Most organisations still behave as though senior hiring works like every other kind of recruitment: A role is defined, an advert goes live, applications arrive then the strongest candidate is selected.
It is a tidy, logical model.
It is also almost entirely detached from how leadership talent actually moves.
Because the simple truth is this: your next CEO, Managing Director, or critical functional leader is very unlikely to be applying for your job. In most cases, they are not actually looking at all.
At early and mid-career levels, advertising works. There is a healthy population of active candidates exploring options, updating CVs, and responding to outreach, but at senior level, the dynamic is fundamentally different.
High-performing leaders are typically:
They are not scrolling job boards at 10pm, they are busy running businesses.
The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development consistently reports that the majority of UK employees are “passive” rather than active jobseekers, and that this effect is significantly stronger at senior and specialist levels. In other words, the higher the responsibility and impact of the role, the smaller the pool of people actively applying.
At the same time, the Confederation of British Industry continues to cite leadership and skills shortages as one of the primary constraints on UK business growth.
Put simply, the people organisations most need are the least likely to knock on the door.
There is also a human factor that often goes unspoken - senior leaders do not move roles lightly.
By the time someone reaches executive or board level, career decisions are no longer about title progression or incremental pay. They are about:
Changing roles becomes a high-stakes decision, not a speculative one which means they rarely respond to generic outreach or public adverts.
Instead, movement happens through trusted conversations, a discreet call, a credible introduction and a thoughtful discussion about purpose and mandate, not just job description.
In many cases, the opportunity did not exist in their mind until someone they respect made it visible.
That is not recruitment marketing, this is advisory engagement.
Yet many organisations still default to the same process for leadership hiring as they use for volume recruitment: Post. Wait. Screen. Interview.
It feels efficient and fair, but structurally, and crucially, it excludes most of the actual market.
When you rely primarily on inbound applications, you are only accessing:
You are not systematically reaching the top performers delivering results elsewhere.
Over time, this creates a hidden bias because you are not choosing the best leader in the market, you are choosing the best leader who happened to apply. Those are very different pools.
Several trends are amplifying this dynamic in the UK.
First, demographic pressure: A significant proportion of senior leaders are approaching retirement age, particularly across infrastructure, industrial, utilities, and regulated sectors. The replacement pipeline is thinner than many boards expected.
Second, complexity: Leadership roles now demand broader capability than ever. Digital, regulatory scrutiny, ESG accountability, and international exposure are baseline expectations rather than differentiators.
Third, risk awareness: Boards are understandably cautious. The cost of a poor leadership hire can easily exceed one to two times annual compensation when disruption, delay, and replacement are factored in.
The result is a paradox. The roles are more important, but the talent pool is smaller. Yet many organisations still rely on methods designed for abundance rather than scarcity.
The most effective leadership hiring processes I see look very different and they start with a market view, not a job advert.
Before a role is even public, they ask:
It becomes proactive rather than reactive. Instead of waiting for candidates to self-select, the organisation deliberately goes out to meet the market, but not through mass messaging, through informed, high-trust conversations.
In practice, that often means:
By the time interviews begin, the shortlist is already composed of people who were not planning to move, but now see a compelling reason to consider it.
That is a very different starting point.
At Friisberg, this reality shapes how we work every day.
We rarely rely on who applies. We focus on who should be in the conversation.
Our work begins with understanding the market, the competitive landscape, and the leadership DNA that will genuinely move the organisation forward. From there, we engage people discreetly and thoughtfully, often leaders who had not considered a change until a credible opportunity was presented.
It is less about filling roles and more about unlocking access because at senior level, access is the advantage.
The organisations that recognise this tend to make better hires, faster, and with greater confidence. Not because they run a louder process, but because they reach parts of the market others simply never see.
So perhaps the better question for boards is not:
How many applications did we receive?
Instead it should be:
Did we actually speak to the best leaders available, or only the ones who happened to apply?
The answer to that question usually tells you everything.
