Identify potentials and talents: three useful milestones for efficient decision making

“How do you determine whether a candidate has the required leadership skills”, asked a client during a briefing. Which I answered with a question: “Who has to be leaded where?” The key aspect being: what type of manager do you need and for which tasks? Which goals does the company wish to achieve in the mid-term? These points should be first clarified. The answers to these questions allow us to define precise leadership needs and thus the profile of the adequate manager.

Successful leadership is based on vivid interaction

Management literature is filled with theories about leadership and leadership styles. In the field of executive recruitment, new tools are constantly made available to assess leadership skills. Selecting managing staff is not only a question of manager and leadership behaviour. The issue is successful leadership. And in this case, success largely depends on the staff which is to be managed.

Leadership is not a ‘single-track’ program which automatically leads to success once correctly implemented. It rather bases on the manager’s understanding that she or he will decisively influence everyone around through her or his behaviour: team members, clients, partners and suppliers.

It is not possible to decipher at once someone’s personality. The behaviour of the individual must first be carefully observed. What are the main character traits of the applicant? The academic literature distinguishes notably between following types of leadership behaviour:

• Employee-oriented
• Task-oriented
• And as of recently: Transformational

Leadership Assessment helps finding the perfect fit for managing roles

It should nevertheless be noted that there is no ideal leadership behaviour which systematically results in higher performance and satisfaction of the staff. Accordingly, it is essential to determine which personality will adopt which behaviour in which situation. The goal is not only to find out if a candidate has leadership abilities, but rather if this particular manager will be successful in my Client’s company.

In addition to usual hard facts, three milestones are useful to making a decision:

1_Clarify the values

You need to hire managers who identify with your corporate values. Outline the behavioural parameters of the ideal manager who should be successful in your company. Identification is closely related to personal values, which are ideally determined in the course of a structured interview. Absorb the various values emerging from the discussion. A guideline matrix should be defined upfront.

2_Investigate the motivations

What is the inner driver of the person, what generates her or his passion? You can then derive a behavioural pattern and their preferred approach to decision making. These will decide their leadership behaviour. Be curious, get into the details of your candidate’s motivations. Look beyond the scope of the job. Do not go with simple, superficial answers. Try to integrate new possible perspectives, new concepts in your organisation.

3_ Use diagnostic tools and techniques

There is unfortunately no scientific criteria to foresee the success of your new manager. You should therefore call upon diagnostic tools and techniques: they offer a reliable prognostic and even predictive validity. Your best option is to develop a standardised process for the position concerned.

You can use several modes of assessment:

• Interviews: Organise Panel Interviews for the final group of candidates. The question to be answered in the internal decision-making circle is “Are we willing to entrust this particular person with this particular mission?”
• Information: Verify oral references, review behavioural and personality tests as well as the general presentation.
• Assessments: Invite your candidate to complete assessment tasks or refer them to an Assessment Centre. Always require an overall picture of the evaluation reports and charts.

Besides these methods, Wilhelm Busch is for me, personally, an additional inspiration: “He who trusts others too little gets frightened in every corner. He who relies too much on others wakes up in terror!”