Leadership Career Guidance and Intelligence
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Good eye contact, a firm handshake and an impressive resume are no longer the most important elements to make a good first impression – those only count in the real world. Every day, people are making decisions about you based upon your digital first impression. They get to know you before they connect with you in the real world. And based upon what they see online, they may have no interest in meeting you
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Read the first of our four-part series: Video calls are an all-day affair for those of us that work-from-home, so many of us are comfortable with communicating via video. You might think you have it down pat – especially if you are of the generation that has communicated via FaceTime forever. Don’t assume casual video conversations or interoffice meetings have prepared you for video interviews. At Waterman Hurst, we have conducted over one hundred virtual
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It has only been a few months since most companies moved to remote work, but in that time, the use of video conferencing has exploded. The hiring of candidates, particularly for leadership roles, has been transformed. If you are in search of your next opportunity or plan to be in job search mode soon, it is critical to understand how the virtual hiring process is taking shape, as well as what to prepare for. VIRTUAL
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Every industry has been impacted by Covid-19 – but in very different ways, and it is often hard to predict both the short and long term consequences of our current crisis. Industries like transportation, hotels, healthcare, and retail are in the midst of massive change. Some industries are emerging, others are surging, while many will be struggling for years and may not survive. The challenges that leaders must face within almost every industry are huge –
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Your industry is hurting or even hemorrhaging, or maybe it looks as though it may be impacted soon. Given the mass furloughs that have occurred over the last four weeks, which have resulted in over 17 million people filing for unemployment, many are questioning their current positions, their potential prospects, and the impact Covid-19 will have on their industries. However, a rash decision and quick industry switch may not be the best choice. Reflect on
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Amid the growing coronavirus epidemic, leaders across the world in all industries face enormous disruptions to the status quo: supply chain disruptions, mandatory and widespread quarantines, major economic turbulence, international politics, and of course, these continual changes impact their employees who are the lifeblood of their organizations. In addition to helping to keep employees well, decision makers are figuring out how to communicate to their employees, while keeping operations as optimal as possible, taking cost-saving
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according to the gatekeepers… In the early 90s, only a few technology companies monitored their own employees by mining information from the equipment they provided employees to do their work. By the late 90s, employee monitoring became more sophisticated. IT departments started purchasing software tools to monitor employee activity – and the tools provided detailed reports related to productivity, email and internet activity – identifying employees who were writing inappropriate emails, wasting time, as well
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Learn how a potential “disadvantage” can be neutralized and transformed during an interview. Alan’s Approach When Alan first met with our senior consultant , he was both excited and anxious about an interview he had scheduled. He was excited because he believed that the role was good fit and a great next step in his career. He was anxious about being asked why he left his last position. Alan’s last CEO wanted a nuts and
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The momentum is building, you read and hear about it almost daily. More board, CEO and top-level jobs are going to women in almost every industry and the drumbeat about the gender pay gap is loud and clear. But is this more of a media movement than a real fix? Will the momentum die before 50/50 leadership is achieved and before women and men are paid the same? While there is an overwhelming number of
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Think back to a time when you nailed an interview. You felt excited, energized and almost certain you would move to the next step. How did you know that you nailed it? Most likely you liked the interviewer and they liked you in return. There was a connection, a chemistry, and at some point, the formality broke down. You were able to share everything that was essential because you felt comfortable, understood and heard.
