Jeff Black - McDermott & Bull

A Relationship Story - If Van Morrison Only Knew...

2012-01-31T14:47:00.001-08:00

I have a family of Brown Eyed Girls, and that song has always been a big favorite among the four of us. We used to listen to it driving around with our daughters when they were little. You might have a similar experience with songs that matter a lot to you.

Recently, the four of us attended a wonderful event together – a wedding in the family of our younger daughter’s long-time boyfriend. We were sitting with our older daughter and her boyfriend and enjoying a nice time. Then the DJ played Brown Eyed Girl. Immediately, I was transported back 20 years and could hear them both singing along in the back seat.

I sprang into action. I just knew that we had to have a “family moment” as this special song was playing, so my hand shot up to flag down our younger daughter to come over and join us. I waved and I waved but to no avail. She didn’t see me. Then I realized something really important.

She didn’t see me because she was playing a valuable role that day. Her boyfriend’s family was really busy and needed another pair of hands and she knew she could be helpful. It seems she naturally was.

At that moment, I had to let go, just a little, of one of my Brown Eyed Girls. She wasn’t the little girl in the back seat anymore; she was the adult, doing exactly what was needed at the moment. Being a parent is tough sometimes, but I guess we have to let them go to be what they are destined to be.

Now, I suppose, Van the Man might not be quite as sentimental about this experience as I seem to be. He probably isn’t really conscious of some knucklehead and his family in Southern California who love his 40 year old song. He may not care, but he might be surprised that what he “said” with this song is still sticking with people so many years later.

It makes me think about how each of us really never know what impact we have on others. Obviously, the big things always matter, but it seems that even the smallest interactions with others might be significant – and we really can’t know what will be. While I know that I mess up all the time, I’m trying more and more to remember that what I say, how I treat people, and what “comes naturally” to me could possibly have a big effect on others. We really can’t know for sure.

I’m sure each of us has stories to tell about how little things have mattered a lot. Have you ever recalled something that was significant in your own memory, but when you mentioned it to someone else who was also there, they don’t recall it at all? We really don’t know what will matter, do we? Here’s to keeping in mind that how we choose to behave makes a difference in the lives of others, and even the small stuff matters.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Quick Business Update: I’m excited to announce that Zena Peltier (peltier@mbsearch.net) has joined my practice as Associate Consultant. Having come off a very strong 2011 we want to be prepared for increasing client needs in 2012 as the labor market for high-impact talent is clearly tightening. We stand ready to help.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Partner, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net http://www.mbsearch.net/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - The Consensus Experience

2011-12-16T13:19:00.000-08:00

I admit it, I’ve lived my life from a highly individualistic perspective. That’s how my family worked, and I know it’s pretty normal in the American culture. That’s a good thing, of course, but what surprises me is that I’m just now realizing how different this makes Americans from much of the world…and also why that matters so much.

Earlier this year I was in a seminar led by a truly expert voice on ethics and leadership, Father Robert Spitzer, and I asked him why the same choice can be considered ethical by one person and unethical by another. His answer helped me learn, for the first time, that half the world approaches life from a collectivist perspective (including most Asian cultures) – decisions are always first considered through the lens of “what’s good for the group” as opposed to the individual-rules viewpoint.

So, a choice can be considered right by one person based on the best interest of the group, while that same choice can be unfathomable through the individualistic lens. Think for a minute how this can affect relationships in our lives – such fundamentally different perspectives can create a lot of confusion and conflict. In The Art of Choosing by Sheena Iyengar, a fascinating book about the science of choice, these differing cultural perspectives were confirmed as a key distinction in how people make choices. Perhaps this helps to explain one source of clashing cultures in our world.

This is so simple, but how did I get into my 50’s before I learned anything about this? I must have missed that session of Sociology class. Is it just me? Does everybody else already realize this? When I mentioned it to one of my wisest friends, also in his 50’s, he said he had just recently been exposed to this idea himself for the first time. What a relief! I’m not alone.

Then it struck me how a great experience of mine over the past 5+ years has been teaching me this insight all along…and I didn’t even realize it. I have been a volunteer with The Ethical Edge serving on the selection committee for the Leaders of Integrity Awards presented annually for excellence in ethical leadership (these awards were just presented on November 1st). The committee process represented a glimpse at the intersection between the individualistic and collectivist perspectives.

Each of the dozen committee members started as advocates for their own nominees and passionately told the story of extraordinarily ethical people. Then an amazing thing happened. The individual advocacy ended and the group entered a new world – reaching consensus. This may sound easy, but having done this now with 5 or 6 different groups of committee members, I find that my own amazement at the consensus experience has been shared by most every first-time committee participant. Releasing our own passionate advocacy position is harder than we may think. However, when a group commits to a common goal, it can get beyond self interest and really think as one mind.

Until now I never understood why this experience was so unique. Learning what reaching a true consensus feels like – a group decision that strives for a goal larger than each individual, a “greater good” thing – was an epiphany for me because it was a glimpse into the collectivist culture that was previously unknown to me. In the largely Machiavellian and competitive world where we live, this was a truly breakthrough experience.

I find it is enriching to take a break from my naturally individualistic mindset and see how the other half lives (thinks, actually). I believe that many relationships in my life can be better because of this understanding. Perhaps you might want to give it a try for yourself - whether your natural frame of reference is individualistic or collectivist – try to understand the other half of the world. Your relationships might also be better for the effort.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

References:

The Ethical Edge http://www.ethicaledge.org/
The Art of Choosing – Sheena Iyengar http://sheenaiyengar.com/the-art-of-choosing/ TED Video: http://www.ted.com/talks/sheena_iyengar_on_the_art_of_choosing.html

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Partner, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 529-2672
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - The Source of Rewards

2011-08-01T20:10:00.000-07:00

Challenge

On a mountaintop, way up there, something waits. It’s too far and too foggy to see. What is it? What is it waiting for?

The trees change as you climb. Elevation is a funny thing, what with the thinning air, the huffing and the puffing, the natural selection. Yeah, elevation, and the climb itself, are funny things.

There are signs along the way. Some provide directions, some warn of challenges, some just offer encouragement. Imagine the climb with no signs, or worse yet, with signs that lie.

Coming down past us is what seems to be a constant stream of attempts. They are dressed in different ways and they have different attitudes, and they just keep on coming. How should that make us feel?

Isn’t it annoying when you want to keep moving, the clock is ticking, the daylight deadline approaches, but you find you have a rock in your boot and you just have to stop? It’s not enough dealing with the hilarious climb, the signs of dubious character, and the ticking of the bomb, but then you get to struggle with something that matters so little but can’t be ignored!

But even though the climb seems impossible, the fog is finally clear, and the goal is finally in sight. Who could have known that on that mountaintop was nothing but an excellent view above the clouds?

I wrote that poem in 1999 while I was trying to decide on my future – I didn’t leave my life as a corporate leader until 2002. I have thought about this poem many times over the years.

It pleases me to look back and realize that, even then, I was able to understand that the journey is life. Even when it’s annoying, the journey is life.

Life is not rewards – it’s not what society tells us we’ll find on the mountaintop.

I see happy people in my life who are focused on living the journey, and living every relationship along the way. I guess it’s no surprise that many of them seem to also receive rewards of many kinds.

In recent years I have found that the view above the clouds, as well as the exercise of the climb, are really good things. I realize that it’s all just a part of the journey. Perhaps it can be even better if I can share a smile, or better yet a helping hand for the folks going by me every day. Now that is an inspiring idea!

A very close friend of mine has had a huge loss to deal with recently – it makes me realize how good I have it. I see that friend handling this with such extraordinary grace and peacefulness – thereby inspiring and reassuring everyone touched by the truly generous way this friend is choosing to live. I’d like to suggest that this is the kind of “helping hand” I hope to offer. If my truly generous friend can do it while recovering from a great loss, then I know I can do it.

Perhaps we all can. Generously helping others may be the greatest source of rewards we’ll ever find. Happy helping to you all.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

A Quick Business Update – Growing business confidence is clearly reflected in our firm being very busy right now. I am personally very pleased with the successful completions over the past few weeks of the 4 great search projects listed just below. I’d welcome the opportunity to help you or companies you know with key leadership additions.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Partner, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net http://www.mbsearch.net/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - The Geek's Secret

2011-04-25T11:28:00.000-07:00

Are you inspired or are you bored? What makes the difference?

I remember when my kids were growing up around their nut of a Father and I’d say “It doesn’t matter if you are passionate about the things I am…just make sure you are passionate about things!” Not having cool things to be fascinated with seems like a path to being bored; unfortunately, this might also mean “boring”, and it’s hard to get ahead that way. Some great geek examples include:

- My friend who is reading all the Pulitzer Prize winning novels…
- Traveling with my buddies to Miami & Atlanta to visit two more Major League ballparks (my 35th and 36th), to Daytona Beach where Jackie Robinson first played as a pro, and to Birmingham for a game at the oldest ballpark in the country where my Dad sold concessions in the 1930’s…
- My friend who has painstakingly catalogued forty years of amateur music “jam” recordings he has made with his best friends…
- The OC non-profit youth theater Producer sitting in the audience to see her former prodigy student starring in Wicked on Broadway…
-Spending six hours with three other geeks listening intently to each of our carefully selected rock/pop/R&B/jazz/folk songs from the 60’s and 70’s – and discussing and/or laughing about each one…
-My history-teacher daughter who zooms off to Washington D.C. on her Spring Break because she “needs” to see all the American history sights…

Not all necessarily important…but also not boring. I’m sure you have your own examples.

However, this concept applies to business as well. A favorite client of mine, Panda Restaurant Group, puts a ton of importance on curiosity and lifelong learning as critical characteristics for people on their team. I believe this fascination with new ideas and insights is closely aligned with people’s tendency to be passionate and fanatical about their interests. The concept of “can’t get enough” is what comes to my mind in both cases.

Another way that our passions can really matter is reflected in the “real” contributions of many successful people by volunteering with non-profit and charitable causes. It’s easy to write a check, but sharing your time and insight with a cause calls for true passion.

I feel fortunate, through my roles on the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Orange County (http://www.ymcaoc.org/) and through my involvement with the Ethical Edge (http://www.ethicaledge.org/), to be around many inspired contributors who are professionally successful and also devote time and energy to making a difference. Both of these groups welcome new volunteers – just let me know if you’re interested.

The “passion effect” of being involved in a cause is powerful, but for me, the impact is even greater because of the shared energy of being around other passionate people. Try it if you don’t know what I mean.

Perhaps, like me, you’re among the lucky ones who are truly passionate about the work they do. Even if that’s not true for you here’s to each of us getting to spend time doing things we really love – we’ll surely be better at our day jobs when we also get to feed our passions. Do it for fun, and do it to make a difference too, and perhaps some of our “have-tos” can start to feel more like “get-tos”.
Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.
Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Partner, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net http://www.mbsearch.net/ http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

Relationship Story - The Real Stuff

2011-02-25T08:26:00.000-08:00

While listening to the radio recently I heard a press briefing by a U.S. Military Colonel leading troops in Afghanistan; it illuminated something really powerful about people like this Colonel – truly straightforward and unequivocal candor expressed by a leader whose decisions are significantly more serious than any I will ever make. He fields the toughtest of questions with a truthfulness and passion that allows me to almost see his steely-eyed gaze through the radio. He seems to know that everyone is best served by his ability to leave no doubts about his meaning or intent.

So, what does this truth and candor thing mean to our professional lives? After 20+ years as a corporate leader and the last 8 years as a retained search consultant, I’m amazed at how much I continue to learn about myself and about relationships. Looking back on my corporate life I doubt if I fully understood what real “truth and candor” meant. There often seemed to be a certain way of saying and doing things that didn’t always start with truth or candor – do you know what I mean?

During the past 8 years of great business relationships, over 100 successful search projects, and after growing up a little bit too, the real value of truly candid conversations with clients is becoming increasingly clear to me. Now don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t suggest that it’s always easy. After all, this was not the way I was taught to see the business process earlier in my corporate life, so it is certainly not automatic.

One particular client relationship from my first year or two in search still sticks with me – I have never felt right about how the relationship turned out. After our initial success working together, a problem came up and the ideal solution wasn’t clear. I guess it’s inevitable that things don’t always go perfectly, but looking back now I know that the necessary relationship-ensuring conversation didn’t happen.

Research on customer service shows that clients are much more loyal when there has been a problem that has been solved than if there had never been a problem; I realize that I may have missed the opportunity to earn loyalty by turning that problem into a mutually agreeable solution.

Over the past few quarters, as my search practice has been expanding by serving new and existing clients, challenges still occasionally come up on search projects – again, that seems inevitable in complex and nuanced business situations (probably, I suppose, a lot like your own situations). However, during the past several years, those vital challenging conversations are an increasingly valued part of strong client relationships.

It is more clear than ever how powerful the right “truth and candor” consulting can really be for clients…even when it’s hard. Clients (and we all have them whether we are service providers or corporate leaders) may not expect things to be perfect – but they certainly should expect the tough conversation will happen when it matters most.

And, after all, isn’t the real stuff of a Colonel in Afghanistan something worth believing in, and couldn’t we gain some perspective from it for ourselves?Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your thoughts and feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Partner, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618

Relationship Story -- Leadership by Getting Out of the Way

2010-11-29T22:41:00.000-08:00

I have the best job in the world – I get to meet high perfoming, fascinating people all the time – clients, candidates, partners, leaders of all kinds - and learn their unique success stories. I always want to know what kind of business environment gets the very best out of people and teams. The answer is almost always a version of the same theme:

“Give the people what they need to succeed and just let them do it”

In the great new leadership book, TOP Box Leadership by William C. Sproule, these themes are explored in a highly compelling fashion. The book informs, teaches, and entertains as Sproule captures the essence of macro-management by showing how gathering the best Talent, setting the right Outcomes, and defining clear Parameters for team decision-making leads to great teams and exceptional results…and then the leader needs to get out of the box and let people do their jobs. I strongly recommend this book to leaders in any environment.

Sproule’s book highlights a subject that totally fascinates me – the conscious choice about the culture within a company. This is one of the most compelling learnings for me as I work with all kinds of companies in helping them build and improve their leadership teams. I believe that the culture of a company, and I define that as “what really matters here”, is fully under the control of the leaders in a company. Sproule’s book suggests a disciplined way to establish a successful culture, and it starts from the leader.

It seems to me there is nothing more important than creating enough freedom for smart people to do what they think is right. Now, admittedly, this is a bit hard to argue…a little like saying “freedom is a pretty good thing” (a quote from my favorite movie – Field of Dreams). However, it’s the source of organizational freedom that I think really matters, and why I believe that culture is in the control of true leaders.

If a leader wants to allow his people to think freely, and thereby get the most from their contributions, it’s not enough to just empower them (do you notice we don’t hear that word a lot any more in business writing?) It goes further than that. The leader has to really trust the people on his team – to genuinely believe that everyone is pursuing the same goals. If there is a doubt about this alignment, the result is the dreaded disease we all hate in business…politics!

Think of the image of pulling a rope together. A leader’s job is to LEAD definition of the rope and what is on the other end (process and goal, or Parameters and Outcomes according to Sproule). Also, there must be clarity on the makeup of the team pulling the rope (Sproule’s concept of Talent). However, I believe the key ingredient for this to actually work is a prevailing trust that binds the people with each other, along with both goal and process.

A leader who cannot engender trust is likely afraid of losing something – perhaps it’s control, maybe it’s credit, or it could even be identity. However, any of these reasons means the leader will never really be able to get the heck out of the way and let people be great. In seeking outstanding results and long-lasting success, focusing on process will never get us to the promised land unless a foundation of trust keeps the sands from shifting under our feet. Trust begets greatness.

I’d love to hear what you think about this. After all, everybody sees important things like this in their own distinctive way, and thank goodness for that or things would be really boring!

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Recommended Resources: TOP Box Leadership – William C. Sproule www.topboxleadership.com

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

Relationship Story -- Being Ourselves – Bravery or Necessity?

2010-11-29T22:37:00.000-08:00

Is it brave to be real? We all have a choice to make every day – are we going to be ourselves, or are we going to fake it?

