Finding the perfect prince.

• Author: Augustine, Norman R.
• Position: Brief Article

The process of candidate evaluation is one of the most critical yet difficult any board member faces.

ALL BOARDROOMS should display King Richard II's counsel: "They well deserve to have that know the strongest and surest way to get." That's because a board's top priority is to find the perfect prince -- or, today, princess -- namely, those executives who know the "strongest and surest way to get" where the company needs to go.

What most often distinguishes a winner from a loser -- whether in Elizabethan England or dot.com America -- is the ability of key executives, and their effectiveness in working together. Thus, ironically, a corporation's greatest assets appear nowhere on its balance sheet.

To maximize such corporate assets, board members and their managers must locate, obtain, train, and retain the best talent possible to fill the cast -- from star to stagehand. And education must continue throughout a career; as Petruchio says in Taming of the Shrew, "'Tis the mind that makes the body rich."

On predicting who will make the best executives, Shakespeare and modern corporate gurus agree that past performance is the single best indicator of future performance. Whether the candidate left "monuments," i.e. major accomplishments, is singularly revealing. If there have been no past monuments, there probably won't be any future ones either.

On the other hand, someone with big achievements should be tested with even greater responsibilities. As Ventidius says in Antony and Cleopatra: "Who does in the wars more than his captain can, becomes the captain's captain."

To help boost the odds of recruiting the best talent, a corporate board member or top executive should look for many traits, particularly:

1. Personal attributes. Is the candidate of decent character with a strong moral compass and a well-balanced life outside work? While foremost, such personal attributes are not sufficient in and of themselves. Indeed, Cassius doesn't weigh other factors enough when recruiting Brutus solely on the basis of his virtue. Brutus's other traits -- being a loner, fearful of others outshining him, unwilling to listen, having abysmal judgment -- prove fatal to his cause. And to Gassius cause.

2. Knowledge of primary job skills, whether accounting, law, or engineering, is critical for filling entry and mid-level positions. Yet such qualifications become evermore common higher up the corporate ladder. People skills become increasingly important for top...