Traditional organizations that have experienced considerable success over time may now be faced with a task in which they are utterly unprepared to execute: transformation. The innovative leaders they need to transform are unlikely to be found through the tried-and-true hiring process.

Finding a transformative leader begins with a departure from the corporate comfort zone, according to a new video thought piece from our parent company, Heidrick & Struggles, a premier provider of senior-level Executive Search, Culture Shaping and Leadership Consulting services globally.

“Simply checking all the boxes for the right titles and experiences may have worked in the past,” says David Boehmer, Financial Service Managing Partner for Europe - Heidrick & Struggles. Now, banks and other large institutions need to transform, he says. “But they don’t know how to. Often, it means taking a risk on a different kind of leader who can help the organization differentiate.”

In the latest installment of Heidrick & Struggles’ LeadershipTV™, Boehmer and Todd Taylor, a partner in the firm’s Financial Services Practice, outline a three-step process for finding, on-boarding and sponsoring transformational executive talent.

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“Companies can differentiate their talent acquisition strategy by looking beyond traditionalists among the Baby-Boomer generation,” says Taylor. “For the first time ever, we are soon going to have four generational cohort groups working at the same time. People from Gen X, Gen-Y and very soon a new cohort of post-Millenials each interact and network very differently than Baby Boomers—so the talent acquisition strategy must be multi-dimensional as well.”

On-boarding is an often over-looked step in the process of bringing in transformational talent, Boehmer says. “Finding and recruiting a talented person is almost the easy part. On-boarding, helping them to be successful is sometimes the harder part. It is critical to give a new executive the means to understand the organization before attempting to transform it. ”

Executive partnerships also can be effective in helping the transformative executive succeed. “We are seeing the greatest success where the CEO or another C-Suite executive sponsors the creative hiring, sponsors that person to be successful,” says Boehmer. “The sponsoring executive provides air cover with the organization that the new leader needs to avoid being rejected by the corporate culture, giving him or her some time to gain traction and to be accepted in their own right.”

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For more information about our parent company, Heidrick & Struggles, please visit www.heidrick.com.