Using both your head and heart in seeking for the right executive

Pri Notowidigdo, The Amrop Hever Group, Global Executive Search, (e-mail: jakarta@amrophever.com)

When you hire somebody, are you swayed largely by the technical qualifications on his resume? Is it clear what you're looking for? How do you assess character? Check out the following framework to address these issues:

1. Know what you're looking for. What is it you are really after? Who has succeeded in this position in the past? Who has failed? What qualities did each individual have? What things could you look for that would help predict successful performance?

2. Define your terms. Some practical ones include the following: a) Job profile: Keep this simple to cover the basics such as; * Job title: What are you going to call this person, and who do they report to? * Role: What do you want them to do? How does it fit the rest of the organization? * Measurement: How are you going to tell if they are performing? * Remuneration: How much are you going to pay them? b) Candidate profile: Look for a person with competence, commitment and character. * Competence: Prioritize the necessary skills. Divide them into two or three must-haves and the rest into nice-to-haves. * Commitment: Why does this person want this particular job? Will this motivation be strong enough to sustain him for the long- term, or at least, for the medium-term? * Character: This is the most important point and the hardest to gauge. You must define the values of the culture you are hiring into. Probing into the daily habits of the corporate culture will tell you a lot about the character of the candidate you are looking at.

From my experience of recruiting senior executives, finding a candidate with the right credentials for a particular senior management position is not a complex task. The best people in any industry are identifiable if you look hard enough and have some luck as well. The difficult part is measuring the attributes that cannot be learned from a resume. It involves an examination of personal qualities and moral values rarely discovered during a traditional employment interview.

As the interviewer, you must obviously be skillful and perceptive. I often focus a question or two on the meaning of a trivial item on a resume. I also like to ask unexpected questions, perhaps about a person's failures instead of his successes.

Regardless of the methods used, the success of a search depends less on locating qualified candidates than on deciding whether their personal qualities and moral values mesh with a company's corporate culture.

In making this determination, people tend to measure others either clinically (by the head) or intuitively (by the heart).

Senior executives must use both their heads and their hearts when they hire. Those who do, stand the best chance of avoiding unpleasant surprises and enjoying a productive work environment. Have you hired the right executive?