Hiring for Character AND Capability: How to Structure the Search (Part 2 of 3)
SEO title tag: How to Hire for Character AND Capability | FireSeeds SEO meta description: Cord Sachs walks through how FireSeeds structures a retained search to evaluate both character and capability, starting with the Bullseye Meeting. Target cluster: Kingdom Cluster B, Priority 1 + Cross-Vertical Thought Leadership (Cluster 4) Primary keywords: hiring for character, executive search process, Bullseye Meeting, values-based hiring, retained executive search Author: Cord Sachs Word count: ~1,000 Status: Draft for Cord review
In Part 1, I made the case that character and capability aren't a trade-off. That you can hold the bar on both if you're willing to run the search the right way.
But "the right way" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence.
It starts before the search starts
Most failed executive hires fail because the hiring team never got aligned on what "right" actually meant.
I've watched it happen over and over. The CEO wants a growth-oriented operator. The CFO wants someone conservative with capital. The VP of Engineering wants someone who won't blow up the technical roadmap.
None of them say any of this out loud. They all nod at the same job description and assume they're looking for the same person.
Six months later, when the new hire is struggling, everybody points at the recruiter.
This is why we built the Bullseye Meeting.
What happens in the Bullseye Meeting
The Bullseye Meeting is the first real working session of every FireSeeds search. Everyone who has a say in the hiring decision is in the room. And I do mean everyone. If someone has veto power, they need to be at the table before we go to market, not after we've presented candidates.
Here's what we're after in that meeting: total alignment on who we're looking for and why.
We walk through the technical requirements and the leadership profile. Then we talk about the culture, and I mean really talk about it. What does your team value? What kind of leader has thrived here before? What kind has failed?
And then the question most companies skip: what does "character" look like in your specific context? They'll spend 45 minutes on the technical specs and 2 minutes on the kind of person they actually want to work alongside. We flip that ratio.
Because here's what I've learned from placing hundreds of leaders: you can teach someone a new system. You can onboard them into your process. You can get them up to speed on the product. But you can't teach them to care about the people they lead. And you can't install integrity after the fact.
The Bullseye Meeting surfaces all of this before a single candidate is contacted. And that alignment becomes the filter for everything that follows.
Holding the bar through the process
Alignment is easy on day one. Everyone's fresh. Everyone's motivated. The role is a priority.
Week 6 is where it gets hard. The seat is still empty and the team is stretched. Someone on the hiring committee starts saying things like "maybe we're being too picky" or "let's just get someone in the door and see how it goes."
I've been in that room. I've felt that pressure. And I'll be honest, I've given in to it before. Earlier in my career, I let urgency override conviction more than once. Made offers I knew weren't right because the clock was louder than my gut.
So now we build discipline into the process. Every FireSeeds search has a weekly rhythm. Standing check-ins. Structured feedback after every candidate conversation. Real-time adjustments to the search parameters when the market tells us something we didn't expect.
The bar stays where it is. We adjust the search.
If the market is telling us that the exact profile we defined in the Bullseye Meeting doesn't exist, we go back to the hiring team and have an honest conversation about which requirements are non-negotiable and which ones have flexibility. The character requirements never move. The capability requirements might.
Sometimes a candidate has 80% of the technical profile but 100% of the character profile. In my experience, that person will outperform the one with the perfect resume and the question marks around how they treat people. Every time.
The reference check that actually works
Most companies are getting almost zero value from their reference checks. And it's costing them.
A typical reference check is a formality. Somebody in HR calls the 3 names the candidate provided, asks a few scripted questions, gets polished answers, and checks a box. Nothing useful comes from that.
We do it differently. We ask candidates for references they didn't prepare. Former direct reports, not former bosses. Peers from a previous company. Someone who worked with them during a hard season, a turnaround, a layoff, a failed product launch. We want to hear how the candidate led when it was painful.
And we listen for the specific language people use. There's a real difference between "she was a great boss" and "she changed my career." Between "he's very smart" and "I'd follow him into any organization." The first answers in those pairs are polite. The second answers are conviction. We're looking for conviction.
When a candidate's references speak about them with that kind of energy, you're seeing character confirmed by the people who experienced it firsthand. That's worth more than any behavioral interview question I've ever asked.
The weekly rhythm keeps everyone honest
The standing weekly rhythm is an accountability structure.
It keeps the hiring team engaged and keeps us honest on the timeline. But the real value is that it keeps the character conversation alive throughout the search. If we only talk about character in the Bullseye Meeting and then spend the next 8 weeks focused on skills and experience, we'll drift.
Everyone drifts. The weekly rhythm is how we don't.
In Part 3, I'm going to talk about why all of this matters even more for faith-driven companies. When the "character" conversation includes mission alignment, spiritual maturity, and the question of whether a leader shares the convictions that drive the organization, the stakes go up. And the search has to be structured to honor that.
Cord Sachs is the founder of FireSeeds, a retained executive search firm that places C-suite and VP-level leaders across construction, home services, electrical engineering, and Kingdom-minded organizations.
Ready to start a search? Contact the FireSeeds team.