Knowing which executive to hire and when can be incredibly difficult—especially when you’re a startup founder focused on scaling your business and managing a milieu of other responsibilities.
It’s even more of a challenge if you haven’t hired executives before or are unsure how to hire a leader in a different discipline than your own. For instance, if your background is in finance, what should you look for in a marketing or product candidate? What about an HR or operations leader? Are you hiring each leader on a time scale appropriate for their industry-specific skills? Startup CEOs don’t have time to answer these questions by trial and error.
With executive hiring expected to increase over the next 10 years, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, having the skills to hire the right executives is only growing more important.
Though there’s no one-size-fits-all playbook for executive hiring, I’ve found that best-in-class executive searches all have the same three guiding principles.
Conduct no more than two executive searches at a time
In my experience, it takes, on average, 120—130 days to meet, assess, and close an executive candidate. Though a good hiring process can expedite this timeframe, hiring a top-tier executive will still take substantial time and resources. You might have seven hires you want to make, but chances are you don’t have the resources or bandwidth to successfully run each of those processes—much less successfully onboard them. That’s why it’s critical to focus on your top priorities and hire executives who will immediately impact your business.
Hire for what you want to accomplish in the next 12-18 months
A great hiring process starts with understanding your goals for the hire. If you can’t define a role, you shouldn’t hire for it.
Do your homework and get very specific about your goals for the next 12–18 months, such as selling in a new geography or launching a second product. Consider the gaps among your current leadership that could prevent you from reaching those goals, then hire executives who complement the strength of your existing executive bench. Below are some common goals growth-stage companies need to hire an executive to reach.
Once you can define your “why,” write a MOC (mission–outcome–competencies) document that lays out the business case for the hire and outlines what you expect the hire to do in the next 12–18 months. Identify 5–8 outcomes they should achieve and the competencies needed to accomplish them. Below is a sample MOC for a CFO.
The level of clarity provided by the MOC sets the foundation to attract stronger candidates, provide a consistent candidate experience, shorten the hiring process, and better integrate new leaders into the org. The best candidates will be those with the highest probability of accomplishing more than 90% of the outcomes in the MOC. In my experience, executives who hit those 12–18 month outcomes are more likely to succeed at their companies in the long term, so it’s essential to be clear on their goals.
The CEO should lead the hiring process
While you’ll work with an HR team and possibly a search firm to build out your talent pipeline, you can’t outsource your role as the company’s leader in attracting, vetting, and ultimately deciding on new leadership for three reasons:
- No one knows your company better than you do. The initial conversations with a potential hire set the tone and scope of their role. If you aren’t involved in actively leading that conversation, you risk misdefining or miscommunicating the company’s needs and hiring someone who is the wrong fit.
- No one will sell a company to a tier 1 executive better than the CEO will. Top candidates have plenty of options, and hearing directly from the CEO signals how important the role is to you and the company.
- You signal the importance of the role to the rest of your organization. Internally, your involvement signals the executive’s role and function as an essential priority. Especially when an executive role comes with organizational changes, this primes the org for change and makes it easier for a new executive to ramp up.
Building this executive team and navigating the resulting change is one of the most important—and often one of the loneliest—parts of the CEO job. But as challenging as some of the decisions may be, hiring the right executives at the right time can transform your company.
Jeff Stump is an operating partner leading the Andreessen Horowitz Talent Network team and a contributing author to the firm’s Executive Hiring Playbook. He previously served as a partner at Howard Fischer Associates International, leading senior-level executive and board searches for emerging and established companies.