Many of you may have read my last story, “Our Legacy in the Stories People Tell” (copied below); a comment from a dynamic entrepreneur really hit home as the perfect topic for a follow-up to that story. He said: “Interesting how you are so open personally with your client base and referral sources - definitely brave of you!”
I thought about this a while and realized that sharing thoughts and observations about my life, the business world, and the great relationships I have is, in fact, rather personal. But why do it this way?

I was reminded of three people who have influenced me with their unique ability to be themselves – maybe they will make you think of similar people in your lives:

There was Captain Ed Whelan who I worked with when I was just getting started as a business unit leader in my corporate life. He had been a career officer in the Navy and I was lucky enough to benefit from his mentorship during his second career. I still remember how comfortable he was in his own skin – he naturally made everyone around him comfortable as well. He tried hard to help a fairly clueless young leader understand the benefits that authenticity might offer me – clearly he believed that was the kind of leadership people really wanted. While I wish I’d been able to listen better back then, I have never forgotten his message.

Then, over the past 12 years, I’ve been learning from the passionate and authentic leadership of Janice Kraus, the Founder and Producer of the nonprofit Stagelight Family Productions, a youth theater program in Orange County. My daughter and thousands of other kids like her have received a huge confidence boost from the experience of performing and being part of a great team effort, so the benefits for the kids are unmistakable. However, it is Janice’s authentic and uniquely personal leadership that makes the program a true community. The experience is not just for the kids – the unique culture of trust that Janice creates is inspiring to parents and kids alike.

And now, in recent years, I have been able to work alongside a great volunteer leader who inspires me with his own special brand of authenticity - Rick Donahue, the Board Chairman for the YMCA of Orange County. Rick has an uncanny way of allowing his natural realness and seek-no-credit approach to bring out the best in everyone. He is always able to laugh at himself – he obviously has great self-awareness and quiet confidence – and he disarms much of the anxiety that can easily arise in such a group. Also, because of his passionate external focus on our charitable mission, he makes everyone uniquely comfortable and inspires a common passion in all of us.

So, is it brave to be real or must we be real to be truly effective?

These three examples are a lens for looking at ourselves and they help me know why being personal is a necessity for me – besides it just feeling right, I also know I’d be a terrible fake (I’m not a good enough actor!)

Give yourself the gift of thinking about people in your world who are great at being authentic. You never know, there just may be a nugget of brilliance there that can teach a great lesson.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Resources:

Stagelight Family Productions – www.stagelightproductions.com
YMCA of Orange County – www.ymcaoc.org
Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Our Legacy in the Stories People Tell

2010-09-03T15:47:00.001-07:00

What indelible impressions are we leaving on others? Let’s be honest, we think we’re really important, but even the biggest footprints in the sand wash away by morning.

However, we are creating lasting memories for the people in our lives every day. What will they remember?

My Dad was a great man. No, he wasn’t perfect – how could he be growing up in the Depression with a single Mom, living like nomads until he was an adolescent, moving from relative to relative? And dealing with getting only an 8th grade education, two years in a tent in North Africa serving in World War II, and leaving Alabama for a California entreprenurial dream that was stolen away from him too soon? No, he wasn’t perfect, but he was a great man.

And not because he achieved storybook fame and fortune coming from modest means – not that version of “great”. My Dad worked hard as a 33-year union man with Hughes Aircraft while moonlighting as a watchmaker at home in the evenings – he was always so busy that I appreciated the times he would break away to play catch with his sports-crazed son. No, he didn’t conquer the world, but he was a great man.

And not because he achieved major acclaim in the community by being the President of this or the Grand Poobah of that. He was a valuable part of groups like the Masonic Lodge, and a volunteer par-excellance in all the worlds where my brother and I were involved, but he never “led” anything. No, he was not prominent, but he was a great man.

Now four years after he left us at age 84 I look back on his life and realize what greatness really means. To put it simply - everyone loved my Dad. He has always been remembered so fondly by everyone who knew him – family, friends and the people he worked and volunteered with.

• My brother and I just went to a family reunion in Alabama and everyone raved about how wonderful “Charlie” had been – and the reunion was with our Mom’s side of the family!

• Early in my corporate life at Hughes (where one of his watchmaking customers gave me my first job) I was a brash, energetic, and pretty annoying young guy, but anybody that knew I was Charlie Black’s son immediately treated me like I was okay with them.

• My Dad embodied the true definition of volunteer – I still cherish a special carved hatchet he made for every kid in our tribe as an invitation to a YMCA Indian Guides meeting – where did he find the time to make those while working two jobs? Anything I ever learned about helping others I learned from his example.

I could learn from my Dad’s life that it’s not about being perfect, it’s about persevering through challenges and leaving the campsite cleaner than you found it (both literally and in relationships); I could learn from my Dad that not everyone conquers the world, but working really hard makes a difference to everyone around us in addition to ourselves; I could learn from my Dad that giving our time and talent in a caring way is our greatest volunteer gift – we impact people’s lives whether we are a leader or not.

Maybe it would help us all to remember that the stories people tell, and will tell about us, are most likely about how we made them feel – I truly believe that is our best way to really matter. That’s the kind of greatness we can all truly hope to realize.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

A final tribute to my Dad – this story intentionally coincides with the Angels hosting the MLB All-Star Game. While my brother and I (both life-long Dodger fans) could never really understand it, Dad always loved the Angels and we couldn’t convince him otherwise – like I said, he wasn’t perfect!

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

Relationship Story - Real Perspective

2010-06-09T13:40:00.000-07:00

I remember my late 30’s – 15 years married and two daughters in elementary school. My volunteer life, like most parents at that stage, was attached to the girls’ activities like YMCA Princesses, Girl Scouts, and softball. I was busy building a career while trying not to miss the kids’ things, and helping a little whenever possible. I’m sure I whined a lot too. I clearly didn’t realize how good I had it.

A few years later I got to experience an extraordinary volunteer community - youth theater - parents who spent tons of time and energy volunteering but also bonded like no other volunteer group I had seen. There was something special about the shared experience of making magic happen on stage while enabling a huge growth experience for the kids.

The MIB’s (the “B” is for Back, as in Backstage) worked tirelessly building sets and as backstage crew for the shows – always in back, always in the dark, always unsung. Recently one of those selfless difference makers – a wonderful Dad in his late 30’s with two teenage daughters – went to the hospital with a mystifying viral disease. He didn’t come home and our world was deprived of this wonderful man.

Perhaps I caught you by surprise with this sad story, however, it helps me make two important points about real perspective. First…it reminds me that I have no right to whine about anything. The second point I want to share (and more importantly remember myself) is far more powerful.

The community outpouring of concern and direct help for this family is fantastic, and it’s what we might hope for from a family-oriented group like this. It is so natural for caring people to want to “do” something to directly help, just like we feel about disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake. Sometimes we can do something directly; most times we cannot and we often wish we could do more.

What compels me is that a terrible loss like this is a reminder – no, a call to action – to keep doing my best serving others in my own personal ways: as Board Development Chair for the YMCA of Orange County; as a connector for difference-making people and causes; by sharing ideas like this story and reminding others to keep doing their “best”; and just by being constructive and considerate with the people in my life.

Things such as the blatantly unfair passing of such a fine man must remind me of my own responsibilty to do what I can, where I can…and without whining, ever. I’ll keep trying to stay true to this commitment, and I hope all of you will as well. A little bit of real perspective for all of us just might make a big difference.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Also, funds are being raised for the college education of the two girls left without their Dad. Let me know if you want to know more.

Great Community Resources:

Stagelight Family Productions: www.stagelightproductions.com

YMCA of Orange County: www.ymcaoc.org

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Ethics, One Simple Choice at a Time

2010-02-21T15:31:00.000-08:00

I remember a few years ago how my leadership coach Vance Caesar helped me understand an unexpected truth about ethics. I talked about a time when I was angry and expressed it “loud and clear” to another person. Vance said, “Do you realize that you were being unethical?” I said: “What do you mean, unethical? I wasn’t unethical, I just got mad.”

Vance asked me: “Do you think there were hurt feelings” – I had to admit there were; “Do you feel good about having done it” – I had to admit I didn’t; “Do you wish it could have been different” – again, I had to admit that I did. “So,” Vance said, “You had a choice to make and you made the wrong choice, so it was unethical.” I didn’t enjoy that much, but I had to admit he was right.

We have choices to make all the time, and while the alternatives are not always clear, I believe there are times we just turn a blind eye to our own “wrong” choices. I know that I do.

Leadership and Self-Deception, by The Arbinger Institute, is among the most powerful books I have ever read – in part because of that ethics lesson I learned from Vance. The book tells the story of a leader who discovers significance in the simple choices we make every day.

It describes how relationships constantly present us with choices about how to treat another person, and we most often know the “right” thing to do. When faced with these forks-in-the-road, we have the option to choose what we know is right, and thereby “honor” our best judgment.

Taking the other road and choosing to knowingly deny our best judgment may often be more expedient or just plain easier. While this is sometimes true for us all, the author describes how this choice makes us guilty of “self betrayal.” But, we say, isn’t a wrong choice relatively insignificant by itself? Well…

When we choose what we know is wrong, we then have to make it right in our minds to avoid feeling guilty. We must build the case for why it wasn’t wrong after all - convincing ourselves of all the reasons why we’re so great and the other person isn’t. The more reasons we add to these mental lists, the more right the wrong decision seems.

This is “Self Deception” – what the author calls being “In the Box.” The big problem is…others are not fooled. If we deceive ourselves, and are not authentic, we create a trust barrier to good relationships (that’s the box image). Getting out of the box requires freeing ourselves from this self deception.

Ever since reading this book I find there is nowhere to hide when faced with these simple choices. As annoying as it can sometimes seem, I need to be honest with myself about what’s right at these moments – with my family, my friends, my colleagues, my clients, as well as with the next person I meet.

It may seem that making a constant series of right choices may be a tough commitment to live up to, but from a practical standpoint, think of all the energy it takes to deceive ourselves – not to mention the on-going relationship damage from being “In the Box.” I think you might agree, right choices seem like a good path toward freedom.

While the book focuses on relationships between people, my belief is that this idea can apply to just about anything we do. Maybe we should all try it today – we may just like how it feels.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Book Suggestion: Leadership and Self-Deception, Getting Out of the Box – The Arbinger Institute

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

Selected clients in my retained search practice: Allergan, SAIL Ventures, Pharmavite, Newport Corporation, Danaher SDS, Smile Brands, GKN PLC, Canon, Pharmavite, Meggitt PLC, PPG Industries, SRS Labs, Cal-Am Properties, Sunrise Growers, Specialty Restaurants Corp., and Panda Restaurant Group.

Your referrals for Retained Executive Search are greatly appreciated; please let me know if there are companies that you believe may benefit from being connected with me.

A Relationship Story - Fit for Results

2009-12-19T09:16:00.000-08:00

Successful outcomes are the only thing that really matters in business, of course, but there are a lot of different ways to get there. My recent experience successfully placing a new CIO at Panda Restaurant Group gave me a glimpse into an opportunity that many companies may not recognize.

The need for technical excellence, educational pedigree, and an achiever’s drive are almost always a prerequisite for any key addition to a team. In the case of a senior leader joining Panda, there was a critically important added dimension that made the fit a unique and exciting challenge.

You see, at Panda, the culture and values of the organization are uniquely important. However, I would argue that the unique importance of this is a tool that could be much more effectively utilized by so many more organizations.

The makeup of the person is a consistently clear focus for Panda. They expect people who join their team to possess a unique set of characteristics that ensure they will fit into the culture of this extremely successful and rapidly growing company. Think about the following dualities that every person that joins Panda is measured against. People are expected to be:

Disciplined and Embraces Change
Results Oriented and Caring
Confident and Humble
Competitive and Team Oriented
Student and Teacher

There is much to learn from this, and not necessarily from the specifics of this set of cultural norms. A powerful message for me, and I believe a key strength of Panda, is that they really care about what’s important in their company.

I’ve come to believe that companies need to stop and ask themselves what is really important to them – call it values, culture, mission, whatever – the key question is just plain “what’s important?”. For some companies like Panda, the nature of the people is key; for other companies there may be a completely different set of critical criteria.

For instance, on the Wall Street trading floor, what’s critical is surely thinking fast and making quick (and wise) decisions. In a doctor’s office, care for patients and their well-being may be most important. In heavy manufacturing, safety may matter most. None of these scenarios is better or worse than any other; however, the power is in clarity – knowing what matters.

Through my search consultancy I’ve come to believe there is a central factor that can serve as the SUPER-GLUE FOR GREAT TALENT in companies – it’s the FIT between what really matters to the company and the true makeup of its people. I believe that vision alone (where the company is going) does not naturally engender loyalty, but I believe a true fit between the values of an employee and “what’s important” to the company can supercharge loyalty.

The power of fit can be achieved on Wall Street, at the Doctor, or on the factory floor, but fit must start with the company taking seriously a commitment to what it considers really important – what it truly values. Ask yourself if your company knows what is really important. If so, then be consistent and leverage it. If not, it may be time to look under the hood.

My recent experience with the passion for values fit at Panda has inspired me to communicate about this subject; I want to help more companies understand their potential opportunity to create a stronger bond with their talent. In addition to this story I am beginning to speak to leadership groups on this subject – please let me know if you know of groups that might want to hear about this topic.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Completely-Baked Secrets to Success

2009-12-19T09:13:00.000-08:00

What are those elusive secrets to success? Let me tell two very different stories, one fictional and one real, as they offer some good answers.

Ben Braddock (the title character in 1967’s The Graduate) walks into his parents’ kitchen and confidently announces to them: “I’m going to marry Elaine Robinson”. Following the classic squeals of his delighted Mother, they ask for details – the date, how he asked her … but he explains that she doesn’t know it yet – in fact, she doesn’t currently even like him.

Ben’s incredulous Father then says, “…well Ben, this all seems rather half-baked”, but Ben declares, “no, it’s completely baked, and I’m leaving right now to see her”. No, he didn’t have all the details in place (well, actually none of them), but what he did have was the first secret to success - a world of faith and resolve - he was certain it would happen.

Now, to reality - a few weeks ago I went on my annual major-league ballpark tour with my fellow baseball fanatic buddies – 5 games, 5 cities, 5 days. Late in the game with the Phillies under the shadow of the Gateway Arch, Cardinals Centerfielder Rick Ankiel raced back and stretched for a would-be triple as he crashed headlong into the wall and crumpled to the ground.

The jam-packed ballpark was hushed for 10 minutes as Ankiel was carefully placed on a stretcher and taken away to help. Well, the good news was that he only had whiplash and would be ok, but it was really scary – and he even made the catch!

In Hollywood, this would have been the last out of the championship and Ankiel would be a legendary hero. But, in reality, it was just game #26 of 162 in the season. Also, it was the 8th inning with the Cards behind 6-1 – they would not recover – it was a loss, just another loss in a long season. No Hollywood ending by any means, however, there was nothing half-baked about Ankiel’s committed effort – another secret to success.

I was struck by this as an excellent example of what it really takes to be successful in our business world full of challenges, competition, and changing circumstances.

First, just like Ben Braddock, we truly have to believe that things will turn out great – the ultimate test of our faith and resolve. But also, like Rick Ankiel’s heroic catch, half-baked efforts will never get us to the Promised Land. We have to dive for would-be triples every time, even when we’re losing, and even early in a long season.

Success in our business world, just like Major League Baseball, requires that we hold nothing back – nothing but our best and most creative efforts will get the job done. And especially during the strange times we have all been through recently, it becomes increasingly apparent to us all … it’s a long season. I wish you your best season ever.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffblackmcdermottbull http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Attitude Altitude

2009-05-12T22:32:00.000-07:00

March 2009

Having a tough day? Week? Month? Year? Well, congratulations, you are alive and human in 2009.

So what are you going to do about it?

I didn’t ask what the Government, the economy, the stock market, the media, your clients, your suppliers, or your dry cleaner is going to do about it - I asked what YOU are going to do about it!

It’s up to us, and we should want it that way. Here are two reasons our attitudes belong at the highest possible altitude:

First, we can make a difference. We can be a source of inspiration for others, and for ourselves in the process.

The “altitude” imagery is inspired by watching our firm’s co-founder and Managing Director Rod McDermott demonstrate yet another extraordinary talent - flying his own airplane and thereby helping our firm be even more nimble in navigating around the Southwest. While it takes a ridiculous amount of mental agility to fly a plane, and Rod has it, I think it is also a way that Rod keeps the “altitude” imagery active in his life and our business.

