People often wonder why a church would spend money to hire an executive search consultant. Why not just use a job board, or post a classified ad? Why pay the money for a full fledged, top drawer search?
Seth Godin has done a marvelous job, as only he can, of capturing a big thought in a few words:
“Hiring is what you do when you let the world know that you’re accepting applications from people looking for a job.
Recruiting is the act of finding the very best person for a job and persuading them to stop doing what they’re doing and come join you.”
That’s what our executive search process is all about. Finding the best possible match of opportunity and person.
The good news for our firm is that we’re not headhunting, (what many corporate search consultants are called). Executive search work for churches is different. It’s more like heart hunting.
When we present an opportunity to a candidate, we talke to people about a call from God, not just a job application. So we get to spend our time putting outstanding opportunities in front of outstanding candidates, and seeing where God leads. For some reason, God has afforded us the opportunity to earn the trust and confidentiality of some of the best church leaders and pastors in the country. Hearing their stories, talking to them about their future, and being a part of creating a connection between the right opportunity and the right person makes me sleep well.
Bad hires are bad, but in churches, they are awful. They are expensive, difficult to undo, and have lasting ripples in the congregation. Good hires are good, and can be a game changer in churches. The smartest churches are figuring this out and are investing resources in a process that helps raise the likelihood that a hire will be good, even great.
We have a client church that keeps coming back to us with more work. We just completed our fourth search for a high level staffer for them, all of which have gone remarkably well. In fact, we have essentially restaffed the executive leadership team for them. When we recently asked the Pastor and CFO of the church why they spend money hiring us, their answer was simple:
“The future is too important. We can’t afford not to.“
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There are two certainties in life: death and taxes. But there is probably a third. Sooner or later, your church will have to face the issue of succession.
Lately, we have been doing a whole lot of our work with churches on this issue: tailor making a succession plan for them, and doing searches for their future key leaders and staff.
We’ve been humbled to be a part of helping churches through that process, to help them find their next pastor, and are getting more and more confidential inquiries about the subject. We’ve also been using our corporate experience in succession planning, and a whole lot of learning and research to be the best resource we can to churches facing this key issue.
If you’re a church leader considering succession planning, here are a couple of thoughts to help you get going.
1. No one will start the discussion unless you do. It’s a delicate subject, and lots of folks avoid it altogether. Find someone to talk to (or call us if you need someone to talk to).
2. There is no single formula for succession planning. People constantly ask us for the “secret sauce” of succession planning. The secret is: it’s an art, not a science. Every succession plan is contextual. We’ve identified about 7 or 8 key variables that factor into the equation, but even with those variables, the equation is a bit different for everyone involved.
3. Get objective counsel. The old line is true: “Everyone wants to talk about succession planning unless it’s their own.” While your participation and input is absolutely essential to a seamless succession, it is our experience that nobody is able to address this issue alone. The issue of succession is a serious operation, one that no surgeon would perform on themselves.
4. Get an emergency plan in place. What would happen to your church if a key staff member quit, died, got sick? While long term planning isn’t for everyone, emergency planning is. Walking through a professional process for emergency planning is relatively inexpensive, and worth it. It may even save you money on your next church loan or key man insurance premium.
If our firm can help you with any of these questions or issues, contact William directly at william@vanderbloemensearch.com.
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References matter more than you think. Really good reference calls make a really big difference, and bad calls can crater your chances at that new job.
So how can you increase the probability that your references will be a deal maker, and not a deal breaker?
Choose your references carefully, and prepare them for an upcoming call. Here are a few pointers for maximizing your references.
- Make sure your reference knows I will be calling. If I cannot reach folks, or catch them off guard, the reference call is not only unhelpful, it can hurt your chances for a job. Furthermore, if your reference is only able to give me 5 minutes because they are busy, I will likely assume that the reference either (a) has little good to say about you, or (b) is hiding something. A good reference call doesn’t take more than 15-20 minutes. Prepare your references for that expectation.
- Make sure the reference knows a fair amount about the job you are interviewing for. I’m amazed at how many times I will call a reference only to find out that they have no idea what kind of job the candidate is looking at. The point of my call is to assess your ability to step into a new job. If the reference is informed about that job, it will greatly enhance the input I receive. In my next post, I will list a few example questions I generally ask references below. You’ll see that they are pretty close to questions you are asked as a candidate for a job, and they require some knowledge of the job your vying for.
- Don’t pick your mother as a reference. While most people pick good friends and close colleagues, it really helps to have someone who can give an objective opinion about you. If a reference cannot tell me growth areas for the candidate in question, I discount their input greatly.
- Don’t pick your mother-in-law as a reference (unless she likes you). Don’t try to “balance” your reference list by including someone who isn’t totally on your side. It is completely normal to limit your references to people who are positive about you. A negative reference is a really, really red flag and could change the game, even at a late stage in the hiring process.
- Make sure the reference is prepared to offer me secondary references. While we don’t generally do “back channel” reference checks until the very end of a process, primary references are often the source of our secondary calls.
Picking the right references and preparing them for a call can make or break this final stage in a hiring process. Choose wisely, prepare them well, and good luck with any future search you do!
(this article was written by William Vanderbloemen in 2009 and continues to be one of the most requested resources we have produced)
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