If you have ever been a client of executive search, you’ve heard us talk about leadership services. If you’ve been a candidate in a search process, you might have taken some psychometric tests after the interviews. Your company might have even deployed an organization change project with diagnosis, development centers and so on. What’s certain is there are some other adjacent products to the search one.
So why do we do those other services? Why don’t we just stick to search – find – fetch? One answer is all we do is in service of leadership, which at its own turn is a service for the employees (buzzword alert: servant leadership) and the company/shareholders.
The other answer, the longer one, you’ll find in the next part of this article, where we’ll try listing all the other things we do and how they’re at the meeting point of what we offer and what the client needs.
First and foremost, our core business is executive search, which, if done right, is a handful in itself and clearly more than fetching profiles. Thus, this service is the one that stands out. All other products are actually either a by-product or an add-on purposely used for a specific outcome.
In an executive search process, a typical often-used product is psychometrics or some personality/performance tests. These are done in partnership with various players at global level. The aim is to measure as accurately as possible strong points, Achilles’ heel and potential for performance for each candidate. Key words: as accurate as possible. There is no 100% guarantee in anything. Also, one should remember that whatever potential someone has for performance, there are a bunch of other things that influence this. For one, their willingness to use that potential, and second, the proper business context for that – you can hire the best senior exec for business turnarounds, but if all you need is just to operate the business, they’ll wallow there.
Another product that is either created from scratch by ourselves or in partnership with businesses that develop them are assessment & development centers. They are kind brothers with the same mother. The difference is made by the purpose of it. We use assessment in the search process for specific roles depending on seniority, function, industry and so on. The results can be used as validation for the role – that is, assessing and deciding. Development can be all of the above plus the interest of the hiring company to take into account the development plan of the future employee.
Development centers are also deployed for existing employees with the purpose of one’s, what else, development. What is worth mentioning here is that communication is crucial. If the purpose of the project is not thoroughly and honestly explained to the participants, they usually think it is a tool to get them fired. It’s not — and it is sometimes, you’ll see below when. But even when it is solely for development, we do spend quite some time reassuring people that’s not why we’re here. We do that because stress and being en garde will not help you perform at your best in a few hours of interview–test–case study intervention.
Talking about when it is not for development, it is about exiting – a nicer word than firing. These are some instances when executive search consultants get involved too. This usually happens when there are business changes, restructurings, M&As, etc. It’s a specific mix of tools, similar to dev centers. Aside from that, the most important are the discussions to help people navigate such a big change in their careers — their lives, really. Either we mentor people on how to prepare for the next stage or we coach them. Yes, those are two different things and specific knowledge is needed for both.
Our favorite when it comes to career management are the advisory sessions. We’re happy to see leaders are starting to realize they are the ones to actually manage their own careers. So when they feel the time is right — meaning not for a specific search project, neither out of despair — they turn to us to help them prepare for when the time is right to jump ships. This is our favorite because we’re working together at a steady pace, with confidence, as a team, towards a higher goal. We talk about the CV, we go through a dry-run interview, psychometrics, feedback sessions. Actually, this is our only B2C product at the moment and we really tend to it (yes, this is a self-made unapologetic ad).
We think we mentioned quite a bit about tests, so it’s worth expanding. These are not designed to catch people red-handed. Some people ask us how to fake them to make them look good, others are really scared about it. Newsflash: there is no good or bad. Are we really still using this dual judgy verdict?
The tests, as really anything, can be used against you depending on who’s the beholder. But they’re also for you. There is a valuable source of information for self‑improvement. The stake is not only the job, but what you can get out of the process for future opportunities as well.
Maybe now is the time to clear the air on something: in our experience, 95% of the time, that one candidate that lands the job is the one who fits all criteria – and no, it’s not about being good or bad for it. It is about proved performance, personality, context fit for those, the hiring manager, business context, team, country. Should we go on, we might not finish the article.
If you didn’t get a job, however stingy it can be, it was really not for you. Unless you are in that 5% category and we call you back, hat in hand, and tell you we’ve made a bad call initially. For those appalled by this, we insist on reminding you that making mistakes is human. And us, consultants, are human too. Also, we committed to busting myths that we’re in the know all the time. Nope. We’re not. And admitting we’ve made mistakes — us and the client — hasn’t killed us yet. Jokes aside, all search processes have a lottery aspect to them, directly impacted by the long list of factors that influence them, as mentioned above.
So let’s look at the initial question: why do people use all these other products? It’s kind of a safety net, or another layer in decision making. Usually, the client needs something to prove they were right in their decision. Sometimes it backfires – one can ignore their own judgment in the interview and decide based on the graph in the tests. Not something we recommend, but one’s rationale we do understand. But, hey, we’ve mentioned one paragraph above about mistakes and being human.
The other reason, and it’s the one that pays off all the time, is consistency. Once you’ve been through thousands of interviews as we did, there is always something that raises your eyebrow that you later see in a test or assessment center. These are the points that hiring managers will see working every day with the chosen candidate, so both parties need to be aware and prepare for it.
In conclusion, it is an art to juggle with all these products, and we executive search consultants can really master it. First of all by including our core product – the interview/discussion. Then somehow we really need to show we serve everybody. The hiring client will receive information and conclusions related to the candidates. But it is our responsibility to grow the level in the market by offering candidates feedback they can use later on in their career.
This is how we play the part in educating the market – for one, the client to offer feedback; second, the candidate to ask for any information related to their performance; and third, and very important, our fellow consultants – we together have to cater more than just to the party that pays the invoice, but to the other participants in the process. And in our experience, that pays off (sic!) — the best clients are those who have been the candidates we cared about.
