Before Filling a Seat, It Is Worth Rethinking It

A director resigns. A CFO retires. A general manager is promoted to another division. Suddenly, a leadership role becomes vacant, and the pressure to fill it begins the very same day.

The natural impulse is to initiate a executive search, look for someone with a background similar to the departing professional, and close the hiring process as quickly as possible. After all, the absence of a leader can create uncertainty within the team, disrupt decision-making, and concern the board.

The urgency is real. Even so, before defining the replacement’s profile, it is necessary to understand what this position must deliver at the company's current stage. Merely repeating the previous job description may mean searching for someone prepared for a challenge that has already evolved.

The Problem Precedes the Profile

Every executive hiring process should start with a simple question: what problem will this person solve?

When a job description is a carbon copy of the previous role, responsibilities and competencies may appear clear on paper, yet a shared understanding of the position’s true priorities may still be lacking.

Defining and contextualizing the challenge means answering, prior to any interview:

• What stage is the company currently in: growth, restructuring, succession, expansion, or crisis?
• What specific results must this position deliver, and within what timeframe?
• What obstacles are hindering these results today?
• Who will this executive interact with, and which decisions will fall under their authority?

Consider a company seeking a Commercial Director to accelerate sales. The bottleneck might stem from team leadership, but it could also lie in pricing strategy, credit constraints, or the operational capacity to deliver what was sold. Each scenario demands a distinct approach—some requiring decisions that extend beyond the commercial department itself.

Without this analysis, the selection process tends to rely on generic competencies, such as "strategic vision" or "transformation experience." Once the challenge is clearly defined, it becomes much more evident which experiences are relevant and what conditions the executive will need to succeed.

The Question: To Hire or to Rethink the Role?

An executive’s departure creates an opportunity to re-examine the role. This does not mean every position requires redesigning.

There are situations where the role remains fit for purpose and a direct replacement is needed to ensure continuity of priorities. In other cases, the strategy has shifted, and the position must evolve accordingly. It can also happen that the position holds accountability for issues that cross multiple departments without having the authority to resolve them.

Certain indicators help distinguish these situations: decisions stalled across multiple approval levels, overlapping responsibilities, diverging expectations between shareholders and management, or pressure for results over which the executive has limited influence.

Sometimes the role was designed for an earlier phase of the company. Sometimes it has accumulated responsibilities that would make more sense divided. In other instances, the surrounding organizational structure has changed, requiring the position to adopt a new scope or reporting line.

Before filling the seat, it is worth asking:

• Does this role, as currently structured, still align with the current strategy?
• Is the problem the absence of a person, or how the function is organized?
• Does the company need permanent leadership right now, or someone to guide the transition and help shape the future structure?

This analysis takes time. The key is to manage operational continuity while the decision matures, preventing the pressure to fill the vacancy from leaving critical questions unanswered.

From Job Description to Mandate

A job description lists responsibilities. A mandate clarifies what needs to be accomplished within a specific context.

In addition to defining the profile, the organization must align on priority deliverables, timelines, authority, available resources, and performance metrics. This alignment should involve both the hiring authority and key decision-making stakeholders.

For example, "organizing the finance department" could mean improving cash flow forecasting, shortening the closing cycle, reviewing internal controls, or preparing the team for a new growth phase. If everything is labeled a priority, the executive steps in without knowing where to begin.

A clear mandate establishes this hierarchy and explicitly outlines execution conditions. It also enables the evaluation of progress based on agreed deliverables.

The Interim Executive as a Bridge

When a company needs to maintain operations while determining its next steps, interim management offers a practical alternative.

An experienced executive steps in for a defined period, leads decision-making, and executes agreed priorities. When included in the mandate, they can also evaluate the organizational structure in practice, propose adjustments, and prepare a smooth transition for permanent leadership.

Operating directly within business operations allows for firsthand observation of how decisions are made, where bottlenecks exist, and what capabilities the team needs to develop. This assessment becomes robust when supported by access to information, authority aligned with the mission, and strategic alignment with leadership.

Not every interim mission involves redesigning a role. In some cases, the objective is to ensure business continuity until an appointed successor arrives. In others, it is to execute a transformation or help clarify the future organizational design.

When a permanent hire follows, the interim period provides a concrete foundation to define the profile, scope, and priorities for the incoming executive.

How Telos Supports Your Business

Telos Transition operates in interim management, combining the execution of an experienced executive on the ground with close advisory support from a senior partner throughout the entire mission.

Our engagement begins well before recommending any candidate:

• Understand the Context: Assess the company’s current stage, the driver behind the hire, the key challenges, and expected outcomes.
• Define the Mandate: Translate business needs into a clear mission with defined priorities, deliverables, and operational parameters.
• Review the Role (if necessary): Evaluate whether the scope, structure, and profile remain aligned with the challenge.
• Select the Executive: Identify professionals with experience tailored to the mission and the corporate environment.
• Monitor Execution: Combine partner oversight with the executive’s operational leadership through structured checkpoints, performance reviews, and ongoing priority alignment.
• Prepare the Transition: When planned, structure the handover to permanent leadership, ensuring knowledge transfer and full clarity on achieved milestones and ongoing initiatives.

This dual-perspective approach connects challenge definition directly to execution. The executive drives operational missions, while the partner oversees progress and facilitates necessary strategic alignments.

Clarify the Challenge Before Hiring

A vacant seat demands action. However, the decision on who should occupy it becomes significantly stronger when the company clearly understands what it expects from the role and provides the necessary conditions for success.

In some cases, this leads to a direct replacement. In others, it calls for a role redesign or an interim management mission to lead the transition.

Hiring well begins with understanding the challenge, the required deliverables, and the level of authority required for the executive taking charge.