Understanding How and Why Candidates Make Decisions
By Jennifer Mondoux
May 14, 2025
A search will go off the rails if motivation isn’t clear: if you can understand why the candidate wants the role - and also understand how they make decisions - you’ll increase your likelihood of a successful hire.
Motivation:
Skills and experience aside, if you can truly get a sense of why a candidate is interested in an opportunity, your chances of success (in terms of finding the right candidate who will both stay in the role and be successful) increase significantly.
Often times a candidate won’t articulate their motivation right off the top. In initial conversations, it’s common - and fair - for a candidate to default to “I’m not really looking”. Or, “I’m quite happy in my current role.”
However there is always a reason why a candidate takes a call…
Get to the Heart of It:
The trick is to try to get to the heart of it. A candidate’s honesty around their uncertainty can be warranted. Maybe they’re genuinely intrigued but not sure on the timing. Maybe they feel as though they are just getting warmed up in their current role and want to see things through, despite how interesting the opportunity you’re presenting seems. These are all fair reactions.
Don’t Chase:
Although you should dedicate the appropriate time and energy to help the candidate understand the opportunity, it’s important not to chase. The candidate needs to come to the table on their own at some point - ideally, earlier in the process.
What you need to be mindful of are Tirekickers (e.g., people snooping for the sake of snooping, but who are otherwise not interested in the role). Much to the surprise of many, it’s actually quite rare in senior executive search for candidates to be just fishing - in less than 5% of our work is this the case. But these people are out there. If you can get referrals out of them, great (although always be wary of the source). Otherwise, don’t waste your time.
Decision-Making:
If you can understand how and why a candidate makes decisions, you’ll be in a better position to make a call on whether or not:
They’ll be a good fit for your organization;
They’ll be someone who will stay with you e.g. won’t jump.
Understand Transitions:
You should have a sense as to why a candidate went from Role A to Role B to Role C, etc. Make sure you interview appropriately (more on this below) and that you ask the question: why did you leave that role?
It’s easy enough to ask. It’s also critical to hear the answer: it can reveal patterns in thought processes, and whether or not the candidate is a person who makes strategic and smart decisions or someone who makes flippant ones. You might also find out that they’ve been terminated (and maybe more than once, which is also something you need to understand). Or, the candidate might share a justifiable personal reason for a move they made and that gives you an additional glimpse into the kind of person they truly are.
Assess The Answers:
Here are a couple of quick ways you can assess whether or not a candidate makes good decisions:
When you ask why they left a role, they give you the “I left because I wanted a new challenge” answer. Wanting a new challenge is warranted. If it’s the reason for most or all of the candidate’s moves, it’s a problem: either the person does not know what they want, or, they can’t stick around long enough to show progression.
They’re a Pro-and-Con Weigher. This is the candidate who wants to think about the opportunity before committing to move forward, and then needs to think about it some more (and then some more). This person never says yes I want to proceed (nor do they ever say no). Give these candidates a fair shot in the process, and then move on. The constant weighing of considerations shows a significant risk aversion and/or an inability to make decisions.
Learn How to Interview:
Your ability to draw conclusions on either motivation or decision-making comes down to strong interviewing skill. The way in which you interview is key.
Too many default to canned “screening” questions that do nothing but allow for canned answers.
If you are a believer in the “screener”, ask yourself after those calls - what did you really learn about the person?
Learn About the Candidate:
Instead, ask the candidate to walk you through their background, starting from the past and working up to current day.
Where did they study? What made them choose a particular university? What was their first job like? And go from there. You’ll hear the story of both their personal and professional lives unfold.
If you do this, even after that first conversation, you’ll learn a lot about judgement and critical thinking skills, and about motivation.
Establish Trust:
Finding leadership talent is a giant exercise in aligning interests - those of the candidate’s with your own.
It’s not easy.
Improve your odds by focusing on how and why people make decisions.
Try to establish trust and to create an environment where transparent conversations can take place.
Try to get to the heart of the “why”.
About The Author, Jennifer Mondoux:
Jennifer Mondoux, CEO and Managing Partner, MondouxRollins Partners Inc.; Chair and Founder, Canada’s Best Private Boards
Jennifer Mondoux is a human capital advisor and talent solutions professional, with nearly two decades’ worth of experience working with private companies. An exceptional search professional, she has helped dozens of founders and entrepreneurs of mid-market companies build out their senior leadership teams. Jennifer is seen as a trusted advisor, with an expertise that allows her to guide clients through the lifecycle of their talent needs. This includes compensation design, performance management, market mapping, as well as other more highly specialized services in M&A talent mapping and executive communications. In addition to her deep relationship with her entrepreneurial clients, Jennifer is connected both regionally and nationally with senior leadership candidates as well as with a network of professionals in private company leadership and governance. She is also the founder of Canada’s Best Private Boards, a first-of-its-kind national and annual program that recognizes the impact of governance on the performance of private companies.
About MondouxRollins Partners Inc.:
MondouxRollins Partners Inc. is a human capital advisory and leadership talent solutions firm. We are a group of specialists, equipped with decades of experience providing talent solutions for private companies. We are risk-mitigators, trusted advisors and relationship-builders, and we are your one-stop-shop through the entire talent lifecycle - for your team, or for your board. We are also the founders of the Canada’s Best Private Boards program, a first-of-its kind national and annual awards program that recognizes the impact of governance on the performance of private companies.
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