Before the Interview

First, send an itinerary to the candidate's home address by FedEx or express mail immediately after all interview plans have been arranged. Using their home address is particularly important if the individual is currently employed, since it eliminates the risk of an email being opened at work. [Fact: Most companies now (legally) monitor email for violations of no-compete agreements or to see who is loyal, who might be looking, and therefore who is next to be let go.]

• An itinerary is always needed but is especially important if there's travel involved. In addition to covering all travel arrangements, if any, let the candidate know in advance the time, date, and venue of the meeting. In terms of actual meeting location, be cognizant about candidates being in public or high-traffic areas as employees or clients may recognize this person and compromise their confidentiality.
• Tell candidates the name of the individual who will greet them upon their arrival, the name and title of who will conduct the interview(s), and what format the interview will take. Indicate how long the interview is likely to be and what information you'll cover. If the interview involves the Search Committee, make certain all members have a copy of the itinerary to avoid any confusion.

Second, if more than one individual will be involved with the interview, educate all members of the interview panel on how to be an ambassador for the company. Your very first meeting should be scripted, in a manner of speaking. We all think and perceive situations differently, and what one member of the team may deem acceptable may not be consistent with what other team members believe creates a welcoming atmosphere.

• Whether the process entails a single or several interviews, one of the first things the Search Committee should agree upon is a realistic and targeted time frame in which consensus will be achieved. This is critical in the final stages of the process when you could be in danger of losing both your first and second choices for the position if assurances of timely feedback are not kept.
• Although it's impossible to plan for every contingency, if the Search Committee will be involved with the interviews be mindful of prior commitments such as meetings, required travel, and vacation schedules. Rescheduling a “first date,” when it could have been avoided in the first place, does not bode well for an optimum first impression.
• If the single interview or series of interviews is going to go for several hours, be sure to schedule regular breaks as nature does have a way of calling at the most inconvenient times.

Third, go over the candidate's complete résumé and CCB, if provided. As the candidate advances to meet the next level of interviewers, ask every interviewer to record their answers to the following questions:

• What has the candidate accomplished that's relevant to the company's goals?
• How does his or her experience meet your needs?
• Is the candidate's story credible and convincing?

Lastly, your candidate should be promptly greeted by a member of the Search Committee or even the chairperson. Whoever is assigned to greet the candidate should also introduce them to everyone participating in the interview.

Prior to the interview, it's imperative that everyone involved has meticulously reviewed the candidate's résumé and any other materials provided such as white papers, articles, presentations, interview notes that accompany the candidates file, etc. Make certain that, as the interviews progress, you have questions prepared to address any areas that may require clarification.

Expect your ESP to brief you on the candidate's interests, concerns, and fit. Expect your consultant to identify where the candidate might be shy on relevant experience and why you should interview them. Your consultant should—at a minimum—provide you with ongoing feedback after debriefing both the candidate and interviewers. Any issues or concerns that arise must be acted upon for resolution along the way.

As part of your “sale” to candidates, you should also have other information available for them to read either there or to take home with them. It has been our experience that most executives, once past the initial meetings with recruiting staff, will already have downloaded and reviewed any publicly available news and reports such as your company's 10-K Report, 10-Q Report, 8-K, Proxy Statement, Schedule 13D, and Form 144.

What they won't have access to, but may be very interested in personally, are internal newsletters or any comparative studies you may want to share for strategic reasons. If the candidate will need to relocate, you should proactively provide the candidate with updated information from the Chamber of Commerce on the local community and housing.

A word of caution: I would think twice about hiring any executive who hasn't reviewed those company documents and financial statements in detail before their final interviews. On the candidate's part, they are about to make a multimillion-dollar investment in their career by joining your firm and I would expect them to execute proper due diligence. Failure to do so could be a sign of carelessness.

Closing the First Interview and Subsequent Interviews

Irrespective of how many interviews you hold, timely follow-up is crucial with those individuals still under consideration and even those eliminated from contention. If the Search Committee has agreed upon a target time frame to reach consensus and set follow-up interviews (as they should have done in the planning stages), there shouldn't be a problem clearly communicating when the candidates will be contacted. Of course, you must then strictly adhere to your stipulated response time frame. Not doing so shows a lack of interest or organization on your part.

