Four months of search, six interviews, an assessment, references checked, a business case and finally, an accepted offer. Then, just hours before signing the contract, the candidate pulls out.
Our immediate response is almost always the same – “there must have been something that made them change their mind”. Sometimes that is the case. The best executives take the time to also assess the companies that want to recruit them. They analyse corporate the governance and shareholders, the quality of the mandate and the dynamics of the management team. And that’s exactly what they should be doing.
But this explanation is such an obvious assumption that it prevents us from recognising a far more fascinating phenomenon, and one that is far more common. The candidate didn’t change their mind – they simply never made their decision in the first place.
Yet there’s actually a huge difference between these two things. For months, everything seemed to point towards someone who was ready to commit. They attended interviews, prepared a business case, met with the executive committee and board of directors, and even discussed their priorities for their first 100 days. None of this was fake. They were genuinely interested.
But being interested is not the same thing as being available. The executive recruitment market has undergone significant changes, so much so that it now operates like an options market. We explore, compare, assess value and measure appeal. Sometimes, we make a counter-offer. And all of this makes complete sense. But what we can no longer do is confuse interest with availability.
In fact, the two concepts have never been further removed from one another. The counter-offer is a perfect illustration of this confusion. It can appear to be the reason for the rejection, but in reality it is often merely a symptom of it. An executive who is determined to move on will not generally reconsider their decision over a slight difference in salary expectations. Whereas an executive who was already on the fence will see this as an excellent reason to stay where they are.
This is precisely where an executive recruitment firm can add value that is often underestimated. Its role is not merely to identify the best executives on the market; it also assesses whether a candidate is truly ready for a career move. Throughout the discussions, an experienced consultant assesses the feasibility of the venture, questions the candidate’s motivations, highlights any potential contradictions and seeks to understand whether the candidate is genuinely ready to take the plunge, or simply curious to explore the market.
No approach can completely eliminate this risk. This is because it is not always a matter of a lack of transparency. Sometimes even the candidates themselves are certain that they are ready to move on… until the moment to sign, transforming intention into a final decision.
In a market where executives are asking their teams to make decisions, take responsibility for them and demonstrate conviction, it is not unreasonable to expect the same standards of them when they themselves become candidates.
There is nothing wrong with turning down an offer. But engaging a company in a lengthy process lasting several months when you have never actually decided to move on raises an entirely different issue.
