Finding Great Talent
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the process of finding great leaders.
There is so much conversation about what makes a leader great…including plenty from me! And we all know that answer is changing. What made someone a great leader 30 years ago, 30 months ago, or even 30 days ago isn’t necessarily what organizations need today. Leadership is evolving constantly.
But knowing what makes a great leader and knowing how to find one are two very different things.
I’ve spent three decades in executive search, and sometimes I forget about the subtle and special skills that go into finding exceptional talent. It’s almost like fish not seeing water. After this long, certain parts of the work have become a well-developed muscle.
The how continues to evolve, of course. But I believe some parts of the recipe are timeless.
One is having a great network of brilliant leaders because guess what brilliant leaders do? They spend time with other brilliant leaders. They leave a wake of evidence behind them in measurable results. They seek out other executives who challenge and sharpen them. And, often, the best leaders know where the other great leaders are.
But that’s only part of it.
I have an amazing team, and each person has a different, but special, approach to finding great talent. So recently, I asked them:
“What’s your secret sauce for finding great leaders?”
Their answers reminded me just how much craft goes into doing this work exceptionally well. And whether you are conducting a search yourself or choosing a partner to help you do it, I think there is something to learn from each of them.
Ryan Barron: Look Beyond the Obvious
Ryan starts from a simple premise: nobody knows everything. The client knows its business, the candidate knows their experience, and the search team knows the market. Finding the right leader requires doing the work to understand where those perspectives intersect.
That means understanding what is really happening in the business, why the role exists, and what results the client needs, not simply what the job description says. He applies the same curiosity to candidates, looking past the shiniest resume or biggest company name to understand what someone has actually accomplished, how they accomplished it, what motivates them, and where they will be at their best.
Ryan is genuine in building those relationships. People want to return his call or LinkedIn note. He's relentless about getting the right people into the conversation and equally willing to be candid when something doesn't add up. The goal isn't to make the easiest or most obvious match. It's to develop enough understanding and conviction to make the right match, finding a leader who can deliver against the client mandate and produce meaningful business results.
Ryan understands that the best match isn’t always the most obvious one.
I think this is one of the easiest mistakes to make when hiring. We naturally gravitate toward what we recognize: the right title, the right company, the right pedigree, the candidate who has already held a nearly identical role.
Those things matter. But they don't necessarily tell us whether someone can solve this problem.
A great resume tells you what someone has done. Great assessment and conversation begin to uncover how they think, how they lead, what they learned, what they changed, and what happened because they were there.
If you're hiring, don't stop at:
Has this person done this job before?
Go further:
What problems have they solved? What environments have they succeeded in? What did they personally contribute to those results? And is there evidence that how they operate translates to what we need now?
Sometimes the leader you need is sitting in the obvious place.
Sometimes they aren't.
The art is knowing the difference.
Shannon Hassler: Define “Great” Before You Go Looking for It
Shannon, a Partner in our Industrials Practice with more than 25 years of experience across talent consulting, CEO succession, operations, board and executive search, says it perfectly:
“Finding great leaders starts with defining ‘great.’ One size doesn’t fit all.”
We need to understand what the right leader looks like for this mandate, at this time, and in this context.
That starts with having a crystal-clear view of what our client needs, why they need it, and why the right leader will be drawn to the challenge. Developing that understanding requires a very special relationship of trust and it enables us to be at our best on the client’s behalf.
Well said, Shannon.
Because here is the thing about great talent:
Someone can be an exceptional leader and still be the wrong leader for your organization.
Before you start looking at candidates, you have to understand what you are actually asking this person to do.
Are they being hired to grow something? Turn something around? Build a team? Transform a culture? Bring discipline? Drive innovation? Prepare the organization for what comes next?
Those are very different leadership mandates.
This is why I believe some of the most important work in a search happens before the first candidate enters the conversation.
You have to define success.
Not simply the qualifications for the role, but what needs to be different 12, 24, or 36 months after this person arrives.
When leaders are hiring, I encourage them to ask a deceptively simple question:
“If this hire is wildly successful, what will be true because they were here?”
The clearer you can answer that question, the better your chances of recognizing the right person when you meet them.
Ian Pearce: Develop Informed Intuition and Stay Persistent
Ian operates in a way that can look instinctual, but there’s something much more sophisticated underneath it: intuition built through more than a decade of interviewing and assessing leaders across thousands of conversations.
He has developed an ability to distinguish truly exceptional leaders from merely good ones.
