Debate Criteria, Not Personality, In CEO Hiring

When beginning the hunt for a new CEO, make a short list – but not of candidates, Reshmi Paul and Dionne Hosten, blogging at the Harvard Business Review, advise. Instead make a list of criteria by which candidates will be assessed. This reinforces the idea that no candidate is perfect. The challenge is to decide what deficits the board can live with, and which criteria are non-negotiable. The usual process, a laundry list of laudable qualities, doesn’t allow the best candidates to emerge, according to the authors. Instead, it gives every director something to point to as they lobby for their own favorite.