Successful executive recruiting requres looking at many aspects of the candidate.

In an ideal world, there would be a way to tell which job candidates will succeed and which will fail in any given role, potentially eliminating poor hiring decisions altogether and enabling you to surround yourself with strong performers driven to succeed at the task at hand and propel your organization forward.

To any manager who has undergone the sometimes-daunting task of filling open positions, this might seem like a pipe dream, but it is in fact possible to increase your ability to identify your company’s future leaders significantly by challenging conventional hiring theories and approaching candidates with fresh eyes. Today’s businesses must go beyond the traditional talent search. Being able to do so is especially critical at the executive level, where more is invested by all parties.

Skills Don’t Always Transfer
It’s all too easy to assume that skills are easily transferable. After all, if a candidate has been successful selling office furniture, why wouldn’t he or she be equally successful selling carpet?

Over the course of thousands of candidate interviews, this is a sentiment that hiring professionals have heard time and again. It is critical to note, however, that the learning curve is just as high for an experienced salesman as it is for an inexperienced one, and the chances of failure are just as great. It is frightfully easy to be lured into the mindset that a good salesperson can sell anything.

It is important to remember, however, that when one is dealing with different methods of distribution, different buyers and different industries, success is no longer guaranteed. The only way to assure yourself that the candidate will live up to his or her potential is to recruit someone that has been doing successfully the exact job that you are looking to fill. Proactively identify appropriate candidates and motivate them to explore the open position even if they may not be seeking new employment at the moment.

For example, it’s no surprise when a sales manager for a machine tool manufacturer doesn’t perform as well as a sales manager of a machine tool distributor. While the positions sound alike, they are completely different. One requires customizing a machine tool, while the other only sells those machines that the owner has in stock.

Don’t Rely on Interviews
Very few people are trained to be interviewers. Typically, the boss asks a few questions and the candidate responds. The conversation goes back and forth like a tennis game. Afterward, the boss barely remembers the points he or she made or which were made by the candidate. Frequently, the boss comes away saying, “Yes, he or she is the one,” a decision based more on gut instinct than anything else. Perhaps it was the cut of the candidate’s suit or the grasp of his or her handshake.

Interviews are necessary to see the candidate face-to-face and to assess his or her demeanor. They can also yield some useful information. But in terms of truly determining whether a person will succeed on the job, interviews are not that effective. Much of the information you want to know from the candidate is already in the resumé. Conversations with prior bosses and co-workers are also quite enlightening.

Talk to References
The last person in the world you want to talk to is a reference given to you by a candidate – after all, they’ll never be able to give a fair and balanced evaluation of the candidate’s skills, right? Wrong. These are the people who generally have the highest regard for the candidate, and are also the ones able to most effectively and fairly evaluate the work.

These people, especially those that had the candidate report to them, are in an excellent position to know how the candidate managed not only successful projects, but also how he or she worked through crises and unfavorable results. They know all of the candidate’s quirks, and certainly can guide you to the environment that you would have to create in order to get the most out of him or her in a way that others might not.

Don’t Avoid Job Hoppers
Don’t be so fast to call a candidate a “job hopper,” just because he or she has changed jobs every three to five years. It usually takes three to five years to learn the ins and outs of a job. After that, each day is no longer a learning experience. A person with 15 years of experience usually has five years of experience, three times.

The interview should give you the opportunity to examine the candidate’s motivation for changing jobs. If the candidate feels that every day was a repetition of the preceding one, and that there was no chance to be promoted, then the candidate was absolutely right to seek another opportunity.

Personality and IQ Testing
Personality and IQ testing does not displace interviews, the application process, background checks or specific skill assessments. It does, however, add a critical dimension to the evaluation process.

For example, comprehensive tools such as TriMetrix feature innovative methods to assess both the job to be filled and potential candidates. A job benchmarking function helps employers hone the requirements of an open position as well as identify the personality type that would best work in the company’s environment. Such tools offer insight into variables that help reveal a candidate’s true personality and fitness for the job. The results can be very impressive. These tests are EOE-compliant and have been validated in terms of candidates’ test answers and what their bosses observe in their behavior.

Often, employees get hired for their skills and then fired for having a “bad attitude” or traits that are incompatible with the job. Certain kinds of testing can turn a blurry image of a candidate into one that is crystal-clear.

Hiring the right people can add critical value to your organization and help give you a competitive edge. By challenging conventional wisdom, taking a hard look at your hiring process and reevaluating your attitude toward some misconceptions, you can make more successful and fruitful executive hires.

Marc Savage is President of Cohn Executive Search, a Cohn-affiliated company. He may be reached at 212-297-0400 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Charles Smith is a partner at Haggett Longobardi, a division of J.H. Cohn. He may be reached at 860-657-8079 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it