During interviews, watch closely and take notes. You're not looking for perfection, but in general you want to know if the candidates are:

• Prepared?
• Convincing?
• Credible?
• Logical?
• Compelling?

Along with how well do they:

• Handle pressure?
• Think on their feet?
• Make use of the English language?

If you hired a consultant then this is his or her job. It's critical that the consultant follows through on this, since you'll have to live with the consequences. (This is all the more reason to ensure that the consultant uses a contact management system like Invenias.) Expect the ESP to send you a report detailing how each meeting was concluded with each candidate. This will help ensure that the money marketing invests in building your positive corporate image is not carelessly tarnished by the ESP forgetting to follow through with all candidates during the interview process.

The 28 Core Attributes

Intellect

8. Strategy: Market Driving—Where has the candidate shown the ability to capture and define a business strategy beyond the original product/ concept, and then garner the support of stakeholders?
9. Enterprising Thought Process—Does the candidate think in an enterprising way? Do they come up with one hundred ideas to find the two, highly creative and strategic concepts that can propel their company to new heights, or has their ability to think been limited by rigid policies while working with other companies? Can they transfer that behavior or attitude to your organization?
10. Problem Solving—Does the candidate have intellectual and intuitive problem-solving skills?
11. Smart—Do they have a strong intellect, coupled with pragmatism and common sense? The candidate's personal verbal communications skills are a good indication.
12. Analytical—Does the candidate typically look for multiple variables? When problem solving, do they often fold in concepts and attributes that make others stretch to understand the bigger picture? Do they know what they don't know? Probe for evidence they've recognized this in the past, and ask how they filled the gap.

Business Intelligence

13. Judgment—Does the candidate have the ability to deal with novel, complex situations where there is no corporate history or industry road map?
14. Business Knowledge—Is the candidate genuinely immersed in the guts of the business? How have they woven themselves into the fabric of the industry? Is their knowledge superficial or is it extensive enough to allow them to provide superior counsel? Likewise, are their relations with business leaders deep and meaningful or shallow and opportunistic?
15. Cash Conscious—Does the candidate understand the critical importance of cash to emerging companies? Do they watch the dollar and time expenditures as an entrepreneur would, or simply spend and manage knowing the paycheck and benefits will come no matter what?
16. Risk Tolerance—Does the person have the courage to meet stiff challenges? Do they assume risk comfortably, or simply play it safe?
17. Customer Focused—Do they understand how markets work? Where have they demonstrated their ability to get appropriate products/service to your type of customer? Explore how their regular management regime reinforces this to the organization.

Leadership

18. Commitment—Where and when has the candidate already demonstrated a built-in, unrelenting drive to succeed?
19. Passion—Is the candidate genuinely passionate about your industry and your company? Can they identify with your “Why?” (as Simon Sinek would say).⁵
20. People Skills—Does the candidate have an ability to hire and fire quickly, manage effectively, and blend together the intricate personalities and quirks of talented people? Do they always seem to be looking for talent so that when that perfect opportunity arises, the ideal candidate is already waiting in the wings?
21. Visionary Capabilities—Does the candidate bring vision to the direction of the company? Where they have demonstrated that they have the ability to deliver ideas/programs that bring immediate value is important, but so too is their ability to plot a course for the future and influence people to follow.
22. Proactive—Does the candidate's approach to their responsibilities embody a forward-thinking, proactive mindset or simply the aim to hide behind his or her title, reacting to situations if and when necessary?
23. Entrepreneurial/Intrapreneurial—Does the candidate watch dollar and time expenditures like an entrepreneur, just as if he/she owned the company?
24. Focus on Results—Has the candidate demonstrated an ability to recruit a quality subordinate team, to generate high levels of performance from team members, and get them to work together?

