Christopher Frederick is excited to offer a new online assessment service that helps job seekers identify traits that make them stand out in a tough real estate job market and also gives employers an analytical tool to better understand their personnel.

As the Wall Street Journal recently reported, job seekers who appear proactive are most likely to succeed. Promoting one’s self using online resources, as the article notes, has become crucial for candidates wishing to set themselves apart. This is where Christopher Frederick’s version of the DiSC self-evaluation program can help you get ahead in a difficult economy.

During more than two decades of executive recruitment, Christopher Frederick founder Chris Hingle has helped real estate firms hire in all phases of the business cycle. He applied his experience during six months of research into assessment tools and chose DiSC for its superior reputation, thoroughness and ease of use. With more than 50 million users, the Everything DiSC profile is the world’s leading personal assessment tool. What’s more, the third generation of this research-validated model is highly personalized. Each profile provides in-depth information that includes specific strategies and an action plan tailored to each user.

For the job applicant fighting to stand out from the crowd, or for ambitious employees inspired to better their skills, a full DiSC profile report offers several distinct advantages:

1. The report identifies your strengths in both the workplace and your personal life. Socrates’ maxim “know thyself” is a powerful concept. Knowing with certainty what your strongest capabilities are helps you identify the most suiting opportunities.

2.  It improves your interaction with others. By becoming aware of how your personality traits guide your interactions in the workplace, you can foresee potentially disruptive conflicts and refine the way you communicate with people who approach problems from a different perspective.

3.  Affirming your strengths bolsters self-confidence in a tough economy. A strong sense of self-awareness can help you find and address the source of personal doubts. An inventory of your positive traits will bolster your confidence and, consequently, the odds of success in a long job search.

4.  It gives you increased depth in the eyes of employers. The more informed managers feel, the more confident they feel about an individual. Specific personality characteristics cited from a DiSC profile give companies insight beyond the bullet points on a resume.

For managers, DiSC assessments can help build a more productive and harmonious workplace by creating an inventory of employee strengths. And it’s efficient. Christopher Frederick is the only online DiSC provider that gives users the flexibility to customize the number of pages included in each report and access them as .pdfs or HTML files easily retrieved by hyperlink.

Whether you are a job seeker or management, the Everything DiSC profile is a proven tool that will empower you to excel. To learn more about how we can help you enhance your career, visit our website or contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

For many in real estate, there’s a flip side to living through a recession when unemployment reached into the double digits. Those who kept their jobs, forsook raises, shouldered more responsibilities and worked longer hours for their struggling companies are now even more valuable to the workforce than when the downturn began. Necessity made them more productive.

As growth accelerates, human resources professionals and high-value employees alike will need to identify the opportunities offered by a post-recession economy. For example, second-tier managers cross trained in construction, sales, finance and land for homebuilders are now prime candidates for division manager positions. Property managers whose roles expanded from just managing properties to being strategic profit managers now make attractive business development executives. And for real estate owners, the time is ripe for acquisitions and mergers.

For employers …
the recovery means giving managers more independence and going to greater lengths to keep them happy. Their sacrifices, loyalty and risk taking during the recession have earned them the respect of subordinates and supervisors alike. Consider giving more autonomy to people who’ve added skills in recent years as they plugged gaps in shrinking staffs. The same goes for managers whose leadership during the recession kept teams cohesive and inspired in the face of uncertainty.

In severe circumstances, decision making tends to become centralized at the top, even as lower-level managers consolidate responsibilities and supervise more employees. Now is the time to realize their recession experience is an asset and allow them to put their new managerial chops to use in more independent roles. Executives given more opportunities to make their own decisions and who have a bigger stake in the operation are more likely to stay. Those who performed well during the Great Recession will excel in the Great Resurgence!

For employees …
the recovery means that the sacrifice and stress from working for a company that’s lost staff can finally pay off. Reassess the additional tasks added to your workday since the recession began. Look at your areas of responsibility that grew and the challenges that you and your team managed to overcome. Look closely at how your new job description positions you to apply for new opportunities or projects within your current company. Likewise, consider how challenges met during the recession might be valued by another growing firm or use them as leverage in negotiations with your boss.

