Who will be your director in five years?
Corporates place considerable emphasis on growth potential when hiring for leadership positions. Yet when a board-level role becomes vacant, there is not always a successor ready to step up. One important reason lies in the type of candidate being selected.
Career progression is on the agenda, yet the leadership pipeline remains thin
Succession planning, talent reviews and leadership development programmes are well established in many corporates. Growth potential is also frequently listed as an explicit requirement in management job descriptions. Yet when a board-level vacancy arises, there is not always an internal candidate ready to take the next step.
The root cause often lies earlier in the process than the development programmes themselves: in candidate selection. Reaching the top requires a specific type of professional, yet this type of candidate often fails to emerge from conventional selection processes.
Five career profiles, but one type of successor
People in the labour market can be divided into five career profiles, each driven by different motivations:
Go-Getters want to perform, gain recognition and advance quickly.
Ground-Breakers are entrepreneurial and want to build something new.
Change-Makers want their work to make a meaningful difference to society.
Globe-Trotters seek international experience and diversity.
Balance-Seekers prioritise balance between work and private life.
Each profile can be the best choice in the right circumstances. But only the Go-Getter, the true career-driven professional, is motivated by reaching the top. A Balance-Seeker can be an excellent manager and still consciously decide against a board-level role. A Globe-Trotter may be more inclined to pursue an international move.
Go-Getters seek organisations with clear career paths. That is precisely what corporates can offer. Moreover, the gap between top performers and the rest is substantial. Various studies show that a relatively small group of people can make a disproportionate difference to organisational performance.
Why Go-Getters remain under the radar
If corporates and Go-Getters are such a natural fit, why are these candidates not always selected? In practice, we see three reasons:
They are missing from the candidate pool. Go-Getters tend to progress within their current organisations and rarely apply for advertised vacancies. Recruitment through job postings therefore primarily reaches professionals who are actively looking for a new role.
The proposition fails to appeal to them. Conversations often focus on compensation and benefits. Research by Lee and Dietz (2025) suggests that this can be counterproductive: emphasising salary attracts less suitable candidates, whereas emphasising career growth and development attracts stronger candidates. That is why development is central to our Development Driven Search® approach. We proactively engage Go-Getters and focus our conversations on their future growth and development.
Selection favours the safe choice. Interviews often focus on whether a candidate fits the current role and team. Someone who aspires to progress within a few years may then be perceived as a risk, even though that ambition could make them particularly well suited to a future leadership role.
Conclusion
The director of five years from now is selected today. Corporates that deliberately target Go-Getters and align their recruitment and selection processes accordingly can build a pipeline of future leaders who are both willing and able to make the step to the top.
References:
Aguinis, H., & O’Boyle, E. (2014). Star performers in twenty-first century organizations. Personnel Psychology, 67(2), 313–350.
Lee, S. Y., & Dietz, B. (2025). Beyond Pay: The Effects of Interviewers’ Emphasis on Pay and Career Growth on Attracting Highly Qualified Applicants. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 33(4).
O’Boyle, E., & Aguinis, H. (2012). The best and the rest: Revisiting the norm of normality of individual performance. Personnel Psychology, 65(1), 79–119.
Universum. Career Profiles.
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