Emotional Intelligence

25. Self-Concept—Is the candidate's self-concept healthy and strong enough to navigate treacherous waters intuitively, as well as develop and motivate staff as though the staff developed the ideas themselves?⁶
26. Culture—Does the candidate by dint of personal style and experience establish a core philosophy of operation (a value set) and organizational culture that will promote the desired results?
27. Empathy—Does the candidate have the ability to connect with employees and customers?
28. Commitment—Is there a demonstrated willingness to make a substantial personal commitment of time to the people in the business?

Emotional intelligence is critical to success in an executive role today. More than ever before, the command and control structures and authoritarian dictates of management have little effect on knowledge workers other than to point them toward greener pastures with more enlightened leadership. For this reason, we strongly suggest you incorporate EI assessments in your hiring practices. For example, when we've narrowed a search field to three candidates or less, we request they each complete an EQ-I assessment (see Figure 5.2).

At Perry-Martel we've used the BarOn EQ-I Leadership Report⁷ for more than a decade. This report examines EQ-I results as they relate to leadership skills. The report's results can be used for the general assessment of leadership strengths and weaknesses to assist in leadership selection, placement, and development decisions. It's important to note that weaknesses may contribute to ineffective leadership, and even derailment. The assessment is applicable to most levels and functions of leadership, be they at the executive, management, or operational levels. Empirical research (based in part on leadership theory) while developing the report involving thousands of leaders worldwide demonstrated that effective leadership must embrace the organization's culture, which includes both people and processes.

Creating behavioral interview questions to assess the candidate's attributes in these areas is something your HR people can help with and an expertise they'll be happy to demonstrate. But it's important to note that this type of interview isn't a replacement for the EQ-I assessment. Rather, they complement each other. Ultimately the assessment can be used to validate your references, thus providing an extra layer of reassurance.

Beyond the Obvious: What We Look For

Executive interviews are different from those you'd perform at more junior levels, partially because there's more at stake in the outcome but also because well-crafted questions looking for predefined answers provide only part of the picture. Generally speaking, by the time a person becomes an executive, they've already proven they're highly proficient in answering traditional interview questions.

You hire greatness by first understanding who they are, their predominant leadership style, and their adaptability to adapt to your specific culture. Experience, knowledge, and track record are critical aspects of the selection process, but we can't stress enough the importance of evaluating the candidate's personal qualities. These are critical to ensure a cultural fit within your organization.

Outstanding Key Leadership Attributes to Watch For

All key leadership roles require individuals who can develop a plan, then assemble and lead a team to execute it. Our focus during the interview and evaluation process will be to find those select few candidates who are and have been successful within the framework of the client assignment.

Work Ethic, Enthusiasm, Drive, and Intensity

Leaders have a resiliency that pushes them to persevere, regardless of the task. The best leaders are adept at creating a deep level of trust with employees and stakeholders at all levels. They have a superior work ethic, extraordinary stamina, and the ability to create an energy-charged, enthusiastic work environment. Ultimately, they enjoy doing whatever it takes to get the job done.

Adaptability

At the executive level you're obviously looking for someone with a high level of raw intelligence balanced by well-developed emotional intelligence. In today's hyper-paced global environment you're also looking for those who can use their intellectual capacity to make quick, solid business decisions in tough competitive environments often without having all the details, so intuition is also important.

Passion

There comes a time in the process when the right candidate—your next great hire—develops a passion for the challenge and opportunity, and without prompting can articulate very quickly how they see their contribution making a difference. Watch closely to see how their perception of the opportunity evolves over the course of the interviews, because you'll pick up clues about what's important to them, which you can later use to close an offer and hire them.

Why Executive Interviews Are Different

Let's be clear: From the very first call, you're courting the candidate. It's essential in today's competitive recruiting environment that the candidate you “awaken” stays focused on your opportunity. It's not enough to find them and engage their idle interest. You need to make the position hugely attractive, addressing their “what's in it for me” (WIFM) curiosity with the opportunity. You need to closely couple your selling of the opportunity with an equally pragmatic approach to the underlying HR issues surrounding the position.

