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Monday, January 12, 2015

Finding the Missing Piece to Your Leadership Puzzle

After graduating from high school, I did not attend college to get a B.S. in Headhunting or Real Estate.  I went to college to obtain a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering.  When I graduated I thought I would solve some of the greatest problems facing the automotive industry.  
However, I graduated three months after the 9/11 tragedy and saw the automotive industry laying people off rather than hiring new talent.

Struggling to find an industry where I fit, I ended up taking a position working in the office for a small, local recruiting firm.  I never thought that the headhunter industry could be a fit for an engineer, but the first company that hired me in recruiting hired me because of my engineering degree   Later, I found out they liked individuals with engineering degrees because of their analytical thinking ability.  At the time I didn't fully understand what that meant because I thought executive recruiting was putting "butts in seats".

Several years into my headhunting career, I connected with Wes Easly.  Wes is the Managing Principal here at ibrSearch.  Working with him helped me finally understand how I could use my engineering thought process to solve business problems.  The problems we solve today are helping companies find that missing piece to their leadership puzzle.
 
Growing up in Columbus, OH made it easy to become a fan of college football.  Most people think I should have been a fan of Ohio State, but instead I went to the "dark side" and rooted for Michigan.  Being a Michigan fan in the 80's and 90's was a great time, but the 2000's were a different story.  Since then, Michigan has been lacking the leadership puzzle piece that they had in the 80's and 90's.  This was not because they hired the wrong head coach, but rather because they hired the wrong coach for their organization.  You can hire one of the best leaders/coaches in your industry, but if there is no "buy in" from the organization it will fail. Michigan saw this with the hiring of Rich Rodriguez who did not receive the support he needed to be successful with that team.  He is now with the University of Arizona and seeing a lot of success due to his new organization "buying in" to his vision. 

You can also hire a person who says all the right things and has the right "buy in" from the organization, but if that person does not have the right leadership skills to move the organization forward, he/she will fail.  Michigan and its fans have seen this play out over the last four years.  After many years of struggle, Michigan has finally got it right with the hiring of Jim Harbaugh.  Harbaugh not only has a proven track record, but also has the necessary "buy in" from the organization.  It might take a few years to see how this plays out, but I believe this could be a match made in football heaven.

When it comes to recruiting executives in real estate, you have to hire the right person who can be the piece that solves your leadership puzzle.  That is where my passion for identifying and recruiting the best possible candidate comes in.  There is nothing better than getting a call from a client 6 months after filling a position saying how much the candidate we helped place grew their company.  That client call always proves to me that engineers really can make it in the real estate headhunting industry.


If you are heading to the ASHA event in January I would love to hear about your career journey. 
Written by: Brian Shuppe Sr. Director, Research & CIO at ibr Search

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