Mistakes to avoid in Executive Management Placements In Africa - The Post Resumption Phase.

So here's the take...its said that there are not many great leaders in Africa. But that's a misconception or cliche.... maybe more of a political statement.

However in the business world, many executives have grown businesses, despite challenging obstacles, to empower their economies. Being part of an executive team of an African organization means, being at the top of your game, bringing credible and quick solutions to the throbbing daily challenges of receding economies, steady financing, unstable labour market, social political instabilities and more.

Even with the existing success records, finding the right executive to lead your business can be a challenging, based on skill sets requirement and mostly leadership strength. The best hands wont be that easy to find without the right plans to get them. And whats harder is keeping the best hands for a minimum of 3 years.

I have met a few clients over the past few months who I have recruited either, Chief Operations candidates , Chief Finance candidates , Chief HR candidates , Sales Directors etc over the past 3 years . Its usually the same at the beginning. There is a brief, we find people with a proven track record, good drive, passion and fitting salary and they join their teams. Some are a great "FIT" and do exceptionally well in bringing business transformation. I however have found that some people with great track records in one organization may ultimately fail in another. This can be confusing as a recruiter when looking for a 100 percent success rate track record.

So I have taken time to look critically and speak to a few candidates i have placed over the last 2 years ( a random pick of 20 executives from different industry back grounds and portfolios ) and these are my thoughts on the reason some have done amazingly well in their companies and stayed on and others left less than a year after their appointment.

1) Transparency- when you are asking someone to come make changes in your organization , painting a real picture of what to expect may help reduce cognitive dissonance in new hires. This is one of the most important reasons why people fail. They expect less or more of everything and are over or under whlemed from the get -go. There are no perfect organizations so letting your new Executive Hire have a very good picture of business challenges can be very helpful in the first few months of transiting into the new Job. The faster they can have the short wins, the more momentum is built on both sides and the more successful they become on the Job and decide to stay on.

2) Clear Set Expectations- Joining an organization with a title and having another Job description entire is a No- No with serious executives. Things would need to be spelt out, with desired outcomes and mile stones being set . When goal posts are constantly being altered, Many executives lose their interest and may either not last or become ineffective

3) Responsibility with Authority; Many Senior executives struggle with when responsibilities for outcomes are given, with no true accorded authority to get things done. Every employer would need to negotiate authority limits regardless of what necessities or challenges that come with complete delegation. In instances when there are bureaucracies which may come from running a global structure or even having to manage daily reporting. Many Senior executives would loose their sense of power and seniority when there is no authority behind their titles. That is a big deterrent in a society where the environmental perceptions of "who is the real boss" matters.

Do follow me for the next 2 parts of this article; as i bring to bear what can help executive recruitment have a more successful outcome- POST RESUMPTION. Do drop your thoughts and comments, always a pleasure reading from you.