The Timing and Personal Characteristics Are Different

When interviewing someone for a key leadership role the interview takes longer than traditional interviews. It's a courtship process in the truest sense of the term, which requires you to pay attention to subtleties that reflect on the candidate's intent and authenticity. When we conduct an executive search, we spend a large amount of time getting to know the individuals as human beings, learning what drives them, and probing specific experiences and accomplishments. This allows us to find our preferred candidates who have a high level of honesty and integrity. It's imperative that the individual is a well-principled person: someone your people will trust and who shares values with the executive team.

The Energy Is Different

It is imperative that the candidate has the ability to create excitement as well as enthusiasm, and engage employees and stakeholders. To a great extent their ability to achieve ambitious goals hinges on their personal passion, energy, drive, and commitment around a shared vision. This is the most difficult quality to evaluate in the interview process. We're looking for candidates whose passion rises when they recount their successes, and who exude passion when telling the story. You can see a level of excitement and enthusiasm as they detail the who, what, where, when, why, and how of their accomplishments in the role. You can typically sense they're ready to do it again. We often hear this referred to as “fire in the belly,” so watch for it and ensure it's genuine.

The Investigation Is More Intense

We focus on details when candidates talk about what they've accomplished: We probe to learn how things actually got done, because during the boom years in the 1990s many underwhelming executives were simply in the right place at the right time. If a candidate is unable to describe—in detail—significant technical events they were part of, they probably weren't the real architect but instead benefited from the “halo effect.” As one of my favorite clients once remarked early in my career, “Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn now and again.”

The Business Drivers Are Personal

We're also looking for candidates seeking a career progression with increasing levels of responsibility. Leaders are usually recognized early in their careers and are continually given more responsible positions. They rarely sit idle in their careers. How an executive advanced during the period 2000 to 2010 may tell a different story, and may expose a level of resiliency you'll appreciate—or a fatal flaw you can't live with.

Why You Always Conduct Face-to-Face Interviews in Pairs

When interviewing executive candidates you should do so in pairs. The risk of rejecting the correct person because of a personal bias is high. We all have biases and beliefs, even those we're not fully aware of, that may guide our decisions even if they have no bearing on a candidate's ability to perform the job. The average interviewer isn't trained to look past a candidate's veneer to examine the talent rather than the presentation, so the risk of passing on a viable candidate when interviewing alone is very high. Why risk it? Personal biases are another major reason we use the Confidential Candidate Brief (CCB) as our first real connection with potential candidates. The CCB is an impartial intermediary, blind to gender, age, race, sex, and other biases.

As a pair, one interviewer asks the majority of the questions while the other records responses, keeps the interview on track, and on time. The record-keeping interviewer is also responsible for posing follow-up questions if a candidate's answer isn't complete. Interviewing in this fashion facilitates an unbiased assessment of the candidate immediately after the fact.

The First Hour

I always ask candidates if they have any questions for me before we begin. If they do, I answer them truthfully to the best of my abilities and defer the ones I cannot answer to a follow-up call after I get the answer(s) they're seeking. Then I begin with “I'd appreciate it—if you wouldn't mind—taking me through your career again like you already did, but allowing me to ask you questions this time along the way. So, take me back to when you were first getting out of college or university and roll through your career up to now.”

The questions on my mind at this point are more focused on his or her contribution, leadership, adaptability, and personal style or “fit.” I ask probing questions as the candidate tells his or her story and my recruiting partner takes notes. I'm looking to confirm the story and details they first told me during the recruiting and screening call. I ask a lot of follow-on questions like the ones below, and when we get to the most recent 10-year period in their career I dig deep for project specifics I can't find out about from looking at who they may have worked with on their LinkedIn profile.

In the CCB we asked two questions specifically, which I follow-up on as we go through their story again:

1. They were asked in the CCB, “What are your biggest accomplishments?” Most people answer relative to the role but I'm also interested in what they do outside of work. So if all their accomplishments are work-related, I'll query them about their “other” life as they take me on their journey of discovery. I want to understand how they establish goals and face adversity, because personal sacrifices can tell a lot about a person's character.
2. They were asked in the CCB, “What is the one thing you would change about the company if you could?” I can quickly peg a candidate's work personality if they immediately start listing their dislikes and the list is longer than a few, and if the list remains the same or very similar when they talk about other places they worked. At the very least you need to consider if the same conditions apply in the role you're recruiting for. Remember: Skills and experience are a given at this point. It's mostly about culture and “fit” now, and I'm looking for thoughtful answers and patterns of behavior at this time.

