Identifying which applicant will best match the chief executive position description turns out to be only part of the job. Figuring out, collaboratively and collectively, who is the right leader for the organization is the ultimate goal, and it can be as difficult as it is crucial.

How will your team know it's recommending not just the best person out of what is bound to be a very good pool of candidates, but also the right person to take the organization where the board believes it can and must go?

Qualifications, lists of achievements, proofs of expertise are the facts of an individual candidate’s suitability, and all are important in evaluating candidates. But the truth behind those facts resides in the character of a candidate’s experience — in the variety and complexity of the situations the candidate has encountered and, if it can be learned, how the candidate dealt with the encounters. In other words, leadership takes place in a context that is a good deal more robust and multi-dimensional than a resume can convey, and the selection process must reflect that context.

In this BoardSource article, Dr. Antoinette E. La Belle shares research she conducted on becoming an effective nonprofit leader and offers key insights from her findings that provide an approach that board members can use to weigh and evaluate candidates to ensure their selecting the best candidate to lead their nonprofits.