insides on a research day

Insides on a Research Day!By Anne Denys

4 Insides on a research day!

Acknowledgments

This training book/workshop was a team effort.I owe massive thanks to Herman Vos, my husband for his support & back up. I would like to thank Sherry Dean & Tony Keck for their involvement in each training session & discussions. Thanks to Antoon Jaminé from Pages who made the design and layout. You’re the best.Then there are others who’ve supported me every step of the way: Eliane Swolfs, Yvonne De Zwart, Mariane Van Meegeren and Madeleine Lilliehöök. I am grateful for the assignments received from all my clients. Through the numerous projects I was able to continuously upgrade my talent which I am sharing with you now.

Session 1 The Excitement of the Research process ..... 7

Session 2 The Role of the Researcher within the steps of the Executive search process ..... 15

Session 3 Developing Industry Knowledge ..... 21

Session 4 Create & Agree target list ..... 29

Session 5 Prepare your story ..... 33

Session 6 Making the Initial Telephone Calls & Compiling the Long Listing ..... 39

Session 7 Direct Approach ..... 55

Session 8 Conclusion ..... 69

Table of Contents

Insides on a research day! 5

SESSION 1 The Excitement of the Research process

Let’s take a few minutes to have a look at what research is, & what research means in executive search?

I have always found the process of research exciting - how am I going to get the information I need? And once I’ve got the information, how am I going to communicate it to the people who need it? And then how am I going to manage the info for the future so that I can build up a valuable intellectual property? But most of all, how am I going to get the information in the first place?

To enjoy research, it seems to me that you need huge amounts of focused curiosity, questioning & listening skills & all the other components of communication skills. You also need personal organisation skills & basic project management skills. It took me a few years to understand all this objectively & I only understood it by looking at what happens when the research process breaks down. What is happening when things go wrong? Well, usually things go wrong when the researcher doesn’t understand the results they are supposed to achieve, or they don’t know how to achieve those results. And it seems to me that when either of those two things are missing, the communication skills are missing. It ’s very rarely a case of lack of intelligence or ability to learn, it ’s more often a case of lack of skill & specifically awareness of what communication skills are. How exactly do we get to practice these skills?

Well, it starts with communicating with the Consultant giving us the brief. When we as researchers get introduced to an assignment, what happens? First of all, we need to know what information we are looking for. Suppose we are looking for a Call Centre Manager, what do these people do? There is no Call Centre school or training. So what sort of skills do they need to have? Where do you find people like that?For this we need the questioning & listening skills to make sure that the Consultant delivers the information we need. And to make sure that you are both on the same track at the end of the briefing, you also need to be able to reformulate what you have understood, so that the Consultant can pick up on any weak points.

Those are the component parts of communication – questioning, listening & reformulation, & these are what we use to manage the communication

1. Presentation: The excitement of the Research process

Introduction & Objectives


Sess

ion

1

with the Consultant, to make sure we get the information we need to do the job they want done. It is our responsibility to get the information from the Consultant. It ’s a power we need to take.

Taking control is an aspect of research that I find very stimulating. Research is an area where you have the reigns in your hands. Your skills give you this control.And it is exactly these communication skills which we use in doing the actual research.We create a target list, or we work with the target list we are given & we go into those target companies with what? Good questioning & listening skills, asking for what we think we are looking for & taking note of the response. Sounds simple. But this is where the real skill is. We need to get people to give us the information they have. For that we need the type of questioning


& listening skills which encourage their openness. Which does not raise resistance or if there is resistance, disarms their resistance.

What we are doing is creating an understanding of the target market. We start with a target list & then we test our assumptions. Was the target list a good hunting ground? Were the assumptions we had about that industry sector correct? What did we learn about it?

When the assignment time is finished, what do we need now? An ability to piece information together to give the Consultant a picture of how that industry sector works, together with the names of the people concerned.

And then of course we need to store the information for future use. For this we need good information organisational skills. Which is usually through some sort of database or database type thinking.

Finally, to handle all this from beginning to end, we are going to need excellent personal organisational skills & basic project management skills. So, research is for me all about mixing & matching skills along a roller coaster of trying to understand people through a highly focused process of getting information from them.

Why are you reading this today? I would say that it is to understand all the steps involved in research in the context of executive search & to improve our communication skills. I believe that the skills required for research in executive search are component parts of good management skills. Communication skills & basic project management skills are skills all good managers need. It’s exactly these skills, especially the questioning & listening skills, which are missing in management when people are systematically unhappy in their work place. If you think about it, isn’t that true?So, what we are doing now is investing in your personal development as a good researcher & a good manager!


2. Let’s summarise the main areas of research in executive search:

I have found 5:

creating a target list- long listing or identification- direct approachreport writingstoring the info for future-

Would anybody disagree with my main headings?

Now, what do you think are the problem areas in this?What are the main difficulties you face each day in your role as a researcher?And then following on from that, what are your expectations of this book/workshop?I would like you to spend 10 minutes thinking this through. (Discuss what you think are the main problem areas you face as a researcher & how can this book/workshop help you? What do you want out of this?

Points to be included: resistance & rudeness on the other end of the phone- time pressure finding the right people to talk to -



a) Qualities:

- Curiosity- Systematic approach- Focus- Determination - Perseverance- Patience- Self assuredness- Respect for others- Ability to accept rejection & bounce back

b) Skills:

- Communication skills- Listening skills- Questioning skills (including reformulation skills)- Basic project management skills- Personal organisation skills- Report writing skills

4. Presentation – My background

I’ve been in executive search for the last 20 years. Now I think I’m the sort of person who is a research animal by nature, in all areas of my life. When I learned to drive a car, I had to know how the pedals interact with the engine, otherwise I couldn’t see the point of what I was doing. When I go to dinner parties, I ask people what they do, & what they get out of doing what they do. I am intellectually curious & I ask a lot of questions in most any situation you put me in. Ask my friends.

So what I’ve done is apply the skills to executive search. And I have to tell you

that I have been surprised at how little research as a skill is understood by Consultants. You guys very often seem to be thrown in the deep end & have to muddle through somehow, with not very much support or respect.

3. Discussion – What are the qualities & skills of a good researcher?


Research in any sort of people business can probably be summed up by something like: a process of finding out what people do, why they do it & how they do it. Do you agree with me? What do you need to do this successfully? I would say that you need to know what information to look for, where to look for it, & then on top of that, get people to give it to you. Once you can do that, I reckon you’re hot stuff in any business area. And you can never stop improving these skills.

Exactly what info am I looking for?Where can I look for it?Get people to give it to me!

In the Executive Search business, we are trying to find candidates from relevant industries to approach & find out if they are interested in a particular function. We break this down into manageable chunks which we call:creating a target listlonglistingdirect approachreport writingstoring the info for future

5. Workshop Objectives

So, if I’ve understood it well, the idea is to become a Consultant as soon as possible. Is that correct? Well, that’s what this book/workshop is about: to go through the processes & help you understand just how skilled you have to be to be a really effective researcher in Executive Search.

By the end of the workshop, you should:

understand the knowledge, skills & qualities required to be an effective - researcherknow how the research role fits into the overall task of executive - searchknow the process & steps of the research process- demonstrate the complete range of skills necessary to conduct each - step of the research process appropriatelydevelop increased confidence to handle the research process-


insides on a research day

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