While this is our first face-to-face interview, the tone of our meeting needs to induce a normal business conversation. It's certainly not an interrogation and should never be construed as such. In this meeting we're seriously courting the candidate and, in turn, he or she is interested in the role as it relates to advancing his or her career.

As the candidate takes me along his or her career journey I press them for transparency. By asking these five questions, I get greater clarity:

1. How did you discover the job opening?
2. Why did you want the job?
3. What did you learn?
4. What did you accomplish?
5. Why did you leave?

The nuts and bolts of what you're looking for differs with every project, but in general here's what you should be listening to understand:

1. How did you find out about the job? Posted jobs are still where most people find out about new opportunities including: job boards, company websites, LinkedIn, and other social media sites, so that's certainly not a red flag. However, any candidate who's not being “found” for opportunities probably doesn't have the level of skill and experience that would have their accomplishments talked about by others as you should expect. Great leaders are talked about. The type of person you are after started early in his or her career to build a reputation for results that would naturally attract other opportunities without having to expend much effort. Some are the embodiment of living legends. Other leaders will have gone out of their way to draft them on to their teams. A consistent history of “being hunted” is what you look for.
2. Why did you want the job? Top performers can articulate why they wanted a particular job or took a lateral promotion. They have a plan and they're open to opportunities that advance it. The best are often given near-impossible tasks early and often in their career to hone their skills for advancement. Titles and money are secondary measures of success for these types of people. They know the kind of environment they'll excel in, but have also adapted well to new situations and continued to flourish. They understand what motivates and challenges them. Not only can they describe it, they actively seek it. They're likely to perform well in your role if the other factors all line up and the fit is good.
3. What did you learn in that role? Were they successful or did they fail? Do they accept blame for a failure or blame everyone but themselves? In either case, what were the lessons and how did they apply them in future situations? Does it translate directly to your requirements? If not, ask questions designed to ascertain how this person learns. Even more importantly, ask if they're committed to a personal continuous learning program.
4. What did you accomplish and why was this important? This is a very telling question because the natural thing for most people is to take credit for saving the entire world single-handedly, without a team of some type. It's possible he or she did, and if so just move on to another accomplishment because you're trying to assess their innate leadership style and management skills. It's awfully difficult to build winning teams consistently unless you share the credit and encourage others. Narcissistic, command-and-control czars generally reveal themselves at this point in the process. These types are to be avoided at all costs—unless the role specifically calls for it, but few opportunities at healthy organizations do.
   1. You also want to determine if their accomplishments grew in size and complexity? How do they build their teams and alliances? What risks do they take? How high are the stakes? Highly matrixed organizations require well-developed persuasion skills to move even the smallest program forward. The more complicated the professional environment they're being recruited into, the more refined these skills have to be.
5. Why did you leave? Good people leave for better opportunities and more money. You're not looking for a saint, but people also leave because an employer is too demanding. Or the company has gone in a different direction. Or (the biggest reason) the employee doesn't get along with his or her boss or co-workers. When that's the case, don't be judgmental. Resist the temptation to ask for details. Pause for a long few seconds and give the candidate the opportunity to explain—if they choose to do so at that time. In the process, many candidates will describe issues with management or disagreements with other employees.

Follow-up on patterns that concern you. Some people don't ever take ownership and always see situations as someone else's problem. Even at the executive level, some people have consistently had problems with their bosses, which means they'll also likely have issues with the new boss if they're hired into the role.

The Second Hour

Interviewer Questions

At this point I have the candidate's CCB and résumé in front of me and I've already compared it to their LinkedIn Profile, if they have one. After the candidate goes through their story in detail again, and your interview partner has taken copious notes, it's your time to fill in some much-needed details that were probably glossed over but are critically important. Since I care more about the candidate's recent experience—roughly the last 10 years—I usually start with their current job and work backwards. That way I can dig deep into recent history and compress the discussion of older jobs if time runs short.

