Internal Recruitment Process

Rethinking Entry-Level Hiring: Focus on Potential, Not Just Experience (What your workforce really needs from you) Experience isn't born overnight. It doesn’t materialize from thin air. In today's market, leadership isn’t about demanding prior experience. It’s about nurturing future talent. Here’s how forward-thinking organizations are shifting their approach: 1️⃣ Recognize the Potential Gap Demanding years of experience for entry-level roles creates a barrier. ➜ Acknowledge the current hiring paradox. ➜ Understand the frustration of fresh graduates. ➜ Focus on the skills that can be developed. Open doors, don't build walls. 2️⃣ Value Attitude and Adaptability Years on a résumé don’t guarantee success. Mindset does. ➜ Prioritize a candidate’s willingness to learn. ➜ Look for adaptability in a changing market. ➜ See beyond the paper and into the person. Potential outshines past experience. 3️⃣ Invest in Mentorship and Training Every expert was once a beginner. Build the foundation. ➜ Provide structured mentorship programs. ➜ Offer continuous training and development. ➜ Create opportunities for hands-on learning. Growth is a two-way investment. 4️⃣ Foster an Inclusive Hiring Culture Opportunity shouldn’t be a privilege. It should be a standard. ➜ Break down traditional hiring biases. ➜ Value diverse backgrounds and perspectives. ➜ Create a level playing field for all candidates. Inclusion breeds innovation. 5️⃣ Prioritize Skill-Building Skills are the currency of the future. Invest wisely. ➜ Focus on transferable skills over specific experience. ➜ Identify core competencies and develop them. ➜ Create a culture of continuous learning. Skills grow with opportunity. 6️⃣ Focus on Long-Term Success Short-term experience vs. long-term growth. Choose wisely. ➜ Build a pipeline of future leaders. ➜ Invest in the longevity of your workforce. ➜ Cultivate talent for sustainable success. Future-proof your team. 7️⃣ Leadership is Investing, Not Just Expecting True leadership isn’t about demanding expertise. It’s about building it. ➜ Absorb the initial training burden. ➜ Offer guidance, not just requirements. ➜ Build an environment where potential thrives. Your team will remember the organization that invested in them. Guide them forward. Build their future. Because leadership isn’t about finding perfect candidates. It’s about creating them. Image credit: George Stern

At Champions of Change Coalition, we’ve set out to tackle one of the toughest challenges in corporate Australia: building CEO pipelines that reflect the full depth of talent and experience across our communities. More women are participating in the Australian workforce than ever before, and unlike previous generations, many are maintaining strong career connections through different life stages.  Despite this unprecedented participation and depth of talent, women remain significantly underrepresented in the most senior leadership roles, including women from culturally and racially marginalised backgrounds and women with disability, who face additional and compounding barriers to accessing leadership positions.  These gaps point to much deeper issues at play including a candidate selection system that is too narrow in how it defines and recognises leadership potential.    “Securing your future leader: Building diverse and inclusive CEO pipelines” is a practical guide for Boards, CEOs, People & Culture leaders and recruitment advisers to build pipelines that are transparent, fair and future-fit. It includes:  • Transparent CEO capability and selection criteria with inclusive leadership embedded across all categories. • Practical tools for Boards, CEOs, People and Culture leaders and recruiters to broaden pathways and strengthen talent development and selection systems.  • The first collection of case studies from women CEOs, capturing candid insights into barriers, enablers and advice for future leaders.  • Guidance on setting up new CEOs for success, ensuring they are supported to lead both business performance and cultural change. Leadership strength and inclusive capability are now inseparable. The organisations that get this right will be the ones that stay ahead. Organisations that fail to build gender-equal diverse and inclusive CEO pipelines will find themselves short of choice, capability, and ultimately credibility.  This work began as an initiative of our Property Champions of Change Group and grew into a Coalition-wide collaboration. It’s grounded in research and deep listening, drawing on more than 40 interviews with CEOs, Directors, recruiters, Chief People Officers, and emerging women leaders. It is an easy, practical read, full of great tools that can be adopted, adapted, or built upon to help us collectively create a new standard of leadership. We’d love to hear your reflections: Download the resource: https://lnkd.in/g696qqem My heartfelt thanks to everyone across Champions of Change Coalition who contributed to this work — to our Members, CEOs, Directors, recruiters, People and Culture leaders, and the incredible women who shared their experiences so generously. You have created something both practical and powerful: a roadmap for the next decade of leadership. #InclusiveLeadership #FutureLeadership #GenderEquality #CEOPipelines #SystemChange 

