To be in the middle is to be in the median of a thing.
To be intermediate is to lie in the middle between two extremities.
To DIS-intermediate is to take something out of the middle.
This blog post is about taking the most popular form of executive search out of the middle of searching for an executive.
Why do this?
- Because boards tend to offload their responsibilities (and sometimes their brains) to choose wisely.
- Because the emphasis tends to become getting a qualified person rather than a quality person.
- Because the end objective too often becomes filling the role rather than a complete and evaluated transition and onboarding process with the organization's mission in mind.
- Because many executive search firms play both sides against the middle -- bringing a qualified candidate, yes, but also using the opportunity to find out who might be looking to go elsewhere. This type of search firm never stops headhunting, and finding your candidate allows them to connect with your staff and recruit on behalf of other clients.
A Process Consulting approach treats an executive search as a process to design and follow alongside the Client.
- Boards take responsibility to be concrete about the qualifications and characteristics they expect in their next executive. The search process supplements and facilitates the board's work without replacing it, producing 3-5 ranked and qualified candidates to engage in a final round of interviews and appointments.
- A thorough transition process is planned that includes:
- Transition planning
- Search
- Onboarding
- Evaluation of the first 90-180 days
- Adjusting
The disintermediation happens because the process approach does not make its bread and butter on moving executives around. Instead, it designs a specific process for one particular position the Client needs to fill.
Further disintermediation happens because the cost to do so is usually about 25-33% of a normal executive search process. And…to date, the executives sourced by this method have stayed five years or longer.
Your next executive search may be something you will want to talk about at some point -- often done better as a likely transition appears on the horizon and usually engaged after the more popular executive search failed in some way. If so, we would be happy to think and walk alongside you.
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