Lessons on Executive Recruiting

Apply now to join Glue Club, the home base where the strongest startup leaders in the world come together to find sanity, opportunity, and growth amidst the chaos of building a company. I pour all my mentorship and coaching energy in to Glue Club, in case you’re looking for something more than a blog post… Head over here to learn more.

---

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. CMO is not a role. “A marketing leader who has a growth or acquisition background, is more of an up-and-comer than an established CMO, has managed teams of 20+, and is low ego and collaborative” is a GREAT role description. CMOs, COOs, CROs, VPE, CTOs, etc., come in all shapes and sizes. You can waste HUGE amounts of your time and candidates’ time if you don’t really hone the role description up front. You also need to make hard choices about your priorities. Everyone wants the growth marketing leader who is also good at brand work. That’s cute. Pick one. If you don’t spend time up front defining the role, you are very likely to hire the wrong person.

- Make sure you know who they are and what THEY’RE looking for. Don’t start with selling!!! The best executive recruiting starts with really getting to know the human that you’re talking to: what are their strengths, what do they love doing, what are their aspirations, what do they hate doing, what are they looking for next. If you really get to know the person, it immediately becomes obvious whether they are the right fit for the role or not. Selling is easy when you know what makes a person tick. 

- Realize that it’s a two sided decision. Yes, your company is a special snowflake and you are the best, but this person has a LOT of options. You have to choose them, but perhaps more importantly, they have to choose you. BUILD A RELATIONSHIP with this person. That is how you get amazing people to come work with you: because you have figured out who they are, what makes them tick, and because they can live their dreams while working for you and your company. 

- No doesn’t mean no forever. One of the absolute biggest mistakes I see CEOs make is taking “nos” personally and burning bridges. When I left CZI, Mark Zuckerberg said to me “see you the next time we work together.” That was the second time we worked together, and he was already planning the third. Mark is one of the best executive recruiters that I’ve ever seen in action and THAT is the perfect example of the long view. Just because someone said no, doesn’t mean they won’t say yes in 6 months, 1 year, 5 years. Life is long and if your company is as special as you think it is, then they will end up working for you eventually. Don’t burn bridges, build relationships that last.

Recruiting senior leaders is similar to, but not the same as general recruiting. The power dynamics are just different. I think this is why so many CEOs and executives are bad at it. In the case of the one-of-a-kind human, that person has all the options in the world. Fundamentally, recruiting senior executives is more about them than it is about you. You have to know what you want, you have to know that they are uniquely qualified to solve your problems but most importantly, you have to focus on who they are as a person, what they want, and then figure out how to show them that your company is the only place where they can do their best work.