All transformational enterprise change requires coordinated action on the people, process and tooling levels. We can create that plan, translating into action, with clear target points and metrics that tell everyone that the change is succeeding.

Plans without comittment are worthless. We will work with your folks and your change leader while to create the plan, facilitating their involvement, understanding and committment.

Sometimes, it is clear that you do not have the person to lead the implementation. If you do not,we can find one, either permanent or contract, for you.

To find the right person for you means narrowing down the search funnel quickly and effectively. We start by opening the funnel widely, informing as many people as possible about your opportunity. At this stage, we talk about your organization in general terms, keeping your identify back until later.

Networking is powerful. It allows many jobs to stay part of the hidden job market. Many executive openings never make it to the newspaper ads or Internet job boards.  In the same way, many of the best candidates are hidden too. Their networks know that they are looking. But these candidates do not engage in formal job search activities until they hear about an opportunity that interests them.  We work both of these dynamics by working the network: one-on-one and through WEB 2.0 networking sites like Linked In. We get the word to the people who know the best candidates. We open the mouth of the funnel as widely as possible.

Experience has taught us a hard lesson: behavior in an interview does not translate well into behavior on-the-job. We ask candidates to engage with us in much more than interviews. We insist that they write their own cover letters. We ask them to complete custom designed “what would you do” surveys to describe how they fit your job. We talk to them on the phone, (or on Skype). We research them on the Internet. Of course, we also read their resumes. But we know full well that today, many resumes have been prepared by a resume writing professional.

Out of all of the contenders, we narrow down the funnel to the best fit individuals. We engage deeply with them, meeting them face to face. We sell them on your opportunity. They sell us on themselves. We ask them to tell us what they would do in “situations” typical of the challenges on your job. It takes them time to participate with us in our process. We test their motivation and interest in your opportunity

We use standardized rating protocols to summarize our impression of each person. Based on this, we long list 5 to 7 strong possible candidates.

We meet with you and go through the long list. You decide on the top two or three that you want to meet. Often, these final candidates will be meeting more than one person in your organization. So we make this productive for both sides. We ask these final folks to sign a confidentiality agreement. We brief them on the challenges they will face, exposing them to real facts and information. We ask them to prepare a short PowerPoint presentation: how they would approach these challenges (15 minutes).

Each final candidate makes a presentation to your people. Then each one meets one-on-one with your key hiring decision makers. You will be judging  the abilities that they will use on-the-job: 

• their ability to sort through data;
• their ability to make decisions,
• their ability to connect to people - to work with them.

You will seeing their real working behavior. We know that current behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. That is why we manage this process in this way.

The final decision

You make the final decision. It will be based on the many important intangibles summarized in the word “fit”. But with our executive staffing process, your decision will be based on work related behavior, not interview salesmanship.

Access a PDF version of this page.