| Recent and Current Searches |
 Two International nonprofit Presidents
HR for Manufacturing Company in Arkansas
University President in Nebraska
SVP Marketing for a consumer products company
CEO for a large nonprofit organization
Residential Treatment Center Program Director
University President in California
Leadership positions for Manufacturing Company in Arkansas |
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| THE ASSOCIATION OF EXECUTIVE SEARCH CONSULTANTS (AESC) SEARCH FIRM SURVEY RESULTS |
| AESC gives the results of a survey of 200+ HR corporate leaders on their satisfaction with search firms. AESC is "the" professional association for the executive search profession, they are the watch dog or "sheriff” for keeping standards high and are a source of ongoing education. We've been members for 30+ years. For the survey results, let Bruce know and he'll forward them. Bruce@dingman.com |
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| BOOK REVIEWS by Tim Bernstein |
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 Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition
by Ann Rhoades
Built on Values: Creating an Enviable Culture that Outperforms the Competition, is an organizational and motivational book for corporate leaders. Many books about organizational culture come across as stuffy and self-important. Not this one. The author, Ann Rhoades, brings strong credentials (serving on the executive team at JetBlue, Southwest, Doubletree and Promus Hotel Groups, as well as board service at PF Chang’s) and is believable, providing an easy-to-follow model for creating a culture founded on values. Not the superficial values that are confined to wall posters and coffee mugs, but the real values that are unambiguously observable in people's behavior.
If your life involves leading and managing people, you will benefit from this book. . . . Actually, you will wish that the people running every organization you deal with would read it (unless they are your competition). Built on Values provides the plan for creating an optimum culture using the values that makes your organization unique. Through informative examples and practical exercises, the author helps the reader develop the "Values Blueprint" that defines their company and then implement it at every level. The result is a clearly delineated path that shows everyone in the organization where they should be going, while boosting employees' morale and strengthening their investment in the company's success.
I learned something specifically applicable to our firm. The Dingman Company does extensive and in-depth interviewing as part of our consultancy role. This book goes into depth about values-based behavioral interview questions. In short, the author advocates interviewing at a whole new level, using the client organization’s own Values Blueprint as a foundation for the questions. They support including questions that invite the interviewee to tell a true story about how they handled a real life situation…with the “right” answer illustrating how the behavior of the candidate’s response demonstrated connection and correlation to the organization’s stated values. The Dingman Company has included behavioral questions within our written questionnaire process for many years. Based on what I learned from this book, we have added behavioral questions to our face-to-face interview process as well. |
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| Our People |
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Bruce Dingman
President
Recruiter
Tim Bernstein
Vice President
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Donna White
Vice President
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Warren Schuh
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David Gyertson
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Patti Schultz
Office Manager
Connie Schuh
Bookkeeper
Colleen Mattoon
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| Feature
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THE THREE TOUGHEST SEARCH TYPES TO DO…AND WHY!
Finding A CEO to Succeed a Founder…who is not going away
It can be really tough for a founder to relinquish control to someone else to run the organization he or she started. Often the conscious or subconscious thinking of the founder is “How could someone else do as good a job with my vision?” Even when the founder chooses or mentors and develops the successor, the transition sometimes just doesn’t work well.
An external professional coaching/consulting might be in order to create an exit plan and deal with potential problems before the transition takes place. This objective advice from outsiders with critical knowledge and experience can be extremely valuable.
These are two possible scenarios when leadership is transferred. The more positive may look like this:
- Both the founder and the new CEO are secure people and the new CEO doesn’t mind having the old CEO around.
- The old CEO does not meddle but is solely there as a resource when called upon.
- The outgoing CEO realizes that there could be a tendency of people in the organization to come to him or her with complaints, suggestions or trying to exert influence.
- The outgoing CEO should always defer or redirect people to the new CEO. To do otherwise undermines the new CEO’s authority.
A more destructive scenario may be that the outgoing CEO is facing an identity crisis. He may be asking, “Who am I without this position?” Insecurity on either the founder or the new CEO’s part can derail any positive outcome.
A solution might be that the outgoing CEO finds other opportunities away from the organization to get involved in that can give provide him with psychological rewards?
I recall when the founder of our church retired. The transition went well for several reasons. The new Senior Pastor honored our founding pastor, both privately and from the pulpit. The exiting Senior Pastor went out of town for a season, gave no place to inquiries about the current church operations, and founded a new ministry that kept him suitably involved and often out of town. He is still a member of the church, even occasionally preaches but is not involved or thought of as the leader of the church. That is the new pastor’s role.
Chief Human Relations Officer (CHRO)…overseeing the organization’s greatest assets, its people
CHRO searches are problematical searches for two reasons. First, CEOs so often don’t value or understand what the CHRO role could or should contribute, and secondly, many of the people in CHRO roles are reactive rather than proactive. Frequently the reason this happens is because the CHRO is underpowered for the strategic and positive impact that effective Human Resources can have on the organization and/or the person is not equipped for the role.
Without a doubt the most valuable asset to the organization is its people yet the person having macro oversight of that asset isn’t positioned well. For example, frequently the CHRO reports to a CFO or EVP rather than the President, and may not be included when major decisions are discussed. And lastly, the CHRO position is often compensated far below others at the senior management level.
A truly effective CHRO is big picture-oriented, strategic and proactive. As search consultants, we have to examine many HR leaders to find someone who can capably handle the broader responsibility. A recent comment from the president of an organization where we placed a CHRO was, “I’m thinking of making her the COO because she’s that good.”
Chief Development Officer (CDO)…charged with fundraising for non-profits
When needing to fill this crucial position CEOs often turn to someone they already know who has be supportive of the organization’s mission and has good people skills. These are valuable characteristics but not enough. The successful CDO must have the “fire in the belly” and generate many connections everyday making results happen. The person is also strategic and knows that if the right results are not happening something must change. Also, he or she will apply metrics: is the cost of raising the funds appropriate and what is our ROI? While metrics and being strategic are common practices in the business world, they are not always apparent in the non-profit world.
Too few people doing development work practice these principles. So, sometimes the client allows us to present candidates who have been successfully practicing them in the business world and are ready to move to the mission of a non-profit…but they need to learn fundraising, which although taking some time is not rocket science. It can be done fairly quickly. |
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DISCERNMENT: The Most Important Ability of a Search Consultant
Without question a good search consultant will understand how organizations are structured, how companies function, how to attract exceptional candidates by developing clear, concise job descriptions, how to manage the client/consultant relationship, meet deadlines and develop strong networks, while embodying high ethics, integrity and people skills (whew!). However, the most important characteristic of a good search consultant is discernment. Namely, the ability to see inside someone’s head and heart to understand their personality, character, values, personal disciplines and motivations.
Search consultants are a diverse group. Some have great credibility just by the quality of their presence, some are highly successful rainmakers who then turn the assignments over to a junior partner, and some have a database of candidates who they recycle to new clients. But what is most important is that the candidate chosen by the client will be highly effective in the job, and for that to happen consistently the search consultant must have discernment.
I remember considering going into executive search with my brother, Bob, back in 1986. He was at the time ranked #6 in the entire country. To say he was good at what he did was an understatement. He had me sit in on a couple of his candidate interviews and afterwards asked me what I thought I saw in the candidates. What he heard me say was good enough to bring me on board. Now, 20 plus years later it’s apparent that discernment is not only a gift, but I love seeing inside people’s heads and hearts, and I love to see them go on to maximize their abilities in a client’s organization. Wow…what satisfaction for all of us! |
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