As IT takes on a larger and larger role in business, it becomes more critical to acquire talent with the skills to accomplish their core tasks and the vision to lead your company to future greatness. How can you ensure you hire for success when looking for tech leaders?
Identify Current Successes
What are the traits of your current leaders? Can those qualities be replicated in your new hires? Hire for current capabilities and skills but include interview questions that will reveal similarities to your current leadership team to plan for future development.
Assess Interest
Does the prospect have an interest in taking on a leadership role? All the training and mentoring in the world won’t help if he would rather remain an individual contributor. Decide before you begin the recruitment process what trade-offs you may be willing to make in filling current and future roles.
Determine What You Need
What is most important to you? Innovation? Growth? Choose potential leaders whose values match your own for maximum effectiveness. There is a substantial difference between a leader who can execute on an existing plan and one with the vision to develop their own.
Analyze Costs
How early in the employee’s career do you want to begin grooming them for leadership? How quickly must they be up to speed? Is it worth the expense to bring in more seasoned talent or would you rather build your leadership team from the ground up?
Provide Training for Development
Potential is not enough, you must nurture that potential to get the most out of people. Create a mentorship program that helps young talent by pairing them with seasoned vets who know the ropes. Offer training in-house or reimburse tuition for classes or programs of study.