Why I enjoy Head Hunting
Sometimes I giggle and think of myself in the jungle, bone through nose, spear… But seriously I do enjoy and love the challenge of this side of my business found us as I work in the advertising, media, and marketing industry.
As a general rule I “head hunt” or carry out “search and selection” for senior roles, e.g. working on a recent Executive Creative Director role. But on the odd occasion, to help a business contact, I’ll look at less senior roles. It is something I get a lot of pleasure out of, and explain why below.
But I do want to make one thing clear. I am not a fan of the terms “head hunting” or “search and selection” as I feel they de-personalise human beings, and after all companies are people, are they not? It also adds a feeling of “commodity” to the service provided, i.e. throw enough poo at the barn door. I am not trying to be facile, criticise others, or say my approach is better. Far from it. I just do my thing, which is people orientated and reflects me.
Me, finding people, money, being happy, making people happy
I’ve always had a knack of knowing people, getting to know people, looking for the best in people, and with the OCD I suffer from an excellent memory for people. So it kind of made sense to set up found us in 2014. Here we are 7 years later, with a few more grey hairs, well quite a lot actually. Initially the plan was to build and staff up a company… blah, blah, blah. Earn money, be successful, be one of the “people” etc. I then realised it was actually my 7th Circle of Dante’s Inferno. My proverbial vision of hell, or Basil in Fawlty Towers discovering Manuel’s Siberian Hamster is named after him.
I was not bothered about money, status, running a business and all that comes with it any more. I realised I was happy talking to people, helping them, and getting pleasure from that.
So this is why I enjoy working with senior people on senior roles. (As said I do not like the phrases “head hunting” and “search and selection”.)
So what do I do?
You can adopt methodologies for finding people, but I base mine around working with and getting to know people, plus my years of experience in sales and commercial director roles.
I’ll examine a brief if there is one with the contact, and maybe discuss it with another contact who is independent and confidential. Take it apart, put it back together again.
Where there is no brief, I’ll work with the contact to get to the essence of the business need that a potential person could fulfil and from that a brief/role can be created.
Another key area for me is introductions. Suppose you could call it talent spotting, or my being a glorified wedding organiser for want of better terms. I’ve always had a gift for putting people together and introducing them to each other.
But importantly, people work with people, and when in sales I learnt the old phrase “people buy from people they like”. There is truth in this old salesman’s adage. For me examining the culture, people, and psyche of a company is vital when working on roles. Likewise, getting to know a candidate/contact and how they tick is crucial. Otherwise you won’t get that right fit, and it is not just about getting the fee. It is about bringing people together in a symbiotic bilateral relationship where both are happy and can fulfil goals. Otherwise what would be the point of doing it and found us? I get pleasure from it. People have to work with people, and I don’t want a phone call or e-mail further down the line saying it has not worked out, as I would argue I have not done my job correctly and people then lose out with consequences.
Process, tools, and experience
When I work I do believe strongly in process, as it was drilled into me by companies that I worked at such as RELX and ITV. They were very much into training in the years earlier as I built my career. I also was lucky to have some great mentors to learn from when in London those years ago. Process is important as is the storage and use of data to allow you to form conclusions, see patterns and so on. But don’t follow it slavishly. Sometimes you have think on you feet, and as the next paragraph explains it is as much about sales.
You can put in place methodologies, and I am sure there are few, but suspect that they can be variations on one common theme. And I also believe strongly in the KISS principle. So, in essence and without sounding infantile you simply have to find people and talk to them. You are therefore effectively selling yourself, your client, the role, the candidate. And to me that is bread and butter as an old school salesman.
My process when on a “role” is to use a simple approach. In this scenario I’d be looking for a candidate.
Do I know people?
Do People I know, know People?
Do I need to cold call People?
The process can be reversed when looking at contacts when I have a good senior candidate looking for that right fit in a company. I am now often contacted by people looking to relocate from London to the North for example.
From there the process begins. But in effect you are building a pipeline, recording data and studying it. It is then about honing down the data you have, to achieve the required result for a client or candidate, and not necessarily about phone bashing. But like any sales operation, you do have to pick up the phone or send an e-mail. And this does not bother me as I like talking to people.
I do use technology to help. For example I use Nutshell that I have customised, obviously LinkedIn, and other tools.
Reading
I read a heck of a lot of material where I can, including books, to try and extend the breadth of my knowledge and learn more about ME and PEOPLE. Don’t get me wrong I do also read for pleasure otherwise I would go mad. I also enjoy chatting with and being mentored by the likes of Mike Pegg.
I am not suggesting you read every positive mental attitude book, or sign up for Steven Covery’s “7 Habits” methodology for example. Been there, done that, bought the T-Shirt. One system did not suit me, but what I found was I took what “I” needed for ME, for how I wanted to work, grow as a person. This was an amalgam of systems, experience, People, self-learning, success, and a HUGE amount of setback, mistake, bad luck, pain.
An example of interesting reading is Business Balls, or my recently read Irresistible.
Humanity
Underpinning all is the constant real-time memory that I am working with People, who have feelings, wants, emotions, good points, bad points… this list goes on.
I treat People as I would want to be treated myself, but accept we all have flaws.
Honesty with people is a key rule on both sides of the fence, even bad news. No one likes telling someone they were pipped at the post for a role they really wanted, or that they need to examine themselves as person. Honesty counts but it can also hurt; on both sides.
The end
How I work does work and delivers desired results over the 7 years of trading, but like anything there is graft involved.
But the main thing is I enjoy and make people happy.