Next it's time to fact check for accuracy. I dig into their background for clarification wherever it's needed. I expect 100 percent consistency with the information on all fronts, but approximately 40 percent of the time there are small inconsistencies and 20 percent of the time there are large ones. If appropriate, I'll call them out by using a punctuated pause in the conversation. It quickly becomes obvious whether the candidate intended to be deceptive. Several times I've discovered seemingly unimportant stuff that has led to my ending any further discussions.

I always start my detailed fact checking by first covering the basics. This ensures the details don't come back and bite you, along with establishing some check points for the reference calls to come.

Next, in rapid succession I verify each former employer: start and end date, reporting hierarchy, team members, and accomplishments. If they've had many titles in one organization, I confirm them all and look to see if each new role was a promotion or advancement of some strategic nature. During this stage, I'm intensely probing for more information around things like:

Behind the Scenes

Once the right candidate has been identified, has demonstrated a strong interest in the position, and you are considering taking them further in the process, one of the most critical stages of the search begins—the close. You need to confirm the candidate's interest and confirm the candidate will accept your position after every interview.

There are many things that can derail a search, but the single most frustrating is to find your selected candidate has become a reluctant bride at the end of the courtship. Make continuous feedback, which should be forthcoming from the Search Chair, a priority. Continue to seek the candidate's counsel at each juncture. Be quick to address all issues the candidate may have—no matter how trifling you may consider them—right up to the day the candidate actually starts.

Behind the Scenes

After each candidate is interviewed, the ESP and Search Chair share perceptions of how closely the candidate's experience fits the role and discuss at length the person's fit with the executive team. If either the ESP or the Search Chair has concerns or wants more background information on the candidate, this is noted for action by the ESP later. Using a specialized CRM program like Invenias, which is made specifically for the needs of ESPs and their clients, makes record-keeping painless.

If the candidate is going to be encouraged to continue in the process and meet the ultimate hiring authority, the ESP will begin informal referencing and fact checking. ZoomInfo can be useful in this regard because you can quickly discover who has worked with this candidate in the past. You can also use LinkedIn for the same purpose. Invenias is helpful at this point as well because it allows you to easily see who else you know who may know the candidate for potential pre-referencing. With Invenias you can start to build a reference list of people you want to talk to. Leveraging Invenias' search and import function will permit you to search LinkedIn and ZoomInfo.com if you have accounts. LinkedIn is also a good quick way to see who is related to whom, and how, for potential referencing purposes later.

Confirm the candidate's interest and pre-commit the candidate to accept the position again. Discuss compensation at length, including any golden handcuffs in effect. Finally, discuss counteroffers and understand what type of counteroffer they would accept from their current employer to stay.

Interview Time: 1.5 to 3 Hours

This is the first interview with the ultimate hiring authority, but it may include others depending on circumstances. This interview is done with the ultimate hiring authority, the Search Chair, and the lead ESP as scribe. The ESP may be asked to design the base interview questions. Naturally, the ultimate hiring authority will have received, read, and questioned wherever necessary all correspondence and reports provided by the ESP and Search Chair.

Objective:

• Validate the Search Chair and ESP assessment.
• Do a deep dive on the candidate's leadership style.
• Assess the candidate's fit and personal style—can I work with this individual? Do I like him or her?
• If you're still interested in the person as a candidate for the position at the interview's conclusion, the hiring executive must confirm the candidate's sincere interest in:
  1. Proceeding to the next interview with a group of his or her peers and the board, and
  2. Accepting the role as it currently is spec'd out if offered.

By the time a candidate first steps in front of the ultimate hiring authority, his or her skills, experience, and “fit” will have been systematically vetted by a trusted board member and two ESPs. The candidate was approached and invited to assess the opportunity because they're known to be the best of the best in their industry. They weren't looking for a job yet have endured a succession of multi-hour interviews. The Search Chair and ESP have documented why they believe that candidate is the right hire. But it's the hiring authority that has to work with them day-in and day-out.

