Stop Treating “External Hire” as Default
Your future leaders should already be in the room.
Every time I see a company default to hiring a senior leader from outside, I think:
What’s wrong with the team you’ve already built?
Treating external hiring as the first stop for leadership roles, rather than the last, is one of the stranger habits I’ve noticed in many companies.
If culture matters (and everyone says it does) then why do so many leaders bring in someone new for a mission-critical role, rather than promoting someone who already understands how the company runs?
When I think about who I trust in important roles, I think about the people who already know:
How decisions get made
What makes the team tick
Where the bodies are buried (and how they got there)
If you’ve hired well, your future leaders should already be in the room.
And if your instinct is to look outside first, maybe that says more about how you’ve built your team than you realize.
Of course, there are exceptions. Sometimes you need a specific kind of expertise.
But far too often, “external” becomes a default, and we overlook the real costs: longer onboarding, slower trust-building, and cultural friction.
“Culture fit” sounds like a checkbox, but it’s really the difference between a leader who moves fast on day one, and one who spends the first six months figuring out who’s who and how things work.
If you’ve got someone who knows your world and is ready to step up, start there.