5 Effective Steps to Hiring and Promoting Strong Leaders
Publié le 14 February 2022
The right leader can be the key to success. Follow the 5 effective steps to hiring and promoting strong leaders, and you can be sure you will find the right candidate for the job.
While hiring is never easy, filling leadership positions can be quite daunting and a painstaking process. This is because leaders aren’t your ordinary employees or managers. Strong leaders inspire and motivate the team to do exemplary work. They lead by example, influencing a positive company culture by living it to the letter every single day. They communicate effectively, they are visionary, they foster innovation, and value employees. Additionally, strong leaders are responsible for creating an environment that motivates great performance across the entire organization. They empower their teams with the right tools, guidance, and training, and they are highly collaborative, working in every step with team members to achieve results. As a result, any company with strong leaders enjoys increased productivity, highly engaged employees, improved employee retention, increased customer satisfaction and growth in the organization’s competitive advantage, and much more.
Finding the right fit whether hiring from outside or promoting from within requires a well-thought process. Whether you are looking to hire now or in the future, here are 5 effective steps to hiring and promoting strong leaders who will help your business grow:
5 Effective Steps to Hiring and Promoting Strong Leaders
- Define the role
- Create the process
- Look within
- Ask for referrals
- Employ the right tools
1. Define the role
Strong and effective leadership looks different for different organizations. When hiring and promoting strong leaders, it is good to first define what leadership looks like for you and your organization. What are the specific leadership traits that you want the leaders to embody for that particular role? The best place to start is to look at your current leadership team. What are some of the traits that you like about the great leaders that you have currently? What are the traits that you feel are missing and you would like to see more in your leadership team? Asking such questions when hiring great leaders will unlock valuable insights that will be helpful when defining the characteristics for the role.
In addition, determine the specific qualifications and level of experience that will make a candidate the right fit for that leadership position. Consider the dynamics of the department or the work group that the successful candidate will be required to lead. Always be sure to consult with the active members of the work group, who – as engaged employees – will best be able to identify the things their team will need from a new leader to continue succeeding. This will help you identify the kind of leader that will best fit the position whether promoting from within or hiring externally.
2. Create the process
Every successful recruitment process must be well-streamlined to be successful. Candidates out there know what they want when applying for jobs. One of the keen things they are after is a systematic and well-organized hiring process. Many individuals become disinterested in an organization if the recruitment process is messy, there is no clear communication or the process takes too long. Without a good and effective hiring process in place, you are likely to miss some great individuals who would have been the right candidates for the leadership role.
For this reason, ensure that you stick to steps that add value for the role only. In addition, determine how you are going to measure leadership traits, skills, and abilities defined in step one to avoid wasting too much time. Lastly, ensure that your hiring panel is accustomed to the recruitment process as well as the role each individual plays in it to avoid confusion.
3. Look within
Leaders who are promoted from within are more likely to perform better as compared to those recruited externally. For starters, they appreciate the recognition, so they are highly motivated to continue growing and work hard in their new role. Before looking at candidates outside your organization, assess your current team to determine individuals who show the leadership traits that you are looking for in the position. Continually look out for signs that show which employees are ready to be promoted to strong leaders. Consider offering training and learning opportunities which develop and emphasize leadership skills, as well as mentoring and coaching promising individuals to get them ready for leadership positions.
However, be careful not to simply promote top performers in the organization in the hope that they can make great leaders. It would be a great mistake to equate top job skills with great leadership skills. When you promote someone who is already an established star, not only do they get pushed out of their perfect job for which they’re well-suited (which also happens), but the team’s entire dynamic changes. Strictly stick to the leadership traits identified in step one even when promoting from within.
4. Ask for referrals
When hiring strong leaders, you don’t want to leave any stone unturned by widening the pool of your prospects. Just like with promoting from within, you can trust referrals from people you know more than you would total strangers. Make a point of talking to your leadership team, investors, board members, and people you know to give you leads to people in their networks who can make strong leaders. In addition, you can also scour your networks for people with great leadership skills that you can bring onboard. Most importantly, don’t overlook individuals who are currently employed elsewhere when hiring great leaders. These passive candidates could potentially make the best employees. However, it could require some extra work to recruit, and it is important to work on your brand image to be appealing to such candidates.
5. Employ the right tools
Identifying great leaders from the pool of candidates requires more than just the standard assessment process. Besides reviewing resumes and conducting standard interviews, you need to go a step further to include cognitive tests, work task simulations, and personality evaluations when hiring and promoting strong leaders. These are important in determining the right leadership skills, as well as how the potential leader aligns with the company culture and company values. To do this successfully, you will need the right hiring tools. Utilizing online assessments helps ensure that you conduct structured assessments that provide reliable results in order to help you in finding the right candidate.
It is also good to know that hiring strong leaders isn’t an easy task. If you lack the right tools, you can always outsource the recruitment process to the experts. Consider using the services of the employer of record or PEO services in hiring candidates. With their extensive networks and hiring prowess, you can rest easy knowing that they will find great leaders that are fit for your organization. In addition, EOR services providers come with the added advantage of helping you deal with employees. You can even leave employees’ taxes, benefits, insurance, visa application, and more to them.
Conclusion
Hiring and promoting strong leaders isn’t always easy considering the extensive traits and skills that make great leaders. This is why it’s important to follow the 5 effective steps to hiring and promoting strong leaders. Start by defining what leadership means to your organization and identifying the necessary skills and traits. Follow that with building a process that is well-streamlined to raise your odds of success in hiring great leaders. Look from within and ask for referrals. Lastly, utilize the right hiring tools in the process. With a good strategy, you can attract, identify and hire or promote strong leaders that will be instrumental in taking your company forward.