Hiring is around the corner
Corporate profits rose 36.8 percent last year – the biggest gain in six decades. Eventually the $1.9 trillion in cash that analysts estimate American companies have in the bank will have to be spent on hiring to keep those firms competitive. Now that the Great Resurgence has begun, both employers and their employees can use their knowledge and fortitude gained during the recession to search smart and find the best opportunities.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years helping companies search smart when filling their top positions. To learn more about how we can enhance your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

A resume is your history. It’s your education, your career, your life’s work all fit on a single piece of paper. A resume is often a hiring manager’s first introduction to a job candidate, and in many ways it’s a portrait of who you are.

Even though the recovery has begun, the number of job openings remains smaller than the number of qualified candidates. To tip the scale in your favor, you must change the way you think of yourself and the way employers look at you. After a brutal recession, executives need to focus on self reflection and regaining confidence in the qualities that make them valuable in the workforce. Today’s job search requires more than just preparing a resume, it’s about Planning, Presentation and Performance.

Planning:
Take an inventory of your skills, your strengths and your experience. What sets you apart? It’s critical that you know yourself better than ever before so you can portray yourself in a more confident and effective way. Not only does confidence affect how your resume comes across, it’s equally important during the interview.

The market downturn has afflicted many to such a degree that regaining a positive edge is now critical to making career progress. Find a methodical way to study the skills and traits that you can offer a potential employer. Resources like online versions of common personality tests can be useful tools to gain more insight into how you can best fit into an organization.

Presentation:
Your resume’s wording, tone and layout should be as distinctive as you are. Make your resume reflective of your position. For example, a marketing professional’s resume would be more gregarious, while an engineer’s would be simple and efficient. If writing is not your strong suit, a professional resume service can be well worth the investment.

Whatever your style, clarity is always critical. A resume should be full of facts, not questions. Extra time a hiring manager spends figuring out dates, locations, company descriptions and job titles can hamper your chances of being hired. If a hiring manager does not recognize something, don’t count on him or her looking it up. Likewise, it’s important to stress recent accomplishments and responsibilities rather than examples that are dated or less significant to what you do now. Be honest. Be you!

Performance:
Once you’ve painted a portrait of who you are and what you can do, you’ve only partially finished. Success with a resume depends on who reads it and what catches their attention. Think beyond paper and e-mail. Explore the ways Web video, social networks and other venues can get your resume in front of the eyes that matter. Also, when the time comes to submit your resume, don’t forget the impact a well written cover letter can have in making a good first impression. And to make that lasting impression, follow-up with a thank you note.

Renewed economic growth will create new opportunities and new competition for jobs. Forget about the Great Recession – it’s time for the Great Resurgence, and a standout resume is a solid place to start.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years seeking out the candidates best suited for our clients’ top positions. To learn more about how we can enhance your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

Motivation is a simple concept. It’s what drives you to behave a certain way or to take a particular action. But staying motivated in an uncertain market like real estate is easier said than done.

After ten prosperous years, the Great Recession thrust real estate professionals into uncharted waters. When business slowed or stopped altogether, motivation became even more crucial. Without a conscious and challenging effort to make good decisions in tough circumstances, many professionals found their businesses off track in short order. Others stayed inspired, doubled their efforts and found ways to adapt. With that in mind, here are seven tips to get motivated and stay in a mindset that will lead to prosperity in the long term .

1. Love is golden: Make your work not a job but a way of life. It should drive you to be the best at what you do and allow you to take the risks necessary for growth.

2. Stick to your routine: A daily routine is a sign of discipline and success. It reassures existing clients and helps attracts new ones who value self-directed behavior and professionalism.

3. Winning is contagious: Remember that success in your field can help those around you realize their own strengths and improve their lives as well.

4. Flourish by surviving: The Great Recession has tested our spirit, values, faith and confidence these past couple of years. But the will to survive also drove us to improve our practices and our profession.

5. Be positively optimistic: As bad as the economy has been, tomorrow’s market for real estate eventually will offer adventures and unseen opportunities for those willing to take the lead. Hard work, sacrifice and perseverance will be rewarded with prosperity.

6. Accountability counts: Share your ideas, plans and personal objectives with business associates you respect and trust. By creating accountability, you reaffirm your commitment to achieve your mission.

7. Create a legacy of wealth: Wealth is about more than client lists or revenue figures. Our legacy will be based on the lives we have enriched and the people we have served. If that doesn’t drive you, nothing will!

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years seeking out driven candidates for our clients’ top positions. To learn more about how we can maximize your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

Excluding a handful of marginalized economists, no one was prepared for what hit us during the Great Recession. So what credibility should we ascribe to people making predictions today about the economy’s future, when most of them completely missed the warning signs of the meltdown? My advice is this: stop listening, get motivated and get back in the game. Those who do will be Back and Better!