Ian also pays close attention to which companies are genuinely developing great leaders and follows company performance to understand which organizations are driving meaningful shareholder value.
That matters.
Because finding great talent isn't just about knowing who is out there. It's about understanding the ecosystem around them.
Where is exceptional leadership being developed? Which organizations are producing leaders with the experiences your business needs? Where is transformation happening? Where is growth happening? Who has been part of creating it?
And then there is timing.
Ian has a sensitivity for recognizing when organizational change or market movement might mean that a leader who was previously inaccessible is suddenly open to a conversation.
But timing alone isn't enough.
Ian will also tell you that persistence matters.
Great leaders are usually busy running businesses, not actively looking for their next job when opportunity comes knocking.
That distinction is incredibly important.
If your entire talent strategy consists of looking at the people who are currently looking for you, you may be missing an enormous portion of the leadership market.
Exceptional leaders may be happy. They may be challenged. They may be deeply committed to the work in front of them.
But that doesn't mean they won't listen when the right opportunity finds them.
That requires relationships, credibility, timing, and sometimes a great deal of persistence.
Ian's edge is the combination of informed intuition, market awareness, and persistence.
And those aren't things you get from simply searching a database.
Jennifer Watkins: Stay Curious Enough to Find the Real Problem
Jennifer, another Partner in our Global Industrial Practice, spent more than 20 years of her career inside large companies, leading large P&Ls and commercial roles.
She has been in the room and in the seat, which gives her a bird's-eye view of what organizations and leaders actually need.
That experience allows her to quickly grasp the problem we've been hired to solve, why it matters, and what it will take to get it right.
And while Jennifer has spent less of her career in executive search, I actually think her operating experience makes her uniquely suited to partner with clients. She understands what it feels like to sit on their side of the table.
She has also quickly learned that the how of finding leaders is what separates an average search partner from an exceptional one.
Jennifer may be the most curious person I know and she pairs that curiosity with courage. She never tires of asking who, where, why, and how. And she is relentless about following those questions until they lead to the right solution.
I think there is an important lesson in that for anyone making a significant hire:
Don't begin with the person. Begin with the problem.
What problem are we actually hiring this person to solve?
And then keep asking questions.
Why does this problem exist?
What has already been tried?
Why hasn't it worked?
What will this leader inherit?
What resistance will they encounter?
What relationships will they need to build?
What will they need to understand about our culture that they'll never find in a job description?
Sometimes what a client initially believes they need and what the business actually requires are slightly different.
That's why curiosity matters.
You have to be willing to keep digging until you understand the real mandate, because only then can you start looking for the person capable of fulfilling it.
There Isn't One Secret Sauce
As I listened to my team, something became very clear to me.
There isn't one secret sauce.
Ryan reminds us to look beyond the obvious.
Shannon reminds us to define “great” before we go looking for it.
Ian reminds us that finding exceptional talent requires informed intuition, market awareness, and persistence.
And Jennifer reminds us to stay curious long enough to uncover the real problem we're trying to solve.
Finding great leaders requires all of it: curiosity. Context. Relationships. Pattern recognition. Market knowledge. Persistence. Courage. Trust.
And perhaps most importantly, a willingness to look beyond what appears obvious on paper.
Because executive search has never simply been about producing a list of qualified people.
It's about understanding a business deeply enough to know what it needs. Understanding the leadership market well enough to know where to look. Building relationships strong enough to get extraordinary people to take your call. Asking questions good enough to uncover what someone has truly accomplished. And using all of that information to recognize the intersection between the right leader, the right opportunity, and the right moment.
That's the part of executive search I think can sometimes be invisible from the outside.
And maybe that's why I've been thinking about it so much lately.
After three decades in this business, I know a great resume when I see one. But I also know that a resume is only the beginning of the conversation.
A resume can tell you where someone has been.
Great search work helps you understand what they are capable of doing next.
And there is still something incredibly special about finding the right person at the right moment for an organization and watching what becomes possible when you get it right.
Up Next Month:
Why Are We Waiting Until the Seat Is Empty?
We spend a lot of time thinking about the leaders our organizations need today. But how much time are we spending thinking about the leaders we’ll need next?
Too often, succession becomes urgent only when a key seat is about to be empty. Then what could have been a thoughtful, strategic conversation becomes a transactional one.
Next month, I want to explore a different question: How should CEOs, CHROs, board chairs, and boards be thinking about leadership needs before there’s a seat to fill?
Because perhaps the best time to think about your next great leader is while your current one is still sitting in the chair.