I’m equally inspired by watching Rod and co-founder Chris Bull guide our firm through these admittedly strange times with inspiring and “high altitude” creativity and positivity.

I believe that I have a responsibility in the business community to help raise the confidence and spirits of everyone I encounter – really, we all share this responsibility, and each of us can make a difference.

The second reason I believe our spirits should naturally soar is simple human nature. Stumbling on Happiness by Daniel Gilbert, a recent book with inspired clear thinking much like The Tipping Point (Malcolm Gladwell) and Freakonomics (Stephen Dubner and Steven Levitt), captures this idea brilliantly:

“So if the question is ‘why should we want to control our futures?’ then the surprisingly right answer is that it feels good to do so – period. Impact is rewarding. Mattering makes us happy. The act of steering one’s boat down the river of time is a source of pleasure, regardless of one’s port of call.”

It just makes sense … we feel better when we have control over our future.

But, you may say, we don’t have control over everything that is affecting us. What, then, do we control? Well, each of us is entirely in control of our own attitude. We can be victims and feel miserable, but who wants that? Among the people I admire every day for pressing on and continuing to build the future, I find that most are sick and tired of feeling uncertain and worried - thoroughly sick and tired.

Each of us has an opportunity to be THE CRITICAL INSPIRATION for the next person we meet, and we never know when it will matter, so why not assume it always matters? The altitude of our attitude is the greatest gift we have to give right now. Let’s give it with all our hearts.

Thanks for sharing time with me; as always, I welcome your feedback and please feel free to pass this message along to others who may find value.

Requested Feedback: Please email me back with a saying or thought that keeps the altitude of your attitude flying high. I will compile them and send the responses back as an inspiration to each of us. Thanks for your involvement.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

Relationship Story - It’s the Accountability, Leaders

2009-03-18T17:28:00.000-07:00

February 2009

I recently wrote about the opportunity for leaders to encourage and enable leadership from members of their teams – Leadership from Any Chair – added leverage for these unique times.

Accountability, of course, is another way to motivate achievement; driving it can be tricky. I’ve had two recent experiences to help me understand a powerful way to drive accountability – and to transcend top-down metrics and measurement in the process.

I was recently in a family theater production of The Music Man (in the wacky Barbershop Quartet ¬– The River City School Board). You might think a play is just a collection of individual performances; it’s actually the ultimate group project – each line must be executed to set up the next line and create a seamless and convincing scene. One person not coming through can create a total train wreck.

Of course, Community Theater does offer conventional metrics for success - there is an audience to satisfy and the kids involved need a good developmental experience. However, you can be sure that being the one that drops a line or misses a cue is a brutal feeling – the fear of letting down the other performers is a most powerful motivator.

This experience reminds me of another team and my “role” in membership development for the Forum for Corporate Directors (FCD), a premier group of Orange County business leaders. It may be odd to compare a committee like this with a theater production, but the team experience is really very similar.

Each FCD membership team member shares a common goal: attracting and retaining great people and companies to enhance the strength of the organization. Every individual has monthly action items to execute, and each person consistently comes through in a timely fashion. Yes, each person is committed to organizational growth, but another major motivator is not being the flake on the team that fails to pull his or her weight.

Our own businesses might benefit by creating more team experiences like a play and an FCD committee. To start with, think about whether top-down company objectives are effective motivators for your people. How do they translate into behavioral expectations for individuals?

And we all know that people generally enjoy working on teams. Along with the job satisfaction and loyalty that teaming generates, maybe we could create a culture where team members are the primary accountability motivator for each other? Maybe company objectives could be effectively broken down into team goals, and the teams can be empowered to manage their own accountability?

I personally find it a lot easier to flake out on myself than to let others down – I’m sure you know what I mean. Like you, I have a lot of responsibility, and when pushed for time, I know I try to prioritize commitments to others over my own projects. It seems that we respond better to challenges when we’re being counted on.

You never know, an approach like this might just put us out of the micromanagement business! From my own recent experiences, I see how it can work awfully well. I wish all of you as leaders the best toward more fulfilled and productive teams.

Thanks for sharing time with me. As always, I welcome your feedback and observations, and feel free to forward this along to others who you believe may benefit.

Links:
Stagelight Family Productions: http://www.stagelightproductions.com/
Forum for Corporate Directors (FCD), Orange County - http://www.fcdoc.org/

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618

A Relationship Story - Leadership from Any Chair, Especially Now

2009-02-17T04:22:00.000-08:00

December 2008

I’ve written about leadership a few times before, and it is clear that this subject receives the largest and most passionate responses from you. It seems that everyone relates.

While many people are currently gripped with uncertainty and fear, as we are obviously in a unique state of “now”, I believe we all are presented with a great opportunity to prosper in tough times through creativity, positive energy, and good relationships. As leaders, these times present us all with an especially important responsibility – to elicit effective “leadership” behavior from everyone on our respective teams.

The origin of this idea for me was when, a couple of years after I had left my own corporate life and the position power associated with being a VP/GM, the concept of “leading from any chair” was pointed out to me by leadership coach Vance Caesar as described in the The Art of Possibility by Rosamund Stone Zander and Benjamin Zander.

Vance was trying to help me see that I continue to be a “leader” in a variety of ways after leaving my traditional line-leadership executive role; I try to remind myself of my responsibility to lead by sharing ideas and connecting people in every facet of my life, not only in my professional role providing consultative support to my clients by helping them build their teams.

This expanded definition of leadership, especially in consideration of our current economic climate, offers a new perspective on how companies and organizations can be more effective.

For leaders of organizations or groups, times like these make it increasingly important that we empower our teams to serve as an extension of the mission and values of the enterprise. With people being asked to do more with less, it’s increasingly important that everyone think of themselves as a leader and act on that responsibility, as opposed to just feeling and acting like a cog in the wheel.

However, this kind of empowerment can be a tough challenge for some leaders. It means we must be like the “Level 5 Leader” described in Good to Great by Jim Collins. Collins suggested that great companies (those that significantly outperform the competition in their respective markets) are led by unique leaders who, while highly ambitious and driven, are not in it for their own glory but are truly in it for the collective success of the enterprise. Through their ability to keep their ego subordinated, Level 5 leaders create the kind of empowerment that enables people to contribute to the utmost.

I believe that most of us, including all those great people on your teams, have a desire to make a difference in generating outcomes and in improving the lives of others. Ask yourself what you are doing to ensure that your organization and your customers are getting the most powerful leadership contributions your people have to offer. If they naturally want to do greater things … it is up to their leaders to enable them to do so.

While so many around us are bemoaning their sad fate as victims of the times, the time is right for the creative and positive among us to strike. However, now more than ever, we must involve everyone on our teams to bring forward the best we collectively have to offer. Now is the time to truly lead, to encourage leadership from any chair throughout our teams.
Thanks for sharing time with me, and as always, please let me know if there is any way I can be of service to you.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Managing Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618

A Relationship Story - We All Fish

2008-11-28T13:25:00.001-08:00

A Relationship Story - We All Fish

October 2008

My friend Donn Rohrs and his son Matt have an extraordinary passion – they both love to, and live to fish. The fisherman seems to enjoy a sort of peace, a patience – fishing seems almost like an existential experience more than a pastime. I remember how much my Dad loved fishing too – however, he could never “hook” me. Really, I have never felt a lot like a fisherman.

Then I remember 6 years ago when I got started as an executive search consultant with McDermott & Bull – one of the key images offered up as a truism of building a successful consulting practice was the need to plant a lot of seeds. If you don’t plant a lot, then not enough will grow. This made sense, and it also applies to everyone in one way or another – most of us are trying to build new relationships, our networks, and our spheres of influence – in consulting, in our jobs, and throughout our lives.

But really, I don’t feel a lot like a farmer. I have found the image of planting seeds to be unfulfilling. Yes, planting them and watering them will yield growth, but there has always been a missing dynamic about this that has nagged me.

Recently, I have come to believe something new about fishing and farming. You see, I have discovered a more powerful image for building a network in consulting or any other world – instead of planting more seeds, I believe the objective needs to be putting more baited hooks in the water. It seems to me that planting seeds is just too linear – every outcome is a direct outcome of just one seed.

The “missing dynamic” in farming is the absence of the network effect. As I see it, by putting more and more baited hooks in the water, we can create an opportunity for both direct outcomes (a fish bites) and indirect outcomes that results from the inevitable interaction and network effect of all of our individual baited hooks being in the same pool.

In the case of my business, those baited hooks include both relationships and tools. The most powerful of these are relationships - the interaction among all the people who are touched can create unexpected opportunities. As our firm’s business coach Vance Caesar says, what’s most important is who knows you and also tells positive stories about you.

For me, such relationships include current and potential retained-search clients, other companies that come to understand me and our firm and could be referral sources, service providers of all kinds who know potential clients for our services, people who I get to know volunteering in the non-profit world, candidates in search projects who (hopefully) have a good experience working with me and our firm, and other people who I get to know in the interest of assisting them in building their careers.

Writing these stories and distributing them to a broad cross-section of the business community is an example of the tools side of this concept, just as is bringing people together and making connections for people who may get network-effect value from knowing each other.

Now think about yourself – I believe that most of us are trying to build new relationships, our networks, and our spheres of influence – whether it’s in consulting, in our jobs, or in many other aspects of our lives. The image of a pool full of appropriately and consistently baited hooks can also be a path for you to reach your goals.

I believe that we all fish, even if we don’t realize it. Maybe the passion of Donn and Matt is something that I actually do share, and maybe even a little of the peace and patience can rub off too. That’s a nice thought. I hope it is for you as well.

As a bit of a postscript, when I asked Donn about using his story as my example, he reminded me of a key fisherman’s adage – “You need to fish where the fish are”. Another good thing to remember. As always, please let me know if there is any way I can be of assistance to you.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Great Services Relationships

2008-07-20T10:07:00.001-07:00

A Relationship Story - Great Services Relationships (Including Survey Results)

June 2008

Everyone is either a user or a provider of services, if not both. I have thought about the keys to success in these relationships for the entire 5½ years I have been an executive search consultant with McDermott & Bull. I also knew there were a lot of answers to this question out there in the wonderful community of clients, colleagues, community leaders, and friends who have become part of my life over these years – so I thought I’d ask.

A month ago, I asked you a question about Services Relationships. I can say with pride that I have received over 500 responses (I thank you all), and I’m sure this extensive data represents a statistically significant sample. I wanted to share the powerfully enlightening learnings that have resulted – this project has been a very cool experience.

The Question:

Think about the keys to successful relationships in receiving or providing services. I’ve listed 8 factors in successful services relationships.

A. They do good work (quality of product/service)
B. They are fast (speed of execution)
C. They are cheap (cost competitiveness)
D. I believe in them (trustworthiness/honesty)
E. They are professional (impressiveness)
F. I can count on them (consistency/dependability)
G. I get extra things (collateral benefits like learning, other resources, perks)
H. I like working with them (enjoyable relationship)

Please just send me a quick email choosing 3 (and only 3) of these that you consider the most important (please just 3, although we all know “they’re all important”). Also, please identify yourself as primarily a “user” or a “provider” of services. I want to compare the two groups.

The Results:

Admittedly, the “3 and only 3” requirement caused many important things to be left out, but the idea was to force people to identify their idea of the most critical elements in these relationships. The total number of responses was 563; they were very balanced and included 302 users and 261 providers.

There were three clear-cut choices – Quality, included by 86% of respondents; Reliability by 76%; Trust by 62%. In fact, a full 1/3 of all responses reflected these as their choices. None of the other choices were even close – Speed (13%), Cost (14%), Professionalism (18%), Extras (2%), Likeability (29%)

In addition to these summary results that answer the obvious curiosity we all shared, I also wanted to observe the user/provider differences, and to learn specifically about corporate professional services relationships similar to my business. I identified Corporate Top Executives (67 of them) and other Corporate Managers (144 of them), as I felt these were the most likely buyers of professional services, and I also identified Service Providers like myself (113 of them) as differentiated from others who also responded as “providers”.

There were some very powerful observations that jump from the data as follows:

• Service Providers tend to have skewed perceptions of the following versus Corporate Managers:

o They underestimate the irreplaceability of excellence (Quality) – 82% vs. 90%
o They underestimate the need for quickness (Speed) – 10% vs. 17%
o They underestimate the priority on affordability (Cost) – 10% vs. 17%
o They underestimate the power of being counted on (Dependability) – 68% vs. 82%
o They severely overestimate the importance of being liked (Likeability) – 40% vs. 21%

• In addition, Corporate Managers included Trust in their responses far less often (54%) than Service Providers did (68%); and they gave absolutely no weight to “Extras”.

One area I feel warrants further investigation is the surprisingly low rating among Corporate Managers in the area of Trust (54.2%). It seems that they just can’t always believe in their providers. I’ll bet they would be happy if this rating could be higher; this seems like a big opportunity for trustworthy providers. I look forward to developing a future communication piece on the key elements of building trust, and I welcome your thoughts and suggestions on this subject.

Closing observation – I had wondered about the success keys to these relationships … well I now have my answer. What will I (and all of us) do with this learning? Of course, all of the factors are critical to success, but after seeing these results, how can the focus of our efforts not start with ensuring the excellence of our performance and finish with never letting our clients down? I know I’m going to try never to forget.

Thanks for sharing time with me, and once again, thanks to so many of you for your interest and participation.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Leading Tomorrow’s Leaders

2008-06-01T19:38:00.000-07:00

I recently attended an excellent panel discussion on “Managing Across Generations” hosted by the Business School at Vanguard University (I serve on the Advisory Council for them). The focus of the talk was on managing the Millennial Generation (maybe you know it as Gen Y) - people born between 1978 and 1998.

Why is this group so important? Considering the pace of retirements out of the baby-boom generation, who are still leading many of our institutions today, the importance of the Millennials will expand exponentially as new college classes keep graduating. In addition, you may agree that uncertainty looms around the next corner we are approaching, and the Millennials will be a huge factor in success or failure through that turning.

One of the panelists, Chip Espinoza, is a Vanguard Professor and EVP of LeadershipTraQ (www.leadershiptraq.com). He shared research about Millennials as expressed by a large population of managers who lead these individuals:

1. They want a trophy just for showing up.
2. They need constant affirmation.
3. They want to have a say from day one.
4. They think they work smarter and faster than the rest of us.
5. They want to know what I am going to do to help them get promoted.
6. They don’t give themselves to projects that they don’t find interesting.
7. They don’t seem interested in what I know.
8. They think any excuse will make being late okay.
9. They seem to have a short attention span.

Intriguing, eh? There is a tendency to think something is particularly unique about this generation versus others, and there may very well be big differences in the life-circumstances that form the perspective of this group – there may be some expectations and “entitlement” issues that are distinctive. However, I wondered whether the things that motivate them are really that different from everyone else.

After my last story on “The Pursuit of Reason” my friend Joe Bonaker sent me a classic article on motivating employees from the 1968 Harvard Business Review written by the leadership guru Fredrick Herzberg. It addressed the key factors influencing motivation. The following is a listing of the 6 factors that led to extreme job satisfaction:

Achievement, Recognition, the Work Itself, Responsibility, Advancement, and Growth

When I consider these fundamental building blocks of motivation, and then I compare them with the 9 characteristics of Millennials, I see an extraordinary parallel. In my estimation, what Herzberg’s research described as the keys to motivating employees 40 years ago are the same things that motivate Millennials today, especially being recognized, enjoying the work itself, being given responsibility, and moving forward in their careers.

Admittedly, there are some behavioral tendencies that differentiate young people today – extreme self confidence, an expectation of recognition and encouragement, and tendencies to be cavalier and sometimes undisciplined – but I’d argue that these things were also true for me when I was a “twenty something”.

I believe that Millennials are a resource we must fully endorse and support (beginning right now) if we hope to keep our businesses moving forward. It seems to me that it’s easy to fall into a trap and assume they are hard to manage and “not our problem”, but we let this happen at our extreme peril. It seems wise to me that we recognize that these youthful greats need the same things we did when we were their age (and that we still do now), and we should consider motivating them to be among our greatest opportunities.

