To be Ethical………liberating! (Part 2)

True-to-life story. Some good news.

This was what Digna (not her real name) thought to herself as she put the phone down. Digna sought counsel of a trusted contact in the executive search industry. She was in a bind, a peculiar situation. An earlier matter she took for granted when she was about to join her employer has now come back to haunt her and which may cause her to lose her job. Not only that. She was torn also because to do the right thing today, she opines, could cast a black mark on the future of her corporate career.

Digna’s contact listened intently to her back story. Once done, on Digna’s conscience and shoulders the contact left the only choice she believed Digna had, after digesting the situation in full: accept and live with the truth. Her lapse in judgment and carelessness was deemed as a non-compliance by her employer and given her seniority of rank and level in the organization, she was fortunate to be given the option of a quiet exit.

The contact assured Digna facing and accepting the truth to resolve her present predicament was the ethical way forward. With the truth, she need not worry about how she would conduct herself in the next job interview or handle what people could say about her abrupt departure. She may be set back for a while by her misstep but because she faced it squarely, she should be convinced she would likewise be liberated by doing the right thing. As example, her contact informed her that in the first serious job interview she finds herself once all of this was over, she can humbly and assuredly reason out she erred in a judgment call as reason for being unemployed. But that afterwards, she elected to set things right even if it meant leaving her employment after only a very brief stay. And, potentially courting loose talk from those in her industry that she was not street-smart in her ultimate outlook or decision-making.

Digna’s contact did not help her find the job she just lost. Yet, she instinctively called the person for she knew she could count on her contact to provide sound and ethical counsel. She is glad to have an industry contact who was competent in the field of executive search, ethical, fair and reliable. Her contact clearly understands the nature of employers as well as the right way to assist corporate executives in transition.

Digna has first-hand knowledge of so-called search practitioners who would not go the extra mile unless there was something in it for them. She too has experienced the malpractice of being milked for a resume so it could be quickly passed on to a companies. She regrets this experience especially the one whereby she was hired but she never had any assistance from so-called search firm yet the company she joined had to pay a fee. She knew she would not ever want to deal with those unethical firms again.

For Digna, it pays to know of, work with, access and be counseled only by seasoned and ethical executive search consultants and firms.

Dan (not his real name) was satisfied.

Until Dan put a personal call through to his executive search contact, he was agonizing about an executive opportunity broached to him by another so-called search professional. The latter person had constantly been in touch with him by phone for many years but they had not ever personally met. He says he actually often wondered why they had never met when the so-called search professional frequently contacted him to be a candidate or resource person.

And now the “faceless” so-called search professional yet again recommended him to a client company with which remarkably, his discussions have progressed. He is now also asking his wife about her thoughts since a job offer has been formally extended to him by the client company. Dan saw himself in need of a competent search consultant to engage, ask easy and hard questions from as well as seek answers vis-à-vis merits of changing jobs at that point. He has spent quite a long and productive tenure with his current corporate employment and it would be crucial to weigh pros & cons of moving.

Dan could sense the “faceless” so-called search professional was not as invested in the company that just made him an offer. They were on a first-name basis but after he agreed for his resume to be submitted to the client company, his discussions were always direct with the hiring party and the HR team. He sort of knew his name and copy of his self-prepared resume were simply put across to the company and after their initial encounter with the Business and HR executives, he was the one directly engaged. How would the “faceless” so-called search professional soundly counsel him in his decision-making? He found himself asking this question often.

Without hesitation, as his discussions with the company deepened, Dan decided to take up his analyses with his trusted executive search contact. He would often seek advice or opinion of the same contact throughout the course of his career no matter if he was not actively exploring. He was comfortable in his knowledge of the person as competent and seasoned in the craft but more importantly, as one ethical professional. He was always impressed how his contact maintained wide, deep and up-to-date information about business in general as well as industry personalities in particular.

Yes, because this contact of his was big on Ethics, he ran to the person for counsel. Meeting in person after office hours, they discussed the company, the role and he marveled at how much his contact also knew about the organization. They talked about qualitative merits of moving and he felt better after he exchange. At home that night, he shared with his wife details of his discussion with his contact.

One major activity Dan’s contact urged him to do was to insist on a face-to-face meeting with his faceless so-called search professional. That it was both the right time and the right thing to do at that point to meet each other in person. His trusted executive search contact advised that the many reasons why the so-called search professional owed him the decency of meeting face-to-face.

He did.

And Dan was satisfied that he made the “faceless” so-called search professional work hard at finding the reasons why he was the right fit for the position, how the company could benefit from his hiring, and, all pros and cons of accepting or declining. No longer faceless, the so-called search professional could then take the responsibility of representing Dan’s interest in the hiring process.

Dan did not accept the job offer after all.

He was grateful his thinking process was aided by his executive search contact whom he could rely on for good and sound and ethical counsel. He was grateful he has a contact who does the right thing, period.

Dan fully recognizes and realizes why it pays to work with an ethical search consultant, all the time.