Lessons on Executive Recruiting
👋Hi! I'm Molly. This is where I share the lessons I’ve learned from building fast-moving, messy, ambitious companies. For more from me, you can also find me on the WorkLife Podcast, on LinkedIn, and in Glue Club, a community for leaders who care about building great companies.
There are more thoughts on how to build a strong leadership team in Learners vs Guides and Some Thoughts on Leadership Teams.
Once you find product/market fit and start scaling your org, you have to become exceptional at executive recruiting. The trajectory of your success will be defined by the team you build.
[Let me just side note here and say: the tech industry is littered with companies who relied too much on their initial momentum and then hit a plateau. One difference between a $10B company and a $150B company is the ability to build an extraordinary team that can harness the momentum you’ve created and figure out how to turn it in to a machine. Product / market fit doesn’t last forever, organic growth doesn’t last forever. At some point, you have to be pulling levers that create new horizons for your company and that usually comes from an exceptional, high performing team. Executive recruiting is one of the most important skills that a CEO or senior exec can build.]
Recruiting senior leaders — the best in the world — is ultimately an art. Getting the un-gettable hire requires persistence, humility, self awareness, an ability to listen hard, deep curiosity about other humans, and a long view. It’s a mistake to believe that recruiting executives is simply about getting them to believe in your vision for your company, which is what a lot of founders and CEOs spend time on.
Here’s what I focus on:
- Make the role and profile as clear as possible as early as possible.
