Books & Writing
Writing where management theory meets the search front line.
Books, essays and practical field guides on strategic hiring, career judgement, organisational truth and executive integration.
A phenomenology of hiring trauma and executive integration
Book in development
Why Good Hires Fail
A scholar-practitioner account of how capable people and credible organisations become trapped inside appointments that neither side intended to fail.
The book introduces the Triadic Accountability Breakdown, Institutional Deception, the Day 1 Psychological Contract, and the transition from Spatial Sovereignty to Relational Abandonment. It translates phenomenological findings into a practical system for search, selection and executive integration.
For: CEOs, boards, CHROs, hiring managers, executive recruiters, leaders entering new roles, and researchers of work.
Current writing territories
Strategic hiring
Mandate truth, interview evidence, mutual disclosure, decision integrity and the recruiter’s interpretive role.
Executive integration
Psychological contracts, sponsorship, relational access, first-90-day traction and early disappointment.
Career judgement
Resignation, counter-offers, first-job choices, fit and the long consequences of apparently small decisions.
Latest essays
The Blame Triangle: Why Hiring Failure Becomes Everybody Else’s Fault
Hiring failure often produces three sincere explanations and no shared accountability. The problem is not only poor behaviour; it is a system that fragments ownership.
The Interview Contract Is Broken Before Day One
The first breach of trust often happens before employment begins - when each party edits reality to keep the appointment moving.
When Autonomy Becomes Abandonment
Experienced leaders need discretion. They also need access, sponsorship and contextual interpretation. Without these, autonomy becomes a sophisticated form of neglect.
Person-Organisation Fit Is Not Cultural Similarity
Fit should test reciprocal compatibility between person and environment - not reward familiarity or reproduce the existing culture.
Executive Integration Is a Social Exchange, Not an Orientation Checklist
The first 90 days are not a sequence of meetings. They are an exchange of signals about trust, obligation, support and belonging.