SelectOne Blog

So you need to hire a CEO.

First of all: breathe. You’re probably no stranger to hiring. And all those skills you’ve developed around hiring the right people for the right positions? They’re still 100% valid. You still want to screen your initial applications carefully, conduct phone conversations to make sure you’re on the same page, ask meaningful interview questions, dig skeptically when answers are vague or don’t add up, use assessments where appropriate, and make reasonable offers when it comes to salary.

Does your organization need C-suite executives? Whether you already have a C-suite or are considering adding one, it’s important to know exactly what these roles mean: CEO, COO, CTO, CFO, CMO, and CIO.

C-Suite executives, like CEOs, COOs, and CMOs, are unique and wonderful creatures. While they can guide your company to enormous success, they don’t always make choices you’d expect. During the hiring process, their desires and motivations can be totally different than all other employees you’ll ever hire.

If you’re thinking about hiring for personality, some examples spring immediately to mind. Techies and accountants should be introverts, right? And salespeople should definitely be extroverted.

Among personality assessments, none is so well-known as the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. But despite the fact that it’s a household name, it can be a confusing topic for many people. Is it really a valid assessment of personality? Can your type change over time? Is your type useful in figuring out what sort of work you should do, or where you should do it?

There are many different methods for looking at and analyzing personality. Among these is the DISC profile, which can be a useful tool in understanding people’s underlying values and preferences when it comes to the work they do. In the workplace, this can be especially helpful in understanding how an individual approaches their job on a day-to-day basis. It can also be useful in diagnosing problems in team dynamics, especially when the people in question work well as individuals, but seem to have trouble when functioning together as a unit. When hiring, it can make sense to look at both the work itself and the work environment in which a new employee will be expected to function. The DISC profile is one tool that can help you think about whether a candidate might find it easy to succeed in the position.

Do you know who you want to hire for your new opening?

Do you really?

Often, we think we’ve nailed down all the requirements of the job—they should be competent at using the relevant equipment, they should be responsible, they should be able to meet deadlines—but haven’t given much thought to the right personality beyond, “This person shouldn’t be a jerk.”

With more and more managers becoming aware of the fact that personality fit is a major component of employee success, discussions about character traits like introversion and extroversion are becoming more common in the workplace. This is especially true in hiring, where managers are constantly on the lookout for additional indicators of whether or not a given candidate might be a good fit for the role.

You know that personality can have a big impact on whether or not a job candidate will be successful in a given role at your business. But unless you’ve worked with this person before, it can be a challenging task to uncover someone’s true personality during the hiring process.

When setting salaries, you need to determine how valuable the role in question is to your businesses. While this number likely won’t impact the low end of your salary range for the position (which will most likely be dictated by industry and area standards), it will have an impact on the maximum you’re willing to offer to an outstanding employee.