Fire fast, hire slow.
Smart, tough, beer-test.
Skills, technical experience, domain experience, process experience, attitude, fit.
Work style: Producers, Administrators, Entrepreneurs, Integrators (copyright Ichak Adizes). (I’m PI by the way)
Myers Briggs personality types. (I’m ENTJ by the way).
Goals, situation, compensation, risk.
Need 3 qualified and pick 1. Never pick 1 without having 3 qualified.
What does the team need? What do you need? Better be real clear here before you start interviewing so you can filter feedback, sell your choice to the team and effectively on-board.
Open ended questions, drill-down/drill-down/drill-down. Qualify, qualify, qualify. What if this happens?
That’s all I know about that. Do it right and you’re picking your successors on a way to a bigger role. Since people get the position that they were already doing but just not getting paid or recognized for, building organizational capacity is the only way forward and out. Over hire.
Here are my thoughts on marketing leadership and hiring:
Marketing Leadership Interview Questions
There are many functional skills and experience questions that address the ‘table stakes’ capabilities that any marketer will need to succeed. However the ability to lead the company by leading ‘big M’ marketing is ultimately the measure of success. Here, past leadership results are the primary determinate of future leadership results.
Below are questions that I use in recruiting and hiring that help me assess whether the candidate leads or participates.
- Have you created a well-recognized market category?How?
- Have you transformed company?How?
- How many VPs of sales have you helped hire?
- How many sales and/or employee kickoffs have you created and run?
- How many successful new products/solutions have YOU created/launched?
- What programs did you create that were unique or ahead of their time?
- How many (re)positioning and (re)branding initiatives have you led?
- How many teams have you built or how many hires?
- How many times has your hire been promoted or become a successor?
- How many management team colleagues are good references?