Latest / Executive Careers with Fexingo: VP, C-Suite, and Senior Leadership Career Strategy / Senior Leaders Who Hire for Gaps Not Mirrors
Transcript
- Lucas: So there is a moment in every senior leader's career that I think of as the mirror test. You're building out your team, you're looking at a candidate, and the person reminds you of yourself. Same communication style, same technical strengths, maybe even the same MBA program. And you think, this is great — I trust this person, we'll work well together. Luna: Right, the comfort hire. I've seen that so many times. Lucas: Exactly. And the data says it's one of the most dangerous instincts a leader can indulge. A 2025 study from the Center for Creative Leadership looked at 220 executive teams across industries and found that teams whose members had complementary skill sets — not similar ones — outperformed homogeneous teams by 28 percent on innovation metrics. Not just a little. Twenty-eight percent. Luna: That's a huge gap. And I'm guessing the homogeneous teams felt better in the room — more collegial, less friction. Lucas: They did. That's the trap. The study measured 'team cohesion' separately from 'innovation output,' and the homogeneous teams scored higher on cohesion. They liked each other more. But they produced less. Because when everyone brings the same lens, you don't get blind spots challenged. You get blind spots reinforced. Luna: So the smart move is to actively look for people whose weaknesses are your strengths, and vice versa. Lucas: Exactly. And I want to talk about a concrete example. A CFO at a Fortune 500 industrial company — I'll call her Sarah — told me about a hire she made about three years ago. She's very numbers-forward, detail-oriented, a bit risk-averse by nature. She needed a VP of finance to eventually succeed her. And the obvious internal candidate was a guy who was basically a younger version of her. Same style, same caution. Luna: The mirror. Lucas: The mirror. And she almost hired him. But instead, she took a step back and did what she called a 'gap audit.' She listed her own top three strengths: financial modeling rigor, process discipline, stakeholder trust. Then her top three development areas: strategic storytelling, M&A vision, and comfort with ambiguity. And she hired a VP who had exactly those three strengths — a woman from a private equity background who was big-picture, narrative-driven, and perfectly happy to operate without complete data. Luna: So she hired for her gaps. That must have been uncomfortable at first. Lucas: It was. Sarah told me the first six months were harder than any previous hire because they clashed. The VP would pitch an acquisition and Sarah would want to see five-year projections in week one. But over time, they built what she called 'a two-brain system' — she handled the analytical rigor, the VP handled the forward vision. Last year, that VP led a deal that added 12 percent to revenue. Luna: And I bet the mirror hire would have never pushed for that deal. Lucas: Probably not. And that's the key insight — hiring for gaps isn't just about team composition. It's about your own ceiling as a leader. When you surround yourself with people who fill your gaps, you personally become more effective because the team covers the bases you can't. Your weaknesses stop being limiting factors. Luna: So how do you actually do a gap audit on yourself without falling into self-deception? I know a lot of senior leaders think they're more well-rounded than they actually are. Lucas: That's a great question. The most effective method I've seen is a 360-degree feedback process specifically focused on skill gaps — not performance ratings. So you ask your board, your peers, your direct reports: 'What's the one thing I should stop doing and let someone else handle?' And whatever comes up repeatedly, that's your gap. Luna: And then you recruit for that gap — not just tolerate it in a hire, but actively seek it out. Lucas: Right. And here's where it gets more personal — this same logic applies to your own career moves. When you're evaluating a potential boss, or a board you might join, you can ask yourself: 'Does this person or this board fill a gap in my own development?' If the answer is no — if they're a mirror — you might be comfortable, but you won't grow. Luna: I've seen senior leaders turn down board seats because the existing board was too similar to them. They chose a board where they were the odd one out on expertise. Lucas: Exactly. And I want to offer another frame from the study: the researchers looked at what they called 'cognitive diversity' — different thinking styles, not just demographic diversity. And they found that teams with high cognitive diversity but low social similarity — meaning people didn't naturally click — still outperformed on innovation. So the friction is actually the fuel. Luna: That's counterintuitive for a lot of leaders who pride themselves on building harmonious cultures. Lucas: It is. But harmony and homogeneity are not the same thing. You can have a culture of respect and candor while still having very different skill sets. In fact, the best teams I've seen have explicit norms around disagreement — like 'we debate the idea, not