Thanks for sharing time with me; I welcome your thoughts and feedback, and please feel free to share this with others.

A quick business update – I have successfully completed over 10 search projects in the past quarter for a wide variety of clients across a similar variety of positions. After 5½ years with McDermott & Bull I continue to be proud of the relationships I build with my clients. Most companies use retained search, and they tend to “go-to” who they already know for this trust-based service. I welcome your introductions to companies (or to the right people in your company) who may value knowing me and considering McDermott & Bull as a trusted provider.

A Relationship Story - In Pursuit of Reason

2008-06-01T19:31:00.000-07:00

So it’s the Spring of 2002 and I’m sitting in my office as a VP/GM in the Raytheon Services Company, and I have a couple of minutes to kill before getting to do a performance appraisal with my very favorite person on the team. Not wanting to get wrapped up in anything, I reach under my desk and pull out a random file from a box that is still there from my last “corporate office move”. I look in the file and am reminded of that big-deal 1999 project – the charts and detailed data – vivid images of the long nights with a team in a Maryland conference room, the red-eye flights, the huge presentations and gigantic decisions. But then I realize, not only is this stuff no longer applicable after three years, it is as if it never existed – there is simply no meaning any more. At that moment, I realized that I had to find a way for my work to make more sense and be more meaningful – I just didn’t want to waste my life. It wasn’t long before I quit my job and stepped off the cliff into what seemed like an uncertain world – however, nothing I have done since has ever felt meaningless again.

Now I am never asked to do anything that is not directly related to either the success of my clients or to building the community of relationships that continues to enable my business to grow. I believe that all of us seek the same path to a place where reason and sensibility drive our every choice.

With two amazing daughters deeply involved in the University social sciences world, the study of ideas is always present around our family. Over the recent year end holidays, I had the chance to be reminded of the pursuit of reason from three very disparate sources, all as a result of the influence of my daughters. I read three very different books, from three completely different political perspectives, but each that seemed to be asking the same questions about the pursuit of the reasonable and the sensible.

Since I had been fascinated with the “Distopia” classics 1984 by George Orwell and Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, my History-teacher daughter Katie encouraged me to read an early book that touched on the opposite idea – Utopia by Sir Thomas More. Written in 1516 about a mythical island world, the book seemed to pose questions about what the nobleman-author believed to be senseless and illogical about England under Henry VIII.

Next, as a Christmas present (only in my family I suppose) from my Political Science-student daughter Lisa, I read Ayn Rand’s 1957 book Atlas Shrugged that posed questions about the control of society on the reasoned judgments of the individual. It offered a “we’ll just take our marbles and go home” approach to curing what the author viewed as illogical and senseless about our society. It offered a very different vantage point, but was still an argument about reason.

And then again as a Christmas present it was Al Gore’s 2007 book The Assault on Reason as it takes aim on what he perceives as the disappearance of thinking and dialogue in our society. He bemoans the power of the 30-second TV spot, and poses questions hoping for more decision-making sense to be made. This was a third very different point of view, but still at its core about the same subject – reason.

From these three disparate examples it seemed glaringly apparent to me that the pursuit of reason is a fundamental objective of a thinking being. When I remember the empty feeling of looking through that file and realizing the wasted time and energy that it represented, it reminded me to make sure reason stays out in front of how I choose to use the ever-squeezed time I have available.

I’ll bet if you look around your life you might also find some pointlessness that you can shed, some stupid things that steal moments of your life. Sadly, when we waste precious time, we don’t get it back. Maybe our world doesn’t always insist that things make sense, but not to worry, we can expect more of ourselves.

Thanks for sharing time with me and I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

A Relationship Story - Everyone Deserves Better Choices

2008-06-01T19:29:00.000-07:00

My brother and I grew up in a brand new neighborhood in Buena Park in the early 1960’s, and while it was plain and simple, we had both of our hard working parents there with us. We were safe to grow up and make choices about how we could find happiness.

Roman and his brother Kenneth (Sammy Boy) Reyna grew up together in Santa Ana. There were a lot of influences that faced young people in their neighborhood, and a lot of them were bad. They had a lot fewer choices than my brother and I did; we got to participate with our Dad in a great parent-child program in the YMCA called Indian Guides. The time spent with the other families in the group reinforced the kind of caring family experience we enjoyed.

Roman and Sammy Boy had to take care of themselves while their Mother worked two or three jobs – when Dad was there he was selling drugs out of their house. The experience challenged Roman and Sammy Boy to find their own way through a world that seemed a lot less caring than they deserved.

Roman and Sammy Boy were each exposed to the same kind of challenges. With little to help them build strong self images, both boys were tested daily with the lure of another attraction – gang membership. Choosing the safety of this new “family” meant still another big choice – to take risks and compromise their values by falling into a life of crime. For Sammy Boy, this was his path. But Roman got to make a different choice.

Roman didn’t get to take part in an Indian Guides group with his Dad like my brother and I did. However, the YMCA did come to his rescue, enabling him to be part of a community of young people that lived a character-centered life. Roman took the hand that was extended to him and got involved in after school athletic programs offered at no cost to those in need by the YMCA serving his neighborhood.

Today, Roman Reyna is a Director of Youth Development programs for the YMCA of Orange County and is devoting his life to changing young lives for the better – reaching out the same charitable and caring hand to others that so changed his life. Today, Sammy Boy is in prison as a 3 strikes offender.

3 years ago, my friend Greg Arbues extended a hand to me and offered the chance to be a part of the YMCA movement again as a volunteer. As a member of the Board of Directors of the YMCA of Orange County I see my role as helping to create as many Roman Reynas as possible – and to see the thousands of lives changed that more Roman Reynas can make possible. You can click on the following link for a video featuring the story of Roman and Sammy Boy.

http://www.ymcaoc.org/support/index.php (Scroll down the page to “Roman’s Story” YMCA Video) – FYI, the video is 8 minutes long, and worth every second).
If the link is not live, paste the following into your browser: http://www.ymcaoc.org/support/index.php

There are a lot of people in need in Orange County. Did you know that, nationwide, 25% of school-age kids do not have a supervised activity between 3pm and 6pm on schooldays? Did you know that 50% of high school dropouts in the U.S. come from 15% of the schools? Our most troubled communities are perfect examples of these problems, including Santa Ana where we are 3/4 of the way to raising the $20M we need to build a YMCA facility within 3 miles of 80,000 kids.

YMCA of Orange County – We are currently reaching out to build relationships with new friends, volunteers, and contributors. Your donations go directly to programs supporting at-risk and underserved youth and families including the same after-school programs in high-risk communities that saved Roman. Our mission is to change lives for the better. You can make a big difference.

To make a donation and change lives click on this link. https://www.keysecure.com/ymcaoc.org/support/donate.php (You do not need to be a YMCA member to make a donation)
If the link is not live, paste the following into your browser: https://www.keysecure.com/ymcaoc.org/support/donate.php
If you would like to get involved as a volunteer or would like more information please just let me know and I’ll get you connected with the right members of the YMCA team.

Thank you for sharing your time. I welcome your thoughts and feedback.

A Relationship Story - Committing to Our Dreams

2008-06-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

Finding fulfillment is not for lightweights. If it was easy, we’d all have it. Faced with the real world, we have to work at it to have a chance. Our lives need to be about dreams, about taking risks – not stupid ones – meaningful, turning-point risks that keep us from being victims of the norm.

But, it’s not only about taking risks, even the right ones … it is much more important to commit fully to the choices we’ve made. Without that commitment, any risk is likely to be foolhardy. I want to share three related stories about good friends that help to illustrate what I mean.

Jesse Kurvink was always a bright and talented kid, achieving at a high level, including being Junior Class President at Huntington Beach High School. He was also in the most popular rock band at HB High. While many kids were preparing college applications, Jesse and the boys were being courted by Drive-Thru Records.

Jesse and his friends soon had a big choice to make: a big risk to take. Jesse skipped his senior year, passed the GED to get his diploma, and prepared to hit the road in 2003. Jesse – whose parents had been friends of mine since before he was born - told me that he would give this a try for as long as the ride lasted, and then he would be off to college.

Fast forward: a few weeks ago, I saw Jesse, now 22, play with his band, Hellogoodbye, as the headliner at The Grove of Anaheim. Their 2006 hit song, Here in Your Arms, has gone Platinum – 1 million copies sold. After 2½ years on the road, the band is coming home to record their next CD and see how much longer the ride can last. Jesse is a committed risk taker, and success came early.

Back around 1994, another young man, this one in Seattle, had similar dreams. Damian DeRobbio didn’t have Jesse’s advantage; he didn’t get signed out of high school. For the next 5 years he pursued a musician’s life before finally connecting with the right group; in 1999, Damian started playing bass with an established Latin-Reggae group called the B-Side Players.

Damian’s Dad and I went to see them play in early 2006 at the Roxy in Hollywood; I remember Damian, then 32 years old, saying to us after a show: “All I want is to make one record, that’s all, and then I’ll get a real job.”

In the summer of 2006, the B-Side Players were signed to Concord Picante Records and their debut CD, Fire in the Youth, was released this year and was the #1 Album on the ITUNES Latino Alternative charts. Damian and the group are now on the road for the next year to promote the CD and to build their fan base; it looks like his dream has become a reality. Damian is a committed risk taker, and success came after a long hard ride.

Back in time a bit, in 1983, Erick Pipes also had similar dreams. He hit the road at 17 as part of a tight touring band, but instead of a recording contract, Erick and the band got to see the world and have a great 15-year ride as professional musicians. But when his first child was on the way, he knew it was time to call this phase of his life a success and go back home.

Along with the start of his family, Erick’s post-road dream also included finishing his degree and becoming a teacher. His life experience as a performer helps him support the artistic lives of his own kids who perform in Community Theater, and it also helps make him a great volunteer at the theater and a positive influence on a whole lot of other people too. I’ll bet he has a similar effect on the 5th graders who are lucky enough to be in his class.

Just like Jesse and Damian, Erick is a committed risk taker. He took the risk and chased the dream as a musician, then leveraged the experiences into fulfilling new dreams – just like Jesse and Damian will down the road.

Now let’s face it, we don’t all aspire to be rock stars. I am certainly no rock star, but the risk I took leaving my own comfortable corporate life required the same kind of commitment to see things through.

When you think about your own lives, it could be that taking the path less traveled may lead you closer to your dreams. It just may be that a dream is only a risk when it’s not supported by the commitment to make it come true.

Thanks for sharing time with me and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

An exciting update on a recent story: A recent story of mine – “Building a Subculture of Starfish,” – was about our firm’s experience with our own decentralized movement and our participation in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. Rod Beckstrom, the author of the book that was referenced in that story – The Starfish and the Spider – issues a newsletter called The Starfish Report, and my story was featured in the November issue. You can view it at: http://www.beckstrom.com/Newsletter

Deserving the Best on Your Team - Winning the War for Talent from the Inside Out

2007-11-06T12:46:00.000-08:00

Why do some companies have content, loyal, and highly productive employees while other companies can claim none of these and only wish they could?

Is it that the smarty pants company where everybody’s happy has the nicest building? Is it because of the awesome website? Is it the cool products?

The answers are NO, NO, and NO! Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not like there’s anything wrong with any of these things, it’s just that I don’t believe it’s necessarily about trappings, flash, or hardware. I believe it’s about deserving.

How does your company ensure it “deserves” the best talent?

First, your company must “Invest like you care” – People that will win for you must be valued the way employees believe they should be – not just based on the balance sheet. If employees are treated as liabilities versus assets, you can forget loyalty and passion.

And what does “invest” really mean? I believe this includes 4 key factors: (1) how you find and secure the best talent available; (2) how you pay people what they are worth; (3) how you ensure people have the tools they need to succeed; and (4) how you enable employees to live a fulfilling and balanced life.

The possibilities are endless for a company that has the right people, the best people. If you don’t invest to find, pay, support, and fulfill the best people, can you really expect to get and keep them?

After making the right investments, it’s time to “Listen like you care.” People need to know they matter, and the best way to show it is to really listen to them. Just consider the legendary Harvard business study that described “The Hawthorne Effect.” The study was designed to test changes in productivity resulting from changes in the work environment.

In the study, researchers had the lighting increased in the workplace and saw productivity rise. Then they decreased the lighting and assumed productivity would decrease – but again it increased. The Hawthorne researchers had stumbled upon the fact that workers were just responding to being paid attention to!

Now couple that result with how you personally feel about being listened to and having others demonstrate they believe your opinion is important – isn’t that a great source of fulfillment, loyalty, and motivation?

So maybe your company invests and listens well, but you can still struggle mightily to increase employee contentment, loyalty, and productivity unless you also “Trust like you care.” In The 8th Habit, From Effectiveness to Greatness by Steven R. Covey, the results of a Harris Poll revealed that only 15% believe they work in a high-trust environment. Can we really be content, loyal, and productive when trust does not exist?

Trust comes from many things, obviously including people feeling they are safe from harm. But how about people feeling they can be what they are and do not have to conform unreasonably? I believe that if you want the greatest commitment from people, you’re far more likely to get it if people are asked to be great at what they are, versus trying to be what you want them to be. Leveraging people’s strengths is the ultimate act of leadership trust.

I recall from my own sometimes-painful senior leadership experience that trust is defined by much more than people feeling safe from harm. What I learned is that people really need to be believed in, and also that accomplishing this requires true leadership greatness.

Ask yourself if your company deserves to get and keep the best people. I suggest you consider using these key factors – investing, listening, and trusting – as a checklist to assess your company’s leadership greatness. Ask yourself if your company really cares.

Thanks for sharing time with me and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

A quick update on my search consultancy: I have had the great pleasure of receiving a number of recent referrals to new clients by existing clients and friends in the market. I cannot tell you how much I appreciate these expressions of confidence. Please keep in mind that I am always interested in meeting smart, sophisticated, and principled companies that welcome the value that our firm’s professional search consultancy brings to them. The right people are hard to find and even harder to match to a culture, and I’m proud to be able to help my clients accomplish these goals.

Book Recommendation: The 8th Habit, From Excellence to Greatness – Steven R. Covey

Sincerely,

Jeff Black, Principal Consultant

McDermott & Bull Executive Search

Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310

2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618

black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

Relationship Story - Building a Subculture of Starfish

2007-10-04T22:33:00.000-07:00

A Relationship Story
Building a Subculture of Starfish

While polls show that confidence in our democracy and our government is near an all-time low, volunteerism and civic participation since the 1970’s are near all-time highs, with 27% of Americans volunteering in 2006. Political scientists are perplexed about this. If confidence is so low, how is it that increasing numbers of people are volunteering?

In the book The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom, recommended to me by my friend Russ Williams who is the founder of the Passkeys Foundation Jefferson Center for Character Education, the power of decentralized groups and movements is examined - the power of leaderless organizations.

The book describes how a spider dies when its head is cut off, but when you cut a starfish into pieces, each piece just grows into another starfish. There is no head and no leader. The book also describes how decentralized movements also share common characteristics including being driven by a unifying ideology and being inspired by a catalyst.

It appears that an ideology in our country is driving increased volunteerism, even in the face of unprecedented Machiavellian forces and an “it’s all about me” and “empty glitz” culture. What can we do, as individuals and in our companies, to contribute to growth of the movement to do well by doing good (a phrase coined by Benjamin Franklin)?

We can contribute to this emerging subculture of difference makers in two ways – through our works and through our words. We all know that others (employees and our own kids) learn more from what we do than what we say; we must actively set an example. However, our choice of language and the power of our words can set a tone to encourage growing momentum toward difference making.

Here is what seems to be a good example. Within McDermott & Bull, the firm where I serve as an executive search consultant, a “starfish” kind of movement has begun – spearheaded by Jenn Moody, one of our team members. On September 23rd, a team of 20+ from our firm is participating in the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure to fight breast cancer, a disease that affects 1 of every 8 women (yes, that’s right, 1 in 8!)

With Jenn encouraging us (our catalyst), and inspired by the Mother of another of our team members currently recovering from the disease (our ideology), we have joined this cause to raise both awareness about the disease and money to help serve those who can’t afford testing or treatment. The volunteer effort among the people in our firm is a great example of a decentralized movement that will help to change the priorities, language, and the example set by those of us who participate.

