odds that your next C-level hire will be a good one.

Todd Harris, Ph.D., is director of research for PI Worldwide (piworldwide.com), an international management consulting and sales development organization. He can be reached at tharris@piworldwide.com.