It’s always tempting, when you are looking for someone to fill a gap in your senior leadership team, to look at the skills you need today. You write a role specification around those skills; you look for fit into the existing leadership team. But those are the wrong questions. 

 Let’s assume it is going to take 6 to 9 months to get someone on board (unless you have an oven-ready internal candidate). Then it will take another 6 to 9 months for them to get up to speed. A lot can happen in 18 months. What you are recruiting this person for is the future, not the present.

 There are 4 basic questions that you need to consider before you start looking. 

1.     Is this a long-term appointment or an emergency in-fill for today’s issues?  If it is the latter, then you need someone fast and there are some great interim leaders out there who are used to delivering at pace.

2.     Looking at the company strategy where are you going and what skills will you need for that journey in the medium term?

3.    What are the opportunities and threats for the company that may need different skills in the future?

4.    Are there smart internal candidates who are not ready now but with a lot of scaffolding around them could grow into the people you need for the future?

 Then go back to the role specification and maybe rewrite it.

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