What Makes a Great Hiring Manager? The 7 Traits I Look For as a Recruiter

Why Hiring Managers Make or Break a Search

A great hiring manager is the difference between a hire your team brags about and a 90-day vacancy you stop talking about. Across 26 years and 300+ senior management and executive placements in Orange County and LA, the pattern repeats every quarter. Notably, strong leaders treat hiring like a board-level decision. However, weaker ones treat it like an interruption from the day job.

I wrote this piece for two readers. First, hiring managers who want to level up the way they run a search. Second, recruiters who need language to coach the hiring managers in front of them. Both groups feel the pain when the partnership breaks. For context on how I partner with employers and hiring leaders, the bar starts here.

The standard I hold is simple. An effective hiring manager leads with HEART (humanity), HUMAN (clear communication), and HUSTLE (urgent decisions). These hiring manager qualities shape every retained search I take. If a client refuses to show up to this bar, the engagement does not start. Your time and your candidates’ time deserve more than a slow yes.

Hiring Manager Impact: Key Numbers

The HEART of a Great Hiring Manager: Leading With Humanity

Notably, heart shows up in how the hiring manager treats the candidate who will not get the offer. Specifically, three behaviors matter most. First, they reply inside 48 hours. Then they give a real reason for the no, and notably keep the door open for future roles. The best leaders I work with answer yes to all three because a polished no costs nothing and builds reputation capital for the next search.

In addition, heart shows up in self-awareness. An effective hiring manager names the gaps on their own team out loud. They tell you what the last person struggled with, what they would change, and what kind of human will thrive there. Conversely, the manager who hands you a stock job description and goes silent for two weeks fails this test. One partnership produces a hire; the other produces a vacancy.

Your move is simple. Ask the hiring manager to describe the person who left in 60 seconds. If no specific, human answer comes back, you have a HEART problem before the search even begins.

HUMAN Communication: How Great Hiring Managers Build Trust

Furthermore, clear communication is the second mark of a good hiring manager. Notably, three behaviors separate the top tier. They answer recruiter questions inside one business day, send written feedback within 24 hours of every interview round, and tell candidates the truth about timing even when the truth is uncomfortable.

For example, the last CFO search I closed in Newport Beach moved from kickoff to signed offer in 31 days. Importantly, luck had nothing to do with it. The CEO blocked Tuesday and Thursday afternoons for interviews, sent feedback by email inside four hours of every conversation, and personally called each finalist. Candidates told me they accepted because the process felt like the company already valued them.

Compare this to a search where the hiring manager goes dark for ten days while finalists wait. By day five, two of three finalists are interviewing elsewhere. Ten days in, your best candidate has signed a competing offer. Ultimately, silence is not neutral. It is a decision, and a good hiring manager knows this in their bones. Hold your hiring managers to a 24-hour response window in writing at kickoff.

HUSTLE: How Speed Closes Top Talent

Hustle is the willingness to move fast when the right person is in front of you. According to LinkedIn research, the top 10% of candidates are off the market in about 10 days. If your hiring manager needs four weeks to schedule a final round, you have already lost.

However, hustle does not mean cutting diligence. Instead, it means compressing the gaps between steps. An effective hiring manager pre-clears their calendar before the search opens, batches first-round interviews into one week instead of three, and runs debriefs inside 24 hours of the last conversation while reactions are still sharp.

I worked with a CHRO last fall who ran her entire VP People search inside 21 days. Importantly, her secret was not magic. Before kickoff, she called every interviewer to set expectations on turnaround, then refused to schedule any interview unless the next two steps were already on the calendar. The finalist had three competing offers and chose her team because the speed signaled real urgency. If a hiring manager will not pre-block calendar time, the search will drift. Set the schedule before the first resume hits the inbox.

The Recruiter-to-Hiring-Manager Scorecard

First, you need a scorecard, not vibes. Use this 10-point evaluation to measure the hiring manager qualities worth tracking. Score one point per item if true. Eight or higher means you have a partner. Five or fewer means you have a problem.

1. The hiring manager named the last person in the role and what they would change.
2. Before kickoff, four interview slots got blocked in the next two weeks.
3. Intake email got a response inside 24 business hours.
4. Written success metrics for the role’s first 12 months exist on file.
5. Two internal interviewers signed up with confirmed availability.
6. Comp range came up unprompted, before you asked for it.
7. Both sides agreed in writing to a 24-hour feedback rule.
8. Their list names two non-negotiables and three nice-to-haves.
9. A decision date for the finalist round sits locked on the calendar.
10. The role connects to a stated board-level priority.

A hiring manager who scores eight or higher will close the search. Conversely, anyone scoring below five is telling you the role is not a priority. These hiring manager traits track to outcomes, not opinions.

Red Flags I Refuse to Tolerate in a Hiring Manager

Some behaviors signal a search will not close, no matter how strong the candidate pool. After 26 years in executive recruiting, I walk away from clients showing any of these five patterns. These hiring manager traits separate strong partners from broken ones.