Why should we consider doing things like this? Why not just go on our Machiavellian way and maximize wealth and pleasure without spending time and energy trying to help those who have less than we do?

Beyond it being just the right thing to do, there is also a very practical argument. Through our efforts to support underprivileged people and communities, some who otherwise may make choices out of desperation or disillusionment, we may help to reduce poor choices; I would argue that desperation and disillusionment contribute to a lot of ills in our society, so working to minimize them is in the best interest of everyone.

How much better could our world be if volunteerism, and the caring that goes along with it, could increase from the current 27% to even just 30-35%? It’s not so much to ask - the 27% number was only 21% less than 20 years ago. Our works and our words can help to make this possible. Let’s all consider what we can do to help make the example greater through our works and the voice louder through our words.

Thanks for sharing your time with me. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Recommended Links: Passkeys Foundation Jefferson Center for Character Education – Russ Williams http://www.passkeys.org/index.html

Book Recommendation: The Starfish and the Spider by Ori Brafman and Rod Beckstrom

Sincerely, Jeff BlackPrincipal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive SearchCell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 3102 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.blogger.com/Application%20Data/Microsoft/Word/www.mbsearch.net

Relationship Story - A Glimpse of Hometown Reality

2007-10-04T22:28:00.001-07:00

A Relationship Story
A Glimpse of Hometown Reality

This Spring I traveled with my great friends Tom, Roger, and Bob on our annual ball park pilgrimage, this time to Chicago, Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and capped off at Yankee Stadium in New York. This would be fulfilling enough for a bunch of baseball nuts, but it seems we always have to make it a full-scale cultural experience as well.

This time, just as we had the year before in Roger’s New Jersey hometown, we took a side trip to visit Bob’s hometown in New Castle, Pennsylvania. The impact on all of us was thoroughly unexpected and taught two big lessons for me – one personal and one professional. I think you all will be able to relate as well.

Bob wanted to know better what the town his folks grew up in was like. New Castle had been a thriving city in the first half of the 20th century right up until about the time Bob’s folks moved the family to California.

The town park must have been an obvious source of pride with a wonderful meeting hall, a giant community swimming pool, and a beautifully crafted lattice-covered merry-go-round. You could envision the bustle of activity in those early days with hundreds of kids swimming on summer days and a festive carnival atmosphere in a beautiful hometown setting.

However, what we saw was something else, something sad. What we saw was a town that time had passed by.

The meeting hall was still being used by a dwindling group of aging long-time residents, but the dance club itself was doing all the work to keep things going and the place looked rundown. Down a little hill was the intricate lattice building where a merry-go-round once stood but had long since vanished. Across a bridge and up a hill was what remained of the pool and locker rooms, now chained up, waterless, and covered with the graffiti of the bored remaining youth of the town.

Stopping to talk to a man who was there with his little girl we were struck by his comment about how the town offered no opportunity for the young people, only minimum wage jobs. You see, the town is a bit too far from Pittsburgh for a reasonable commute, and all the young folks cannot wait to move away.

None of this seems too surprising, but the ironic and powerful images were the plaques all around the park that proudly proclaimed the major park renovation project funded by the State just 15 years ago. Just imagine the passion of the civic leaders that lobbied hard to make this happen, yet there were really no signs that the effort had any lasting effect, as even this facelift had long-since fallen.

It seemed to all of us that the town could not see what an anachronism it had sadly become, holding on to hopes that the Music Man scene of the uniformed brass band marching on parade would stay true for New Castle forever.

For me there are two parallels that hit me hard. The personal one is watching our two college-age daughters establish themselves and “grow away” from Laura and me. It’s easy to try to hold on too tight. I’ll bet a lot of you can relate.

At the same time I can’t help but feel that many businesses struggle to face a rapidly-changing world as creative competition has crept in and many new options like globalization are an ever-present force.

Parents and businesses alike are faced with the same challenge – to avoid the trap of holding on too tightly to their Music Man ideal in the face of grim reality.

New Castle, Pennsylvania has not had a clear view of reality and seems to be losing the war. In our families and our companies we must not allow ourselves to suffer the same fate. We must grasp the challenge of releasing control and embracing the new world we face. Our kids, our customers, and our family and business stakeholders deserve no less.

Thanks for sharing time with me. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.blogger.com/www.mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - Igniting the Creative Spark

2007-07-17T18:15:00.000-07:00

A Relationship Story
Igniting the Creative Spark

Creativity is the fuel source for innovation and growth in successful businesses. It’s true for me in my McDermott & Bull retained search practice and it’s equally true for major enterprises like Ingram Micro, The Capital Group, and The Irvine Company. For all of us, unleashing success could be a function of unlocking creativity. So how does it work?

After doing some reading on this subject, I realized this could be a perfect opportunity to learn what our community thinks about igniting creativity. Recently I asked all of you:

“Think about creativity in organizations. Do you believe that creativity is better maximized in organizations through a culture that strongly encourages individuality or one that strongly encourages teaming?”

I received a staggering 575 responses, and I thank you all for that. The community response was a whopping 75% majority believing creativity is better fostered in organizations that emphasize teaming versus individuality.

Also, 10% of the people wouldn’t or couldn’t answer the question. Of course, it’s obvious the question was limiting and simplistic, but it wasn’t a trick question. You see, during my reading on this subject I had a hunch about what most business people might believe about this. Yes, in fact, the experts disagree with our majority. I thought it might be fascinating to juxtapose the prevailing perceptions against the empirical evidence. Here’s what I learned:

First, my friend Bertha Masuda, Founder and Principal of the Compensation Solutions Consulting firm Vivient Consulting, had shared an article with me called “Igniting the Creative Spark” by Professor Barry Staw from the U.C. Berkeley Haas School of Business.

Staw’s 15 years of research on creativity contended that, by every measure, groups that encourage individualism proved more creative than groups emphasizing teaming, and the advantages of an individualistic culture are especially important when innovation is the explicit goal. Now don’t think I’m suggesting there is no value in teaming, just stay with me here…

Soon after reading this article I read a fascinating book called The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki. It describes how the solutions derived from the collective wisdom of the crowd are always better than the solution of even the most prestigious expert. However - and here is the most compelling learning - the members of the crowd must be sufficiently independent to allow their individual creativity to combine into a “perfect” answer. Answers from teams that lacked member independence proved ineffective.

Surowiecki suggested that issues such as peer pressure and “groupthink” can significantly stifle the expression of individual creativity in a team setting.

An example of valuing the individual can be found in one of our most iconic modern institutions – Google (a McDermott & Bull client, by the way). The bright Googlers get to spend 20% of their time free to pursue projects of their choice, and many of Google’s best ideas have been generated as a function of this unique practice.

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that 75% of us are wrong. Teaming is highly valued by all of us. No one would question that great ideas are fueled by people working together. However, a zeal for teaming as a panacea for every approach and solution may dilute the extraordinary power of individual creativity in organizations. So test the experts! Here’s an idea you could try with your teams:

For your next brainstorming, instead of people attending without thinking in advance, try asking them to work on ideas individually. Even consider asking them to send ideas in anonymously, especially if people might be unwilling to share their thoughts in a group. Just imagine the power of a brainstorming if you really had all the ideas instead of just the ones people will blurt out in a meeting. If the experts are right at all, maybe the team’s true potential might be realized.

Thank you for sharing time with me. I welcome your thoughts and comments. I would be pleased to serve as a speaker for your companies or groups on subjects pertaining to acquiring and keeping the best talent, and of course, please let me know if I can assist with the talent acquisition needs of your company or others you know. Thank you.

Links and References:

Bertha Masuda – Vivient Consulting www.vivient.com

www.ingrammicro.com www.capgroup.com www.irvinecompany.com

Article Reference: “Individualism-Collectivism and Group Creativity” by Barry Staw and Jack Goncalo, published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, May 2006.

Book Recommendation: The Wisdom of Crowds by James Surowiecki.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - The Entrepreneur in Us All

2007-07-17T18:12:00.000-07:00

A Relationship Story
The Entrepreneur in Us All

What does it really mean to be entrepreneurial? It’s easy to think of “entrepreneur” from a narrow-view perspective – the business person running his own show. I can relate to this view, as I never thought of myself as entrepreneurial when I was in my corporate life, and I truly feel like I’m now “running my own show” (even though I am part of a wonderful firm) since it’s really up to me to build my own business.

However, there is a more universal meaning of “entrepreneurial” that can be identified with by so many more people…

Here’s what I mean. Think about the choices you face every day relative to: (1) doing things the way they have always been done, or (2) trying something new. Just being brave enough to envision new possibilities is really entrepreneurial.

The creativity to envision new ideas, coupled with the nerve to step out and try them - key elements of an entrepreneurial life. You don’t have to run your own business to be a difference maker. You just have to broaden your view of possibility.

Here are some great examples:

“Entrepreneur” is: The ability to see things differently from others and help them learn.

“Entrepreneur” is: Finding ways to waste less and less of your time (and life) by doing things smarter all the time.

“Entrepreneur” is (even this): Proactively solving a problem between yourself and another person, thereby making the relationship work productively versus counterproductively.

Many of us who do not qualify under the conventional definition of entrepreneur may really be: (1) changing ourselves and others for the better in behavior or thought, (2) adding significant value to people and circumstances through creative energy, or (3) living bravely by trusting our own instincts and doing what we think is right.

People who do these things are entrepreneurial just like business owners. They take risks, they are passionate about their ideas and beliefs, and they care about themselves and others enough to try and make a difference. If you are one of these people, give yourself a gift by recognizing these as achievements, give yourself credit for them, and look for ways you can help others see the value they bring to their own life by doing the same.

In the inventive and enlightening marketing book for entrepreneurs, First, Best, or Different by John Bradley Jackson, a wealth of ideas are shared about how the entrepreneur can best position for success. While the book is designed for business owners under the conventional definition of “entrepreneur”, its simple and straightforward thinking offers insight to us all about enriching ourselves in our new and broader definition of living entrepreneurially.

Thank you for sharing time with me. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Book Recommendation: First, Best, or Different - What Every Entrepreneur Needs to Know About Niche Marketing by John Bradley Jackson. View John’s Blog at http://firstbestordifferent.com/blog

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Leadership Part II, The Servant a Team Deserves

2007-07-17T18:07:00.000-07:00

A Relationship Story
Leadership Part II - The Servant a Team Deserves

I want to thank you all for an extraordinary response to my recent story entitled “Shining the Hot Lights on a Leadership Lesson”. I received 200 responses from you with great feedback and strong feelings about leadership. If you missed this story, it’s pasted in below so you may review it if you wish.

That story discussed an intentionally limited view of what makes a great leader – the gift of trust and creating a “community” in the team. Many of your observations addressed other tools that make a great leader, and those thoughts are absolutely correct:

(1) Be strategically visionary
(2) Choose the right people
(3) Ensure ideal business processes
(4) Set appropriate goals
(5) Measure accountability
(6) Drive execution

Of course, a great leader has to ensure all of these things happen.

Now here I go again with my deviant approach. I believe a leader can be effective with all 6 of these tools and still fail to build a great business. These 6 tools themselves cannot serve to build loyalty and passion in people; they do not create the synergy among passionate people that makes a business great. I learned this lesson (a bit painfully) during my own experience leading businesses.

For 10 years, I led Hughes/Raytheon Services businesses of up to 1000 employees and $130M in annual revenue. These 6 leadership tools were required in the business, and we employed them well. However, 360 reviews showed there was a lack of passion and commitment among the team, and this was hard for me to understand or to control.

Also during these years, I noticed how extraordinarily well people related to my friend, mentor, and senior staff advisor, retired Navy Captain Ed Whelan. There was a natural comfort level everyone felt in working with Ed; he seemed to bring the best out in everyone. As a mentor Ed tried to help me see the way my leadership behaviors affected the feelings and commitment of the people on the team. I didn’t get it.

As my leadership career developed and expanded, I took on new challenges and solved big problems, but I didn’t find the key to earning the heartfelt passion of the teams I led. There was something missing.

Fast forward to early 2005; I was beginning my 3rd year with McDermott & Bull after having decided to leave my corporate life behind. I was feeling increasingly comfortable and effective as a search consultant and had built a strong practice. About this time, I was loaned a book called The Servant by James Hunter. The book described what I believe is the essence of true leadership – selfless, authentic, genuine, and passionate commitment to serving those you lead.

Up to this 2-year point I believed the difference between my old and new lives was that consulting matched my strengths so much better. While this is true, The Servant showed me the real biggest factor was that I had not sufficiently understood the keys to successful Servant Leadership. This was a big hole in my leadership skill set. While I could use the 6 tools above intellectually, Servant Leadership just isn’t intellectual.

Looking back, I now understand what was so special about my friend and mentor Ed. He naturally understood the role of Servant to others - the essence of true leadership. He would have the right answer for these key questions: Do those you serve grow as individuals? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous and more likely themselves to become servants?

I think people deserve a leader who is a true servant, and for the business, there is no replacement for the passion, loyalty, and commitment this can build inside those who we lead.

Thank you for sharing time with me. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Book Recommendation: The Servant by James Hunter

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Goodwill Commitment, a Tribute

2007-07-17T15:46:00.000-07:00

A Relationship Story

Goodwill Commitment - A Tribute

2006 was a great year in many ways for me and I hope for all of you as well, and this note will serve as my version of a New Year message, but for me it’s much more.

2006 also brought a couple of extraordinary new challenges to my life. During this year of great experiences in my family, my business, my volunteer activities, and many personal highlights, I also suffered the loss of dear loved ones including my own “Pop”, Charlie Black, and my closest friend in my business life, Chris Cottey.

My Dad squeezed every drop out of his wonderful 84 years, and there are really no regrets. I’m proud to have served on his ship. Losing Chris is a lot different, and there is no way to feel anything but regret about the great years lost. Yes, this is sad, but I’m not looking for anyone to send me a message of condolence. That is not why I needed to write this story.

I want to share a great learning that I have taken away from these experiences, one that I did not expect. You see, it started when I became the unexpected beneficiary of a wonderful piece of life called hospice.

In case you are unfamiliar with hospice, it is a process that allows people to pass away in the most peaceful and nurturing environment possible – in their own homes among loved ones. Hospice is great for the person who is passing, but our hospice experience offered an unexpected epiphany. You see, the really big impact was not on my Dad, it was on me.

These wonderful hospice people make sure every interaction with family members is as caring and sensitive as possible. Their objective with everyone is to “do no harm”. Their deep and heartfelt caring was clear in how they treated me. It made everything so much easier. And while experiencing my loss, to my surprise, I found that I was being taught an extraordinary lesson about my own personal responsibility in dealing with others.

I realized that I must commit myself to treat others with goodwill at heart; I must do it all the time, one interaction after another.

But being realistic, it’s not as if every interaction is easy and positive. Sometimes news may not be good and tough decisions have to be made. However for me, even when the news is hard to deliver, goodwill from the heart must be the foundation I draw on for both positive and the more difficult constructive/negative interactions.

Living this way will serve as the greatest tribute I can offer to both my Dad and my friend Chris.

So Happy New Year my friends; for me, it’s truly a Brand New Year, and I plan to be a better person for the lessons I learned from hospice.

You know, I really could have learned the same things before, if I had just paid closer attention to the way people were treated by Charlie Black and Chris Cottey.

So, how about you? Are there special people in your life that could inspire you and change you…but it’s not happening? Well, just like me, maybe you need to just pay a little closer attention.

Thanks for sharing time with me. I wish you all an extraordinarily fulfilling 2007.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black

Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search

Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310

2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618

black@mbsearch.net www.mbsearch.net http://www.jeffblackmcdermottbull.blogspot.com/

A Relationship Story - Shining the Hot Lights on a Leadership Lesson

2006-12-16T07:29:00.000-08:00

November 2006

A Relationship Story - Shining the Hot Lights on a Leadership Lesson

A simple view on leadership, and a story to support the ideas…

Leadership is about accomplishing 2 things:

(1) Giving people the feeling that they are trusted and believed in to do what they truly can do.

(2) Creating an environment where people can do #1 above, in a community with others also doing #1 above, and for the community to experience synergy by getting more than the sum of the individual parts.

