Happy 20th!
On May 1st, I crossed the 20-year mark as an executive search consultant – much of it leading my firm, Colosi Associates.
The foundation for my second career as a search consultant started in my first career as a Finance professional when I was a hiring manager. I had the gene to evaluate talent and frame the opportunity from a candidate’s perspective. I hired many roles beyond my immediate team. For many years, I didn’t make a mistake. But if you hire a lot, you will eventually slip up.
Working for a turnaround and hiring many team members at once, I made two hiring mistakes. It was painful. Lost my vacation time filling in to meet SEC deadlines. One of the mistakes was relying on brand name firm experience on a résumé. Brand name is just a start. I learned that the key to great hiring goes well beyond schooling, years of experience and firms on the résumé.
The key to great hiring is defining the accomplishments necessary to succeed in a role and whether the candidate has achieved them in the past. What are the goals? What does success look like? How will you test management skill?
We help potential clients take a much deeper dive into answering these questions before the search starts. At least as important is whether the candidate wants to focus on them in your role. To sum it up, I made mistakes as a hiring manager years ago, so that my clients don’t make them today. Our process leans toward disqualifying, which makes sense if you want to hire A-Players — only the top 10%.
Learning to hire well does not happen quickly. I had my “10,000 hours" in (the time often quoted to be good at something) well before I transitioned from Finance to Search Consulting. As a recruiter, you also need time to know what your style is. And to know which client situations are a good match for your firm’s expertise.
After getting my feet wet for other firms, the freedom to say no to search projects that wouldn’t be a match was the driving force behind starting Colosi Associates. You don’t always have the luxury to say no in someone else’s firm dynamics. The economics (revenue) of the firm need to be met.
I chose to make my highest priorities: 1) alignment with the client’s mission, and 2) direct connection with the hiring manager. After all, can you really sell something you don’t believe in yourself?