Before We Talk About Candidates, We Need to Talk About the Role

That might sound simple, but it’s something that is not always done well across the sector.

On paper, the role appears clear:

• A defined position description
• A set of responsibilities
• A list of capabilities

But when you look more closely, something doesn’t quite hold.

Because many roles have been shaped by:

• Competing expectations
• Historical structures
• Unspoken cultural dynamics
• Assumptions about what is “needed”

Rather than a clear, tested understanding of what the organisation actually requires now. The result?

Organisations recruit against a version of the role that feels complete, but hasn’t been fully defined in practice.

And then a leader is asked to step into it.

To navigate:

• Unclear expectations
• Shifting priorities
• Misalignment within teams
• Pressures that were never fully surfaced

This is where many appointments start to unravel.

Not because the person is wrong.

But because the role itself was never properly designed.

If the time isn’t taken to define:

• What success really looks like
• What the organisation needs at that point in time
• What environment the leader is stepping into

Then the process isn’t recruiting into a role. It’s recruiting into a set of assumptions.

And assumptions don’t hold under pressure!

Stronger appointments start earlier than we think.

They start with:

• Understanding the context properly
• Testing what the role actually requires
• Aligning expectations before going to market
• Because the quality of the appointment is directly linked to the clarity of the role.

And until that shifts…

good leaders will continue to be asked to succeed in roles that were never fully defined to begin with.