Have the Courage of your Convictions
by Spencer Clarke

A long time ago I was told a story about a small businessman that owned a number of hot dog stands. He was quite successful. One day his son who was in college overheard him ordering merchandise and he said to his father…dad, don´t you know we are in a recession? The father said to himself, my son is a bright college boy he should know, so he cut his orders back. A few weeks later he said…son, you were right…we are in a recession.

Having been in the search business for thirty-five years, I have seen massive volume fluctuations in all of the core business units within construction. I have also seen companies that are willing make the tough decisions to grow in less than positive work environments. To grow, you have to have a solid business plan and have the discipline to work your plan. You need to remember competition is between people not products and, though relationships may open a door, it takes the right people to bring home the bacon.

As a company, S. R. Clarke is in the right people business. Most of the time business people hire from a reaction mentality. It is difficult to get out of your own way; to give up the past and to make decisions based on current events and effective planning. I recently was working with a company that needed a high-powered Bio-Tech manager. After weeks of effort, the company finally had a Vice President who really didn’t want to be involved head up a meeting to determine if the candidate was right for their needs. One of the managers in the meeting had experience with the candidate ten years previously and that experience was the knock-out factor and, I might add, that nobody had the foresight to have the candidate interviewed by this committee you guessed it the only on to talk to the candidate was the not so motivated Vice President. The candidate has had three positions in 25 years, had multiple degrees including an MBA, had done 3-4 Billion dollars worth of successful Bio-Tech construction work and has been employed with his current employer for 13 years.

Why do companies keep marginal employees? Afraid to fire; can’t find a replacement; misguided loyalty? I once read that the only difference between a rat in a maze and a person is that the rat will eventually change his behavior to solve the maze. People live on hope and will do almost anything to avoid changing their behavior.

How many great people have been screened out by Human Resources because they didn’t want to deal with another search firm or search fees became an issue or the Human Resource Department was incentivized not to use a headhunter? Look at this equation…I need great people to grow my business or to expand; I won’t or can’t invest in bench strength and then I set up a process to save search fees and avoid getting the best people when I need them. If a core employee is capable of earning several million dollars a year for his company, what difference does the fee amount make? If you as a business can capitalize on 5-10 years of someone else’s training and development, how much money do you save out of the chute? The bottom line is if you as a manager are unwilling to make timely and effective decisions to achieve your company’s business goals, then my question is whether you should be the manager?