I just had an amazing experience that drove these simple points home for me better than any ever has:

I have been involved for years in a family theater group in Brea, and the arts leadership in the City decided to produce a play celebrating the very interesting 100+ year history of the community. My Theater-Dad buddies Roger, Chuck, Bob, and I wanted to support our friends in the City and offered to play roles in their show if they needed us (yes, I’ll admit, it’s not as if they would be twisting our amateur-ham arms!). Well, they took us up on our offer and we were cast in the show to work with accomplished Playwright and Director Bill Mittler and a diverse cast that included a bunch of experienced and professional actors. We quickly realized that they were not going to cut us novices the same slack we usually get – they didn’t say “oh they’re just Dads” – this was serious and I was sweating from the start.

As we progressed through the 4 weeks of rehearsals leading up to the performances, I found myself being stretched way beyond my own “clueless rookie” comfort zone, and I kept expecting the guru-like Director to expose me for the imposter that I was. But we just kept on and never got the hook, and I found myself getting more and more comfortable and confident as we progressed toward opening night, even though enduring the inevitable rehearsal meltdown just 2 nights before we were to open. But Bill stuck with me and my pals and never appeared worried that we might sink his show and discredit a brilliant piece of writing. So opening night arrived…and everything went off without a hitch. The run of the show ended up a complete success showcasing Bill’s great story. The Business Observation - based on the endorsement of people he trusted, Bill had confidence that we could do this and do it well, and he treated us as if he trusted us and believed in us…and we succeeded in meeting his expectations while exceeding our own.

There was another fascinating group experience that went along with these individual challenges. A cast in a show (31 people in this case) has to have an enormous amount of faith in each other, trusting that everyone else will do their job well. It is impossible for any individual player to have control over the entire outcome, and while individual failures can sink a show, there is amazing and extraordinary potential that comes from the collective shared trust that a cast experiences. Everyone has to execute individually but always be ready to pick up someone else’s line or react and solve a problem when the unexpected happens. The Business Observation - if Bill the Director and leader had not created an environment where we could thrive individually but also bond in a trusted fashion as a group we would not end up becoming the “family” that it takes to succeed together when the lights come on.

Now take a minute to think about your business environment and ask yourself if this would be the same kind of story that people would tell. Remembering when I was a senior leader in my corporate life I now can see that truly trusting others, releasing control, and creating an environment of shared trust were clearly my toughest leadership challenges. I sort of wish that many years ago I could have reached the insight I just experienced being stretched-but-trusted in Bill’s show. Thanks for sharing your time with me. I welcome your thoughts and impressions; please feel free to share this with others who would get value from these ideas.

A Relationship Story - The Truth and the Trusted Advisor

2006-11-27T21:53:00.000-08:00

October 2006

…Consultants telling clients what they want to hear, or worse yet, just regurgitating the client’s own words and getting paid for it. Ever heard that one? Ugh.

A favorite saying of mine goes like this: “Buy it from someone you trust, even if you pay a little more, and you’re sure to have one less worry.” We all have enough worries already.

There’s a big difference between telling the truth with the intent to help versus just saying what will get you paid. It’s truthtelling that defines the real Trusted Advisor. Trust is just too broad and too easy to interpret; it can be far too transactional. Like a friend recently said, trust can be as simple as not counting the coins when you get change. However, Truth is an unquestionable concept, and there is no way to wiggle out of it. It’s either true or it’s not.

In “If Aristotle Ran General Motors”, Tom Morris describes this concept wonderfully, stating that “what you must do is always be true to your own deepest instincts about what the truth is and how it can best be used as the basis for your actions.” Now I’m not suggesting this means you have to be stupid and get yourself beaten up by not recognizing that things sometimes are better left unsaid. However, it reminds us that when we say it, it needs to meet the “looking-in-the-mirror” test.

So let me ask you, in running your business, are you holding your trusted advisors accountable for the truth? Don’t your stakeholders deserve it? And what about those of us who are delivering services and hoping to deserve the trust of clients and partners? Are we meeting the “looking in the mirror test?” After all, beyond the fact that truthtelling is the right thing to do, it’s really just good business. The fact that some people believe otherwise – that truth is just another business “variable” – makes the truth the most compelling of all business discriminators. Make sure it’s yours.

Thanks for sharing your time. I welcome your thoughts and comments. Also, this could be a good centerpiece kind of ethics message that I might offer in a speaking or panel role to support your company or group. I’ve done some great speaking/panel events this year with diverse groups including UCI, Meggitt/Endevco (a client), the Vance Caesar Group, FEI, and OC/MBA, and I would welcome the opportunity to discuss similar ideas you might have. Thanks again.

A Relationship Story - Succeeding in Our Moments of Truth

2006-09-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

The Dog Days of Summer 2006

There are subtle, but critical differences between the winner and the also-ran. A great example is something we are all faced with every day in our business lives, and I had a recent reminder of this valuable lesson. It came to me when I was faced with one of those uncontrollable and vexing disasters that seem so much like the sky is falling. You know the kind of moment I mean.

It also happened to be a baseball moment (of course, you say?), but you’ll really get the point here, so hang in with me. It’s not really about baseball.

So my “sky is falling” moment happens one morning, and I turn on the Astros and Tigers game (really, I’m not making this up, I do this on XM Radio) and the great veteran pitcher Andy Pettitte of the Astros is on the mound in a tight game. With 2 outs and runners on first and third, he coaxes the perfect inning-ending ground ball, but the shortstop boots it. Run scores. Pettitte grinds his teeth and you know he’s steamed. Even the veteran, the former World Series star, struggles to maintain his concentration. He walks the next guy to load the bases. He goes to a full count on the next guy: 3 balls, 2 strikes, 2 outs, bases loaded. Now the test has arrived. What will happen next? How will Pettitte react? A bad pitch now and it could be a double to clear the bases and the game would totally slip away. He has to reach down deep to come up with the right pitch. No margin for error. But this is no also-ran, this is a winner. So, when it really counts, Andy Pettitte the winner comes up with a great 3 and 2 pitch - and it’s a weak grounder to end the inning. His team is still in the game.

I was struck by the parallel between this classic ballgame moment and the moments of truth we face every day. I realized that success in business, a world of uncontrollables like the shortstop’s error, is really all about making great 3 and 2 pitches when the bases are loaded. The difference between winning and frustration can often be traced to these key moments, these critical inflection points. It can be about making big go/no-go decisions, or maybe it’s that key opportunity when your insightful comment at the perfect time can create a breakthrough in understanding, or it might be saying just the right thing at the right moment to maintain trust and confidence in a personal relationship. It can be many things, but it all comes down to making great 3 and 2 pitches.

When we are faced with these “sky is falling” moments, the key to success is the very next step we take, it’s the perfect 3 and 2 pitch to save the game. We can’t make the shortstop’s error go away. All we can control is our own behavior and our own next step. Everybody is watching, and that next step really has to be good.

Thanks for sharing your time. I welcome your thoughts and comments.

A quick update on business – I had the pleasure of being recognized for having both the highest revenue and the most new search engagements among McDermott & Bull consultants for both the 1st and 2nd quarters of 2006. I would like to thank all of you who help make this possible through referrals, networking support, and helping to build a positive brand for me and our firm in the market. I will continue to do everything I can to continue trying to help all of you whenever possible. Thank you all!

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search
Cell: (714) 356-1949 Office: (949) 753-1700 ext. 310
2 Venture, Suite 100 Irvine, CA 92618
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - Putting Priority Where It Really Matters

2006-07-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

Like so many of you, things seem to be going well in my business. While that’s exciting and satisfying, I ask myself every day whether I’m doing enough of the right things in the community to reciprocate for this opportunity and privilege. Maybe you are, or should be, asking yourself the same question.

3 seemingly unrelated recent experiences helped bring clarity to something really important:

First - My friend Jose Toves, with whom I've spent countless hours together as volunteers in the community theater along with our kids, recently left his long-time corporate role to seek a more fulfilling and personally-aligned way to spend his professional time. As a reflection of his transition learning, and knowing me and the things I always seem to be talking about like ethics and authenticity, Jose offered me a generous and powerful gift - John C. Maxwell’s book “There’s No Such Thing as ‘Business’ Ethics”. In the book, in discussing the importance and value of living by the Golden Rule, Maxwell describes the importance of priorities. He asks the question: “In 50 or 100 years what are you doing now that will still be important?” Sort of a chilling thought.

Second – I read a compelling book by Barbara Ehrenreich called “Nickle and Dimed – On (Not) Getting By in America”, describing the ridiculous challenges faced by low-wage workers in our society. It helped me realize how easy it is to let poverty be invisible while I go along living my privileged life. I did a little research and learned that:

37 Million Americans are below the “poverty line” -- This is 7 Million more than just 4 years ago – a disturbing trend

40% of annual family incomes are below $35,000 (40%!!!!)

Now, think about how much tougher things are in Orange County and other high cost environments, where low wage jobs are still low wage jobs, but:

The “Housing Wage” is $21.12/hour (annually $42,000+) for a one-bedroom apartment at the Fair Market Rent. http://www.ocbc.org/pdf/WorkForce05final.pdf
For perspective - 2 full-time workers in a household, even at a generous $10/hour (beyond many low-wage workers' reach), cannot meet the Housing Wage. Now, how about a single parent?

Third – I heard the song “Gotta Serve Somebody” by Bob Dylan…Very poignant:

You may be an ambassador to England or France, you may like to gamble, you might like to dance, you may be the heavyweight champion of the world, you may be a socialite with a long string of pearls, but you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed you're gonna have to serve somebody.

So here’s the challenge: We are the privileged ones in this society. Are we doing everything we can to make a difference? Each of us needs to ask what we are doing to build up the foundation of our society, generating the strength we need to keep growing, building from within.

Here are some great examples of friends in the market who are helping those who really need help, and thereby building the foundation for a better future for us all:

Rod McDermott – Board Member of THINK Together – Academically-oriented out-of-school programs for young people. http://www.thinktogether.org/home.html
Patricia Sproule – Board Member of The Prentice School – Empowering dyslexic students to build their foundation for success. http://www.prenticeschool.org/
Hal Reisiger – Career Coaching and Counseling Ministry at Saddleback Church - Supporting transitioning professionals in the Saddleback Church family toward their next career opportunity. http://www.saddlebackfamily.com/home/careprayerhelp/article.asp?id=6941

My own example of trying to support the youth and families of Orange County is serving as a Board Member of the YMCA of Orange County. http://www.ymcaoc.org

A Relationship Story - Why People Leave, Why They Stay, and What Companies Can Do About It

2006-07-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

May 2006

A Relationship Story - Why People Leave, Why They Stay, and What Companies Can Do About It

Winning the war for talent is challenge #1. And that’s what it is - A War. It’s not the loud kind of war with bombs and bullets, but it’s real just the same. It’s a silent war, and it starts and finishes from the inside of your Company.

Why do people leave, and why do they stay? What’s the difference between companies who feel they are “fighting” the war, and those who have already won it?

Well, I have come to understand a lot about this difference in my search consultancy. Yes, it’s a consultancy, as I don’t feel like I’m a recruiter or that our firm recruits, really. I have come to believe that people are really not “recruited” away from their companies. I believe that people only seriously consider changing jobs, and dealing with the life upheaval that goes along with that decision, when they are at a fulcrum point in their lives. It’s not something people take lightly. I always want to learn about this in interviewing people, as it serves as a centerpiece of their state of mind and their motivation, and it tells a lot about who they really are.

How do people reach these critical inflection points? Why does the timing seem to be right for someone to consider something new?

The 3 Big Misconceptions for Companies

The best people are inevitably ready to leave
Our company is at the mercy of this threat
The best defense is a good offense

The Big Caveat - If companies don’t value people, then the “3 Other Ways to Think” will not work. For those companies, money and resume’ matter a lot. When people are at the center of a company’s success model, the ideas in this story might just make a big difference.

3 Other Ways to Think:

The best people are inevitably ready to leave – WRONG

People only leave when they have a reason to leave, and the reasons are less about the magnetism of a new opportunity, and more about the loss of magnetism to stay. My experience tells me that their value stream has in some way become misaligned with the value stream of their Company.

Our company is at the mercy of this threat – WRONG, unless you have a bad company

People hate to be neglected…companies get lost in their problems and forget about continually reconnecting with their people.

-- What people like most about other people: they believe the others like them.

Your company is in control of whether people feel good being part of your team.

The best defense is a good offense – WRONG, if this seems true, you’ve already lost the war

Competing for talent solely based on Money, Titles, Options, or Perks is not the answer. These things should all be at the right levels (cheap companies are not necessarily smart companies), but these DO NOT necessarily win the game.
Companies must evaluate the connection between the Company’s values and the needs/desires/values of the employees.
-- Companies must know what they are and must articulate it
-- Employees must be chosen to match the Company’s identity
-- The view of the future for employees must be aligned with both Company and individual needs

FOR GOOD COMPANIES, THE BEST DEFENSE IS A GOOD ESSENCE!!!

Sincerely,

Jeff Black, Principal Consultant, McDermott & Bull Executive Search black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - An Answer to the "Mystery of Connecting"

2006-04-15T22:11:00.000-07:00

March 2006

A Relationship Story
An Answer to the "Mystery of Connecting"

I’ve always wondered what the key was to why I connect personally with some people and not with others (besides the obvious - that many people are kind enough to humor me!). Is it "opposites attract", or is it common interests, or something weird that I don’t understand like biorhythms? And then I learned a lot about natural themes of strength in different people, and this helped me understand how combining diverse talents makes an organization strong, but it didn’t help explain the difference in connecting on a person-to-person basis.

"The Likeability Factor" by Tim Sanders (a big author/thinker for me – he also wrote another favorite about networking and relationships called "Love Is The Killer App") offers insights that help with this big unanswered question.

Have you ever noticed how a person can be extremely pleasant, but they just seem invisible? They might struggle with RELEVANCE - nobody seems to pay attention to them.

Ever know somebody who is pleasant and friendly but who always seems to be on a different page than everyone else? Maybe their problem is they lack EMPATHY – they can’t read what’s going on inside others.

Or how about the person who is bright, cheerful, empathetic, and highly relevant, but who feels they need to please others too much? They might have trouble with REALNESS – they may not be comfortable enough with themselves to be transparent and authentic.

And then, of course, you have your basic jerk that just seems incapable of FRIENDLINESS – they may understand what to say, may behave authentically, and may really read others well, but they just don’t seem to care how other people feel.

Each of these scenarios highlights one of the four factors that Sanders believes make up our Likeability – Friendliness, Relevance, Empathy, and Realness. Now I get it! I can see more clearly the differences between people, and can understand the success or struggle in my own individual connections and relationships. Sadly (but maybe not really), I also understand my own flaws in achieving Likeability and being consistent. My grumpiness and intensity is not all that friendly, my love for hearing myself talk is often not very relevant, and I continue to try to overcome a life as "authenticity challenged"…ouch, but the insight is so valuable.

Take a look around you – and take a look at yourself – and see if you may be able to understand a bit better why some connections seem to work better than others. Even it it’s a bit painful, or if it borders on being too analytical for your liking, at least it offers a re-calibration for us on a more damaging trait – Cluelessness! Might be worth spending a brain cell or two on.

My best to each of you, and I welcome your thoughts and comments.

Book Recommendation: The Likeability Factor by Tim Sanders

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - Becoming Untouchable in a Flattening World

2006-02-27T22:10:00.000-08:00

The big picture is, of course, interesting and instructive. However, I love it when a really cool nugget of insight provides a practical way for us to take action that might actually help!

February 2006

A Relationship Story

Becoming Untouchable in a Flattening World

Things are changing in our business world in recent years. Did you notice? If not, you’re head is buried very deep. We all need to be aware of the realities of globalization. Thomas Friedman’s book "The World Is Flat" is a great description of the changes that are upon us from beginnings in the mid-80’s, as well as the direction we are heading. There are some chilling observations about how our current behavior will affect our future. Approached from a realistic (and not really political) perspective, the book makes it clear there is no turning back. My daughter just visited China as part of her Semester at Sea trip around the world (how cool is that!), and these changes were very clear even from her youthful perspective, saying "Dad, you had better invest in China!"