First, the ghosting pattern. The hiring manager goes silent for five business days or more after promising feedback. By the time they respond, two finalists have moved on. Second, the moving goalposts. They reject three strong finalists and cannot name what is missing. The real issue is they have not decided what they want.

Third, the credit grab. They take credit for the hire and blame the recruiter for the miss. Fourth, the calendar dodge. Despite signing the search agreement, they will not block time. Fifth, the candidate disrespect. They show up late, scroll their phone, or pepper a finalist with closed yes-or-no questions for 45 minutes.

If you spot two of these patterns in the first three weeks, the search is in trouble. I have walked away from three retained engagements in the last two years for exactly these reasons. You build your reputation as a recruiter on the searches you decline, not only the ones you close. Hold the line.

Great Hiring Manager vs. Average Hiring Manager

The difference between a great hiring manager and an average one shows up in three places: prep, pace, and partnership. Notably, an effective hiring manager prepares the intake before the recruiter arrives. They have already aligned with their CFO, drafted the success metrics, and named the two internal interviewers. Average hiring managers treat the kickoff like a discovery session and burn the first two weeks defining the role.

Next, pace is the second tell. Specifically, good hiring managers run final-round interviews inside a single week and decide inside 48 hours. Average ones stretch the final round across three weeks because someone is on PTO and no one wants to push. By then, your top candidate has signed elsewhere. The last time I let a client drag a final round past 14 days, I lost a finalist who had been ranked #1 by every interviewer.

Finally, partnership is the third. Strong hiring managers treat the recruiter as a strategic advisor, ask for market data, comp benchmarks, and candidate feedback. In contrast, average ones treat the recruiter as a vendor and resist any input on the process. Vendors get replaced. Partners get rehired.

Signs of a Strong Partner vs. a Weak One

Final Verdict

This piece is for the recruiter tired of carrying searches alone and for the hiring manager who wants to stop losing top talent to faster competitors. A great hiring manager is the single largest predictor of whether your role closes in weeks or quarters. The difference shows up in retention, candidate experience, and your own credibility with the executive team.

However, honesty is the trade-off. Holding hiring managers to this bar means losing some clients. Specifically, you will walk away from searches where the partnership is broken, and you will spend more time at the front end aligning before sourcing a single resume. However, the investment pays back in offers accepted, hires retained, and trust earned across the next five years of your career.

If you are a hiring manager reading this, score yourself on the 10-point scorecard above. Be brutal. Then pick the two lowest-scoring behaviors and fix them inside 30 days. Most good hiring managers I work with were average at one point and rebuilt themselves on purpose.

Recruiters, stop tolerating the patterns I named. Importantly, your reputation lives in the searches you decline. For the bar I hold on retained search and how I evaluate every hiring manager before signing the agreement, head to Work With Cathy. Meanwhile, the Recruiter Hustle newsletter lands every Friday with the unfiltered weekly take on OC and LA talent. The bar is high on purpose, and the partnership is worth it.

Your Next Move

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the qualities of a great hiring manager?

Specifically, these hiring manager qualities combine humanity, clarity, and speed. They prepare before kickoff, communicate inside 24 hours, and decide inside 48 hours of a final round. Beyond the basics, real feedback goes to candidates and recruiters become strategic partners.

How do you know if a hiring manager is good?

First, score them on prep, pace, and partnership. Did they name the last person in the role and what they would change? Are interview slots already on the calendar? Have they answered the intake email inside 24 business hours? Three yeses signal a strong partner.

What does a great hiring manager do differently?

Specifically, they treat hiring as a board-level priority. Before kickoff, they block calendar time, batch interviews into one week, and run debriefs inside 24 hours. Comp ranges also go to recruiters unprompted.

How does a hiring manager affect candidate experience?

Glassdoor research shows nearly half of candidates have declined offers over the hiring process itself, and the hiring manager sets the tone. Response speed, interview depth, and a personal closing call all matter. A scattered hiring manager loses finalists inside 10 days.

What are red flags in a hiring manager?

Specifically, five patterns signal trouble: ghosting recruiters for five business days, rejecting three finalists without naming why, blaming the recruiter for misses, refusing to block calendar time, and disrespecting candidates. Two or more inside three weeks means the search will not close.

How should recruiters coach hiring managers to improve?

Use the 10-point scorecard at kickoff, share comp benchmarks openly, and set written rules on response windows. For example, agree on a 24-hour feedback rule and 48-hour decision window. Ultimately, structure protects the finalist pool.

Cathy Trinh

recruiterhustle.com

Chief Talent Strategist & Editor-in-Chief | 26-year global recruiting veteran, #1 bestselling author, cancer survivor & humanitarian. Founder of Recruiter Hustle, OC/LA's no-filter media platform for talent, finance & recruiting professionals. Heart. Human. Hustle.

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