the person.' That allows skill diversity to be productive instead of paralyzing. Luna: So what would you say to a vp level listener who is building their direct report team right now? What's the one practical step? Lucas: I'd say: before you write the next job description, write your own skill inventory. Be brutally honest. Then design the role to be the opposite of you. If you're a builder, hire an operator. If you're a visionary, hire an executor. If you're a relationship person, hire a process person. The job description should almost feel like it's describing a different person. Luna: And then in the interview, ask candidates about their own gaps — see if they have that self-awareness. Lucas: Exactly. One of my favorite interview questions is: 'Tell me about a time you worked with someone whose strengths were completely different from yours. How did you make that work?' The answer tells you whether the candidate can handle the kind of productive friction you're trying to build. Luna: If they only talk about how they 'managed' the other person, that's a red flag. Lucas: Big red flag. You want someone who says, 'I learned from them, and I think they learned from me.' That's a gap-filler. Luna: You know, I think this whole conversation applies beyond hiring. It's really about how you build your entire career ecosystem — your advisors, your mentors, your board. Lucas: Absolutely. And your own career decisions. I've seen senior leaders turn down promotions because the role played entirely to their existing strengths and didn't stretch them into new gaps. That takes real self-awareness. Luna: Because comfort is seductive — especially at the senior level where you've already proven yourself. Lucas: It is. And if you've found value in thinking through these kinds of career decisions with us — if today's episode was worth, say, a coffee — there's a simple way to support the show and keep it ad-free. It's buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's it. No pressure, just a small way to say this mattered. Luna: Honestly, it helps us keep doing exactly this kind of deep-dive — with real data, real cases, no fluff. Lucas: So back to where we were — because I think there's another layer to the gap-hiring idea. It's not just about hiring individuals. It's about designing the whole leadership team as a complementary system. And that requires the top leader to be willing to be the least expert person in the room on certain topics. Luna: That's a vulnerable position for a CEO or a VP. They're used to being the smartest person. Lucas: Right. But the CFO I mentioned — Sarah — she told me something that stuck. She said, 'My VP of M&A knows more about deal structuring than I ever will. And I'm fine with that. My job is to make sure she has the data she needs and the freedom to execute.' That's a leader who hired for gaps and then got out of the way. Luna: That's the next level — not just hiring for gaps, but actually letting the gap-filler lead in their area. Lucas: Exactly. And when you do that, you create what the study called 'complementary leadership density' — meaning the team's collective capability is greater than the sum of its parts. And that's when you see the 28 percent innovation bump. Luna: I think our listeners could use one more concrete tool. How do you assess whether your current team has gap coverage? Lucas: Great question. I'd do a simple mapping exercise. List the top five strategic priorities for your team over the next 12 months. Then list each direct report's primary strength. If one person covers three priorities and another covers none, you have a gap — and a redundancy. The ideal is each priority has a clear owner whose strength is directly aligned, and no two people have the same top strength. Luna: And if you find two people with the same strength, you've got mirroring at the team level. That's a signal to rethink roles or development plans. Lucas: Exactly. And sometimes the fix isn't a new hire — it's shifting responsibility. One leader I know had two VPs who were both excellent at client relationships but neither was strong on operations. So she moved one VP into a new role focused entirely on operational excellence. It was a stretch, but within six months he had developed a new skill set that filled the team's biggest gap. Luna: So the gap audit can lead to role redesign, not just hiring. That's a cheaper and faster solution. Lucas: Much faster. And it sends a signal to the team that you value skill diversity over static job titles. Luna: Alright, so let's tie it back to the listener. If you're a senior leader, start today. Write down your top strength and your top gap. Then look at your team and ask: who covers my gap? If no one does, that's your next priority. Lucas: And if you're the one being hired — whether as a VP, a board member, or a CEO — ask your future boss or board: 'What's your biggest gap, and how do you see me filling it?' If they can't answer, they haven't done the work. And you might be walking into a mirror hire that limits your own growth. Luna: That is a powerful question. I'm going to use that myself. Lucas: Good. I think that's a place to leave it — the best hires are the ones who make you better by being different.