The book also talked about ways we can and must take this challenge on. The message was not about impending doom at all. A key point is made about the many things we do in America better than anyone else, but reminds us we must stay vigilant about maintaining these advantages. From an individual standpoint – both for companies and for each of us – we must focus all our efforts on making ourselves Untouchable. We must take action to protect ourselves and become "outsource-proof." This is not a challenge for the faint-of-heart, the unrealistic, or the change-averse.

First, we have to suck it up and prepare for a battle. I’m sorry to break it to you, but we have to compete. No free lunch, no entitlements – unless our choices and actions make it possible.

Second, we have to see ourselves for what we really are, what we are really good at. If "You can’t handle the truth" (see "A Few Good Men"), then you will not recognize where you are really competitive, and you’ll find yourself coming up short all the time.

Finally, we have to pick the right road and stay on it. To quote Ray Baird of the B2B marketing strategy agency RiechesBaird, "the tighter the focus, the stronger the brand." Our objective must be to become a magnet by creating demand for what we offer. We must recognize that we are much more likely to succeed by leveraging our greatest strengths, and we simply must release the peripheral pipe dreams. Trying to be all things to all people is a recipe for failure.

So the best way for us to make the changing world an opportunity and not a threat is to start inside ourselves and our companies, and become Untouchable. Using your true natural tools is the only path to greatness, and greatness is the only path to creating demand for your company, for your products, or for yourself.

I welcome your comments and ideas, and I thank you for your interest.

Book Recommendation: The World Is Flat by Thomas Friedman

Link: http://www.riechesbaird.com/

A Relationship Story - Honesty and Success – Poll Results

2005-12-26T16:07:00.000-08:00

December 2005

A Relationship Story
Honesty and Success – Poll Results

Thanks friends for taking time to offer your thoughts. I received 100+ responses, and I definitely consider that a representative sample of our community and a real reflection of our version of "Conventional Wisdom". As a reminder, the question was:

On a 0% - 100% scale, from dishonest (0%) to honest (100%), what is the average % for successful people? (If you missed the November story that posed the question, just email me and I'll send it).

Now I knew this had the potential to be a trick question, and a lot of people commented on the lack of clarity. But that’s really part of the learning process here, as you’ll see. I did not know what nugget of wisdom was going to come from this exercise when I asked the question, but I just knew it would be very interesting, and sure enough it was.

The first reassuring result was that 92% of the answers were above 50%, and 70% were at 75% or above. So we know that the vast majority have a positive view of the correlation between honesty and success. Whew, our hopes for society are not lost! But then it got interesting.

After reviewing the results and the comments, I discovered the "trick" in the question, and that is what I found most intriguing. "Success" had not been defined, so it was left up to everyone’s interpretation, thus giving us a glimpse into the prevailing Conventional Wisdom about people’s perception of success. Some mentioned that their answer would differ based on the definition of success, for instance, the number would be lower if only considering financial success. This is not a surprise to anyone, I’m sure.

However, what I found most compelling was that 10% of the respondents unequivocally answered 100% to the question. Their definition of success required that a person must be honest. Any level of dishonesty was a disqualifier. Now forgive me if you think I was being tricky, but I didn’t plan this or know what would come from it (I'm clearly not that smart). I did, however, find that this single aspect of the data taught me more than anything else.

It means is that our Conventional Wisdom, at a 90% rate, accepts some level of dishonesty in the definition of success. In our Machiavellian world, I expect that is also not too much of a surprise, and in fact I’m afraid my own answer was similarly affected by convention. However, the message that I take away is that there is a higher standard that can be applied when viewing others (and ourselves), and it differs from the Conventional Wisdom of our times. I ask you, what’s wrong with us joining the 10% who just don’t accept dishonesty?

I hope you’ll all accept these thoughts as my gift for the holiday season. I hope it can become part of your New Year’s resolutions, as I plan for it to be part of my own.

In the words of Epictetus, the ancient stoic philosopher who is the ultimate anti-Machiavellian: "The only prosperous life is the virtuous life". Words to live by. I welcome your thoughts and comments. Thanks!

Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year to all.

Book Recommendation: The Art of Living by Epictetus

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - The Freakonomics of The Conventional Wisdom

2005-12-26T16:02:00.000-08:00

November 2005

A Relationship Story
The Freakonomics of The Conventional Wisdom

Things are not always what they seem, and it takes a clear view of reality (and the data to support it) to get our perceptions out of our way. Here’s an example. I think we all share a perception that drug dealers are all driving cool cars and rolling in dough…so why do nearly all of them still live with their Mothers? In Freakonomics - a book by a self-admitted "rogue economist" about how prevailing incentives make things what they really are – the real world of the drug dealer is described based on exhaustive research. The stark reality is that it’s a classic pyramid, where for every one person with a cool car, there is a giant pyramid of foot soldiers who are effectively enslaved at far below poverty wage. The author contends that based on their own perceptions, getting to be the boss is the only "success" they can hope for, and there is nothing that protects them from being exploited.

While this book addresses some very controversial issues - and I’m not endorsing all the assertions it contains - I am endorsing the idea that we need to look beyond the perceived "obvious" to seek the truth. I think our world encourages us to believe in conventional wisdom, and also that somebody’s incentives are being realized by getting us to believe. It’s sort of a Question Authority thing for me, and it bugs me.

A perfect conventional wisdom example is something I come across all the time…what is most important for people in getting the best reception from potential employers (I also believe this is true for all relationships). The conventional wisdom tells people they need to morph into what the market is looking for. I don’t buy that. If they try to morph, they’re going to be half-baked, and they won’t fool anybody. This isn’t science fiction, it’s people, and people just don’t "transform" themselves very well. Face it, people are what they are, and they’re always more effective just being themselves and leveraging their natural strengths. What I tell people is that they need to find ways to get people excited about what they really are - and then let the network give them leverage - instead of trying extra hard to be a square peg for a round hole.

Another conventional wisdom old standby is that you can’t trust others or you’ll get screwed. I hate that one, although I’m no fool and I know some people have gone to the dark side…I just prefer to try to keep them out of my life.

So ok, let’s try and experiment. Let’s assess the conventional wisdom within our own little community as it relates to honesty. Just press reply and send me your quick answer to this very simple question:

On a 0% - 100% scale, from dishonest (0%) to honest (100%), what is the average % for successful people? Don’t think too hard, just press reply with one number between 0% and 100%. I’ll compile the data (confidentiality is assured) and share it with you all in an upcoming story.

Book Recommendation: Freakonomics by Stephen Levitt and Stephen Dubner

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - A Tale of Two Companies…and the Big Difference

2005-12-26T15:54:00.000-08:00

October 2005

A Relationship Story
A Tale of Two Companies…and the Big Difference

It was the best of companies, it was the worst of companies…and the difference was very clear.
It’s fascinating to see how different the cultures and priorities can be in different (yet equally successful) companies. With success measured much more in the short term by our fast-paced world, making the numbers is what usually defines a good company. It is my belief that there are two clearly different ways that companies go about achieving similar short-term success, and I believe the "big difference" has deeply significant impacts on long-term success.

Two companies side by side along the highway, Brand X and Brand Y. Both are characterized by corporate achievement and success at making their numbers. Both are short-term successes.
Brand X and Y share some key characteristics:

They only want smart people
They live by metrics
They are process focused
They are customer centered
They value strong product brands
They run lean and smart

However, there are critical differences:

Brand X identifies first with intensity and outcome-focus.
Brand Y identifies first with fairness and alignment-focus.

Brand X tends to be secretive and selective in communicating.
Brand Y insists on being open and candid in communicating.

Oh no, here this Jeff Black guy goes again stating the obvious. Of course it’s better to be fair and open. But wait! The Brand X mentality really happens! Some companies pay lip service to fairness and openness, but what really matters is action and behavior, not policy and slogans. I see it all the time. It’s amazing how different cultures can be – and how differently people feel about being in them.

Brand X believes that only intensity will drive the desired outcome. Brand Y believes fairness (I didn’t say wimpiness) and alignment of needs between the company and employees make greatness flow naturally – creativity and ingenuity are not bottled up by the need to look over your shoulder all the time.

Brand X behaves as if people don’t need to really know what’s going on – believing knowledge is power, and leaders need to retain power. Brand Y has a strong enough center and self-image as a company that it wants everyone to part of the knowledge process.
Now come on, tell me you haven’t seen Brand X in practice. You can try to deny that it’s bad, but I don’t buy it.

The center of company greatness is not smart people – they’re a given; it’s not efficiency – good tools make that happen; it’s not innovation – smart people innovate. The center of company greatness is mutual respect between a company and it’s people.

The result for people in Brand Y companies:

Less worry, more confidence
More passion and less aimlessness
More loyalty and positive energy
Better retention, no "reasons to leave"

For Companies - The big differences of the "big difference":

Easier to attract talent – believe me, it’s hard to "sell" a bad company.
Getting the best out of people – people perform better when they’re confident, not scared.
Increased company reputation – as Vance Caesar says "the key to a person’s success is how many influential people are telling stories about their ability to build relationships of trust." I believe this is also true for companies.

I have great clients who really believe and behave like Brand Y. I really love working with them…and I think they really get the best out of me as a partner. I welcome opportunities to work with more like them. Please let me know if your company is one, or if you know one you would like for me to know.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - A Baseball Metaphor for Your Business – Focusing on What “Really” Matters

2005-12-26T15:49:00.000-08:00

The Dog Days of Summer 2005

A Relationship Story

A Baseball Metaphor for Your Business – Focusing on What "Really" Matters

Seeing things as they really are is what every business wants to believe it does. No disguises.
Sorry, it’s not that easy. Here’s my example:

During the last 5 years, things have started to change in the business of fielding winning major league baseball teams. That’s just the last 5 years of a game that has been played professionally for 130 years. Only recently have team owners begun realizing that the logic for choosing players that prevailed for 125 years was dead wrong. Fortunately for the fans, the good-old-boy network and "group-think" mentality that prevailed all that time caused every team to be stupid together, so at least the playing field was level for the fans.

The new economics of the game, with the huge imbalance in resources between the rich and poor teams, has spawned a sort of guerilla warfare among the wiser of the "have nots". If a team spends only half what others do, then they really have to spend smart. It sounds a lot like the battle between the big guys and little guys in any business, and the underdog behavior that is necessary for the little guy to compete.

Here’s how it works, and as with many good ideas, it’s really simple – just seeing things as they really are. For 125 years, while mountains of statistics have been collected on ballplayers, teams have consistently been blinded by their perceptions about "talent" (like the 95-MPH fastball).
They have failed to truly evaluate what the data shows the player has actually done – as measured against what really contributes to winning and losing – generating and preventing runs. What’s happening in these guerilla units is that the Harvard MBA is replacing the grizzled veteran scout in identifying the right talent worth the investment of limited resources. Just like when businesses are seeking key talent, the best predictor of future success is past success…and this means real accomplishments - facts and data - and not just a good-looking fastball. We have to make sure we are measuring the right things.

Although Baseball had a natural tendency to value facts and data, as indicated by the extraordinary focus on collecting and cataloguing statistics, it has regretfully and blindly continued to rely on the flawed-but-familiar performance measurements that were crafted 100+ years ago (like batting average). Just like the technology business that can’t bear to move away from its engineering roots and focus on real business issues, Baseball has been run by insiders and good-old-boys forever, and the game has been the victim of its own reliance on tradition – it failed to evolve and to see itself as it really is. We’ll see in the next few years whether the new guerilla clarity makes the difference in who really wins more ballgames cost effectively, but the early signs point to a logic landslide. Just take a look at the Oakland A’s this year, with ¼ the payroll of the Yankees and ½ that of the Angels, they are doing awfully well.

In terms of relationships, this trend isn’t happening without some ruffled feathers, as you can imagine. There are a lot of Baseball old-timers harumphing around and whining about these renegades. Making revolutionary changes in an institution takes fortitude. The same is true for how your business looks at its own talent. Who can argue with the ideal of a highly integrated team with an open and honest culture where the best is brought out of every individual? Nobody can. However, if you don’t have winners and natural difference-makers on the team, the results are at risk. Are you evaluating your talent for their real contributions to your company’s success? Or are you blinded by how good they look throwing their fastball? Measure the right things, and remember, what gets measured gets improved.

Book Recommendations: "Moneyball" by Michael Lewis

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - The Underdog Advantage

2005-12-26T15:16:00.000-08:00

April 2005

A Relationship Story - The Underdog Advantage

The Underdog Advantage is a book that draws a fascinating business parallel with a world we all find ourselves wrapped up in every 4 years…politics. The primary principle is that there is no value in coming in second; unless you get 50.1% or better, you are nothing but a big loser. It’s a lot like winning in competition for business. Losing costs you in 3 different ways: first, you don’t get the business you wanted; second, you don’t recover the cost of pursuing it; and finally, you don’t get to build a future annuity with repeat business. Nothing good comes from losing.
The book suggests that good businesses must think like a political campaign does…you absolutely must win, and nothing else will do. You have to think like the underdog all the time, even after you move into a commanding lead. Some key principles include:

Relationships among all the members of your company must be focused on a common outcome – everyone must be pulling the same rope to beat the competition. When businesses get too big and people lose focus on the real goal, it’s time to break things down into smaller parts to keep them focused and thinking like underdogs.

Every dollar, and every minute of energy, must be focused on the business equivalent of getting votes…if spending does not make it more likely you will win in competition, then save the money or save the minute. When money or energy are spent without a direct link to the real goal of winning, it’s again a sign that bureaucracy is making decisions on its own.

You have to know who can realistically be expected to vote for you, or in a business sense, what business you can win. Potential "votes" are categorized as one of the following:

Hard Support
Soft Support
Undecided
Soft Opposition
Hard Opposition

Obviously, pursuing the hard opposition is a waste of energy. A surprising premise of the book is that not only is the soft opposition a waste of energy also, but so are the undecided. The primary reason is that the soft opposition and the undecided have no real relationship with you and little connection with your distinctions and your values. The undecided may say "yes", but they are unlikely to ever become hard support because they are easily swayed (or bought) and are not true believers, friends, or partners.

The real objective is to increase the number of hard supporter clients. They are not only the most reliable source of repeat (and inexpensive) business, but they also serve as the evangelists to spread the word about your greatness without you doing (or spending) much of anything. The book’s premise is to focus all your attention on moving the soft support to hard support – think of this as the equivalent of the political campaign getting out the vote.

For me, this means first understanding my own values and focusing my personal energy on consistently living them, and then seeking relationships with people who share those values. Fortunately for my business, I am able to pass up relationships that disconnect in terms of values…but when the connection is a good one I just can’t take "no" for an answer.

Ask yourself if your business is really focused on winning without compromise. Start with knowing who you are and what you want. If everyone on your team is aligned on the same goal, and you are not wasting money or energy, you can’t be stopped. Stay an underdog!

Book Recommendation: The Underdog Advantage by David Morey and Scott Miller

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - Authentic Relationships Are Good Business…Machiavelli Was Wrong!

2005-12-26T15:12:00.000-08:00

January 2005

A Relationship Story

Authentic Relationships Are Good Business…Machiavelli Was Wrong!

I’ve been fascinated in my consulting experience observing the power of authenticity. There are a lot of very slick people who are in fact successful in our dynamic market, but I believe there is an increasing demand for anti-slick authenticity. I’ll admit that when I asked you to answer questions recently, I did have a premise I was trying to test - that authenticity, integrity, and ethics mattered more to people in their work lives than the conventional machiavellian-wisdom of our society would suggest. I do truly believe the look in people’s eyes matters a whole lot to a lot of people.

The questions again (and thanks to the 125+ who responded): (1) Think of the person or people you like best in your work life. Why do you like them? (2) What do you not like about your work life? (3) Describe the ideal work environment. A key thing to note: answers were limited to 10 words each, so people had to focus, and hopefully their most prominent thoughts came through. Also, while the sample was admittedly not representative of the population, it is a relatively credible reflection of our work-oriented relationships. It’s not totally scientific, but it’s still pretty cool. Some of the key results:

People love to be challenged and to have the ability to grow - 55% identify growth and challenge as part of the ideal work environment. Interesting…they don’t complain about their pay – only an amazing 2% mentioned it as an item they "don’t like about my work life".

However, while people did not complain about their pay, "feelings issues" mattered a lot. 64% complain about things that hurt them personally – Personal-life sacrifices, conflicts of values, bureaucracy wasting their time. Interesting…far fewer complained about not liking things they have to do – only 26%.