Growth will return to real estate at some point, just as it has to other sectors of the economy over the last 12 months. Leading firms will be looking for talent that can make the most of the market when it starts to recover. But what makes a strong executive in today’s tenuous real-estate industry? I’ve found today’s leaders are the people who never lost the values that made them successful during the prosperous years. They maintained their commitment to be the very best at what they do, even during uncertain times, and acted humbly toward others who were less fortunate. Great leaders make others better!

To find the best talent, today’s hiring managers also should seek executives who demonstrate:

• a willingness to adjust to changing circumstances
• a resolved determination to achieve
• the patience to see things through to the long term
• a knack for calculating risk
• a conviction that they control their own destiny

Hiring can be one of the most challenging duties of management, but it also has the most profound effect on a company’s success. As businesses watch closely for signs of recovery in real estate, the current job market offers a tremendous opportunity to recruit the talent that will guide the industry to renewed prosperity. Your moment is now. Let nothing stand in your way. The firms that take the lead today will be Back and Better in 2011!

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years seeking out the candidates best suited to our clients’ executive positions. To learn more about how we’re helping firms recruit the future leaders of real estate, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

This time it’s different. Any period of economic doldrums can take a toll on your career, but the latest recession wiped out not only jobs, but entire categories of employment. Consider this: Job openings increased 37 percent in the last year, yet unemployment actually rose. Tight budgets in recent years forced companies to consolidate and their managers to become proficient in more tasks. Many of the positions held by those who lost their jobs have been absorbed by former co-workers or phased out entirely. The real estate industry is no exception. At every level within the company, executives must now rethink their careers to retake their competitive edge.

It’s always better to be on the side making the rules than the side resisting them. People naturally react to new situations based on their existing comfort zones and past experience. Unfortunately, the past is history, the rules have changed and all bets are off. Today, corporate real estate leaders need executives willing to adapt to new business conditions and new perspectives in management. Successful job candidates carefully analyze what they need to make them competitive in today’s market. What skills can make you indispensable to an employer? Is this the time to consider an MBA? Further technical training? A broader field of expertise? Develop a plan and work it! Even if you are uncertain where your efforts will lead, acting with an eye to future market demands always beats standing still.

For example, property managers specializing in office space might avoid managing industrial, retail or residential properties because they feel their experience in the office sector brings more value to their future employment prospects. That may have been true two years ago, but today there is a smaller demand for property specialists of all stripes. They should focus on what is more relevant – their value as managers – rather than the type of property they manage. Remember, the past is history, the rules have changed and all bets are off. In today’s workplace, rethinking goals is crucial to standing out in the job market.

Obstacles create opportunities for success, challenging job seekers to grow their marketable skills. By pursuing education or taking on unfamiliar responsibilities, new hires can gain a foothold in today’s workplace where smaller staffs take on more varied work. Real estate companies and their hiring managers benefit greatly from executives with the flexibility to adjust to changing demands in the workplace. Equally important is a spirit of determination in the face of uncertainty. Without the will to achieve success, one will never know how far one can go. Those executives who rethink to retake their competitive edge and exceed expectations will be tomorrow’s leaders.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years seeking out the candidates best suited to our clients’ executive positions. To learn more about how we can rethink your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

In 1967, I watched the first settlers of Who Dat Nation fill Tulane Stadium for the inaugural game of the New Orleans Saints. Our larger-than-life city finally found itself worthy of a team in the NFL, and the collective voice of 80,000 raucous new fans told the world that New Orleans would be as serious about football as it is about jazz, crawfish and 24-hour dive bars.

The Big Easy is also serious about omens. Voodoo is a 300-year-old tradition in its French-Creole culture, and fortune tellers still do as much business in Jackson Square as artists and street performers. If fans were looking for a sign from above, it came in the first minute of the first game, when John Gilliam returned the first kickoff in the team’s history for a 94-yard touchdown. As their name suggests, the Saints must have seemed divinely favored in that opening quarter, and New Orleanians dreamed of a carefree future the way that only people who live below sea level can.

