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Communication: Obstacles Can Make It Easier
BY: MICHAEL STERN September 13, 2006
How many times have you waited for a return phone call that never came, chased people down for feedback on a proposal you made, or found yourself not listening to a boring speaker? It’s no secret that communication is the lifeblood of business – but unfortunately, many of us are not very good at it.
Just recently, though, I experienced a communications breakthrough. And I realized that sometimes communication gets easier when it gets harder.
Before they come to lock me up, let me explain. Our executive-search firm was hired by a European manufacturer to help them recruit a general manager for their new Canadian operation. Doing business with clients in Europe means you only have a few hours in the morning (Eastern time) to talk with them. While you’re wondering where you’ll go for lunch, they're headed home.
In search, communication is everything. Headhunters need constant access to their clients. We want to update them on search results and interview progress… and we need ongoing feedback to ensure our work is on target. (I think it was a NASA scientist who said rockets are off-course 99% of the time – their courses have to be continually adjusted throughout the flight.)
Plus, in executive search the target is always moving. As the search progresses, many clients alter their notion of “the perfect candidate” as their priorities sharpen and as they learn what kind of talent is out there – and what it actually costs.
The problem, though, is connecting. Clients want to hear from us, but they're busy people, and frankly, we’re not the most important part of their day. They take for granted that we’ll hook up, eventually. But when we call spontaneously, they're often not there, and sometimes they're just too busy to talk.
Since most of our conversations are intricate dialogues, with ideas spinning back and forth, leaving a long voice message is no substitute. So they call me back between meetings, get my voice mail, and we slog through another round or two of telephone tag before we finally talk.
Ironically, I find it actually gets easier when our clients go out of town. Knowing they’ll be hard to reach, they gladly schedule time for my calls into their calendars. Our clients usually end up speaking to us more often – and staying more aligned in our objectives – when they're out of town than we do when we're sitting in our offices six blocks apart.
Enter the client in Europe. Because of our narrow contact window, I negotiated a communications protocol before embarking on the assignment.
“Because it will be so hard for us to connect,” I said, “we need a regular routine. A schedule for when we can talk for 20 minutes once a week.”
I also asked for my client’s cellphone number. Because things can move fast in executive search, I requested to call her until as late as 10 p.m. (her time) if I had important news or needed a fast decision. We agreed on a simple privacy protocol: if there were specific times when she didn’t want to hear from me, she could turn her cellphone off. Except for one conversation when she was at the supermarket and one heading into the theatre, our conversations occurred within normal business hours.
The search went smoothly and quickly. I credit that partly to the fact that the client was impressed with Canadian talent, and our “short list” of candidates was well received.
But I also credit the process’s success to our mutual agreement that communication was a priority – even if we had to make time for it. That ensured we remained on the same wavelength, and that any mid-flight course corrections were only minor adjustments.
I’d had this experience before working with clients in Italy, London, Vancouver, and even Australia. Having to make even a minor effort to communicate properly made the communication happen much more regularly and efficiently.
I’ve learned my lesson. I’m now pushing a little harder with most of our clients to set up formal times for updates and feedback. Ironically, my most successful tactic is using e-mail – the medium that was supposed to replace the phone – to set up telephone appointments.
We still get pushback. One Toronto client still deflects my attempts to pin him down by saying, “We’re just around the corner. In a pinch, you could walk over to see me.” Marvellous in theory. Maddening in practice
I’m still trying to change that client’s mind. Because it’s never too late to stop taking communication for granted.
Plan B? Tell him that I'm now working out of our new office. In Paris.