Inside Leadership Hiring

Experience is easy to spot. Readiness is quieter. One shows up clearly on a résumé. The other reveals itself only in conversation, pressure, and change. And yet, when leadership hiring goes wrong, it’s often because we confuse the two. Experience Is About Where You’ve Been Experience tells a story of the past: Roles held Teams managed Markets navigated Problems solved It answers questions like: Have you done this before? Have you seen scale? Do you understand the mechanics of

AI has quietly moved from experimentation to expectation. It’s already embedded in tools, workflows, and daily decisions. Today, leaders are no longer being asked whether they believe in AI. They are being asked what they are doing with it and what results it is delivering . Yet a growing gap is emerging between the amount organisations are investing in AI and the confidence leaders have in guiding its adoption. Research from McKinsey & Company  points to a clear pattern: the

We’ve all heard it: IQ gets you hired EQ gets you followed Great leaders have both But by now, most of us intuitively know and quietly feel that this conversation feels incomplete. Not because the terms are wrong, but because we’re asking the wrong question. Let’s unpack why EQ vs IQ shouldn’t be a debate at all and what actually matters when you’re leading humans, not algorithms. IQ Brings You In, and EQ Brings You Through IQ is about logic: Problem solving Strategy Pattern

Good leadership conversations don’t sound like interviews. They sound like - thinking together . Most hiring conversations test how well someone speaks. Judgment is revealed in something quieter — how they make sense of complexity. Here are the questions that help surface that. “Tell me about a decision that was clear on paper, but complex in reality.” This question opens up space. It allows leaders to talk about: Holding data and instinct together Navigating ambiguity Making

Founders rarely mean strength  the way job descriptions define it. They’re not asking for louder voices, sharper elbows, or bigger resumes. When a founder says, “We need a strong leader,”  what they’re really expressing is unspoken strain - pressure that the organisation has outgrown its current shape. Let’s decode what that sentence usually hides. “I Can’t Carry This Alone Anymore” This is the most common meaning—and the least openly acknowledged. The founder is: Making too

In leadership hiring, we often talk about skills, pedigree, scale, and outcomes . But what we don’t say enough yet feel deeply is this: Leadership hiring is as much emotional work as it is strategic work. Because behind every senior resume is a human who has: Made difficult decisions Carried invisible pressure Navigated loss, ambition, fear, and responsibility Learned restraint long before they learned authority And if we miss that, we miss the leader. What Experience Teaches

Leadership hiring rarely fails because of missing skills. It fails because we over-index on what is visible and under-measure what actually sustains leadership over time. Titles scale faster than temperament. Resumes grow faster than judgment. And organisations pay the price for that imbalance. The Numbers Tell a Clear Story (If We’re Willing to Listen) Across global leadership research, patterns repeat: Nearly 40% of senior leaders derail within 18 months Leadership mis-hire

Let us examine the 6-P framework in leadership hiring, which emphasizes the importance of defining outcomes, evaluating critical thinking abilities, and ensuring long-term alignment with organizational objectives. PURPOSE — Why This Leader, Why Now Start with business truth, not a vacancy. Ask: What business outcome will fail without this hire? Is this a builder, scaler, fixer, or transformer  role? What decisions will this leader own exclusively? Output: A Leadership Mandate