Five common Board pitfalls in CEO search, and what to do differently next time.
CEO recruitment in the not-for-profit sector regularly takes six to nine months. Sometimes longer. Boards I speak to are often surprised by this — they had budgeted for three to four months, and now they're nine months in, on their second recruiter, with no appointment.
It doesn't have to be this way. CEO searches can be completed in 12 to 16 weeks. When they aren't, it's usually one of these five pitfalls.
Pitfall 1: Starting without a clear brief
The most common mistake. The Board agrees the current CEO is leaving and starts recruitment immediately, without first agreeing what kind of leader the organisation needs next.
Are you looking for a steady-hands leader to consolidate, or a transformational leader to drive change? Is sector experience essential, or would you welcome an external perspective? What's the actual leadership mandate for the next three to five years?
Without that clarity, you'll get a long shortlist of plausible-looking candidates and a Board that can't agree on who to appoint. Weeks pass. Candidates disengage.
Fix: Run a proper calibration session before the search begins
A good search consultant should insist on this. Ninety minutes with the Board, working through:
- Strategic context for the next three to five years
- Mandate for the incoming CEO (consolidate, grow, transform, recover)
- Non-negotiable competencies vs. nice-to-haves
- Cultural attributes that matter most
- Compensation parameters and any constraints
The output is a one-page brief the Board can sign off on. Every candidate is then assessed against that brief, not against shifting individual preferences.
Pitfall 2: Trying to recruit by committee
Boards involve everyone in interviewing. Every Director wants to meet every shortlisted candidate. Two rounds become four. Diary coordination across 8 to 10 people takes weeks.
Meanwhile your strongest candidates — who are usually employed in senior roles elsewhere — are juggling other processes that are moving faster.
Fix: Establish a small selection committee
Typically the Board Chair, one other Director, and (where appropriate) one external advisor or sector expert. Three people. They run the process. They report back to the full Board with recommendations.
The full Board meets the final two candidates once, ideally on the same day. Decision made within a week.
Pitfall 3: Over-relying on candidate applications
Many CEO searches start with a job ad on Ethical Jobs, LinkedIn, and other mainstream job boards. The recruiter waits to see who applies.
The problem: the best CEO candidates are rarely actively looking. They're employed, performing well, engaged in their current role. They're not scrolling job boards. They need to be approached directly, often by someone they know or respect.
If your search is dependent on applications alone, you're fishing in a small pool — and you're competing with every other CEO role in market for that same pool.
Fix: Combine an ad with direct market mapping
A good retained search starts with mapping the universe of suitable candidates — sector-adjacent CEOs, GMs, and Directors who could step up — and then approaches them directly with a confidential conversation.
Some won't be interested. That's fine. The point is that you've reached the people who would never have applied, and given them the chance to consider it.
Pitfall 4: Salary anchored too low
This is a sector-specific challenge. NFP Boards often anchor CEO salary expectations against the outgoing incumbent — who may have been in the role for 10 years on a long-suppressed package — or against benchmarking that's two or three years old.
Market rates for NFP CEOs have moved significantly since 2022. If your offer is 15 to 20 percent below current market for similar-sized organisations, you'll struggle to attract anyone strong.
Fix: Get current salary benchmarking before going to market
A good recruiter can give you a realistic range based on what comparable organisations are paying right now. Adjust your range accordingly, or be transparent that you're below market and explain why (mission, flexibility, scope) — but at least know. See our NFP salary guide and aged care leadership salary guide for current benchmarks.
Going to market with an outdated number and then negotiating it up at offer stage is the most expensive way to discover the truth.
Pitfall 5: Slow decision-making between stages
Candidates interviewed in week six don't hear back until week eleven. The reference checks take a month. The offer takes another two weeks to be drafted because the Chair is on leave.
Each delay costs candidates. By the time you're ready to offer, your preferred candidate has accepted somewhere else.
Fix: Agree the process timeline upfront
Before the search starts, the Board commits to a schedule:
That schedule is communicated to candidates upfront, which helps them plan and signals seriousness. And the Board commits to it. Yes, this means rescheduling other things to make interview slots work.
The realistic timeline for a CEO search
If you do all five things well, a CEO search takes 12 to 16 weeks from kick-off to signed offer. Add 4 to 12 weeks for notice period, and the total elapsed time from "we need to recruit" to "new CEO in seat" is typically 4 to 7 months.
Nine months is not normal. It's a symptom of process problems, not market problems.
If you're currently stuck
If you're in month six or seven of a CEO search and nothing is landing, the answer is usually not "try harder." It's usually one of three things:
- The brief was never clear enough — go back to calibration
- You've been recruiting from the wrong pool — switch to direct outreach
- Your salary range is below market — adjust and re-engage
All three are fixable. None of them are fixed by waiting longer.
If your CEO recruitment is tangled up in Board succession at the same time, also see Board succession in NFPs: when to start, and who to involve.
Sources
- Patterson Recruitment retained CEO search experience across not-for-profit, aged care, and education sectors
- AICD — NFP Governance Principles (Board roles in CEO succession)
Stuck mid-CEO-search, or planning one for the next 12 months? Patterson Recruitment runs retained CEO searches for purpose-driven organisations across not-for-profit, aged care, NDIS, and education. Book a confidential briefing with Gab or call 0416 170 100.
This article is current as at May 2026. Timelines and process recommendations reflect Patterson Recruitment's retained search practice.
