The most expensive executive hire isn’t always the wrong person

Finding a great leader is really hard. Making sure they’re the right leader for the business, the team and giving them what they need to succeed, is often harder. Here’s what I’ve learned from being on the inside.

Most businesses put an enormous amount of effort into finding their next senior leader.

And rightly so because these are critical decisions. A CEO, CFO or senior executive appointment can change the direction of a business.

But here’s something I’ve learned after more than 20 years working inside leadership teams.

You can hire an exceptional leader and still get a disappointing result.

Not necessarily because you hired the wrong person.

Sometimes the business hasn’t worked out what it actually needs. Sometimes the expectations aren’t aligned. And sometimes we appoint someone, celebrate getting the deal done, and leave them to figure out the rest.

I’ve been in the executive seat. I’ve led senior appointments from inside businesses, built leadership teams and been accountable for the culture and performance that followed.

I’ve also seen what happens when we get it wrong. Sometimes on my own watch.

And I think there are three parts of executive hiring we need to pay far more attention to.

1. Define the seat. Before you define the person.

This is where I think some of the most important work happens.

Before you start searching for a leader, you need to be clear about the business problem you’re asking them to solve.

What needs to be different in 12 months? What does success actually look like? What capabilities will the business need in one or two years that it doesn’t have today?

And importantly, is this even the same role it was last time?

With AI, technology, rapidly changing business models and new commercial pressures, executive roles are evolving quickly.

The CFO of tomorrow may need to lead far more than finance. A CEO may need an entirely different mix of commercial, technological and people leadership capability.

Yet businesses can still default to replacing the person who left rather than questioning what the role needs to become in the future.

You can run a brilliant search process and still hire brilliantly for the wrong job.

That’s an expensive mistake.

2. Find the leader. Not just the best CV and set of skills.

Finding exceptional leadership talent is genuinely difficult.

The best people are often busy successfully delivering results somewhere else. They’re not necessarily watching job advertisements or looking for their next move.

That’s where great executive search earns its place.

But access to talent is only part of it.

The real skill is understanding what makes someone successful in one organisation, and whether those same qualities will translate into another.

A leader who thrives in a large, established business may not be the right person to lead a high-growth company through significant change.

Someone with an impressive track record may have delivered those results with very different resources, conditions and support.

Experience matters. Results matter.

But so does judgement, adaptability, leadership style and the ability to build trust and bring people with you.

And as AI changes the way work gets done, I’m increasingly interested in how leaders think, challenge, learn and make decisions, not simply what they’ve done before.

The best appointment isn’t always the most impressive candidate. It’s the leader who can deliver what this particular business needs next.

3. Make the landing count.

This is the part I don’t think gets nearly enough attention.

A new executive signs their contract. The announcement goes out. Everyone is delighted.

And then the real work starts.

They’re walking into an existing culture, established relationships, unspoken expectations and a leadership team that may or may not agree on what success looks like.

The CEO wants results. The board wants confidence. The team wants direction. And the new leader is trying to work out how things really operate.

I’ve seen highly capable leaders struggle because the business assumed their experience meant they wouldn’t need much support.

But seniority doesn’t remove the need for clarity.

Who owns the first 90 days? What are the priorities? What decisions can they make? Which relationships matter most? What does good progress look like?

And perhaps most importantly, are the CEO, board and new executive actually aligned?

A signed contract is not a successful appointment. It’s the beginning of one.

If a senior leader takes six months longer than necessary to gain traction, that has a cost. Decisions slow down. Teams lose momentum. Opportunities are missed.

The business carries that cost, not the search process.

Why this matters to me, and to LEAD.

One of the reasons I’m so passionate about what we’re building at LEAD Executive Search & Impactful Leadership is that I’ve spent my career on the other side of the table.

I’ve had to live with the decisions made in executive hiring.

I’ve seen the difference the right leader can make to business performance, culture and growth. And I’ve seen how quickly things can unravel when the role, the person and the organisation aren’t aligned.

That experience shapes how I think about executive search and leadership advisory.

At LEAD, we want to be involved in the conversations that matter before, during and after an appointment.

Understanding the business and defining what leadership success looks like. Finding and assessing the people who can deliver it. And helping organisations think through how those leaders will succeed once they’re in the seat.

Sometimes that means an executive search.

Sometimes it means stepping back and looking at succession, leadership capability or whether the structure is right in the first place.

Because the goal shouldn’t simply be to fill the role.

It should be to make the business better because of the leader you’ve appointed.

One question before your next executive hire.

Before you dust off the previous job description or brief a search firm, ask yourself:

What will this person have changed in our business 12 months from now?

If you can’t answer that clearly, that’s where I’d start.

And if you’re a CEO, board member or business owner thinking about your next senior appointment, succession plan or a leadership team that isn’t quite delivering what you need, I’d welcome the conversation. Reach me directly at [email protected] or connect with me on LinkedIn.

These are the conversations I enjoy most, and they’re exactly where LEAD can add value.