That the quality of management determines the success of an organisation is a truism. But in the modern world, the realisation and assessment of management quality has become a critical challenge for Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) and Boards of Directors who are responsible for getting it right. What does attracting, retaining and developing executive talent involve and what tools are there to help an organisation maximise its potential in this critical area?

Although much will depend upon the organisation’s own vision, reputation and potential, nevertheless consulting services – such as retained executive search – are available to maximise an organisation’s possibility of success in the talent marketplace. Working effectively with executive search consultants can contribute to a comprehensive talent management strategy even though the real commitment to the strategy must come from the top of the organisation.

Some leading CEOs consider that they spend as much as 50% of their time on key personnel issues: assessing and counselling the C-level suite of officers, identifying and evaluating fast-track internal talent, ensuring that a compelling recruitment proposition exists for outside hires, developing a positive culture that rewards achievement and raises the performance level of the organisation.

Many of these challenges will depend for their success upon the leadership qualities of the CEO – it is he or she who holds the success of the organisation. But they will not achieve success unless they work through other key executives – and it is the quality and motivation of those executives that is crucial.

With luck, foresight and good management, excellent executives can be grown from within an organisation. But there is too much change, too many variables at work in the market and within an organisation, to assume that all will go according to plan and that outside hires at senior levels will never be needed. There are some who would even maintain that, however good your own organisation is at growing from within, a healthy and perhaps liberal injection of outside talent is crucial if the organisation is not to become self satisfied and moribund.

So, how can executive search consultants help? What is it that they can bring to the table that is unlikely to be achieved by an organisation on its own? And how should an organisation work with a search firm to realise the hoped-for benefits of an external hire, given the risks and costs involved in the process?

Working with executive search firms
Although in essence straightforward and based upon common sense, there are many pitfalls that can snare the inexperienced when working with executive search consultants. Because one is contracting an external adviser, it is crucial that they should be properly briefed. Just as one entrusts one’s health to a doctor, it is very important to reveal all so that the doctor can both diagnose and help solve the problem. Top-level search consultants only work on a retained consulting basis for this very reason. They need to know as much as they can about the client’s problem, the culture, history and structure of the organisation and its objectives, successes and failures so that they can understand the parameters of the search assignment and effectively communicate these in the marketplace.

It also allows them to counsel the client on the description of the position in question, its priorities and the ideal profile of person to fill the job. Assessing what kind of person will work best with the existing management team may turn out to be more important than their technical knowledge. Thus compiling the brief can entail considerable baring of the organisational soul, strategies for the future, critiques of other senior executives and other very confidential information. The client must have confidence in the search consultant and be assured of the highest integrity and confidentiality when the consultant is handling the assignment. Such assurances are covered by the consulting retainer agreement and indeed by the search profession’s own code of conduct and professional practice guidelines.

The upside and downside of senior management recruiting are so great that real care and sophistication must be employed to try to get it right. The costs, dislocation, stress and overall harm to the organisation can be substantial if a top management appointee fails. Equally, a great match with the client’s needs can produce stellar results, sometimes, at the most senior levels, directly reflected in a public company’s share price.

But why not go it alone? Why employ a search firm at all? Why not call Bill and Patricia to see who they know or might recommend? Or throw the challenge to the search committee of the Board and see who they come up with? Perhaps the answer is obvious, but many organisations do go it alone and then resort to the search firm when their own efforts have failed. The reality is that senior executive search is not about knowing a few good people. Of course, a great candidate may be known to the Board and may have been cultivated over the years and may be just the person to fill the CEO’s shoes when he or she retires.

Nothing wrong with that, but it rarely works out that way. There are so many variables that can play a part in whether an executive is the right fit, whether they will make the move, whether the compensation package will turn out to be right, that if it is a one horse race then there is no backup if the horse falls. And the position in question may be so important that, if the candidate doesn’t work out, then the organisation may be in desperate straits without a back up.

The job of the search firm is to make sure that none of that happens – it is to commit to the client that their problem will be solved and to professionally handle the process so that all the variables are carefully considered, that everyone involved in the process is properly informed and that there are no surprises, and no breaches of confidence. This requires great communication skills, high professionalism, rigorous research, due diligence, perseverance and good judgment.

Once the search firm is fully briefed and into the assignment, it’s important to give them breathing room but always be available to them, and to insist on regular feedback on progress, commentary from potential candidates, and perception of your organisation in the market. No use trying to attract an A player if you are a B performing company with a C image and a below-average compensation package. The consultant should have already begun to manage your expectations, but be realistic when the consultant tells you that something in the specification has got to change based upon their market research.

Make sure that you work as a partner with the search firm. Having signed the retainer agreement the consultant should be treated like a colleague and trusted adviser. Share information, get back to them quickly when they call – be open to discussing the challenges of the search. Do not treat the search consultant as the vendor of a commodity. People are not commodities and retained search consultants are not body brokers. The project you have entrusted them with is critical to the success of your organisation.

And don’t compete with the search firm by seeing candidates behind their backs or hiding internal candidates so that the firm does not know of all the options that you are considering. It is petty and unproductive to race against the search firm so that you can terminate the assignment early and thus save fees.

It is also unprofessional to accept unsolicited resumes from contingency recruiters who may be trying to “lob in” a candidate because they have heard about the search. Stay true to the retainer agreement and the search consultant will commit to working with you without unnecessary complications. Executive search is not easy and complete success can never be guaranteed. However, the retainer is normally charged on an instalment basis so that the client can monitor progress and, if the candidate fails or resigns within an agreed period of time, then the search firm can be expected to continue to assist the client.

Talent management is arguably one of the most crucial and high-impact variables in the challenges faced by Boards of Directors and Chief Executives. It is a challenge that should not be fudged – executive search consulting exists to help you ensure that doesn’t happen.

For more information, visit: www.aesc.org