Seven Traits of a Great Leader & How To Screen for Them

by Alex Gold & Sam Randall

So, you’ve done it!! 

You have your POC finished, you maybe have made your first few of sales, you have secured your early stage funding… it could be backing from an accelerator or VC funding, or some other form of assistance.. But you are now ready to start taking your product, idea or solution to the next level.

These are extremely exciting times indeed and you are entering the most exciting part of your journey, the fabled Growth Stage. This is the part of the journey that many entrepreneurs dream of. Some entrepreneurs love this part the most and as soon as they reach scale, will step out of the company to search for the next company to build.

It is also a part of the journey where the decisions you make on every aspect of your strategy may be the deciding factor on whether your company becomes the next Grab, or the next footnote or “also - ran” in the heavy tomes of Startup history.

You may have overcome one of the most difficult parts of your startup journey, however things get harder and more complicated from here and there is a fair chance that it will not be long before you are yearning for the simplicity of those early days!

One of the most challenging parts of the growth journey is finding and attracting the right people. In those early days, it is incredibly important to make every hire count and a bad hire can be fatal for an early stage company.

Luckily there are a few ways to minimise the risk of a bad hire and we will be exploring the ways in which a startup leader can make sure they are doing everything they can to make sure their hiring is on point. We will also be running a Podcast with the same title as this blog series, in which we will be interviewing leaders from some of SEAs most exciting start up brands - so keep your eyes peeled for that!

Behaviours >= Qualifications

At True Search we have completed over two thousand searches for growth stage tech companies. Throughout this time we have observed that skill sets and mindsets trump academic pedigree and blue chip (e.g. FANG) work experience every single time. Whilst a Degree or MBA from an Ivy league can make a candidate look outstanding, it is really important to understand an individual's drivers, motivations and how they behave underpressure in what can be an unstructured environment. Ultimately, qualifications count for nothing if you are unable to be effective when it counts. 

There is a lot of literature out there on this topic, but we have found that the following seven traits are the most critical for leaders of early stage businesses and, outside of technical fit, typically form a large part of our assessment when engaged in a search for a growth stage company looking for leaders:

Grit - candidates need to be able to figure stuff out on the job as mandates are rarely clear. You need people who are tenacious, resilient and able to deliver outcomes in ambiguous circumstances. This is really about pushing on through in tough situations and having the drive to make things happen, especially when the going is tough.

Rigorous - making data driven decisions are key to the success of any business. Having an analytical and data driven approach to problem solving and decision making can help avoid rash decisions. We do appreciate that we are rarely in possession of all the data needed to make a full decision, but it is key that the available data is property scrutinised.

Impact - leaders who understand how their role is intertwined with the company goals and can organise their priorities to drive business value can deliver the greatest impact. This means that they can separate out key issues from the overall background noise and be able to push through initiatives which bring a company closer to its objectives.

Self Awareness - one of the most important leadership attributes. Leaders who are self aware are able to understand the different cultural & social styles are the key ingredient of a healthy, collaborative team. This makes them able to understand how their behaviour can have an effect on individuals within their team and thus how best to modify their behaviour to get the best out of them. They are also able to understand and accept areas of development in themselves and are more able to accept constructive criticism and advice, and open to change & self improvement.

Ownership - Leaders who have a positive, can do attitude (a.k.a. can get shit done). They will take the initiative to fix problems without blaming others and will move at pace. Employing people who take ownership at any level really are key to having an effective company. This means that problems get fixed, projects and initiatives get delivered and it can go a long way to building a culture of Doers in the business. 

Curiosity - generally an excellent indicator of a whole range of important qualities - empathy, creativity, openness and ability to learn quickly etc… 

Communication - This is about a person’s authentic, confident expression and ability to communicate well in a work environment. Not to be confused with charisma, which can be used to cover people’s inadequacy. Most importantly it is to listen well (two ears, one mouth) and give people the chance to air their views. 

