Most organizations equate growth with volume, more roles, more seats filled. But the companies that scale well treat leadership and recruitment differently: as an architecture built for where the business is headed, not just where it is today.
In a recent conversation with Platform Calgary, our Co-Founder and Partner Glenn Lesko explores what that looks like in practice. Why Canada's tightening executive talent pool is changing how organizations need to approach search, and why the best leaders are rarely the ones applying. He also shares four principles for scaling an executive team responsibly, from looking beyond job titles to planning for retention before the hire is even made.
It's a candid look at where business strategy and human capital strategy should really be one conversation — not two.
4 Rules for Scaling Your Executive Team Responsibly
Glenn offers four principles for scaling an executive team responsibly:
- Think Beyond Job Titles. Effective leadership planning starts with understanding the skillset your organization needs to succeed. While roles and titles may evolve, those underlying leadership capabilities are what enable long-term strategic execution.
- Don't treat executive search as transactional. The best outcomes come from executive search partners who act as a trusted advisor to the organization — understanding its culture, its growth trajectory, and its values well enough to represent it accurately to candidates, not just fill a seat.
- Give the search the time it needs. Scaling human capital sustainably sometimes means moving more slowly than the business wants to, because finding the right leader — not just an available one — takes time.
- Plan for retention as much as the hire itself. Bringing in the right leader is only part of the equation. Organizations need a clear development plan, along with competitive compensation, short and long-term incentive programs, robust benefits and pension offerings, to keep that person engaged and growing, or they risk being back at the table sooner than expected.
This holds whether you're a Toronto-based professional services firm or a Calgary energy company diversifying into new markets — the discipline is the same, even if the context looks different.
Partner, Pender & Howe
„Too often, human capital strategy and business strategy are developed separately. The growth plan gets built first, and only then does the conversation turn to who will lead it. The organizations that scale most successfully are the ones that recognize where business strategy and human capital strategy intersect — and make them part of the same conversation from the start.“
Glenn Lesko
Work With Pender & Howe on Your Executive Search
With offices across Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Boston, and New York, Pender & Howe combines boutique-level partner involvement with deep sector intelligence across technology, life sciences, industrial, consumer goods, and professional services.