Funny story.
A few years ago, Intro Limited got hired to find a particular type of VP for a lifestyle brand. To kick off the search, the brand gave us a list of 90 people from their previous recruiter. “We hated all of these people. Bring us better candidates.”
I thought wow, the previous recruiter presented 90 people?! All of them straight rejected? And now it's our turn? Intimidating ask, but we dug in.
On that long list, I saw many familiar names, but one stuck out. We’ll call her Annie. I phoned the company. “Why didn’t you like Annie?”
“We never talked to her. We just dismissed her profile because we don’t like the brand she comes from.”
I gave them 10 unexpected reasons why Annie was likely the right person for their VP role.
“OK, we’ll take a second look at Annie. Set up an interview. But meanwhile, show us more people.”
We showed them 40 more people. They interviewed and deliberated. For 4 months.
Then they hired Annie.
What was the difference between us presenting Annie, vs. the other recruiter presenting her? I came to find out that the other recruiter didn’t really KNOW most of the 90 people that they had shown. Their “presentation” was basically a database download.
We had known Annie for 6 years. With the personal and professional context that we provided, Annie was a completely different candidate.
It’s been almost 3 years and Annie is still at that company, exceeding expectations.
But this is not a story about recruiting, it’s about relationship building. A lot of people believe that merit should stand on its own, but let me tell you: the higher the stakes, the more important relationships are.
2nd story:
A few years back my baby girl needed a crucial surgery. The doctor we had been assigned was not very confidence-inspiring. Stressed out and scared, we mentioned this to our neighbor, also a doctor, who had become a friend. “Oh, let me connect you to Dr. Smith. He specializes in this. He’s usually booked up, but we’re close. He’ll take you on.”
A week later, Dr. Smith was our doctor. A friend of a friend, AND the best of the best. I asked him how many times he’d performed this specific surgery on a child. He chuckled and said “I stopped counting at 2,500.” A month later my daughter was as good as new.
Reminder to my friends and to myself:
“Small circle big checks” looks cool on a 4 Hunnid tee shirt, but “high quality international community of truly enjoyable people who share values and do nice things for each other” might be a more joyful reality.