It's a great convenience for the CEO to hand off the preliminary work of locating, identifying, and evaluating a new hire, but now it's time to step up and take responsibility for making the final call. He or she has to be willing to look the candidate(s) straight in the eye, ask some tough questions, and do a gut check before passing them through to the Search Committee.

Yes, I said gut check! I can hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth now from millions of well-meaning HR professionals—and they're 100 percent correct that “gut instinct” is unreliable and should never be used in an interview in the case of a young and uninitiated manager. But I encourage executives with 20 or more years of experience to listen to their guts. As Malcolm Gladwell points out in Blink: The Power of Thinking without Thinking, instinct is seldom wrong. A gut check is required.

Let me explain why following the rigorous process Mark and I outline can help you mitigate the risk of a bad hire:

• The functional spec meets the needs of the business plan.
• The candidates are already known to be outstanding. They are not looking for a new job nor are they between opportunities. They've been systematically courted for months by professionals specifically for your role. At times, these candidates may be the result of years of cultivating a strong business relationship with these people on the part of the ESP.
• Your Search Chair is a board member and is on your side. He or she has the organization's best interests at the forefront. His or her reputation is seriously on the line and they will use every means possible to ensure the best executive recommendations.
• The executive search firm has skin in the game, and more than a passing interest in getting it right. Now is when it pays big dividends for your business-savvy HR exec to have convinced the executive search firm to warranty its recommended hire for one full year.

Speaking from experience, I can assure you that every ESP in the world understands how hard it is to do a search correctly the first time. No one wants to have to redo a search from scratch. Beyond the public humiliation, their time has been lost and there may also be a financial cost to them personally.

After reviewing the notes provided by the Search Chair and ESP, the ultimate hiring authority's focus during this initial meeting is to continue asking the hard questions to help determine the individual's fit with this team. Great executives are a lot like Super Bowl head coaches and are always measuring their bench strength against the other guy's team—and they're always looking for talent to shore up their weaknesses. Their job right now is to decide if the executive being presented can execute the playbook as part of that team.

At this juncture the search chair should lead the discussion toward the candidate's systems thinking and creative thinking abilities. The ESP should take notes while the ultimate hiring authority explores the candidate's thinking patterns, by asking probing questions such as:

Executives typically have healthy egos, but since today's successful work dynamic requires teamwork the traditional command-and-control structures don't work with today's knowledge workers. It is vital to gut check the candidate's innate leadership qualities, which include a review of their level of self-awareness, candor, flexibility, and genuine humility when leading a team. The Veterans Administration (VA) (of all places) provides a good example of how to steer the discussion in such a direction:

How the candidate responds to this question will help uncover any narcissistic tendencies that would interfere with their ability to get the job done.

This meeting should last two to three hours with appropriate breaks. The meeting could lead to a private dinner with just the ultimate hiring authority and the candidate.

Behind the Scenes

This is a crucial meeting. By the time the candidate and the ultimate hiring authority meet, the latter will have received and reviewed the candidate's résumé, confidential candidate brief, and notes on all previous meetings with the Search Chair and ESP. At this stage the ESP may have lightly referenced the candidate as well. The ultimate hiring authority may also know people familiar with the candidate, and whether or not these individuals are approached for information needs to be discussed between the ultimate hiring authority, Search Chair and ESP. Confidentiality must be maintained or you run the risk of losing the candidate.

All compensation-related issues need to be confirmed before going forward. Discuss with the candidate the need for references, including who they would use and why should the job be offered to them. Don't leave the discussion of referencing any longer. If there are issues the candidate doesn't want you to know about, whom he or she chooses as references may bring them to light sooner rather than later.

Interview Time: 3 to 4 hours

Objective:

1. Confirm the candidate's fit;
2. Select and close the candidate on the role.

Note: This is not a perfunctory “meet and greet.” It is make or break time.

The search is drawing to a successful conclusion. The ESP has culled a long list of more than 100 prospective candidates to a short list of 20. Through five successive interview stages the field has been pared down to two outstanding executives who the ultimate hiring authority feels would be excellent additions to the team. It's now the Search Committee's task to interview and help select the executive who can best accomplish what the organization's business plan expects from the role.

