Research-Based Process

Part 1: Starting a search
Each time we start a search, we help our client think through the future of their business and the talent they need to get there. We assess their current culture and the skills of their current team. Then we construct a profile of all the hard and soft skills required in a successful candidate. This profile comprises three "buckets":

BUCKET A: Skills and Qualifications - What's shown on the résumé.

BUCKET B: Leadership Competencies - How the person actually behaves as a leader in the workplace. During the assessment and referencing phases, we assess each leadership competency on both the frequency and impact of these behaviors.

BUCKET C: Personal Characteristics - Aside from how the candidate behaves as a leader in the workplace, who this person is as a human being, his or her values and motivations, and other critical personal attributes.

We find that, unless we agree with our client on what we’re looking for across all three buckets, companies often hire against Bucket A — the résumé — but later promote and fire against Buckets B and C. That’s why we’ve created a process which ensures upfront that each search is fully aligned with the needs, stated and implied, of each client.

The Position Specification Document (or "Spec") that we draw up for each search describes in detail our ideal candidate across all three buckets and serves as our guiding document as we reach out to, assess, interview and carefully reference each candidate.

Part II: Outreach
Once we have a clear understanding of the candidate we're seeking, we develop a search strategy to find that person. He or she may or may not come from the same industry as our client. Sometimes the client has specific goals and needs where the best practices come from other industries.

Formerly, given the logistical difficulties of tracking down candidates, many search firms and search professionals focused only on specific industry niches and marketed themselves as having access to candidates in those niches. Now, with the vast resources offered by the Internet, we can recruit the best candidates from across the economy.

Part III: Referencing
We are specially trained to conduct deep referencing for each candidate. Each referencing initiative is based on Buckets B and C and deeply probes a candidate's on-the-job behaviors, as well as how those behaviors will mesh with our client's corporate culture. We always use independent research to identify and contact referees who are not on the candidate's list of references. Also, we always conduct references on a 360° basis, since many successful executives do a better job of managing up (to their bosses) than across or downward.

Our clients regularly tell us that our referencing approach is the deepest they've ever seen. It delivers profound insight for both the go/no go decision and for the onboarding process by highlighting areas of potential fit and areas where our placement could benefit from further mentoring.

For the skinny on how we conduct references, check out Joy's blog post on referencing.