The Collaborator is the schema you appoint to make a divided organisation move as one. It is also the one most likely to keep seeking agreement long after the moment for agreement has gone. The most dangerous phrase in a senior team is not “I disagree.” It is “let’s get everyone aligned first.” I watched a leader run a good business into a wasted quarter on that phrase, and almost nobody in the room could see it happ
The Commander is the schema you appoint in a crisis. It is also the one you have to watch once the crisis has passed. There is a phrase you hear in big organisations when nothing is moving. "It's just how things get done here." Say it out loud and it sounds like culture. Listen properly and it is something sharper. It means someone at the top is commanding, and everyone below has quietly learned to wait.
Imagine accepting a senior leadership role and, in the same conversation, being told the date you will be let go. Not as a threat. Not as a warning. As a feature of the offer. That is exactly how one HR director I worked with used to transformational senior hires. After walking the candidate through salary, package, incentives, all the usual bits, she would lean in and say something close to this:
I was briefing a candidate last week. On paper, exceptional. A consulting career at one of the global firms, then a move into a chief of staff role at the global level, leading strategy and go-to-market across multiple regions. The kind of profile that makes you sit up.
Some companies are so successful that they never have to be brilliant. Think about the organisations that dominate their markets so completely that urgency simply does not exist. The revenue keeps coming. The brand carries weight. The infrastructure is established. And somewhere inside that comfort, the standard of leadership quietly settles into something unremarkable.
Succession planning too often rewards visibility over viability. The squeaky wheel gets noticed, but the quiet engine actually keeps the organisation moving. In many businesses, the squeaky wheel ends up on the succession plan simply because it is easier to see. That shortcut is getting riskier. With employers expecting nearly 40% of workers’ core skills to change by 2030, the signals we use to identify future leaders need to change as well.
I interviewed someone this week who has spent 31 years at the same organisation Fast tracked early in his career. Senior roles. MBA. Extremely well qualified. Articulate. Impressive in every measurable way. He was positioning himself as a transformation leader. Now, I’m not in the game of criticising anyone, or framing things negatively for my own gain. But my own personal observation here could save a board millions and years of wasted momentum.
Leadership performance in 2025 is being judged on evidence, not assertion. Boards, people leaders, and investors now have clearer data on where executive hiring is failing and which traits genuinely correlate with success. We can also see how inclusive hiring is evolving and how UK plc is progressing on representation.
Trust in senior leaders is also under strain. Only 14% of UK workers say they have faith in senior leaders’ decisions. That erosion shows up in slower adoption of change, more challenge behind the scenes and ultimately a higher cost of making anything stick. In this environment, the most important question is not "Is our strategy right?". A better question is, "Is the leadership system at the top capable of delivering it?".
Over the years, I’ve seen plenty of leadership teams that look great on paper, strong CVs, strategic minds, ambitious plans. And yet… performance still drags. It’s a bit like driving a high-spec sports car with the handbrake half on. You can move forward, but the engine’s straining, the wheels don’t spin freely, and sooner or later, something burns out. So what’s holding these teams back?
Relying solely on traditional methods like CV reviews and interviews is not sufficient to guarantee a truly successful placement. We're all aware that a candidate's past performance, while important, isn't always a perfect predictor of future success in a new role or within a new organisational culture. That's why we're committed to staying at the forefront of recruitment innovation, and a key part of that is leveraging the power of advanced psychometric testing.
How many times have you seen companies roll out generic leadership programs, hoping to transform their managers into inspirational...
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