The Role Of Personality Of Candidates In Executive Recruiting

Is Personality Truly All Important In Executive Search?

Even though personality plays an important role in deciding the suitability of prospective candidates for an executive position, recruiters need to avoid falling into the trap of focusing their search around this single aspect. While some personality traits such as confidence, leadership qualities and effective communication skills are desirable in almost all candidates, the candidates lacking the same might not necessarily prove to be a bad choice for the hiring organizations.

It is essential for the recruiters to ensure that the personality traits of the prospective candidates correlate with specific aspects of company cultures. This is especially true in case of executives, who need to work closely with the other employees of the organization. However, making the personality of prospective candidates all important during the hiring process can create several problems for the recruiters. Not only will it increase the risk of company culture being moulded to match the personality of the executives, but will also make the organization less well-rounded.

Challenges Of Evaluating The Personality Of Prospective Candidates

It is a well known fact that assessing the true personality of an individual is not an easy task. However, when the individual in question is a candidate being interviewed for an executive position, personality assessment becomes even more complicated. This is not only because human personality is extremely inconsistent, but also because it individuals tend to present only the most suitable aspects of their personality when going through an interview or a hiring process. This tendency of hiding their true personality is especially prevalent in candidates being considered for job roles with extremely high stakes such as above average compensation benefits and tremendous growth opportunities.

Finding The Right Solution

Keeping the above facts in mind, it would not be wrong to deduce that while personality does play an important role in executive search, especially leadership hiring, it should not be the focal point of a recruitment strategy. The personality assessment should be made only to ascertain the ease with which candidates can adapt to the company culture. It can also be used to assess the ability of the candidates contribute positively towards enhancing the overall company culture. In fact, when choosing candidates for leadership roles, it is important to give preference to candidates with an extrovert personality as it will ensure their ability to communicate with their team members in a more effective and motivating manner.

At the same time, the recruiters should not give preference to personality to other key constraints such as their skills, competence level and expertise. Doing so will result in a bad hire and will end up costing the recruiters in much more than wasted time and effort. After all, a candidate with a pleasing personality but lacking other essential traits necessary or fulfilling the responsibilities associated with the job position cannot be considered the right fit. Finding a balance between the right personality and desired aspects is the key to making the recruitment process truly worthwhile. This is true even in case of executives sought for positions that require them to interact extensively with public, media and other such entities.