By this stage in the interview process the Search Committee members will have been fed a steady diet of impressions about all candidates after each successive interview, but they may not have heard any feedback from the ultimate hiring authority. If this is the case, the Search Chair should convene a meeting with the selection committee as a precursor to the final interviews with the short-list candidates. This meeting will provide the final opportunity for vetting the candidate.

Prior to the meeting, the Search Chair should courier a consolidated package of information to each Search Committee member's home that should include a) an itinerary for the meeting, b) the candidate's résumé, c) the CCB, and d) any anecdotal notes the Search Chair and ESP deem appropriate.

The best interview outcomes occur when the Search Committee receives advanced training from the ESP or chair on effective interview techniques. Training includes tactical coaching for each interviewer and developing ongoing feedback mechanisms that facilitate real-time sharing of insight and impressions with other Search Committee members throughout the process. The Search Chair should meet with the Search Committee to pose this question to the group:

• Given what we know about the candidate and what we need to achieve by staffing this role, what else do we want to discover about the candidate personally and professionally that we don't already know?

The answers to the foregoing question will then drive the executive search stakeholders, including the ESP, to draft a series of questions to complete the collective due diligence and prepare for the final Search Committee interview with the short-list candidates. Each Search Committee member will be assigned a question to ask the candidates while the other committee members take notes. This is a standard approach for the board and Search Committee interviews. The candidates will expect it and will come well prepared for the Search Committee interviews.

The most productive Search Committee interviews are structured, planned in advance, and executed with rigor. Typically, the Search Chair opens the meeting and introduces the candidate. The Search Committee has the full report on the candidate from the ESP through the Search Chair. They all meet the candidate and pose one of the relevant questions designed to complete the vetting process.

The objective is twofold: conduct a formal interview to find something the ESP, Search Chair, and ultimate hiring authority might have missed, and to also conduct an informal interview over lunch to expedite bonding and buy-in. The bonding aspect is a critical aspect of the close. Remember that the executive you're courting is about to divorce his current company and leave all his friends and relations behind. That's not an easy choice, and the decision is exponentially more difficult when there's a geographic relocation required. To vet and convincingly sell the candidate the two sides must bond. There must be a strong emotional connection that goes beyond the courtesy that's been extended by the Search Chair, one that extends to key players on the Search Committee as well.

Following the formal interview the Search Committee will adjourn to a luncheon with the candidate. It works best when the luncheon is off-site. If a candidate is going to let down his or her guard, he or she is going to do it in neutral territory. Remember to have dietary preferences as well as health and religious concerns prearranged beforehand with the candidate as well as members of the Search Committee.

Behind the Scenes

Following this meeting and while their impressions and thoughts are still fresh, the Search Chair and ESP should have a discussion ending in a go or no-go decision. At this point, further information shouldn't be needed. Following a good meeting, the ESP should be in a position to debrief the candidate later in the day and float a trial balloon offer. If there are still areas of concern then the ultimate hiring authority, Search Chair, and ESP should discuss the best way to handle it. Frankly, if this is the case at this point, the ESP has not been doing his or her full job.

Listen to Your Gut

Don't be afraid to consider how you feel about the candidate. I know, “Feelings are neither scientific nor logical.” But this isn't the USS Enterprise and you're not Mr. Spock, so do a gut check before making the final decision. The accuracy of the gut check is enhanced by asking out loud and reflecting on these five questions:

1. Do you trust this person? Trust is binary—there is no gray. Answer yes or no and proceed (or not) from there.
2. Have they made you a believer in their candidacy?
3. Do you honestly believe your company would be better off if they were to come aboard?
4. Are any of the concerns raised about the candidate critical to the job in your organization?
5. Do you sense a deal can be made which is generally in line with the compensation levels of the rest of your team?

A negative answer to question number one is a showstopper. A negative answer to question number four requires that you have another interview, dig into their answers to your questions, and settle it. Don't expect to be able to cover every issue without exception. Just be certain you understand in detail the job and environment in relation to the skills, background, and personal qualities of the final candidate. Doing so will put the odds of success in your favor.