Unfortunately, that moment was short-lived. Unlike those who achieve success by starting low, reaching high and staying motivated, the team took its initial luck for granted. Not only did the Saints lose their first game, they played the next 40 years without reaching the Super Bowl. After Hurricane Katrina tore across the Gulf coast in 2005, the team couldn’t even play in its own city. Like my New Orleans relatives who stayed with me in Houston for months after the storm, the Saints had to finish their season in far-off stadiums in San Antonio and Baton Rouge.

But few things inspire like a disaster. The years of reconstruction after Katrina demonstrated the tenacity of both the city and its football team. While the Saints endured four decades without a championship following their remarkable first touchdown, it took only four years after the storm for the team to win the Super Bowl. Geaux Saints!

Just like the Saints, we in the real-estate industry have learned how to hang tough and persevere following the financial hurricane that savaged the economy. The previously feverish real-estate market – just like Gilliam’s 94-yard return – drove up expectations only to be followed by the worst market conditions in recent memory. But if the Saints’ story tells us anything, it’s that our current misfortune should only inspire us to work harder. We may have to start low, but we should always reach high. Just like the devastation of Hurricane Katrina inspired New Orleans and its beloved football team to flourish in the years that followed, we refuse to give up, remain optimistic and will achieve sustainable success in real estate once again.

We are who we are based on our history, and if our recent past is any indication of our future, prosperity is just around the corner. To recruit the best executives to lead your company toward a successful future, visit www.chrisfred.com. Start low, reach high and you’ll never look back!

Would you trust a stranger with your livelihood? What about the business or division you control? When companies choose new executives, there’s a lot at stake for everyone at the table, and trust becomes crucial when the time comes to negotiate a deal.

Trust Takes Time
From the very beginning of the executive search, hiring managers and candidates should work to understand each other’s motivations and develop mutual respect. Honesty and candor on the part of both parties can help develop confidence that their relationship will work in the long term. As interviews progress, candidates and their interviewers should gradually become more confident that they can negotiate successfully, despite divergent interests. If everyone involved makes an effort from the beginning to cultivate trust between the new hire and the company, the final negotiations over salary and benefits will go much more smoothly.

Understand the Culture
Employees at ease with a candidate will be more likely to share information on how the company operates day-to-day. Is it a fast-paced, high-stakes startup environment? If so, the candidate will know to expect a pay package weighted toward performance bonuses rather than base salary. Is the company older, larger and more forward thinking? These could be signs that the candidate can expect a pay package more focused on long-term results. In the end, if the candidate doesn’t understand how the company structures its pay, then one won’t know how to evaluate a fair offer.

Negotiate in Good Faith
Once trust is established between the candidate and the hiring manager, it’s important to take an objective look at what motivates the company’s offers and the candidate’s responses to them. The interview process lays the groundwork for a successful negotiation by giving each side a thorough understanding of what the other expects. Be honest about your goals from the beginning, and you’ll have more success achieving them in the end.

Look at the Total Opportunity
As any ambitious manager knows, there’s more to a position than the paycheck. For executives looking to increase their responsibilities, the career opportunities provided by a jump from a regional position to a national position could be worth much more than the accompanying salary upgrade. Don’t just consider the value of the position in the next year. Rather, keep in mind what the position will do for your income and responsibilities over the next 5 or 10 years. Beyond salary, it’s also important to consider factors that can have just as big of an impact on quality of life. Will you have to move, travel constantly or immerse yourself in a more competitive environment? It’s important to consider all of these factors before coming to the negotiating table.

Salary and benefit negotiations happen much more smoothly with trust already established between the parties and a mutual understanding of their motivations. A good sign that talks are getting somewhere is when each side is willing to bend to satisfy the other. The best pay package will be generous enough to make the new executive excited about the new job, but not so exorbitant that he or she is not motivated to earn more or take risks.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years finding the candidates best suited to our clients’ top positions. To learn more about how we can build trust during your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

 

Direction is good. A clear sense of what you want to achieve in the future provides critical guidance for your life, career and company. But don’t let discipline blind you to opportunities you may not expect.

Many times career advancement comes from unexpected places, whether it’s a layoff that allows time for a promising new venture or a job offer from a place where you never thought of looking. In my practice, I recently recruited a vice president of sales and marketing who worked in the housing sector before briefly leaving the industry. I approached him with a position that matched his qualifications and furthered the trajectory of his career, yet it wasn’t one that he considered at the start. While the company and this individual fit well together, the executive had envisioned finding a position in his home town, rather than moving to another part of the country where the management position was offered.

