Why Our Client Did A Happy Dance

A success story about an effective partnership between a search consultant and the client

A successful search for an executive director requires an effective partnership between a search consultant and the client. That’s a statement that is so obviously true that it hardly seems worth saying. The problem is that it seldom works out successfully. This is a story where it did – and why. 

I’m Joe McCormack, Founding Partner of McCormack+Kristel, the first openly gay-owned retained search firm in the U.S. We’ve been assisting our clients for almost 30 years, and in that time we’ve been fortunate to be involved with a wide range of searches.  
 

Some clients think the search consultant should shoulder the entire burden for the search, from the identification of sources and prospects through final reference checks. In their mind, that is what we are paid to do as partners. Other clients sometimes lack trust or confidence in the partnership.

They often compete with the search firm and conduct their own independent outreach to identify and evaluate candidates. This leads to unnecessary confusion on the part of sources and prospects. 

A year ago, we were retained by TransForm, an advocacy organization in the San Francisco Bay Area, to recruit their Executive Director. 

We recognized that the search for their new Executive Director posed several challenges. First, we were seeking a successor to the long-serving and beloved founder. The organization was being led by interim co-directors, which had the potential of adding complexity to the process if they adopted that as a permanent leadership structure (some organizations do). Finally, the organization was in its last year of several multi-year grants that would have to be renewed or replaced, which would be a daunting task for the new Executive Director. 

The client, who views its mission through an equity and inclusion lens, was determined to hire an Executive Director (or directors) with a deep commitment to those values. Added to these factors the regional cost of living, among the highest in the country.  This was not going to be an easy search.

What distinguished this partnership from all other client relationships in my three decades of experience was the whole-hearted involvement of board and staff (including the staff representative on the search committee) in leveraging their relationships to provide valuable sources and possible candidates for us. There were no hidden agendas or any mistrust of our capabilities – only the desire to achieve our common goal of finding the best person for the job, without any regard for who would get the credit for success. 

Every client is an expert in their program area and strategic goals. A mentor once told me a search consultant’s experience is “a mile wide and an inch deep” meaning we know what to look for in a candidate, but also know that the client is the expert in its area of focus. We recognized that TransForm’s board and executive team had long-lasting relationships with funders, advocates and sector leaders, whose recommendations are worth countless hours of the data mining that we could engage in for a search. 

We decided the best course of action was to initiate open, weekly communications that helped us refine our focus at every stage of the process. Indeed, some candidates could only be persuaded to apply with a direct approach by TansForm’s leadership, which they were happy to supply. When we needed a quick and informal reference, our client could speak candidly and confidentially to a trusted source who would likely be more open with them than with us.

With the advent of Covid-19, the work from home directives and the racial justice uprisings, TransForm, like many organizations, experienced financial and morale challenges. Could Transform’s work be continued remotely? Was the organization effectively serving low-income communities? Was it practicing equity and inclusion internally? 

We were also being outbid for talent by wealthier organizations such as consulting firms. Our client drafted talking points to respond to these issues and distributed them to everyone on the board and staff and those involved in the search. This enabled all of us as a team to deliver a consistent and credible message to prospects and candidates. When we worked as one, we all worked more effectively.

Everyone on the board and staff played an important and constructive role in the recruiting and evaluation process. Given the limitations of the pandemic and TransForm’s incredibly transparent, collaborative organizational culture, we were able to narrow down the search to five very capable candidates. 

The final interviews were conducted via several Zoom interviews: one with each of three staff teams, one with the Board of Directors, and one “ask me anything” session with the outgoing Interim Executive Director. I was happy to see that the extra time and effort it took to set up multiple meetings with each of the finalists ensured buy-in from everyone before reaching a final decision. 

Overall, there was a healthy distribution of work, enormous patience and acknowledgment of expertise on behalf of both partners, and an approach to problem-solving that was never finger-pointing and only constructive.

When the final candidate was selected and he accepted the offer, TransForm’s staff made a video recording, which they shared with us, where they cheered the hard-working search committee and welcomed their new leader with a happy dance. It is rare to see such a joyous outcome to a lengthy search, and we did our own happy dance to partake in this successful search. 

We always do our very best to add value to the search process for our clients, and we are well paid for our work. But the happy dance was a heart-warming reward and a tribute to the success of one of the best executive search partnerships I’ve experienced.

If you want to do your own happy dance, take a lesson from TransForm – be clear about your intentions and goals, trust the search consultants working with you, create a collaborative environment that draws on the strengths of all parties, regularly and openly communicate with the entire search team, and when you select the final candidate welcome the new leader warmly.  And feel free to dance!

Joe McCormack is the Founding Partner of McCormack+Kristel. He is also a founding partner of McCormack & Farrow. As a partner in this practice, he specialized in financial services and healthcare recruiting.