Also, people love to enjoy themselves at work. 55% include fun and cooperation in "what we like about others". Interesting…even more – 60% – identified fun and cooperation as elements of the ideal work environment.

Integrity, ethics, and trust were included by 52% as part of "what we like about others". Interesting…this was more than the 48% who included intelligence, work ethic, and results as reasons why they like others.

While challenge and growth are extremely important to most of us, we clearly desire a fulfilling, enjoyable, and high-integrity work life. Success doesn’t seem to be enough. I believe the answers also indicate that integrity, ethics, and trust - the keys to authenticity – are more part of our person-to-person relationships than our connections with companies, environments, or jobs. In fact, more than twice as many people mentioned integrity in people they like (52%) than included it in their description of the ideal work environment (22%).

I have observed the power of authenticity and openness that exists in some companies while not at others, as well as the significant positive differences in company effectiveness and individual fulfillment that result. This power has been clearly demonstrated also in our own firm’s experience with the coaching of Vance Caesar. The potential for our firm’s success and the personal fulfillment of our people appears to be more authentic and real with each passing day.

If you’re worried that this focus on authenticity doesn’t reflect the attitudes of some people you could do business with, you’re probably right. However, ask yourself if you are someone for whom authenticity really matters…and then ask yourself if you want to, or really need to do business with inauthentic, unethical, or low-integrity people.

I would welcome your thoughts about these results and my observations. I have adapted this story into an interactive speech entitled "Authentic Relationships Are Good Business – Machiavelli Was Wrong!", and I would welcome ideas on potential groups or companies who may find the subject interesting. If you would like to see the complete results of the survey, just respond with an email and I’ll send the data along to you. Thanks again to all who provided their input. It is very much appreciated.

Links: The Vance Caesar Group www.vancecaesar.com

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - Giving Back, Giving Smart

2005-12-26T14:24:00.000-08:00

Holiday Season 2004

A Relationship Story - Giving Back, Giving Smart

We are all very blessed with our successes and each of our individual places in the community. But hold on - this is not another holiday-season admonition for everyone to give more and remember others. It seems to me that most of us do not need much encouragement – we all look for ways to give back. And this is also not about donating money - I want to talk about the "time" part of giving back…that’s really the hard part. My friend Mike Issa from Ballenger, Cleveland, & Issa LLC said recently that the Big Brothers/Big Sisters program (where he is a Big Brother) is not experiencing a critical shortage of money but rather Big Brother volunteers (the kids have a 2-year wait to get matched!). Needless to say, the reality of time pressure on each of us is a very big deal.

Now we are all smart business people. We understand using resources wisely. I want to suggest we should look for the best ways to use our greatest strengths to get maximum impact from the limited time and energy we can share with our favorite causes. It seems intuitive also that if we spend time doing things we are really good at and like to do, we will surely be more effective and more interested. I have a story that offers two good examples of what I mean.

One of my dearest friends, and a person who improves the lives of everyone she touches, is Janice Kraus – the founder and producer of the non-profit Stagelight Family Productions. Janice produces arguably the best community youth-theater shows in Orange County, in cooperation with the City of Brea and a variety of local schools. FIRST EXAMPLE: Janice is a charismatic and brilliant artist and teacher, but not as much a risk-taking entrepreneur. The affiliation with the City and schools took the risk out of her vision while letting her focus on her strengths. As a result, over the last 15 years Janice’s continuing inspiration has given thousands of kids the confidence boost of performing live on stage, along with the pride of excellence and the team feeling from a unique shared experience. My 16 year-old daughter Lisa’s life will never be the same for this experience, as she rehearses for her 13th Stagelight production over the last 7 years. SECOND EXAMPLE: My own life will also never be the same for the opportunity to be part of Stagelight as a volunteer, which is also true for so many parents who have become my best of friends. However, I am just not good at the same things many other parents are. In fact, I am sort of a joke around the group of set designing/building volunteers – I am not really what you might call "handy". But while I’m not so brilliant with hammer and paint brush, I am fairly handy with business strategy, generating ideas, growth planning, and evaluating alternatives. My volunteer contributions include working along with others to help Janice through these business challenges. As a result, I have played a small role helping Janice expand her program to have even more impact in the community and touch more and more lives.

Ask yourself whether you are helping others in ways that are both effective and fun for you. If so, you have the best potential for making a bigger difference. Much greater power for good can come from wisely using our most precious resource – our time.

I also wanted to acknowledge the non-profits and charities that are most important to some of my close friends in the community. I would love to hear your stories about where each of you commit your passion to make a difference. My best to you and your families for a wonderful holiday season.

Links: Stagelight Family Productions (http://www.stagelightproductions.com)

Mike Issa of Ballenger, Cleveland & Issa LLC: Big Brothers Big Sisters of Orange County www.bigbrooc.org
Kristi Barens of Mullin Consulting: Junior Achievement of Orange County http://orangecounty.ja.org/http://orangecounty.ja.org/
Will Sproule - Prentice School (for language learning differences) www.prentice.org.
Bertha Masuda of Vivient Consulting: Society To Aid Retarded (S.T.A.R.), Torrance, CA
Kevin Francis of Corporate Resources International: YMCA of Orange County www.ymcaoc.org
Roger Kraemer of ProActive Direct Marketing: CSUF Guardian Scholars Program http://www.fullerton.edu/guardianscholars
Charlie Spencer of Dynalectric: Habitat for Humanity www.habitat.org
Terry Goldfarb-Lee of Resources Connection: Human Options shelter for abused women and their children www.humanoptions.org
Mark Rowe of Rowe Consulting: Orangewood Children's Home Providing Assistance, Love and Support "PALS" www.orangewoodpals.org
Mark Strom of PRTM Consulting: Union Rescue Mission for the homeless www.urm.com

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - Trust Your Gut and Grow Out of Your Rut

2005-12-26T14:20:00.000-08:00

Most of us stay pretty tight in our normal rut. Here is an example of how being open to learning and experiencing new things may help you discover unexpected opportunities.

November 2004

A Relationship Story - Trust Your Gut and Grow Out of Your Rut

In asking me to find ideal fit talent for them, two of my clients, Shea Homes and Snyder Langston, each specifically asked me to include a special characteristic in the criteria for their team’s new talent – they must demonstrate a passion for continuous learning. Now this obviously is intuitive good sense, but I know from my own corporate experience how easy it is to stay in the world our job defines for us - to try to become perfect at the things we have to do. Yes I know it’s true that we are often incentivized to be great as specialists, but aren’t we missing a huge growth opportunity offered by breaking new ground? The priority on learning emphasized by my clients reminded me of a learning experience I had that led to an unexpected and highly beneficial opportunity. I thought it might make you think about whether you are trusting your instincts and taking advantage of your own breakthrough learning opportunities.

After I had decided to quit my job in 2002 after 23 years, and before I decided that a new career as a consultant with McDermott & Bull would be this much fun, I took the opportunity to check out something that had always fascinated me. I always thought there was no product more tangible and powerful than what the building industry created. I was curious about an industry that made such a lasting impact in our world and in our lives, while much else in our lives is so shallow and transitory. I realized also that one of my most charismatic, dynamic, and respected friends had been enjoying a wonderful career in this business - Charlie Spencer leads the Electrical Division for Dynalectric. I saw an opportunity to trust my instincts and investigate an industry that had always intrigued me, and to see it through the eyes of a trusted friend who loved what he did for a living.

I asked Charlie to let me spend a day with him in his world, purely in the interest of learning, and without any specific objective beyond that. Charlie was extremely gracious, and had me ride along all day with him visiting the amazing construction projects where he and his team were contributing. I discovered an extraordinary world of complexity and intricacy, of commitment to performance discipline, safety and quality. I also discovered a unique leadership challenge - juggling scarce and unpredictable resources under oppressive environmental and political constraints, and all subject to the tightest of fiscal and schedule demands. I gained a real appreciation for success as a builder, and the special people involved in that success.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that a few months later, when evaluating the industries that I could help in my executive search consultancy, I found the building industry to be a perfect fit. Because I took advantage of an opportunity to investigate something that had always intrigued me, I was able to recognize the great business opportunity the building industry could offer me.

While it’s hard to break away from the constant demands of your regular grind, ask yourself if there aren’t things that you intuitively know make good sense to explore, and give yourself a chance to test your instincts. You just never know what it might mean for you. I would love to hear your stories about similar experiences.

Links: Shea Homes LC www.sheahomes.com, Snyder Langston www.snyder-langston.com, Dynalectric www.dyna-la.com

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story - The Power of Doing Things Differently

2005-12-26T14:12:00.000-08:00

September 2004

A Relationship Story - The Power of Doing Things Differently

Do you know who Alan Wurtzel, Colman Mockler, and David Maxwell are? They are CEO’s of three of the most successful U. S. companies over the last 25 years. Why don’t you recognize their names? Their companies are household names – Circuit City, Gillette, and Fannie Mae – so why not the CEO’s? Even the most casual observer of popular culture might assume that only high-profile self-promoters succeed, especially doing something as "significant" as leading a world-class company. Not true! These companies did things differently.

The key message in "Good to Great" by Jim Collins is that only certain companies understand and exemplify the bold behaviors necessary to be truly special and outperform every competitor. While each of the Good to Great "behaviors" are examples of doing things differently, what I found truly counterintuitive was that each chief executive was self effacing and humble, focusing their considerable professional will on building the company and its people.

The real power was created from the relationships within the company and with customers, and not the "relationship" between the CEO and the public eye. The priorities embodied in this behavior must invariably make these great companies to work for, and thereby able to attract great people.

In the "Deviant’s Advantage" by Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews, it is argued that deviance is the source of all innovation (hold on now…they’re talking about positive deviance - a force for transformation). "The well of deviance irrigates the imagination; offers an inexhaustible font of new ideas, products, and services; and, in the end, is the source of all innovation, new-market creation, and for business, ultimately represents the basis of all incremental profit". We each know examples of deviance that fuels innovation and success, but here are 3 of my favorites:

Branch Rickey signing Jackie Robinson to be the first African-American to play in the modern major leagues. Of course, the impact on society was huge, but the business impact on the Dodgers was unmistakable. They were in 6 World Series in the next 10 years, after only one in the previous 26 years.
John F. Kennedy prophesizing that we would go to the moon by the end of the 60’s. Not only did this provide the paradigm-stretching challenge to make it happen, it also helped fuel the technology creations that have shaped the last 40 years.
A couple of nerds who were ahead of the curve and knew the hardware didn’t matter. Microsoft is a great example of the power of deviance in business.

A unique approach to executive search consultancy is what makes McDermott & Bull a special firm - building real relationships of trust with our clients and sharing resources beyond our search services; contributing to the business community in industry organizations; providing a networking platform for executives in transition through McDermott & Bull's Executive Network; and also by only adding members to our team who embody this model. The firm must be a unique – how else to explain why they would hire a "different" sort of guy like me?

The primary areas of focus in my search practice are the Building Industry and related products, and Manufacturing/Technology. I welcome your ideas for continuing to grow my practice in these areas, but I am happy to be of assistance to any good company who seeks a trusted relationship with a consultancy partner.

Book Ideas For You: Good To Great by Jim Collins and the Deviant’s Advantage by Watts Wacker and Ryan Mathews. Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story: Saying “Yes” to Helping Others – You Just May Get More Than You Give

2005-12-26T14:04:00.001-08:00

We are all asked to help others in the business community, and of course, we all try to make time whenever we can. I think this story shows that you really cannot predict the positive impacts to your business objectives, beyond feeling good about helping, that saying "yes" might provide.

Summer 2004

A Relationship Story
Saying "Yes" to Helping Others – You Just May Get More Than You Give

While attending a meeting of the National Human Resources Association (NHRA) in Orange County, I sat at a table next to an extremely engaging fellow named Karl Feierbacher. Karl explained that in addition to seeking a corporate Human Resources position himself, he was a U.S. Marine Corps reserve officer and his volunteer work was raising awareness about the talented individuals who are leaving the service and can be great assets for good companies.
Karl made a very strong impression on me, as he would on you. After the meeting Karl followed-up with me and suggested we connect, an idea I welcomed especially based on what a giving person Karl is himself. As we in our firm often do, I took the opportunity to share some ideas with him that I thought may increase the effectiveness of Karl’s job search, leveraging the learning from my own transition experience and what I observe that works for others.

I soon learned that meeting with Karl was more than just helping a strong individual with a few ideas – I was surprised to learn how much more it would do for me. Unexpectedly, Karl asked if I would consider speaking at an upcoming meeting of the Marine Executive Association (MEA), a group of Marine Corps senior officers who are transitioning from the service into industry.

I was honored and truly excited about this opportunity. Then the wheels started turning, and I began to see this as a special chance to accomplish a number of things important to me: first, to contribute potentially valuable ideas to a group of people deserving of my utmost respect; second, to involve and work together again after many years with my mentor and friend U.S. Navy Captain Ed Whelan – whose own experience transitioning into industry offers great insights; and third, to develop a structured speech out of the message I had been developing conversation-by-conversation since I began as a consultant with McDermott & Bull – while also providing the impetus I needed to launch myself toward public speaking opportunities, something I had long hoped for but had been too "busy" to prioritize and get done.

So, on June 17th, Ed and I were pleased to visit Camp Pendleton and address a very receptive and appreciative group of Marines. In addition, a text version of our thoughts will be shared by email with hundreds of Marines/MEA members worldwide.

Had it not been for my discussion with Karl Feierbacher about his career transition, I would have missed out on some great things. First, I got the satisfaction of contributing to the career prospects of these great Americans. In addition, I got another opportunity to work with Ed, a pleasure I had not imagined having again. And if that wasn’t enough, I have now re-shaped my messages into a "Transition to Success" talk that I now hope to share with other groups. I believe I got much more that I gave.

I suggest you keep this story in mind the next time you are asked to help. Feeling good about helping is really enough, but you just never know how you and your business might benefit.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

A Relationship Story – What’s So Special About Paul Revere?

2005-12-26T12:28:00.000-08:00

I think this story demonstrates the big difference between just making contacts versus sharing real knowledge with powerful personal connections. We should all aspire to make as significant a difference for others as Paul Revere did.

June 2004

A Relationship Story – What’s So Special About Paul Revere?

Paul Revere’s ride is one of those compelling legends that fascinated us all when we were growing up. But did you ever wonder how one guy could manage to alert the people in town after town and convince them to prepare for something as frightening as taking up arms, and to do it in only one night and all without a cellphone or the internet?

And why is Paul Revere such a legend, while his riding partner Thomas Dawes is little more than a trivia quiz answer?

The answer is not because Revere had a better Public Relations firm. The secret lies in his unique commitment to
the New England community and to his network of relationships, along with his ability to recognize who the other influential connectors were in all the communities around Boston. He was, after all, a member and leader in more community groups than anyone else. Equally important was his personal commitment to gathering information and knowledge about the British and their movements, and his leadership in actively sharing this critical knowledge with everyone in the region. As a result, Paul Revere was not only connected with many other connectors, he was also considered a highly credible source of information by everyone.

On the contrary, while Dawes was also knowledgeable and involved, he tended to stay close to home in Boston proper. So when they both went on their fateful ride, Thomas Dawes told whomever he saw and hoped they would share the news. Paul Revere knew who to tell to get the news spread, and they knew they could trust him.
McDermott & Bull strives to be a trusted resource for all our friends in the market, and not only to serve your needs for retained executive search. In our firm, we all try to be well connected and knowledgeable about the providers of services of all kinds, and we are also always looking to connect our corporate friends and their products to each other. Please feel free to ask me if you are ever in need of the best in business services, and not only related to the services I provide. I will gladly connect you with people you can trust to help your business in most any area.

A Book Idea For You: The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – The key elements required for an idea to "tip" and become the next big thing…how little things can make a big difference. The "Paul Revere effect" represents one of these keys. Let me know what you think.

Sincerely,

Jeff Black
Principal Consultant
McDermott & Bull Executive Search
black@mbsearch.net

Welcome to JeffBlackMcDermottBull Blog

2005-12-25T17:02:00.000-08:00

Greetings all, I hope you enjoy this Blog, and that there is value received for you. I look forward to your comments and ideas. Thanks, Jeff