Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer.
Does it pay to hire the best candidate money can buy? Probably not, said Jeffrey Pfeffer, a professor of organizational behavior at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.
More often than not the hired gun is a dud, he said. “Outside successors seldom succeed.” Nevertheless, businesses love hiring outsiders (especially for chief executive officer and other C-level jobs), and executive search firms have built their industry on the idea that best person for the job works somewhere else right now.
People have affairs for the same reason that boards love outsiders: the person you know extremely well seldom looks as good as the ones you don’t know as closely… we know less about the outsiders, only their image and reputation. Insiders’ flaws are evident from our close contact with them, so they look less like superheroes.
Vetting outside candidates is next to impossible for many reasons, not least of which is that seasoned executives are good at hiding their flaws.
… learning about people’s real abilities requires spending way more time with them than is possible. Decades of research show that interviews are notoriously unreliable as selection devices. In any event, by the time someone reaches senior management, the one skill that person has definitely mastered is being able to present a good public image in an interview.
Pfeffer also warned of negative effects on your staff and productivity:
Filling senior-level positions from outside sends a clear message to the current executive team-sorry, you’re just not good enough… current senior-level managers get disheartened… naturally begin thinking about how to find a new job instead of concentrating on improving results at their current company.
(Image courtesy of Stanford Graduate School of Business)
For more on executive recruiters:
- Why a $90,000 Job Goes Unfilled
- Can We Meet for Coffee or Lunch?
- Overqualified for the Job? Recruiters Say, “Change Careers”
- The Many Types of Executive Recruiter
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