Kelly Barnum: 4 Keys to Hiring a Great Executive at a Growth Stage Business

Pictured: Kelly Barnum,  Sr. Talent Manager

1. Building the Ideal Profile

An important piece of advice I give to management teams who come to us for help with the executive search process often starts right at the beginning. There is usually some excitement, and maybe some anxiety, that can come along with the decision to hire someone new to your leadership team. That is why I always try to emphasize the importance of being thoughtful during the process and ensuring that you are being targeted and methodical.

The important early factors to consider when kicking off this process include: understanding what the right hire looks like for your company, what their key responsibilities will be, and how they will fit into the company culture. The last thing your company – or the prospective new hire – needs is for your company to rush into hiring someone for an important leadership role without a plan in place. Make sure to spend time with your executive team members discussing desired traits or skill sets and building a job description.

If you are having trouble getting started or aligned on what these key traits look like, I recommend working on a 30-60-90 plan – mapping out what the first, second, and third months will look like for the individual sitting in this role. When you and your team take the time to map out tactically what the early key responsibilities and projects of this hire will be, different priorities for the position will come to light, thereby helping you create a more aligned search process.

I also want to point out that as you start having initial conversations with candidates, you might start seeing that a certain skillset or approach to a problem is a better fit for your firm than another. Adjusting your job description and hiring goals to better fit these traits is encouraged.

2. The Importance of Proper “Leveling”

One of the more complex components to hiring a leader at a growth stage business is getting the “leveling” right for the position. For example, if you are a $10M ARR company looking for a finance executive to lead you to the $30-$50M ARR level, the skillset might look different than finding someone who will eventually lead you to $50-$100M in ARR.

One of the key benefits of hiring an executive-level candidate is that they are often aware of their capabilities and where their key strengths lie. If anything, in a scenario where a candidate does not understand where their strengths and weaknesses lie, this could be a red flag.

Additionally, when looking to hire someone at the earlier stages of a growth stage business, I always emphasize hiring someone with the right skill set for today, but at the same time, looking for traits that show that they could grow into a more senior leader. There is something to be said for a leader who has been there from the beginning and grows into a more senior position possessing institutional memory. 

3. Creating a Candidate Pipeline

When it comes to starting to build your candidate pipeline, there are a couple of key factors to keep in mind. First, do not underestimate the power of your own network. Asking trusted current or former colleagues in a relevant field if they know someone who could be a fit for the role can be extraordinarily powerful. Second, I always think it is a great step early in the process to look at companies that you look up to or strive to become. So often, there will be individuals at these companies with a wealth of knowledge and experience who would love the opportunity to join an innovative, earlier-stage company in a related or tangential space.

I also think an important piece of advice in this area is to not be afraid to reach out to “passive” talent – someone who may not appear to be looking for a job due to tenure, stage of company, or career. Interestingly, most of the candidates that I talk to are passive candidates. Everyone, for the most part, is open to hearing about new opportunities. After all, if your dream opportunity arose, you would likely at least have a conversation! Even if the passive candidate is not interested in the opportunity, they likely have a network that they can refer you to as these individuals do not live in a silo by themselves.

4. Interviewing Process

When interviewing many candidates, it can become difficult for your management team to keep track of which candidate is which and what the key takeaways from them are if the right organizational steps are not taken. I recommend building out a “scorecard” that gives fellow executive team members the ability to grade a candidate at a scale you determine with a variety of traits/skillsets. Some of these traits can be around the cultural alignment with your company, confidence in their abilities to execute their responsibilities, if they are someone that they want to work with, etc. 

When thinking about the “scorecard,” it is important not only to align on what characteristics/criteria should be, but also what certain ranges on this scorecard represent. Does a “9” mean that your company definitely needs to hire this person or does a “9” just represent that they were impressive and there should be another conversation with the candidate? There is no right answer, but communication across the team is key.

Finally, it is also important to spend some time before the interview process begins thinking of what makes your company unique and what your key differentiators are. Many enterprise or growth-stage companies can offer strong compensation and good benefits. But why is your company different? Is it your disruptive technology? Your fantastic culture? The passion customers have for your brand or product? These are important things to think about as when you come across the right candidate you want to be able to sell them and successfully hire them.

–Kelly

Do you want to connect with Kelly Barnum? Reach out to her on Linkedin by clicking here.