Message From Jeff

Dear Friends,

What does it take to recruit (and retain) a "world-class" organization that will position your business for sustained growth and success over the long-term? Many books have been written on this topic by management gurus, including Jim Collins (Built to Last) and Ken Blanchard (Leading at a Higher Level). They emphasize key strategies such as "getting the right people on the bus" and "developing servant leaders whose jobs are to create and maintain cultures that turn on employees so they can turn on customers."

From our perspective, especially in today's era of continuing mergers, acquisitions and consolidations in virtually every industry sector, it starts with the vision and values of the CEO and the senior leadership team. If you are being recruited by an organization today, you want to ask yourself: "Does the CEO of this organization have a compelling vision for the future, and is this a vision I can share and become excited about and contribute to?" You also want to look deeply at the character and values of the CEO and senior team and ask: "Are the values of the CEO and this organization aligned with my personal values and core beliefs?" and "Does the senior leadership team appear to be all on the same page with regard to the future direction of the business?"

Unless you can answer these key questions in the affirmative, this organization and career opportunity are not a right fit for you.

Likewise, if you are leading an organization and hiring key talent for the future, you need to carefully assess whether the talent you are acquiring will meld with the vision and team you already have in place. You should also consider your on-boarding and mentoring processes to assure that the new talent is assimilated successfully into your organization.

As always, we welcome your comments and input. Please let us know what you think, and share questions and personal experiences you think our other readers will find of interest.

All my best,

Jeff Gundersen, CEO
Executive Connections, LLC
jgundersen@executiveconnects.com
941-323-8300
Executive Search, Coaching & Consulting
http://www.executiveconnects.com

Recruiting for a Sustainable Future

I recently attended a couple of conferences at which this topic was a recurring theme, so I am excited to share some of my current insights with you. I heard a couple of compelling stories by bank CEOs about their commitments to fundamentally change the customer experience in their banks and turn this into a competitive advantage to support sustained growth of their businesses. In each case, they also spoke about making uncompromised changes in the cultures of their organization and recruiting people with a different mindset, in order to shift their value propositions with customers. Read the full article.

ASK OUR COACH

As part of our commitment to provide assistance and support to executives wanting to further their professional and personal brand, we have created the ASK OUR COACH email service where you can get confidential answers to your career questions. What's on your mind? Don't hesitate to ASK OUR COACH.

Here are answers to questions we received last month:

Q: How can we go about replacing one of our founding principals who also served as our Executive Creative Director?

--CEO of a direct marketing agency in the Midwest

A: Of course, it is a formidable task to replace a legend (i.e., Ray Rubicam, Young & Rubicam; David Ogilvy, Ogilvy & Mather). In fact, many times the challenge seems so daunting you hesitate to even begin the process. However, especially in the case of an Executive Creative Director, it is important to the life-blood of the agency, and its clients, that you as the CEO move quickly to identify a talented Creative Director who is a match for the agency's values. This may be an ideal time, rather than bringing in a big, different Creative ego that might disrupt the agency, to find a young up-and-comer who is talented and ready to step up and produce for an agency like yours. Especially since your agency has a niche serving non-profit and spiritual clients, the values of this new person are critical to match up with your agency's team and key clients. We suggest involving and enrolling your communities in the search process, exploring candidate suggestions from many directions and assimilating this into a final decision. We also suggest setting everyone’s expectations at an appropriate level--including the new Executive Creative Director. Nobody (immediately) fills the shoes of a legend; the new person will need to take the time to build and establish his or her own reputation.

Q: How should I approach the search for a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO), considering I want this individual to be capable of becoming President and then CEO (and replacing me) within two to three years?

--CEO of a direct-response financial services business

A: From the outset, you must recognize, and have others on your Board of Directors recognize, that you are searching for more than just a qualified, capable CMO. Many outstanding CMOs have also demonstrated successful general management skills, and you definitely need to select someone who has successfully run and successfully built a business (hopefully similar or greater in size than yours) with P&L responsibility. Treat this search like you were searching for a new President or CEO now and you will find yourself focusing on the right long-term talent acquisition solution that can provide you the succession planning you want from Day 1.

CONNECT WITH EC AT THESE CONFERENCES

On June 19, Jeff will be attending DM Days in New York City.

Jeff will be at the AMA Nonprofit Marketing Conference on July 9 in Washington, DC.