The biggest mistake companies make? They forget that hiring isn’t just about filling a role-it’s about protecting and strengthening company culture. Because when your best people don’t feel valued, they don’t wait around. They leave. Your best people don’t just want promotions - they want honesty. I’ve seen this scenario play out over and over again: A company is hiring for a high-level leadership role-maybe a VP, maybe a C-level position. They bring me in for an external search, excited about finding "fresh talent" to take the company to the next level.   This individual has been with the company for years. They know the culture, the strategy, the challenges. They’ve been acting in the role unofficially for months, maybe even years. The board, however, wants to “see what’s out there” before making a final decision. The problem: They haven’t told the internal candidate. 👉 If they get the job, they feel undervalued—"Why wasn’t I trusted from the start?" 👉 If they don’t get it, they feel misled—"Was I ever really considered?" 👉 If the external hire struggles, resentment builds—"I could’ve done this job better." And often, the internal candidate walks. Not because they weren’t good enough. Not because they didn’t want to stay. But because leadership failed them. The Brutal Truth About Internal vs. External Hiring Companies think they’re protecting themselves by “benchmarking” external candidates. But what they’re really doing is breaking trust with their own people. - If an internal candidate is strong enough to compare externally, why aren’t they strong enough to be communicated with honestly? - If you’re just interviewing external candidates to justify promoting someone internally, you’re wasting everyone’s time. - If you’re already leaning toward an external hire, be upfront about it—don’t string along your internal team.  How To Handle Internal vs. External Hiring ✅ Transparency from Day One If an internal candidate is in the running, they deserve to know where they stand. Whether they’re being considered alongside external candidates or just being used as a “backup plan” (which is a terrible idea, by the way), clarity is non-negotiable. ✅ Set Clear Expectations If you’re conducting an external search, make sure your internal candidate understands: - Is this a real competition, or are they just there for optics? - What skills or experience would put them on equal footing with external candidates? - If they don’t get the role, will they have future leadership opportunities? ✅ Don’t Waste Time on Performative Searches If leadership already knows they want to promote the internal candidate, stop running external searches just to check a box. If you want to strengthen your leadership pipeline instead of losing your best people, let’s connect. #ExecutiveSearch #LeadershipDevelopment #TalentRetention #HighPerformanceLeadership #CultureMatters

If you want to get promoted this year, read this: Most people wait for the title to start leading. They want permission and a promotion. The top 1% know better. They know most companies don’t like risk. And the best way to make your promotion low risk? Show them you can do the job... BEFORE they give it to you. Here’s the uncomfortable truth about getting promoted: Your company isn’t promoting potential. Hope is not a qualification. They’re promoting performance. The performance they’ve already seen. While most people focus on doing their job well, Future leaders focus on something completely different: JUDGMENT | Start Acting Like an Owner • Own outcomes, not just tasks • Make decisions as if the company’s success depends on you • Solve problems before you’re asked RELIABILITY | Make Your Manager’s Job Easier • Anticipate needs before they ask • Keep every commitment or escalate early • Deliver work with recommendations, not just reports LEADERSHIP | Develop People Around You • Share knowledge freely • Help new team members succeed faster • Document your work so others can build on it CREDIBILITY | Communicate with Clarity • Write things down—documentation builds trust • Follow up with clear next steps • Use active listening to show you understand PERSPECTIVE | Think Beyond Your Role • Connect your work to bigger goals • Offer ideas that benefit the whole team • Ask questions about the larger business context GROWTH | Give and Receive Feedback Well • Give constructive input to peers • Actively seek feedback on your own performance • Handle criticism without getting defensive SYSTEMS | Solve Problems at the Root • Ask “why” until you find the real cause • Address causes, not just symptoms • Build solutions that prevent problems from coming back IMPACT | Deliver Meaningful Results • Focus on work that moves the needle • Track and share your impact • Make your value visible to decision-makers AI | Stand Out with New Skills • Learn and use AI tools to boost your productivity • Automate routine work and teach others what you learn • Become the go-to resource for new technology The promotion paradox: Companies promote based on performance, not potential. But most people perform at their current level, not the next one. The breakthrough insight: Start doing the work before you get the job. The title will follow the behavior, not the other way around. What skill helped you get promoted recently? Drop it in the comments if I missed one. And before you go... ♻️ Share to help others earn their next promotion 🔖 Save this so you can check back on your progress 🔔 Follow Dave Kline for more leadership insights

