The
Paul Masson brand is best remembered for its 1970s marketing association with Orson Welles, who promised for Masson: "We
will sell no wine before its time." An infamous outtake for one commercial
from the Orson Welles campaign features Welles attempting to deliver his lines
while very severely inebriated. From
Wikipedia.
Recently, one of my best clients called to discuss
an organization issue. The
leadership was planning to terminate a
key manager who was not meeting the expectations of the job. The partners, however, had different ideas as
to how to fill the void to be created.
Two of the partners were behind the promotion of a highly respected, but
inexperienced employee. The CEO had
another point of view, so he looked to me to provide an unbiased, third-party
evaluation. His specific request was for
a written report justifying our position.
The client company, a relatively new business, well-funded,
it is headed by accomplished industry professionals. They have a proven concept and are moving
into a period of rapid growth. In order
to be successful it was our view that their key positions must be staffed with
self-starters with proof of concept or rely on out-sourced solutions.
My first reaction was great pleasure to know that
our firm was held in such high esteem to be chosen to complete this
assignment. My next reaction was the realization
that this request presented risk to our ongoing relationship. We would be touching on the political
dynamics within my client’s culture. My goal was to give the client our very best
advice packaged in a way that would be useful and accepted by all parties
involved, a win-win-win. I was looking
for a solution that would be a factual aid to the client’s decision; that would
result in meaningful career counsel for their internal candidate; and which
would demonstrate our integrity, protecting our long term relationship. After all, isn’t that the goal of any
engagement? Especially since we focus on
finding solutions that will ensure our clients long term viability.
The plan we developed consisted of six fundamental
steps as follows:
1. Initial
review of internal candidate’s experience vis-a-vis the client’s job
description.
2. Personal
interview with the candidate
3. Candidate’s
completion of Career Insights Profile diagnostic to reveal personal strengths, orientation
to work, and personal motivators.
4. Consultation
with our associates to evaluate all relevant findings and craft the appropriate
recommendation.
5. Recap
findings and recommendations to the client.
6. Debrief
key members of client’s team and internal candidate.
Our prep work revealed major gaps between the
internal candidate’s background and the job requirements. Essentially she was too junior to have the
skills and experience to perform the job.
My personal interview revealed that she is
intelligent and articulate. She
demonstrated her passion for the restaurant industry as a career choice,
however she was uncertain about a specific path. She revealed stress related to less than
clear communication and direction.
The results of her Career Insights Profile showed
her to have a Supporter Style Profile.
According to that profile, the candidate is “not outgoing by nature,
they tend to rely on more assertive people to take the lead.”
Our team determined that putting this candidate in
position at this time and without significant support and direction had a high
probability of failure. We discussed the
cost of failure to the client, both in financial terms and to their credibility
as leaders. We spoke to the cost to the
candidate’s ego and motivation to build her career. We believe that she will likely be a long term contributor given the
proper positioning, training and development.
The debrief with the key players on the client team
did not produce any significant challenges.
Their decision now is to determine if they should initiate a search to
fill the position in question, or to find an outside resource to manage that
function. They must also give
consideration to a development program for their internal candidate.
We were successful in this effort, accomplishing our
goal for a win-win-win solution. We presented
issues the partners had not considered.
We were sympathetic to the needs of the internal candidate. We did not put on the hard sell to initiate a
search or to provide the needed out-sourced solution. Our report was thoughtful and non-threatening. To successfully navigate any sensitive
situation one must clearly understand the needs of all interested parties while
maintaining one’s integrity.
Thank you for visiting my blog.
Your feedback helps me continue to publish articles that you want to read. Your input is very important to me so please leave a comment.
Jim
Weber, President
New
Century Dynamics Executive Search
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