At first, he considered taking another open position further down the corporate ladder so he would not have to move. Sometimes people have ample reason to choose a desirable location over their career. But all too often, an attractive address becomes less desirable if one’s career does not provide prosperity and personal growth. Plus, today’s tough job market usually opens only one or two doors to executives looking to advance. It’s imperative that an executive’s family members understand the degree to which his or her career advancement will affect their well being.

When it comes to high-stakes career decisions, selling an opportunity to the family can be just as important as selling one’s skills to a potential employer. Family obviously provides support on levels that an employer cannot, and the entire household should be considered an important part of the team that moves an executive’s career forward. Executives must take care to communicate the pros and cons of a career change. Often a visit to the new city can help persuade a reluctant spouse that the time and disruption of a move will be worth the opportunity. Kids’ needs matter too, and it can be helpful to identify programs for sports, music and other activities that children can continue in the new location. At the end of the day, ambitious executives will only succeed if their families are on board.

In both job hunting and in recruiting, an open mind is critical to matching a candidate and a position successfully. I explained to the executive the importance of keeping a broad perspective when he considered the offer. Eventually he took the superior job that suited him best. An open mind opened doors for him that he would not have seen, had he stuck to his original thinking.
At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years seeking out the candidates best suited to our clients’ top positions. To learn more about how we can open doors for your company, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

Whether you seek a life-changing career opportunity or a blue-chip executive to join your team, it’s important to focus on the hidden treasures buried within a hiring manager’s stack of resumes.

Companies value people who stand apart. Like any commodity, the worth of personal characteristics rises if they are scarce or unique. Corporate leaders pride themselves on picking team members who are particularly attuned to a position or whose skills match perfectly a given challenge. Successfully cultivating executive talent lies in identifying the unique traits that set a candidate apart and putting them to the best use possible.

Here are some inside tips on cultivating the hidden treasures hiring managers seek:

1. Create Value: What are your biggest talents, and how can you exploit them in ways that no one else can? What have you done that no one else can claim? Maybe it’s experience guiding a company through an unprecedented challenge. Perhaps you broke a previously untouchable sales record or pioneered the use of a new technology in your industry. Study the leaders in your business who share your strengths. Use their experience as a guide to evaluate the potential of your unique personality, skill set and life experience.

2. Persevere: It may take time, but your passions and unique strengths will become more apparent the longer you look for them. Your niche will evolve over time, and it will become more clear what you have that others don’t. Stay assertive, determined and focused on the personal characteristics you want to develop over time.

3. Innovate: You might be the only person in the world with a given talent, but that won’t matter if no one knows about it. Just as a skill set needs to stand out within a job application, so does the application itself. Supplement your curriculum vitae with a video resume or a personal website. Use social networking tools like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to generate word-of-mouth buzz about your strengths.

4. Stay confident: Eventually someone will get the position. You can become that person if you carry yourself in a way that says you are the best candidate. Hiring managers take note of people who remain self-assured in the face of uncertainty. Remember that you are not alone, and your competition faces the same challenges. Stress may cause all kinds of negative behavior, but it’s also a catalyst for growth.

5. Attitude: This often determines the fate of the final two candidates. All recruiting discussions eventually progress to conflict-prone topics like compensation, title and location. In a tight job market, it’s crucial to balance confidence with respect for the company’s financial position. Remaining pragmatic and humble during the hiring process indicates you will be a team player if they give you the job.

Above all, don’t be typical. Take care to understand what sets you apart from the competition. You’ll be well served by focusing your professional development on those unique strengths – the hidden treasures that separate the merely qualified from those who can do the job better than anyone else.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve spent more than 20 years unearthing the candidates best suited to our clients’ executive positions. To learn more about how we can improve your next executive search, visit our resources page or read more in our past newsletters. For more information, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

Those who make their living in real estate recently experienced a downturn like no other in recent memory. It has challenged our minds, spirits and values to the core. While we all know a turnaround will happen, we still don’t know when.

One thing is certain, though. It’s not too early to start positioning for new prosperity. Market disruption creates opportunities for fresh ideas and gives us the space to consider new and better approaches to the way we do business. Employment contracts are an area in particular that companies should reevaluate. Non-compete agreements offer tremendous value in some cases, but this is a good time to consider whether your business can retain quality staff without them.

