Author: Elena Maria Niebuhr | Design Talent Consultant at Konzepthaus specialised in Executive Search
Executive Search in Automotive Design is about far more than matching candidates to job descriptions. Whether an experienced automotive designer is considering a career move or a Design leader is searching for exceptional talent, understanding motivation is often the deciding factor. This is why my search never begins with a CV or a list of requirements. It begins with people.
Most people know Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. And that is precisely why I begin here, not because it is the final word, but because it is the common ground.
In his landmark 1943 paper ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’ ¹, Abraham Maslow mapped what drives human beings at their core: safety, belonging, recognition, and at the very top, self-actualisation. An elegant, enduring framework.
But whereas Maslow looks at people in categories, my work begins exactly where categories fall short.
In my role as Design Talent Consultant specialised in Executive Search for Automotive Design at the Konzepthaus Talent Team, I sit across from Design leaders, creative minds and visionaries every day. On paper, many of them look remarkably similar. Same level, same industry, comparable experience. And yet no two people are driven by the same thing.
For one, it is the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to leave a mark at one of the most storied automotive companies in history. For another, it is finally having the autonomy to realise a creative vision they have carried for years. For a third, it is the material, the colour, the finish, the pure and quiet passion for craft. Every motivation is valid. Every motivation is different. And anyone who does not take the time to understand that will never find the right fit. Only the most convenient one.
Simon Sinek introduced a deceptively simple idea in ‘Start With Why’ ²: the Golden Circle.
Most people, and most recruiters, start from the outside in. What are we looking for? What is on offer? Some go a step further and ask “How?”.
But very few ever ask “Why?”, and fewer still ask it consistently on both sides of the table.
Why is this company searching now? What has brought them to this moment?
Why would an Automotive Design leader at this level genuinely changing jobs, and why here?
These two questions, asked honestly and listened to carefully, change everything. Sinek’s work, grounded in neuroscience ³, shows that human beings do not make decisions based on facts alone. Trust, loyalty, and conviction are formed in the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for emotion, not language.
This is why even the most experienced automotive designer may turn down the objectively better offer and accept the one that simply feels right. That feeling is not irrational, it is deeply human.
Making it land, for both sides at once, is what I am here to do.
I think of Executive Search as solving a puzzle, and I am not satisfied when the pieces roughly fit. I need every piece to sit exactly where it belongs.
That means the company finds not just someone qualified, but someone who genuinely believes in what they are building. At the same time the candidate takes a step that is true to their story, their ambition, and where they are right now in their own journey.
Because in my world, the work does not end when the contract is signed. In the best cases, I still hear from a candidate years later. Eventually, a candidate becomes a client. And over time, a client becomes a long-term partner across many searches and many years.
That is what drives me to work in Executive Search for the Automotive Design industry. Not filling positions, but understanding people and bringing together the right beliefs, on both sides of the table, at the right moment.
If you are thinking about changing jobs as an automotive designer, don’t start by asking which company pays more or has the most exciting project. Start by asking why you want to move in the first place.
The right career opportunity is rarely defined by a job description alone, and rather by whether it fits your ambitions, your values, and the work you truly want to create.
¹ Abraham H. Maslow, ‘A Theory of Human Motivation’, Psychological Review, Vol. 50(4), pp. 370-396, 1943. DOI: 10.1037/h0054346
² Simon Sinek, ‘Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action’, Portfolio/Penguin, 2009
³ Joseph LeDoux, ‘The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life’, Simon & Schuster, 1996. The neuroscientific foundation underlying Sinek’s argument about the limbic system and decision-making.
▸ Simon Sinek: Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action (2009) The book behind the most-watched TED Talk in the world. Essential reading.
▸ Simon Sinek: Leaders Eat Last (2014) On what great leadership truly looks like, and why trust changes everything.
▸ Daniel Kahneman: Thinking, Fast and Slow (2011) Why people make the decisions they do. Rigorous, accessible, and endlessly relevant.
▸ Joseph LeDoux: The Emotional Brain (1996) The neuroscientific backbone behind Sinek’s Why. For those who want to go deeper.
▸ Simon Sinek: The First Step To Creating Positive Change https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ag0xh1Fjfs
▸ Simon Sinek: Top Leadership and Psychology Skills (Compilation) Purpose, trust, mindset and the Why concept. A strong starting point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8tjj9wf9VI
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