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We hear and see a lot of people taking sides these days. Making assumptions about those on the other side seems to be commonplace. We have no control over colleagues on the other side of any position, so it is important to understand that we operate as leaders within a polarized world, and often within a polarized industry or workplace. In addition, more of what each of us says and does in the personal and
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We have noticed a trend… We are used to playing a guessing game with executives in their 50s and 60s but now, younger executives are leaving their dates of education and sometimes early work experience off their LinkedIn profiles and resumes. We have been stumped when trying to determine the age of a potential client before we meet them on Skype or in person. Recently, a client came to us for job search consulting services,
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Before you put yourself on your boss’s calendar, be sure to conduct some due diligence. Here are the questions to ask and research, to determine if it is the right time to ask for an internal promotion. Do you understand the criteria for the job or the next level? If you don’t, ask about the criteria before you ask for the job. Once you understand the criteria, do some soul searching and get feedback on whether you meet a great
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A wave of disappointment, and sometimes a feeling of futility can consume leadership candidates when they find out they are competing with an internal candidate. Don’t let this happen to you. While competing against an internal candidate presents a unique set of challenges, it is never futile to pursue a role just because you have stiff competition. Recently, one of our C-level candidates found out there was an internal candidate only after he fell in
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The Importance of an Intentional Online Presence for High- Level Job Seekers Not a week goes by when one of our clients (who are CEOs, C-level and next level executives), doesn’t get “found” for a great opportunity online. An overwhelming majority of retained executive search consultants, external recruiters, internal talent acquisition and human capital executives – all high level recruiters (and their staffs) that look for candidates to fill the very top jobs in corporate America use LinkedIn or
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You have invested emotionally. You’ve experienced the nervous anticipation of a potential new beginning. You invested time to fully prepare for the interview. You invested time for the interview. YOU INVESTED TIME TO COMPETE. YOU THOUGHT SENDING A NOTE WASN’T IMPORTANT Turn your thinking upside down. Your first round was the verbal interview; your second round was a written “assessment, “ and you chose to compete. When you write a follow up note you are
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Your performance has been excellent and acknowledged. Until now, you have checked all the boxes on your way up. But your career trajectory has slowed or even stalled. You can’t seem to make it to the next step, and feeling discouraged, you may have interviewed externally with no success. You have no idea which boxes you are not checking. The answer, according to Harvard Business Review, might be a problem you never even realized you
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according to the gatekeepers℠… If you don’t fit the job posting or spec (as commonly known in the executive search world), you are out of luck – don’t waste your time or your networking bullets. Right? What if the leadership team or your potential peers are different from you? All men? All under thirty? No persons of color? Is inquiring about the opportunity even worth your while when you don’t fit the unwritten parts of
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.WILTON, Conn., Feb. 21, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — According to a recent Waterman Hurst survey of the gatekeeperssm, the economy and other forces are turning the job market on its head. A great majority of the gatekeepers responsible for finding talent say that they now present different, diverse and out of spec candidates frequently, and 42% of the gatekeepers say they present “out of spec” candidates routinely. the gatekeepers is a virtual community of board members, CEOs, C-level leaders,
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With the start of the new year comes new resolutions and plans for the coming year. Often those plans involve your career, as the beginning of a new year is a good time to take a step back and examine where you are and what you have achieved. Are you on the right career path, and if you continue down the same path, will you meet your longer-term professional and financial goals on your timeline?
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according to the gatekeepers℠… Large companies like Oracle, Unilever and IBM are early adopters of Video AI technology for the initial selection process. Video AI is used to conduct initial interviews for jobs, and in many cases, candidates may never communicate with a human during the selection process. Both traditional AI selection and Video AI process a huge amount of data points on candidates. Video AI records and processes upwards of 250,000 data points on
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according to the gatekeepers℠… Being passed over at work can be miserable. You were the obvious choice, but that promotion, recognition, bonus or big important project went to someone else. Feeling anxious you might say to yourself – where is this going? It happens to the best of us. Successful leaders get passed over along with everyone else. I can’t think of anyone that has been immune to upsets, even those we think of as the most talented among us. We
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According to the gatekeepers℠ Everyone knows that talking about career setbacks can blow a good job opportunity. But trying to avoid or gloss over setbacks may be even more damaging. Dave Hardie, a Managing Director at Herbert Mines Associates, the largest executive search firm focused on consumer/retail, has placed over 20 CEOs in the last three years as well as two dozen other C-level positions. As a member of the gatekeepers, Dave shares with us
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according to the gatekeepers℠… Nobody really wants to have to go above their boss’ head. But sometimes it seems necessary. When it is clear cut, you have no choice. But where should that clear cut line reside? Earlier is my career, my boss, who was the CEO at the time, gave my assistant a single rose. He left it on her desk before she got in one morning and then took credit when he came to see me later in the day. Corey,
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According to the gatekeepers℠ Once—and only once—I accepted the wrong job. I remember entering the building on my first day of work – excited and nervous. I was pleased to see that I would share my first elevator ride with the Chairman of my new company. I had met him twice during the interview process. During the group interview, he asked me a couple of questions, and I thought we had established a good connection. He did
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About to ramp up a job search in 2017? Be sure to read about what still matters, according to the gatekeepers℠ Have you ever been completely confident you would get a job—or at the very least, convinced you would be a finalist? The job specifications described you perfectly, but for some reason you weren’t asked back. What unspoken test did you fail in the interview? It could be that you failed the all-important character test. Make
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according to the gatekeepers℠… Requesting a better compensation package is fraught with risk. Before you make the ask, read this! Here’s how to get what you’re worth without changing companies. Requesting a better or higher compensation package is tricky and fraught with risk. The underlying (but unspoken) message when you request a raise is that you haven’t been paid what you’re worth—and the person you report to hasn’t noticed. Some bosses may be offended
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according to the gatekeepers℠… Find out what you need to know for your career… Can a difference in political opinions matter enough to derail an important business deal? A client of mine says yes. He relayed to me a conversation with his partner that happened the day after the US presidential election: He said, “Good day to wear black. I’m in mourning for our democracy too.” She said, “He’s just like Ronald Reagan. We all need to give him a chance.”