A positive company culture can ensure employee retention in ways that an employment contract cannot. Careful hiring and attentiveness to employees’ needs build loyalty. Many managers work under existing non-compete contracts that may be unnecessary in today’s market. A dissatisfied employee can drag down productivity if he or she feels trapped by a contract that prevents work elsewhere in the field. Additionally, non-compete policies adopted now may scare away top talent when the job market returns. Instead of threatening punishment if managers defect, this is a good time to reevaluate ways the company can make employees feel valued as part of the team.

It’s also important to keep in mind that contracts can affect a company well after an employee departs. To ensure the current staff takes them seriously, non-compete clauses must be enforced. Policing the career paths of every manager who leaves the company can rack up expensive legal costs.

On the other hand, non-compete can be hard to beat for top-tier executives. A good rule of thumb is that the more money an executive’s departure will cost the company, the more thorough the contract should be. Still, it’s important not to overestimate the value of confidential information about your business. Don’t allow fear of competitors poaching employees to distract from the more important task of negotiating the best agreement between the firm and the managers who run it. The best way to retain talent at all levels is to create an environment that gives employees a positive incentive to stay. Employees who feel they were treated fairly leave the company with a sense of respect and conduct themselves in an ethical manner that will minimize cost in the courts.

Today is the time to refocus, retool and recharge for tomorrow’s gold rush. It will happen! At Christopher Frederick, our high-energy approach is ideally suited for digging out those impact players who can thrive and prosper in the coming days! So don’t lock yourself in by holding on to what you have, but open the gates to ensure you have a stream of talent who will be drawn to a company with fresh ideas and a key that will ultimately achieve maximum success! To see how we can guide your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

HOUSTON _ The Westland YMCA recently tapped longtime Houston business owner Chris Hingle to serve on its board.

“I think it’s exciting. This is a great chance to serve the community as the Westland Y expands its programs for youth,” said Hingle, the founder and principal of Houston executive-search firm Christopher Frederick.

In addition to his duties on the board overseeing the organization’s operation and finances, Hingle looks forward to raising money to expand a new after-school program. Since September, it has offered a place where teens can find mentoring, help with homework and a positive place to hang out. In a neighborhood facing challenges from poverty and crime, Hingle hopes to attract more youth by growing the resources available for activities and food.

“The kids really don’t have a lot of avenues after school,” Hingle said, and the YMCA aims to change that.

Hingle joins the YMCA board after 13 years as president of his community association and many years volunteering for his alma mater, The Citadel. After serving as class president for two years, he helped found the Houston area alumni association and served as its president for 10 years.
A recruiter for more than two decades, Hingle finds and evaluates executives nationwide for companies in real estate, property management and other fields.

Contact: Chris Hingle, chingle@chrisfred.com

In my 25 years advising businesses, I’ve learned that compensation reflects not only the value placed on employees, but also the environment they work within. Talented executives gravitate toward firms where the structure of the pay – not just the amount – is consistent with their culture.

In business, compensation is the fuel that drives employee performance. Just like there are different grades of fuel that helps determine your car’s power, efficiency and longevity, pay packages should match your organization to ensure maximum performance.

Know Your Culture
The first step when considering executive compensation is to examine the company’s culture, philosophy and mission. A demanding, high-performance environment requires premium-level pay, while a slower-paced job does not. Likewise, how the pay is structured should reflect the employee and the demands of his or her job. An executive attuned to the high-stakes environment of a startup, for example, will expect performance incentives that differ from those at an established company with a longer outlook. Finding the right combination of base salary, bonus and benefits matters as much as the total amount offered. In short: Your choice of compensation should not be dictated by dollars and cents, but by common sense.

Equally important, candidates should understand their own expectations so they can target companies that match them. If both employer and candidate share a similar work culture, odds are they will be more agreeable when negotiating pay.

Be Consistent
Making thoughtful compensation decisions over the long term helps protect the company during uncertain times like we face today. If your employees, their jobs and their salaries are matched well from the beginning, your company will develop a reputation for being consistent in how it compensates executives, regardless of the broader economy. Resist the temptation to hire at a lower salary than a position demands simply because the job market is poor. While doing so may save money in the short run, the result often is that the best employees leave as soon as the economy improves.

The talent in your workforce – your company’s “engine” – will require the same octane of gas to work properly in good times and bad. Consistent pay policies promote stability and help keep your team motivated and working in line with your company’s values. Moreover, when executives understand how their pay is established, they are more focused and positive, rather than concerned that they could be making more. Properly compensated employees stay focused on revving your company’s productivity because they’ve been provided with the perfect type of fuel.

