There are four matches required in a good hire: company fit, skills match, job fit and boss match.
Company fit is the degree to which the candidate's attitudes, values, ethics and grooming fit those required by the position. Skills match is the degree to which the candidate's educational background, technical skills, previous job and life experiences match those required for the position. Job fit is the degree to which the candidate's cognitive abilities, interests, and personality dynamics fit those required by the position. Boss match is the degree to which the candidate will excel in working with his or her immediate supervisor, including stressful circumstances that can occur on-the-job. Without all four of these matches, the newly hired employee may discover the position "turned out to be a very different job than what he or she was expecting."
Pre-employment assessments and structured interviews (based upon questions posed by the assessment reports) can help with company fit, skills match and job fit. However, boss match requires an indepth understanding of who the boss really is and how the candidate might respond under the extreme pressure from the boss and difficult workplace issues. Only the boss' executive coach can help the candidate and the boss engineer a good boss match.
Passing muster with the executive coach of your likely boss can make an applicant anxious. However, the rising popularity of such additional screening reflects management's increased use of coaches and its worries about the high turnover among new hires.
Coaches can offer "an objective perspective on the candidate, as well as on the potential candidate's fit," says Ben Dattner, a New York industrial and organizational psychologist. And the extra hoop can have an added benefit for the job seeker "because an executive coach can describe what this new boss will really be like," suggests Marilyn Machlowitz, a New York recruiter.
Applicants vetted by a hiring manager's coach should plum the nature of that relationship. In meeting the coach for a would-be superior, you will elicit greater candor by posing nonthreatening questions, career experts advise. Request guidance about how to flourish under the person's command rather than demand a list of flaws. With the candidate understanding his or her own operational strengths, the coach can provide clues about the leadership style of the boss.
Sources: "Right Person-Right Job, Guess or Know" by Chuck Russell and The Wall Street Journal, April 3, 2007