Hire leaders for what they can do, not what they have done

As Josh Bersin & Tomas Chamarro-Premuzic write, “it’s time to rethink the notion of leadership” in order to overcome the decades-long truth behind the rule of The Peter Principle that “competent people are promoted until they reach a position that is above their skill level, at which point they cease to grow .”

In their HBR article, Bersin & Chamarro-Premuzic pinpoint three questions organizations and businesses should center in their hiring process when looking to fill leadership roles:

1. Does the candidate have the skills to be a high-performing contributor or the skills to be an effective leader?
2. Can I really trust this candidate’s individual performance measures?
3. Am I looking forward or backward?

These three questions highlight the importance of the Talent Scarcity-Impact Framework, because they demand hiring teams to ascertain the specific impact potential of your leadership hires, focusing on future results instead of just present skillset.

In short, by focusing your leadership hiring process on potential business impact, you can derive consistent analytic evaluations to ensure a candidate’s past performance and competencies align with the purpose of the role, marrying the principles of hiring success and business success.