Executive Recruiting As Applied Positive Psychology

Companies often face the challenge of recruiting top talent to senior positions. Executive search consultants specialize in addressing this challenge; they excel at finding candidates, scrutinizing their skills and character, and then convincing the best candidate that he (or she) will augment his (or her) well-being and flourish in the new role. Executive recruiters aim to fill a position with an individual poised to flourish in that new, challenging environment. These consultants value relationship-building, character-assessment, and they strive to increase flourishing in their candidates and client-institutions. Recruiters can, therefore, benefit significantly from the application of scientific principles and research produced by positive psychology, a science that studies the strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to flourish. To answer the question, “How can positive psychology be applied by an executive recruiter?” this capstone reviews the literature discussing well-being and career, relationship-building in a work context, and character-assessment during interviews, proposing ways for recruiters to apply this research to their work. Interviews are the most commonly used method for assessing character, skills, and strengths so this capstone proposes methods to convert positive psychology written assessments and theories into structured interview questions that elicit values and anecdotes of past performance or future behavior for use in assessment of character, well-being, and propensity to flourish.