Why Thought Leadership Matters for Your Next Leadership Hire

Today, senior leadership hiring is very different than it was a decade ago. We are in a candidate-driven market where job seeker awareness and expectations have a bigger impact across the hiring table. Hiring capable senior leaders has become one of the most pressing matters for most companies. Our clients understand that it takes a decent investment of resources to identify, engage and choose capable leadership for their businesses. This is why they prioritise and spend more on leadership search engagements year-on-year.

In a candidate-driven job market, one of the biggest challenges which companies are facing today is sourcing for leadership talent. Identifying, engaging and on-boarding talented professionals for new job opportunities has become increasingly challenging. A robust leadership hiring framework has become crucial for any growth-driven organisation. Recruiters and hiring managers need to enhance awareness and shift perception to drive leads for sustainable success, and they can do this through thought leadership.

Related: Being Human in Sourcing and Recruiting

If you are familiar with the story of senior leadership hiring then you are already aware that they rarely happen on databases like IIMJobs and Naukri. Sourcing channels such as internal referrals and LinkedIn are great but they can be relatively sporadic or costly. Instead of approaching this problem on a mandate to mandate basis, recruiters and hiring managers need to build engaging relationships with job seekers over a reasonable period of time.

Although engagement is a sizable hurdle in attracting talent there are other dynamics at play too. These challenges play out in various ways depending on leadership hiring needs, company size, and include factors like diversity; company and culture fit for both company and candidate. But for the most part, internal factors are not a threat here because they can be sufficiently optimised in the short-run. One of the biggest culprits is the top of the funnel where job seeker buy-in is fleeting.

According to an Edelman-LinkedIn survey conducted in 2018, 58% of decision makers read at least 1 hour of thought leadership per week. That’s 8% percentage points higher than last year survey.

This insight shows why thought leadership is an effective way to build awareness and shift perception to your advantage when sourcing for senior leadership talent. Recruiters and hiring managers should use thought leadership to build a sustainable sourcing strategy for their future mandates.

Another highlight revealed by the study is that thought leadership creates access to high-value decision makers.

47% of C-suite [and] executives said they have shared their contact information after reading thought leadership. Oddly, only 39% of sales believed thought leadership helps with generating leads.

This insight is valuable in a number of ways. First, there is a gap between ‘buyers’ and ‘sellers’ when judging the value of thought leadership. Second, recruiters have an opportunity to influence talent before they begin their job search.

Third, collected data can help establish a detailed understanding of demographics and how they can be used to nurture prospects to closure.

Thought leadership isn’t just an elite buzzword anymore. It’s a proposition that sets you apart through actionable and informed opinions which help and inspire your audience. This helps you build trust and open business opportunities with prospects.

As a hiring manager or recruiter you should be using engaging thought leadership to shape the perception of job seekers and grow them into relevant leads. Your thought leadership efforts should be focused on empowering your prospects with useful information. Consistent success in hiring the right leadership is a challenge, but recruiters who work continually to shift perception will eventually emerge as winners.

How are you engaging with your future leadership talent to cut-down your turnaround time for identifying talent for your critical leadership mandates?

For the latest leadership and senior management jobs in Analytics & Digital, Sales & Marketing, Finance & Operations and Human Resources across India with our Fortune 500 clients visit crescendojobs.com

This article was originally published on crescendo-global.com

Crescendo Global is an ISO 9001:2015 certified Leadership Hiring consulting arm of Crescendo Group with expertise in mid to senior level niche recruitment. We are passionate about empowering job seekers and employers with an engaging memorable job search and leadership hiring experience which achieve their outcomes. Our consultants help candidates and clients succeed through a tailored, consultative approach backed by industry & market knowledge and proprietary assessment tools & processes.