Executive Level Hiring
- curranrecruit
- Apr 6, 2015
- 2 min read
Executives today face a number of challenges as work environments grow in complexity and become ever more demanding. In a study by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, 40% of new executives don’t last more than 18 months. In this week’s post, we take a closer look at some executive level problems and how they can affect other parts of your organisation.
Level-Up
Executives in most organisations have a great deal of managerial experience. They have moved up through the ranks taking on increasing responsibility. They may have been identified as ‘high potentials’ and groomed early on for promotion in succession plans. However, what happens newly appointed executives have performance issues of their own?
According Joan Lloyd, Executive Coach (2014):
"A skilful executive faces up to the responsibility of confronting performance issues, particularly at the top, because he or she knows the damage it will cause if it is left alone. They don’t try to reorganise around the problem, because they know it only delays it and makes it worse. They know that creating artificial infrastructure to prop up a bad executive only distorts and corrupts the system and destroys the spirit and productivity of the good employees"
The Executive Influence
While some executives may not deal with direct day-to-day activities in the firm, their decisions impact the overall organisation – and so do any problems or issues they have too. They set the pace, the behaviour and culture of the organisation and direct the business to achieve its goals. This is especially true in terms of change management. If you want changes in your organisation, you need to transform your executive team first.
Unfortunately, when a high level manager is dysfunctional, it usually has a ripple down effect. If they’re having issues then undoubtedly your employees will also be having issues (The Drucker Foundation, 1996). A couple of quick tips to avoid this are:
Assess your people: An executive, like any other employee, still needs to have performance appraisals. If you have an individually skilled person in a leadership position that fails to collaborate, then how could they successfully resolve issues within their teams? The more you assess your people, the better you’re able to develop a profile of success in given roles and lessen the risk you’ll take in promoting your talent.
Ensure good job fit: This isn’t just for accountants or customer service representatives. Executives should fit their role. Don’t move people into positions in which they’re more than likely to fail. Avoid a common mistake of promoting top individual performers into managerial or executive roles for which they’re not suited. Executive roles come with their own special requirements. Make sure any possible candidate has the right skill sets for the role.
Comments