tips and methods to become a trusted advisor in the eyes of your clients There is a paradox or dilemma in becoming a trusted client advisor. On the one hand, you must develop a deep expertise in order to build your brand, attract clients, and do great work on specific issues. On the other hand, you have to be more than just an expert to your clients, because expertise is a commodity. Many search consultants can find and present candidates, for example. But what separates out the truly great search consultant from the average one, at least in the eyes of clients? What I have found is that you need to shed the expert mindset because it will hold you back. When it comes to developing long-term relationships, it can be your greatest enemy. You see, clients hire experts, but they keep advisors. Here’s what I mean. Harry Truman, who was president of the United States after Franklin Roosevelt, once said, “An expert is a fellow who’s afraid to learn anything new, because then he wouldn’t be an expert anymore”— which gets at the notion that when we’re experts we want to stay within our narrow expertise at all times. [...]

how to ensure that you’re successfully capturing candidate data The personal and professional information that is available online about people in the marketplace is growing quicker than ever. Public and private databases, social media sites, news articles, industry-specific websites, job boards, conferences, social and professional associations and direct referencing are just some of the ways to build robust information on a person even before they are part of an executive search. While interviewing your candidates and dealing with them in face-to-face situations is as important as ever, using social media venues to research potential candidates allows you to dig deeper. There is more value in social media than looking at an individual’s activity. Their connections can be helpful in further developing your talent pool and business development efforts – you can search through their team members, colleagues, former colleagues, and other people who have “liked,” “followed,” displayed interest in certain posts or belong to similar groups. You will find that a lot of comparable talent may be present in similar online spaces. The use of social media as a sourcing tool has created new opportunities and new problems for efficiently managing information within search firms. Some of the benefits that [...]