Top 10 Hiring Mistakes & How to Avoid Them
Hiring capital raising professionals can be tricky even for seasoned team managers, HR professionals and recruiters. Here are the top mistakes I see in hiring for this function and how to avoid them.
Top 10 Hiring Mistakes:
1.???? Over-emphasis on "culture fit" as assessed by likeability and commonality
2.???? Avoiding pressing for full transparency on capital raising success early in the conversation
3.???? Allowing the salesperson to control / drive the conversation and tell stories
4.???? Relying solely on formal references provided by the candidate or friendly LPs
5.???? Interviews that are overly social / relational conversations rather than deep diligence
6.???? Lack of sophisticated attunement with language, context, nuance and congruence in behavior (outsourcing screening to junior team members / recruiters)
7.???? Focusing on candidates who are actively looking vs. the more labor-intensive and lengthy courtship that attracts best (often passive) talent
8.???? Overlooking frequent job changes and lack of positive references from prior roles
9.???? Ignoring gut instincts; if something feels "off" the situation requires deep referencing at minimum
10.? Over-emphasis on prior firm pedigree and numbers; success on a well-established platform is not necessarily indicative of success in a more entrepreneurial role
In 2021, Willow Hill published a six-page guide for hiring firms to use during the interview process and referencing.
Willow Hill's Guide to Evaluating Senior Level Capital Raising Professionals includes positive indicators and red flags to look out for as interviewers assess fundraisers across a range of attributes including: character/integrity, relationship building, capital raising, technical depth, communication skills, leadership potential, stress tolerance, motivation, collaboration, presentation, professionalism, mindset, EQ, work ethic, balance of strategic and tactical approach and suitability for the specific role a hiring firm is trying to solve for.
Essentially, it covers all of the mistakes I've made during the past twenty years so you don't have to!
*click the brackets on the bottom right shaded area for a printable PDF
领英推荐
~ Laurie
p.s. I am surely missing some, so please feel free to share your experiences / insights!
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About Willow Hill Advisors
Laurie Thompson founded Willow Hill in September, 2019, after spending 16 years in the financial services practice of Heidrick & Struggles. She has placed fundraising and investor relations professionals from the Partner, Head of Global Distribution level through Associate, with a concentration on senior-level hires. Clients (hiring firms) are predominately top tier alternative investment managers.??
Willow Hill is exclusively a retained firm and executes only a select number of mandates at a time, ensuring clients receive the highest level of focus and attention. Through deep market knowledge, long term relationships and established trust, Willow Hill provides unconstrained access to top caliber talent while ensuring potential placements are thoroughly vetted and referenced.
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Laurie launched the “Ask me Anything” series in 2022 with the intention of offering candid insights and advice as themes emerge from her conversations with prospective candidates and hiring managers.
?A former boss once quipped “Laurie’s directness can be a surprise to the uninitiated.”?
?Welcome to Ask me Anything. Consider yourself initiated!
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Your questions, comments and topic ideas are always welcome and appreciated.
Laurie
Director at Illinois Public Pension Fund Association
1 年Great points
Founding Partner at Slingshot Capital Advisors LLC
1 年Unsurprisingly given the author, I thought this was insightful. Applies doubly to hiring of placement agents. GPs often don't know how to assess the effectiveness of a salesperson's process, which is an important determinant.