Talent Talk
This collection brings together our perspectives on executive search, technology leadership and the realities of senior decision making. We look beyond the surface of leadership appointments and into the behaviours, judgement calls and cultural signals that influence organisational performance. If you are interested in how leadership really works, this is the place to start.
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What does a chief technology officer do, and how do you hire the right one? A practical guide to the CTO role, its responsibilities and the hiring process, drawing on published research and twenty years of technology leadership appointments.
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 most expensive senior appointment I have watched fail had the best roadmap I have ever seen. I mean that sincerely. It was a genuinely impressive piece of thinking. Every workstream mapped, every dependency identified, governance and sequencing and risk all accounted for. The board saw it in month three and applauded. He was still refining it in month fourteen, when they let him go.
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.
The board thought they had found the perfect CEO. Two successful exits. A scaled multinational division. References that read like a character witness: decisive, commercially sharp, a natural leader. In the interview he was confident, fluent, convincing on growth and culture and transformation. The appointment was unanimous. Twelve months later the same board was negotiating his exit. Revenue targets had been missed.
There’s one question almost every HR-led interview process insists on. “Tell me about a time you failed.” At junior level, it sometimes earns its keep. At C-suite, it’s a junk question. And it’s almost always the wrong thing to ask in the room. I’ll explain why I won’t ask it. And then I’ll tell you what I ask instead.
Most succession planning assumes someone is ready to step up. But what happens when the obvious successor is the one who leaves? A look at why heir apparent plans fail, the real cost of an unplanned leadership transition, and how boards build genuine continuity.
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.
The archive goes back to 2016. Here it is by subject, with the fullest piece on each listed first.
The CTO role and how to appoint to it, how to choose a search firm for it, and our review of the year technology leadership had in 2025.
Our service: Technology executive search
Planning for the departure nobody expected, and telling the right successor apart from the most visible one.
Our service: C-suite executive search
When an interim or fractional executive is the right appointment in its own right, and what one brings to a business in crisis or mid-change.
Our service: Interim management
What a polished interview hides about a senior leader, and what we listen for instead.
Our service: Executive search
Commander, Architect, Collaborator and Servant: the behavioural schemas we assess with Dr Ian Stewart, and what each one does under pressure.
Our service: Leadership assessment and development
How an executive team works as a unit, and what to do when a capable one underdelivers.
Our service: Meta Team development
What a rushed or wrong senior appointment costs the team around it, and how the market for senior candidates has shifted.
Our service: Retained executive search in London
What becoming product-led asks of a board and its executive team, long before it reaches the roadmap.
Our service: Product-led transformation
How to test a senior candidate for emotional intelligence, and what psychometric tools can and cannot tell you.
Our service: Leadership assessment and development
The return on leadership development, and why a programme built for everyone rarely changes anyone.
Our service: Leadership assessment and development
Why transformation stalls when nothing forces it, and what a leader from another industry brings to one.
Our service: Cross-industry executive search
What generative AI changed inside organisations, written in 2024 as the tools arrived.
Our service: Technology executive search
