"We've Seen a Lot of People, but None Are Quite Right"

I hear some version of that all the time.

Most of the time, it comes back to the same issue: the brief wasn't clear enough at the start.

Not because there wasn't a job description.

Because nobody got specific about what success in the role would actually look like.

Twelve months after this person joins, what should they have delivered? Which skills are genuinely non-negotiable? Where are you willing to compromise if the right person doesn't tick every box?

And just as importantly, does everyone involved in the hiring process agree on those answers?

That's usually where things start to come undone.

The search gets underway, CVs start arriving, interviews happen and feedback gets shared.

Before long, every candidate is described as "good, but...

Nobody can clearly articulate what's missing.

At that point, the shortlist usually isn't the issue.

The issue is that different interviewers are measuring candidates against different definitions of success. They're not really assessing the same role.

Before you review another CV, answer one question:

What needs to be different in the business 12 months after this person joins?

If you can answer that clearly, hiring becomes much easier.