You’ve made it to the finish line on a high-priority search. The team is aligned, interviews have gone smoothly, and the ideal candidate is offered the position. Then…the candidate turns down the position or accepts a counteroffer. Whatever the reason, it feels like a gut punch to the entire team.

In my 17+ years of experience in executive search, I can vouch for the fact that while this doesn’t happen often, it does happen. This initial disappointment and frustration can be a challenge, but the real danger lies in what happens next when the search picks back up for round two.

Let’s walk through the key stages of a search, up to and after a candidate walks away – and the common pitfalls to avoid.

The High-Priority Search Timeline:

Stage 1: Momentum & Full Alignment

The high-priority search starts, and there’s strong momentum. The hiring team and any internal or third-party recruiters are aligned, excited, and eager to find the right person.

Stage 2: Interviews & High Engagement

Initial interviews begin. At this stage, all sides (hiring team, candidates, and recruitment team) are highly communicative. It’s easy to get answers to questions and get things scheduled quickly because both candidates and the employer are highly motivated and engaged.

Stage 3: Offer Accepted or Turndown Shock

A great candidate rises to the top, and an offer is made. Best case scenario: that top-tier candidate accepts and all sides are happy.

The other scenario? The curveball: The standout candidate turns down the offer. At this stage, everyone involved in the hiring process is surprised. You’re left asking: What did we miss? Weren’t we aligned? The candidate seemed excited. Maybe they received a counteroffer they couldn’t refuse. Maybe they got an unexpected equity stake. Maybe they received a wild retention bonus. Believe me, we’ve seen it all!

But the moral here is that no one involved in the recruiting, interviewing, or offer stage suspected the offer would be turned down. It’s tempting to go straight into analysis mode – and that’s important – but the next stages are where potential pitfalls can start to surface.

Stage 4: Regrouping & Shifting Search Priorities

Now, we have to regroup. At this stage, hiring teams typically take one of two paths:

• Revisit a “Plan B” candidate
• Restart the search

If there’s a “Plan B” candidate – a strong runner-up – that might be a great solution. But there’s a reason the offer went to the first-choice candidate. Sometimes after a turndown, the hiring team’s enthusiasm for the second choice often fades, driven more by disappointment of not landing the company’s preferred candidate more so than the capabilities of the runner-up. In many cases, hiring teams are simply no longer willing to “settle,” or rather, it is possible they feel they are settling if they go with the Plan B candidate.

During this “regrouping” stage, the search usually continues or starts fresh. Given how much time and effort have already been expended, having to start from square one can create frustration, and the early excitement to get to this stage can easily turn to fatigue.

That leads to two common pitfalls in the hiring process:

• Pitfall #1: The position profile changes. The logic is, “Since we didn’t land Person A, we probably need to find someone who has these new qualities: X, Y, and Z.” These qualities were not part of the initial search, changing the dynamic of the type of candidate we’re seeking. This pivot can derail the search process because the priorities and goals have shifted. Unless there have been material changes in the team or company’s needs, stick to the profile you carefully defined during Stage 1.
• Pitfall #2: The search loses priority. Life and work are both busy for everyone – and as time goes on, competing priorities take over. What once felt urgent now feels like a distraction, making communication and scheduling slower and more difficult. This lack of urgency doesn’t just stall search progress – it can signal to any new candidates that you’re not excited about their candidacy, making it harder to recruit the best talent.

Stage 5: Resume Search & Set New Targets

The search resumes and new targets are identified. While every company and search is unique, I’ve often seen this stage become unexpectedly charged or take on a surprisingly tense tone. The hiring team feels that the gold standard was the candidate who turned down the role, so every new candidate is evaluated through the lens of the one who got away. This creates an unfair – and often impossible – comparison. What was once a “Why shouldn’t we hire this person?” mindset becomes “Why should we hire them?” That change in tone is subtle, but it can easily bleed through to candidates during phone calls and interviews, creating a barrier to successful recruitment OR causing even great candidates to self-select out of the process.

Let’s dive deeper into this pitfall:

• Pitfall #3: Top-tier candidates are overlooked or alienated when the hiring team’s attitude shifts. Candidates entering at this stage have the hardest time impressing the team, because they are often measured against an idealized version of “the one who got away.” Whether expectations have shifted or the hiring team’s tone has changed, this is when strong candidates get dismissed from contention or lose interest because of a poor interview experience. To be clear, hiring managers should keep high standards, and losing one great candidate doesn’t mean you should settle for less. But there’s a difference between holding high standards throughout a hiring process and letting disappointment create unrealistic expectations at this stage. Stay grounded and keep the same commitment to excellence you established in Stage 1.

Stage 6: Recommitment & Reset

In most cases, there comes a turning point – where the hiring team refocuses, recommits, and finishes strong. In a search process that includes a turndown, it’s common for motivation to go from “We can’t wait to find the right person” in Stage 1, to “We have to find the person.” Even with a tighter timeline and a more intensive focus, everyone is usually back in alignment by Stage 6. But there’s one more common pitfall I want to address that can create issues:

• Pitfall #4: The team starts assigning blame instead of focusing on a continuation of momentum. When a major shock like a candidate turndown occurs, it’s common for the hiring team to want to pin the blame on someone or something. Questions start flying: “Was it the recruiter’s fault for failing to properly vet the candidate?” “Did the interview team neglect to ask the right questions?” “Was the offer not strong enough, or were communications not clear enough?” The truth? Sometimes you can do everything right, and the candidate still walks away. That doesn’t mean the process failed.

Now, it’s definitely helpful to evaluate your hiring process – especially if you received feedback from the candidate. But when frustration turns into throwing blame around, it can negatively impact the experience for the new candidate. The only way forward is together – aligned, focused, and ready to find your next top hire.

Ultimately, no one expects a dream candidate to turn down an offer, but let’s be real: it happens – even when all sides have done everything right. What matters most is how the hiring team responds: stay aligned, keep the energy up, and treat every new candidate like the next best hire, not the runner-up.

In executive search, success isn’t just about how you start – it’s about staying committed to unified success.