What is the difference between selecting managers and selecting specialists?

Selecting a professional and a manager – is there a difference? This is the topic our expert Laura Duksaitė-Iškauskienė recently discussed with Giedre Vaitiekūnaitė on her podcast “Growing Conversations”.

Confidentiality is crucial for managers

There are similarities, but also many differences. First of all, managerial selection is often done in private. This means that managers, unlike professionals, are reluctant to announce that they are looking for new opportunities, and companies do not always publicly announce that they are looking for a new manager.

Non-public selection of managers is also sometimes necessary for a certain competitive advantage. For example, when a company is expanding to new locations or developing a new line of business, a job posting for a development manager for Asian markets is already telling competitors a lot.

Business owners who are ready to hand over the helm of their company to a hired manager are also sometimes reluctant to go public.

Managers want to be interviewed

Another reason why management selection is often not public is the habit and desire of managers themselves to be invited. This means that the job advertisement is more of a communication, announcing the fact of the change itself – but not a signal to other managers to apply. Management candidates want to be interviewed and invited, to hear about the opportunities on offer. Professionals, meanwhile, are applying themselves, boldly sending in their CVs. Good managers often already have their own favourite activities and are not inclined to look at classic job portals or LinkedIn ads.

It is important to take into account confidentiality. This is a key point, not for the company, but for the manager, and it is also important for the company’s reputation and the success of future recruitments. For example, the LRT CEO competition showed that confidentiality was not maintained there, and information about some of the unannounced candidates simply “leaked” from sources, which is a serious reputational damage to the company.

Therefore, a management selection expert is not needed to place a management search advert. It is needed to provide insights into the situation in the executive market, what is happening, what candidates are available, what expectations are. This requires a regular pulse and trust-based communication with the TOP500 major employers.

A mistake in executive selection costs more

The company needs to pay more attention to assessing candidates compared to professionals. This is important because a mistake or an incorrect choice of candidate in hiring a manager is much more costly. For this reason, it is necessary to have a broader vision in the selection process, with a larger sample – it is easier to select the most suitable candidate from a more diverse pool. It is true that it is difficult to see the whole market when working only with internal HR forces. Again, due to the same confidentiality clause, not all managers will be willing to share their career intentions with the HR of a particular company.

Fast-growing – ageing, mature – growing

Whether to choose an external or an internal manager is often a matter of availability rather than desire. Mature organisations that have been in the market for a long time are able to develop and nurture their own managers. Meanwhile, fast-growing organisations, start-ups need a marketing, finance or development manager here and now, so if an organisation has only been around for a few years, it naturally does not have the luxury of waiting ten years to develop a manager. You have to look externally.

Lithuanian manufacturing and service companies are the best forges for sales managers. There, people work with different geographies, different countries, and are able to change quickly. There are not many of them, because there are more companies that only produce or only sell, and it is the latter that usually produce the best marketing managers.

As for CFOs, we have the Big Four FMCG companies, where they are emerging and have a high level of expertise. It is true that in this sector, even when you start, you need to be a good expert.

As a country, we are also of interest to leaders in other countries, as is evident from the composition of our Boards, which are keen to bring in experts from other countries. It is therefore important to have an understanding of international recruitment in the selection process.

Listen to the full conversation on the differences between hiring managers and professionals here.