In the start-up world, the player-manager role is a familiar requirement. As companies grow, the need for specialised expertise becomes crucial to success. This is where the 'heads of' or 'leads' come in. These individuals are tasked with managing and scaling key functions like sales, marketing, and customer success, while also contributing directly to their teams' success.
It's a balancing act that requires a unique blend of strategic thinking, operational excellence, and hands-on involvement.
Having been in recruitment for nearly 20 years, these roles are the most challenging assignments to complete.
Why is the Player-Manager Role So Difficult to Fill?
Scarcity: Individuals who have scaled a function, managed large teams, and want to do hands-on work are rare. Persuading them to repeat this with a new company is challenging.
Demands of the role: Balancing hands-on work with long-term strategic planning is demanding and not everyone is suited to it.
Compensation: Suitable people can often earn more, with better benefits, and theoretically less pressure in a senior role at a larger company.
Culture: Building a strong relationship between the founder and the head of function is crucial for success. Finding the right fit, combined with the necessary experience, is difficult.
I've worked with 100s of start-ups over the past 20 years, here is list of common mistakes and actions to overcome them.
The founders don’t have clarity on the profile they need. Founders will say “I need someone who’s been on scaling journey” without much more detail about which bits of the scaling journey are important. You need to consider where you want to be, not just the current challenges.
Action: Collaborate with other leaders or investors about the ideal profile, get a consensus view on what you need.
Paralysis by Analysis – This hire is a big spend, but it shouldn’t take 6 weeks of interviews to assess people (often caused by point 1).
Action: Have a clear interview process before you start and stick to it, make the hiring process your priority.
Founders only sell the company, not the vision of the function.
Action: seek out functional experts in the discipline you’re hiring for, find out current and future trends and what would appeal to a top performer.
Involving junior members of the team the person will manage. Collaborative hiring has its merits, but junior members should not have a veto. Too much opportunity for Machiavellian decisions.
Action: if you want to include junior team members, do it at the end once you’ve identified your top choice.
Budget – top performers understand that early-stage companies will pay less than large companies, but you must be competitive. If you can’t afford it, don’t waste your time.
Action: get salary guides and information from recruiters who have a track record in that marketplace. Use benchmarking tools from investors or comparable companies.
Using multiple recruitment agencies on a contingency agreement. The talent is pool is small, and nothing devalues an opportunity more than hearing about the same role from 2 or 3 recruiters.
Action: conduct a beauty parade of recruiters, ask them to pitch why they should be representing your company in the market. Choose one and agree exclusivity or retain them.
Wrong order of interviews. These hires will arguably be the most important people to help you achieve the growth and scale you want; founders need to be involved from the start – don’t leave it to your talent or HR lead.
Action: founders should be involved from CV screen stage. Don’t leave it to someone else.
Seeking perfection – as we know, the perfect person rarely exist – founders need to be clear on what the deal breakers are and what can be compromised on.
Action: make a list of your non-negotiables – share them with relevant parties and seek feedback.
Equity – not being generous or competitive is a red flag to people who’ve been through a scaling journey – they know the challenges the lie ahead and wont be as motivated for a smaller return.
Action: benchmark your equity offer with your network and investors; be open with people as early as possible, don’t wait till the offer stage
Feedback – founders should aim to provide some feedback to people who have given up their time. These people are rare and influential, don’t frustrate them if you want to build your employer brand.
Action: commit to providing feedback directly or via your recruiter. Ideally, do this for CV submissions as well. Your employer brand will thank you later.
Thorough background checks – utilise your network to get details on the person you’re hiring. References are great, but they don’t always provide the full story.
Action: seek feedback from any source you can, don’t rely on the references given to you.
Too much emphasis on industry experience – great people can transfer skills into new industries, don’t limit the already small pool of people.
Action: make sure to interview some people from outside your preferred industry, you’ll learn something and potentially find a hidden gem.
Blanket ban “big company experience”. Corporates are different and lots of people won’t be able to transfer to a small company, but don’t write them off – think how many start-ups have been founded by execs who had worked at large companies.
Action: pay attention to motivations and how the person conducts themselves, a “corporate mindset” is easy to spot if you’re looking for it. Conversely, someone who can articulate the challenges of the corporate world and give compelling reasons why they want to join a start-up are worth considering.
Rose-tinted view - you need to be honest about challenges and position of your company – the best founders will provide the whole picture, not just the good bits.
Action: consider using a SWOT style analysis of your company and share information as soon as possible.
Conducting interviews in a formal setting – only using F2F and video calls is not an optimal way to hire your management team – make sure to include telephone calls, coffee meetings and/or lunches; you’ll gain a huge amount of insight seeing people in a more relaxed setting.
Action: take responsibility for keeping in touch during the process – a call, WhatsApp or 30 mins coffee with a founder does wonders for keeping people engaged with your process and company.
Opmerkingen