Hiring a senior executive should be a growth lever. Too often, it’s a gamble. Nearly half of all executives hired into new roles fail within 18 months (HBR, 2017). The fallout is costly.
When a senior hire fails, the impact goes far beyond severance and search fees. According to Adler and SHRM, a bad executive hire can cost up to 15 times their salary. That includes lost momentum, strategic delays, turnover in their team, and opportunities that never materialize.
These costs don’t just hurt. They impact performance, morale, and progress.
Image by Ryoji Iwata
Why Do So Many Executive Hires Fail?
Despite the stakes, many companies still lean on gut instinct, surface impressions, and pedigree. These proxies are weak predictors of performance:
- Unstructured interviews have a predictive validity of just 0.38 (Schmidt and Hunter, 1998)
- Educational background and likeability often introduce bias without offering insight (Wingate and Bourdage, 2024; Rivera, 2012)
- Cultural mismatch remains the number one reason for early failure (Leadership IQ)
Meanwhile, structured interviews (0.51), cognitive ability tests (0.65), and work sample assessments (0.54) remain far more reliable.
Too many hiring decisions reward performance theatre: the most charismatic candidate, the most prestigious CV. But strong leadership rarely looks perfect on paper. It’s about fit, adaptability, learning agility, emotional intelligence and a bias for execution.
Research from Adam Grant and colleagues (2011) shows that adaptive, proactive leadership correlates more strongly with team success than traditional leadership traits. Google’s internal hiring reviews led them to remove brainteasers and GPA filters in favor of structured, behavior-based interviews tied directly to outcomes (Bock, 2015).
Companies that consistently hire great executives do a few things differently. They define success based on context (strategy, growth stage, real challenges). They evaluate real capability using structured interviews and role-relevant assessments. And they align decision-making across stakeholders through a clear, consistent process.
In his book Hire With Your Head, Lou Adler said, “Define the job, not the person. Define success, not the skills.” Hiring the right executive isn’t easy, but it is possible. And it starts with a better process. At Susan Pike & Partners, we help you define the job, identify the right competencies for this job, and structure your interviews around business impact. We design interview plans, provide assessment tools, and bring AI-powered insights to help your team make confident, evidence-based decisions.
If you’re ready to change how you hire leaders, we’d love to talk.