Screening Behaviour During an Interviewing

Interviewing is a skill like any other and takes time to perfect. In search we are interviewing and assessing people daily and many of us build an unconscious competence and ability to drill down to the information required, without it feeling like an interrogation to the interviewee.

The trick to being able to do this is to pick up on unconscious tells and signals the person being interviewed is displaying. A slight hesitation or inflection in how someone answers a question can give a seasoned interviewer a hint that there may be more to explore in a particular line of questioning.

It can also be very difficult to interview to get a real insight into how a person behaves outside of an interview environment. One of the techniques that interviewers use is called Behaviour Based Interviewing (BBI). BBI is an effective way of tying what can be quite conceptual interview questions and scenarios back into a person’s actual experience and how they have and will likely behave in a given scenario.

BBI is a questioning technique which presents various scenarios (theoretical or actual) to an interviewee and asks them how they would approach the scenario and to detail a situation where they have faced a similar situation. It then goes on to ask them how they approached the scenario, what the outcomes were, and what the person learned / would do differently when facing a similar situation in the future.

If you are new to interviewing candidates it is definitely worth preparing for the interview with a couple of scenarios to present to the candidate. These can be as specific as you like, but only ramp up the specificity if you would like to understand the interviewees experience in that specific scenario. 

An easy way to formulate these questions for a BBI is to outline a particular situation you have faced with your business, and ask the interviewee to detail:

• How would they respond?
• Detail a similar situation they have actually faced and how they dealt with it at that time?
• What they learned from the situation?
• How they might change their approach to influence a more positive outcome?

You can either use this directly, or indirectly to assess the above 7 traits. For example, you could ask: 

“Give me an example of when you have faced difficulty in delivering a tough project at work? What made it tough? What did you do to overcome it? How did you gain alignment with all the stakeholders?”

You can use the interviewees answer, as well as the subsequent conversation and further questions to assess pretty much every aspect of the 7 traits of great leadership. The key is to make sure you are prepared, you know what you are looking for, and you have worked out how to get that information through a line of questioning and presentation of scenarios.

For a much more detailed view, please view this Society for Human Resource Management article*, which goes into great detail.

If you have any questions on anything in this article, please feel free to reach out to me directly on [email protected] for further discussion.

About True Search

True is the world’s leading executive search platform for tech companies. Since our inception we have partnered with tech startups throughout their growth from pre-seed to post-IPO.

Tech is in our DNA and with over 300 search professionals and offices across N. America, Europe, Middle East & Asia, we are able to tap into a broad range of functional and sector expertise, wherever in the world it is needed.

Our team in Asia is here to provide support, guidance and access to our global knowledge base and network, at whatever stage you are in, from seed through to public. 

About the Authors

Alex Gold | Partner & APAC GM

[email protected] 

Alex leads True’s APAC business and specialises in leadership searches for Internet and Software investments of leading venture capital firms. At True he and his team play two main roles; 1) supporting international clients with their APAC leadership hires 2) Helping Asian companies attract experienced talent from more mature markets.

Alex has 5 years experience in London and San Francisco with Korn Ferry’s technology practice.  

Alex has been in Asia for over 7 years, in that time he has placed candidates in Singapore, China, Japan, Australia, HK, Indonesia, India, Thailand and even Myanmar

Sam Randall | Partner

[email protected] 

Sam brings 10 years of extensive search experience covering the ASEAN & APAC technology markets across the B2B and consumer sectors.

Sam has proven highly successful in complex technical and commercial recruitment across the region. He has completed searches within roles such as CIO, CTO, Head of Engineering, GM, Country MD, VP Sales, Data Science and Product; with experience working across Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, HK, Japan, Philippines, India and Australia.

A nerd, with a love for technology Sam has enjoyed a technology-centric career including roles outside of search as the co-founder & product owner in a software startup and business development for a software and cloud consultancy.

* Further Reading

https://www.shrm.org/LearningAndCareer/learning/Documents/Behavioral%20Interviewing%20Guide%20for%20Early%20Career%20Candidates.pdf