4 Ways You Can Hire Future Leaders Today

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Hiring is easy! You simply design a job profile and description, advertise, screen in accordance with the criteria you’ve set and select an individual from a pool of candidates. Simple right? Well that would be the case if you’re hiring to fulfill today’s need or hiring to just fill a vacancy in your organizational chart. However, it’s altogether a different story if you’re really looking to hire future leaders.

Hiring future leaders is a complex and important aspect of running an organization. As a great leader you know better than to simply hire to meet today’s needs. You’re a visionary, and hence, the employees you bring to your organization should be in line with that vision of the future. Even if you’re not hiring to fill leadership positions today, everyone you bring onboard should have the potential to be leaders.

So, how do you hire future leaders, today? Here are 4 ways you can revamp your hiring process to screen out the rest and ensure you’re only bringing in the best – the leaders of tomorrow.

1. Only The Best Can Hire

If you’re putting your managers on interview panels then you’re guaranteed to hire future managers. It’s no secret that if you let your B-players conduct interviews you’ll hire C-players. However, if you’re A-players are screening, you’ll be hiring A-players. Your interview panel should consist of your best employees, the A-players and those who are destined to be future leaders. These are the talent that’ll attract and screen those who have similar potential. They’ll raise the bar and keep it raised in terms of who gets in. This way you’ll have a better chance of keeping mediocrity out and hiring future leaders. Also, the best candidates will want to join am organization that already has the best and brightest talent. Hence, your best will also be acting as brand ambassadors.

2. Dynamic Interview Process

The candidates you interview are usually unique in personality, experience and who they are. Your interview process, in the same manner, should be unique and dynamic to cater to different candidates. Hiring for the sake of it, is easy – build a good process, run it every time for every candidate and you’ll be guaranteed to get similar results, every time. That’s when you’re not hiring future leaders, but instead employees who’ll fulfill routine tasks. If you’re keen to hire leaders you’ll need a dynamic hiring process that allows you to extract all the necessary information that’ll facilitate your decision making. Make the process less structured and standardized. Focus more on learning about the candidates’ personalities, their drivers, motivators and passion. Build on their past, but don’t dwell on it too long. Your objective should be to find out where they’re headed and how their skills and capabilities can benefit your organization.

3. Gauge Motivational Fit

When hiring for critical positions you’re most likely going to meet plenty of talented individuals. They’ll be highly skilled, high achievers and downright intelligent. However, all that flash doesn’t necessarily spell out the right candidate for you. If you highly regard your organization’s values, culture, purpose and ethos you’ll find it harder to find candidates that really fit with your organization. Often this is an overlooked step in the hiring process, though it’s quite vital. Ensuring that the candidates you bring onboard are a cultural, ideological and motivational fit is pivotal in guaranteeing success, for your organization and the candidate. Knowing what motivates them, the purposes they value and what drives them will help you assess whether or not they are aligned with your organization.

4. Simulate Leadership Instances

We often ask candidates to detail situations where they displayed leadership traits. These provide candidates an opportunity to showcase their muscle, However, all that is in the past and not related to the challenges or environment they’re going to face in your organization. Instead, try creating realistic job environments that are more representative of your organization and the challenges they’re likely to face working for you. You may even ask them to interact with potential colleagues and work together in teams to resolve matters. This’ll allow you to assess their behavior and gauge whether they possess leadership skills that’s relevant and applicable to your organization.

Hiring future leaders is a vital and critical aspect of ensuring your business succeeds. Taking this process lightly can be detrimental as you’ll likely find your succession line to be bleak and depleted. Having future leaders at all levels of your organization is a sign of great strength. Even if your business struggles today, you’ll be setting yourself up for a prosperous future simply on the shoulders of the talent you bring in today.

Source: B2C