What We Heard From Our Clients This Week

This week we met with a client who was deep in thought, trying to decide if a candidate under discussion was going to be “the one” to be offered the top leadership position of a division.  The outside candidate had a sterling track record, impeccable references from trusted sources, and handled the recruitment process with the class and grace of a top executive.  Yet, the client was hesitating to pull the trigger and offer the job.  Why?  Well, despite all the good stuff, he had “a couple concerns” about the candidate.  Despite the likelihood that he would never find a better candidate, there were “a couple things” he would want the person to change about how he carried himself.  As the client reflected on the candidate’s pluses and minuses, he rocked his head back and said, “So much of life comes down to the simple A-B-C’s, doesn’t it?  It comes down to estimating the likelihood of getting Adult-Behavior-Change.”  As the client thought about what it would take to get the desired changes, he thought he would have to create a powerful, emotionally-charged change experience.  He doubted anything else would work.  From where we sat, this sounded pretty risky, and unlikely to succeed.  What do you think?  Do you think “powerful, emotionally charged change experiences” get hoped-for outcomes? What would you do to get style changes you thought were critical to be successful?  How do you recommend trying to get “simple A-B-Cs?”