The Commercial Weight of Senior Agency Leadership
by Martin Mvelle, Search Asssociate
One of the clearest shifts in senior agency hiring through 2026 has been the widening expectation around new business.
Within the market, explicit new business targets have historically been associated with larger networks and more commercially mature advisory firms, where revenue ownership and growth expectations are already deeply embedded into senior leadership roles. What has become increasingly clear, however, is that this expectation is no longer confined to those environments.
We are now seeing the same theme appear across a much broader range of agency contexts, from growth-stage firms and challenger consultancies to more specialist advisory businesses. For senior candidates looking to progress to Partner, Managing Director or CEO level, excellent client delivery alone is rarely enough. It remains essential, but it is no longer the full measure of senior leadership.
This does not mean that every senior adviser is expected to become a cold-seller, or that commercial leadership should be reduced to direct business development in its most transactional form. In most cases, the expectation is more nuanced. Firms are looking for people who understand how strong client counsel can translate into deeper relationships, broader mandates and more meaningful commercial opportunities.
That shift is important because it changes how senior capability is being understood. Commercial contribution is no longer viewed only through the lens of a pre-existing network, or the ability to arrive with a list of contacts. A network still matters, but it is only one part of the picture. The more valuable skill is knowing how to build, activate and grow that network proactively, and how to turn relationships into credible conversations that create opportunity over time.
This applies across both growth and stabilisation briefs. Some firms are hiring senior leaders to accelerate momentum, open up new revenue streams and build presence in a particular market. Others are looking for people who can rebuild confidence, protect important accounts and bring greater commercial discipline to an established team. In both cases, the ability to contribute to business growth is becoming much harder to separate from the broader leadership mandate.
As a result, the way senior candidates are being assessed is changing. The question is no longer only what kind of work they have delivered, but what kind of business they have helped create. That distinction matters, because a strong delivery-led candidate may be able to point to complex briefs, demanding clients and high-profile work, while a commercially mature candidate can also explain how they expanded a remit, strengthened a relationship, improved the profitability of an account or helped create a new opportunity for the firm.
The strongest senior profiles tend to combine both. They are credible enough to lead senior client conversations, but commercially aware enough to understand where those conversations could go next. They do not see business development as something separate from client service. Instead, they understand that strong advisory work often creates the conditions for growth.
For candidates, this means being much clearer about commercial impact. It is not always enough to describe the clients they have worked with or the quality of the advice they have given. Senior hiring processes increasingly require candidates to articulate the value they have created around the work, whether through revenue growth, account expansion, relationship origination or opportunities converted through their own credibility and network.
None of this reduces the importance of client delivery. Poor delivery will always limit commercial success. But at senior level, delivery is often assumed. The differentiator is whether that delivery has translated into growth.
The non-negotiable skill for senior agency leaders in 2026 is not simply being excellent in the room. It is being able to turn that excellence into commercial momentum.
MadlinHanna Consulting is a recruitment consultancy specialising in public affairs, corporate communications and financial PR. Contact us in London on +44 (0) 20 8088 4102 or in Brussels on +32 (0) 2 586 38 98 for more information or a confidential conversation about these services and more.