Sitting at the foot of a master

Guy Beaudin, Ph.D addresses PEO Eye on the Executive (EOE) Session

Don’t miss Scotiabank’s Dr. Warren Jestin February 25, noon-3pm, Brookfield Place

Rarely in business does one come across a mind that’s so strong that you know absolutely that what he or she does is something you could never do yourself – and that the thought processes and experience are so worthwhile that you ‘d like to hear them again. Spending a morning at our Eye on the Executive session with Guy Beaudin, Ph.D., senior partner at RHR International, was one such event. Guy is a management psychologist whose ideas about executive hiring are far more advanced than anything most of us had heard in some time.

According to Dr. Beaudin, an assessment is much more than a gut feel about whether a person will fit into an organization—though a gut feel is useful as just one input part of amassing data. “It is not an assessment tool,” Dr. Beaudin told the group of PEO leaders, including representatives from such companies as Hubbell Canada, Skyway Wind Group, Cresa Partners, Junior Achievement of Canada and AVW-Telav.  Other leading PEO companies in attendance also included Umbra, HIROC, Sodexo, Stafflink Solutions, TGO Consulting and HDS Retail North America

In fact, Beaudin and his organization, RHR International, which operates worldwide, often put candidates through three-hour sessions that are only one part of the information-gathering process. Other inputs include:

• Social interactions
• Negotiations
• Phone calls
• Emails
• Casual conversations

In addition, strategic planning as it concerns recruiting is vitally important. “Business direction must be linked to the desired leadership behaviour,” Beaudin said, citing the most common evaluation mistakes presenting this outcome:

• Overconfidence
  • Business acumen  ≠ “Human” acumen
  • Oversimplification
    • “We’re all experts in human behaviour”
    • Over-reliance on incomplete measures
      • References / track record assessment method alone
      • Overlooking warning signals
        • Due to time pressures
        • Looking for “the good news”

“You don’t want to hire the ‘least-worst,’ Beaudin added, “But all too often that happens, especially when people do not understand their own filters and blind spots.”

One of the liveliest discussions during the meeting ensued when one member raised the subject of checking references another person volunteered that a recruiter had offered to do the checking. This produced a smile from Beaudin who reminded the group that recruiters had a vested interest in ‘selling the candidate.’ “Always call at least one reference yourself, even if you delegate the others to a trusted associate,” Beaudin added.