Want better leaders? Upgrade your hiring discipline

Spotting good leaders is not a mystery. Leadership is predictable, measurable, and should be the foundation of every hiring decision. Yet most organisations still rely on gut feel, vague cultural fit assessments, or CV heuristics. That’s not just inefficient, it’s costly.

The Problem: Leadership Selection is Broken

Most organisations treat leadership hiring like a mix of speed dating and hope. They engage broadly, waste time on individuals who clearly won’t thrive, and often select based on charisma or credentials rather than capability. The result: mis-hires, cultural drag, and wasted energy.

The Truth: Leadership Effectiveness is Predictable

The predictors of leadership success are well-established in research and validated in practice. They include:

• Cognitive ability: Grasps new ideas, makes sound decisions under pressure, learns from experience.
• Emotional intelligence: Self-awareness & regulation, empathy, and interpersonal skill.
• Integrity and trustworthiness: Purpose-driven, values-aligned behaviour.
• Curiosity and learning agility: Growth mindset, openness to feedback, adaptability.
• Agency and resilience: Conscientiousness, persistence, and ownership.
• Humility and vulnerability: Willingness to admit mistakes, learn, and serve.
• Team-first orientation: Prioritising team development and collective success.

These traits are not abstract, they’re measurable. And they correlate strongly with long-term leadership performance.

There is a Cost to Getting this Wrong:

Hiring leaders who lack these traits leads to:

• Decision paralysis
• Energy drains on high performers
• Cultural misalignment
• Poor strategic execution
• Increased turnover

The Solution: Intentional Recruiting

Intentional recruiting means:

• Starting with the predictors: Define what success looks like before you engage.
• Using structured assessments: Psychometrics, behavioural interviews, and reference triangulation.
• Screening out early: Don’t waste time on individuals who don’t meet the bar.
• Aligning interview questions to predictors: Every question should test for a trait that matters.

Questions Aligned to Predictors

Here’s a few example questions that test behavioural standards against the predictors:

• Cognitive Ability:
  “Tell me about a time you had to deliver something important with no clear direction.”
  “Walk me through a complex decision you made under time pressure.”
• Emotional Intelligence:
  “Describe a time you misread a situation or person, what did you learn?”
  “How do you handle conflict within your team?”
• Integrity / Trustworthiness:
  “Tell me about a time you had to make a decision that went against popular opinion but was the right thing to do.”
  “When have you had to call out unethical behaviour?”
• Curiosity / Learning Agility:
  “What’s the last thing you learned that changed how you lead?”
  “Tell me about a time you failed—what did you take away?”
• Agency / Resilience:
  “What’s the most impactful thing you’ve built that wasn’t on the roadmap?”
  “Describe a time you kept going when others gave up.”
• Humility / Vulnerability:
  “Tell me about a time you were wrong, how did you handle it?”
  “What feedback have you received that was hard to hear but important?”
• Team-first Orientation:
  “How do you develop your team members?”
  “Tell me about a time you put your team’s needs ahead of your own.”

 Discipline is a Competitive Advantage

Intentional recruiting is not about being rigid, it’s about being disciplined. Time is scarce, good leaders are scarcer. Organisations that build structured, evidence-based recruiting processes will outperform those that rely on intuition and charm.

Ready to Take Action to Proactively Build Your Culture?

• Audit your current leadership hiring process.
• Define the predictors that matter most for your context.
• Build structured interview guides aligned to those traits.
• Use validated psychometric tools early in the process.
• Train interviewers to assess for substance, not style.

Or get in touch and we can have chat about taking your leadership recruitment to the next level.

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Justin Miles

Manager Partner, Melbourne at Generator Talent

Justin is the Managing Partner of our Melbourne office, an outcome focused leader with a track record of driving business performance through proven talent and organisation development practices. Justin’s methods and skills have been shaped by working with performance oriented leaders in great companies including PepsiCo, The Campbell Soup Company, Diageo, Rip Curl, Fonterra and Wesfarmers, in Australia, the USA and Latin America.