Good strategic workforce planning is different from operational planning... ...because it looks much further ahead to determine what kind of workforce is needed to deliver the company’s long-term strategy. It can be a valuable and natural extension of the business strategy that yields a major competitive advantage, positioning a firm for sustained growth and innovation, no matter the changes to come. Key takeaways on the four principles to achieve that: 💡 It is future-back, not today-forward - the best leaders take a future-back approach—they envision the distant future and then build a plan to achieve it. They understand that good strategic workforce planning often enters an uncomfortable space where some aspects of the “how” are unknown. 💡It is uneven - Successful strategic workforce planning often involves focusing differentially on a few job families—groupings of roles with reasonable skill overlaps. The best plans focus exclusively on large or scarce workforce populations that expect to see change. 💡It is learning-based - leaders can guard against incorrect assumptions by making the plan easily adaptable and updating it each year based on what they’ve learned. They will watch carefully for the right signposts and distinguish between offsetting forces (e.g. leaders might make assumptions around increasing headcount due to business growth and decreasing headcount from automation productivity gains) 💡 It is simple enough to be repeatable - When leaders make the workforce plan too granular, it becomes a bureaucratic, wasted effort that the business resents. The best processes are tied to annual strategic planning. They feel like a light addition to thinking through the strategy’s people implications. Overall: A good strategic planning thoughtfully assesses both human and financial capital. HR teams can help the business define the future at the job family level in the same way that finance supports forecasting major P&L and capital lines. #workforceplanning #strategy

𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐢𝐩𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 As we think about intentionally developing Managers, Senior Managers, and Directors for the next phase of growth, one question keeps surfacing for me consistently: What will truly prepare today’s managers to lead at the scale and complexity of tomorrow? Leadership development has traditionally been designed around a more predictable operating context. We map career paths, create succession plans, and design competency models, all of which assume that the future will look somewhat like the present or past. But what happens when the operating context no longer aligns with that assumption? How do we match the disruption that has become the norm? That is where existing models need to be thoughtfully extended and strengthened for future leaders. If the last few years have taught us anything, it is that predictability is no longer a guarantee. Which means the way we build future leaders must continue to evolve, especially for our next generation of leaders. We cannot only prepare leaders for what we know. We must also equip them with the capabilities to navigate what is still emerging, including GenAI and Agentic AI, and evolving operating and delivery models. That requires a few shifts: - Expanding assessment beyond skills and experience to include potential and learning agility. - Designing learning journeys that are experiential and emphasize real-world application, not just theory. - Creating cultures where leaders are valued for how they navigate ambiguity, complexity, and change. In many ways, the leadership pipelines of the future will not just produce successors. These pipelines will extend beyond the traditional career ladder to develop leaders who can explore, adapt, and execute in parallel. Future leaders who may not have all the answers, but who have the resilience, agility, and curiosity to find them in real time. The world ahead will continue to need leaders who can manage what is known, while also building the confidence and capability to lead through what is still unfolding. Expanding assessment beyond skills and experience to include potential and learning agility. #leadership #agility #potential #LeadershipPipelines

As a junior lawyer, I had to piece together information on how to get promoted. In case it helps somebody going through the process for the first time, here’s what I’ve learned going through 4 rounds of promotion cycles (most successful, some not): 1️⃣ Most people start the promotion process too late. The best time is 6-12 months before the application date. This gives you enough time to gather evidence of your achievements, work on any shortcomings in your promotion application and align with your manager / stakeholders before budgets and resourcing are locked in. 2️⃣ Promotion policies can contain 10+ criteria to meet, but trying to address them all in an application with a word limit will dilute your message. Instead, choose 3-5 criteria that you can craft a strong narrative around. 3️⃣ It's hard to remember and quantify your accomplishments if you aren't tracking them throughout the year. Setting up an ongoing tracker early is helpful (I use Microsoft Planner), especially around those 3-5 criteria you've chosen. 4️⃣ It’s okay to try for a promotion before you feel completely ready. Even if your first attempt is unsuccessful, you'll learn things from the experience that will make it harder for them to say no the second time (like I did). Better to apply a year early than a year late. 5️⃣ Understand that there are things outside of your control in determining whether your promotion will be successful or not (e.g. budget and resourcing constraints, stakeholders who aren’t fond of you for non-work reasons, economic conditions etc). The goal is to focus on the things that are within your control and maximise your chances as much as possible. Here’s what the timeline / process can look like using these principles: 🔹 1 year out- Learn about your organisation’s promotion process (deadlines, forms to submit, promotion criteria, stakeholders in the approval process) 🔹 6-12 months out - Have a discussion with your manager to let them know that you intend to apply for the promotion, identify any areas you may need to improve on, and agree on goals to achieve that would maximise your chance of success in the application. 🔹 6 - 12 months out - Choose a few promotion criteria to focus on and set up a system to track and quantify your contributions towards those criteria in your current work. 🔹 1 month out - Write up a draft promotion application (ask your colleagues if they can share theirs) 🔹 2-4 weeks out - Remind your manager and ask if they could review and provide feedback on your draft application. 🔹 Submission before the deadline. 🔹 If unsuccessful, follow up for feedback and agree on a plan for improving your application for next time. Anything else you’d add? ----- Next week, I’ll be sending out a step-by-step guide on how to apply for a promotion with practical examples to the 7,782 people on my mailing list. If you're interested, I hope you'll subscribe via my website or the link in my profile and give it a read.

