We talk to a lot of leaders and investors: CFOs, CEOs, operating partners and more. On paper, the CVs are impressive, and often the candidates are too. High impact, low ego: that’s the field we play on.
In conversation, though, it often becomes clear who can really lead and who is simply good at selling themselves.
Here are seven red flags we see again and again:
“I turned the company around”
When someone only talks about their own successes, “I did”, “I decided”, “I pushed it through”, we get sceptical.
Good leaders talk about what the team achieved. A healthy dose of humility never hurts. If someone doesn’t mention a team once in the interview, they won’t build one in the job either.
No questions about the job
An investor interviews a CSO with a strong CV. At the end, he asks: “Do you have any questions?”
The answer: “No, I think we’ve covered everything.”
For 45 minutes they had talked about his successes. Not a single question about challenges, culture, team or strategy.
The signal: he wants the job. But he doesn’t want to find out whether he’s the right person for it.
Vague claims without numbers
“I grew revenue significantly.”
The interviewer follows up: “By how much exactly?”
“Well, considerably. We grew strongly.”
If someone can’t, or won’t, give concrete figures, that’s a warning sign.
One example: a former top-tier consultant proudly described her South-East Asia strategy work for a pharmaceutical company. The investor asked: “What came of it?”
Her answer: “The CEO praised the concept highly.”
Every former employer was “difficult”
If the culture was toxic, the CEO incompetent or the strategy wrong at every previous employer, the pattern is usually clear. There are two sides to the problem.
They talk more than they listen
The interviewer asks a question. The answer seems to go on forever.
Good leaders are precise. They answer the question and leave room for dialogue.
If someone can’t stop talking in the interview, they won’t listen in the job either.
Not a single self-critical remark
Quote: “Honestly, very little went wrong for us. We got almost everything right.”
That’s dangerous. Nobody gets everything right. If you can’t admit mistakes, you won’t learn from them either.
They don’t know their weaknesses
“I’m too much of a perfectionist” or “I work too hard”.
Those aren’t weaknesses. They’re strengths in disguise.
Real answers sound different. I’ll write a separate post on this soon, because I don’t like the weaknesses question as such.
But self-reflection isn’t a weakness. It’s a prerequisite for leadership.
None of these red flags automatically makes someone a bad candidate. But they are warning signs.
I’d be curious:
which red flags have you noticed in interviews?
