Trust me – no politics here. I thought it was a good pick – at least from the outside. Let’s look at how it came to be…
CEO talks to a valued friend who recommends a personal friend for a mission-critical corporate position, a position that the CEO described will lead one of the most important departments in the company. The person who has been recommended is a high visibility candidate, one who has been seen by most of the world as a can-do leader during times of turmoil.
The popular vote is ?clearly? on the side of in the new person. Or is it?
The next day what is clear is that whoever led the recruiting conducted reference checks in a less than stellar manner.
In the end, the CEO is left with egg on his face, wipes some of it on the face of his personal friend. The candidate is left to explain, to those who will listen, the reason for all the baggage in his doghouse and why he did not disclose this information during the vetting process. The CEO is seen walking towards the recruiter?s office.
So who is to blame for this fiasco? The CEO? The personal friend? The candidate? The recruiter who was appointed by the CEO?
Rather than point fingers (I believe that the entire process fell apart and everyone needs to be flogged with the hardcopy of the Red Book), I want get back to character. Frankly, I believe that Kerik could do the job ? although the real qualification questions would have come up during confirmation hearings -but I question his character. The nanny piece notwithstanding (we?re fighting terrorism here not bad nannies ? although it must be a serious issue if other appointees, Republican and Democrat, have been kiboshed as a result of their own nannygates) it?s the other stuff not found by the vetting process (governmental for recruiting) that bothers me more. Ooops, I forgot about the gifts; sorry, I must have brain locked on the arrest warrant; the affairs? I didn?t think anyone would care?
Character matters and hopefully the events surrounding Bernie Kerik will cause all CEOs and their recruiters to pause and think about how the job is not just the sum of its parts.
The Recruiting Inferno 