The candidate who was not looking.
A VP search that became a Senior Vice President role, built around the conversation.
3 minute read
The Situation
A global commercial real estate firm engaged us to fill a VP-level role in lease administration.
The strongest prospect for it was not a candidate in any conventional sense:
- Over a decade in their current role
- Equity in the business
- Recently promoted
- Settled in the work
- Not open to recruiters
- Professional profile nearly empty
By most measures this was not a person a search would reach.
The Reach
We reached out anyway.
And caught them on a rare day they were willing to talk.
From there it was not a pitch.
It was a long process of listening.
The Conversation
We spent hours in conversation before they were ready to meet the client.
The question was not whether they should leave.
The question was what was missing.
For someone who already had everything a job is supposed to provide.
The Alignment
They were not looking for a job.
They were missing a north star.
A search finds what they could not name.
The Outcome
The candidate came from a less traditional consulting firm, running precisely the kind of program our client wanted to build.
The conversation between the two went well beyond the original brief.
Rather than fit this leader into the VP role,
the client created a new Senior Vice President of Lease Administration position around the shared vision that emerged.
The Numbers
Invoiced before the candidate signed
Since the hire, still in role
Director, Director, Senior Manager hired since
Role created during the search
Retained methodology. No retainer.