The #1 leadership trap killing youth sports programs? Directors stuck in doer mode. You know the type, maybe it’s you right now: 👉 Ordering uniforms. 👉 Collecting fees. 👉 Chasing down parents. 👉 Running every fundraiser. 👉 Coaching on top of it all. It feels noble. It feels necessary. But here’s the hard truth: If your program only runs because of you, It’s already broken. Doer mode = survival. Builder mode = scale. And this shift is the hardest for directors to make. Because it forces you to stop being the hero And start being the architect. Here’s how to make the leap from doer to builder this season: ✅ Systematize one process. Pick the task that eats the most time (uniforms, fundraising, scheduling) and document it into a repeatable playbook. Builders run playbooks, not panic. ✅ Give away real ownership. Stop asking parents to “help.” Assign roles: Sponsorship Lead, Communications Lead, Fundraising Coordinator. Builders create teams, not task lists. ✅ Create a knowledge hub. Upload sponsor lists, registration forms, fundraising scripts into one shared folder. If your program lives in your head, it’s fragile. Builders make it transferable. ✅ Develop a leadership pipeline. Invite assistant coaches, alumni, or parents into advisory roles. Mentor them now so they can lead later. Builders think in generations, not seasons. ✅ Measure legacy, not hustle. Ask: If I walked away tomorrow, would this program survive? If the answer is no, you’re still a doer. Builders build so the mission outlives them. Here’s the reality: Doers burn out. Builders scale. The best directors don’t just work harder today. They design programs that will thrive tomorrow. — 🧠 Want real-world strategies for building sustainable, culture-driven programs? Subscribe to Grow the Game, your leadership playbook for youth sports: 👉 https://lnkd.in/gFwgbm3t

‼️Four of the six boards I serve on faced CEO transitions in the past three years—seismic shifts underway⁉️ With #CEO tenures shortening, is your organization prepared for sudden leadership changes? I recently shared this article on how to #futureproof your #leadershipteam: ❓Can your organization handle an immediate leadership gap? Discover how proactive #succession planning reduces risk. ❓Are you nurturing internal #talent or leaning too much on external hires? Learn why a blended approach is vital. ❓Is your #leadership pipeline aligned with evolving business needs? Align CEO tenure with #strategic cycles for long-term success. ❓Are fresh #perspectives missing in your #boardroom? See how external candidates can drive #innovation and challenge the status quo. 👇 Read the full article to equip your #board with #insights needed to navigate today’s #fastchanging landscape. This article was first published in the Q4 2024 issue of the #SID Directors Bulletin by Singapore Institute of Directors.

You don't have to quit your job to reinvent your career. I know my content might suggest otherwise — I talk about leaving banking, saying no to big tech, building on the side. But not every path looks like mine, and I want to keep this corner of the internet nuanced. Let me introduce you to Ed Essey. He's a Senior Director at Microsoft who's been there for 20 years and grew his Instagram to 100K+ last year within a few months. We initially connected because he said my story resonated with him. I was surprised — on paper, we couldn't be more different. I'm a "job hopper" who's bounced between banking and tech. Ed built his entire career at one company. But here's what he did inside Microsoft: → Worked on early products like InfoPath and Office Server → Moved into parallel computing in DevDiv → Taught design thinking to 22,000 engineers over 200 days → Built cross-functional influence across the org Every time he got an external offer, he went to his manager and said "I want to work on different problems." And his manager shaped his role around that. He didn't need outside leverage. He just articulated what he wanted to learn and why it mattered to the business. The teaching stint is what resonated most with me. He was terrified of public speaking but said yes anyway. That year completely rewired his confidence and gave him the foundation for later building his personal brand outside the company. Internal pivots don't get the same attention as external ones because they feel less exciting. They're harder to execute but can be more powerful. You don't always have to blow everything up to grow. Sometimes the opportunity is already where you are. If you're thinking about switching things up without leaving your job, I asked Ed to break down how he navigated internal pivots throughout his career in my newsletter this week: https://lnkd.in/eviQgRVv