Professional Guidance
At Christopher Frederick, we go the extra mile to identify what type of engine drives you as we tackle the industry’s most challenging searches and recruit only the best executive talent.

It starts by listening. With 25 years in business, we’re experts at learning the nuances of a company’s culture and goals. We also delve into each applicant’s goals, motivations and attitude to find the best match for our clients. In bringing candidates and businesses together, we are then in a unique position to help facilitate the process and create a solid union. The result is a world-class executive who is not only qualified, but ready to guide your team to new heights!

So remember, dollars and cents is more about common sense. Take the high road and focus on
the big picture – culture, mission and philosophy. You’ll be richer for it!

We’ve all heard the expression “what comes first – the chicken or the egg?” The same goes for hiring when qualifying the qualifier: Is it personal motivation that drives candidates to apply their experience to your challenges, or is it their experience that motivates them to perform?

In my 25 years filling executive positions, I’ve found that many of the best hires don’t come from sorting through resumes, hunting for the most impressive titles or credentials. Rather, great hires come from identifying those candidates who are truly motivated to perform the job at hand. Even the most decorated executive will fail without a genuine desire for the success of both their company and their career. Blue-chip credentials and a gilded curriculum vitae won’t guarantee maximum performance without the will to sweat and sacrifice. As a result, motivation is the foremost qualifier!

With that in mind, here are a few tips on qualifying the qualifier:

1. How hungry is the candidate? The interview process should balance equally between the company’s needs and the candidate’s desires. If a candidate tilts the discussion disproportionately to their demands, you’ve got the wrong person.
2. Challenge or Compensation? The challenge, rather than the money, motivates successful candidates. They understand that money results from meeting the company’s needs. If someone puts too much emphasis on compensation – particularly early in the interview process – make a conversational detour and change the topic. If the applicant immediately steers the interview back on to the High-Dollar Highway, pay the toll and let them go.
3. Don’t be hasty! The interview process should be a series of tests to make sure candidates are consistent in their actions and statements. You know you have a winner at the end of an interview if the candidate displays the same demeanor and style as when it began. Be sure to pay continuous attention to the interviewee’s behavior, as a consistent performance indicates he or she will be a more predictable employee.

Conversely, candidates can apply these tips to help them evaluate potential employers.

By first understanding the other party’s motivation, you can then focus on qualifications. The benefits of this approach include efficiency and familiarity with the finalists. Your time evaluating the final list of prospects will be much more productive knowing that they have the right reasons for their interest in the opportunity. Plus, the process will make employers more comfortable with the contenders and their eventual hire.

An effective process for qualifying executive candidates helps companies view an executive search as an investment rather than an expense. That investment results, not only in a fitting executive hire, but also a benchmark that adds value to future hires because of the standard you have created. A focus on motivation, as well as qualifications, will lead to a successful search.

At Christopher Frederick, we’ve been fine tuning the executive search process since 1985. Our high-energy approach ensures a motivated pool of candidates that meets a client’s nuanced needs and an executive hire who matches perfectly a company’s demands and vision. To see how we can qualify the qualifier during your next executive search, contact Chris Hingle at chingle@chrisfred.com.

HOUSTON—October 19, 2009— Chris Hingle, president of the Christopher Frederick executive recruitment firm, announced today the launch of a new monthly newsletter series designed to educate business leaders on issues in executive recruiting.

After more than 20 years as an executive recruiter, Hingle said the new resource will give readers insight into his experiences recruiting world-class executives and dealing with a number of issues, from executive compensation to organizing an executive search and more.

“Many people set out to search for an executive without a thorough understanding as to what it takes to successfully recruit talented executives,” Hingle said.

“I wanted to provide a resource that delivers the one fundamental truth which has helped make my firm a success: their long-term value is determined by who they hire today.”

The Christopher Frederick executive newsletter is available free of charge to business executives and leaders at www.chrisfred.com/resources.html. Readers can also sign up for free newsletter delivery via email at chingle@chrisfred.com.

Hingle said newsletter subscriptions have flourished within the last month of distribution, with more executives signing on to receive this free expert business advice each day

“My readers have already discovered how this newsletter is changing the way they look at executive recruiting,” he said. “It really is an amazing resource.”

The executive recruiter’s first newsletter illustrates three essential factors for organizing a successful executive search; in November, Hingle tackles the often challenge world of executive compensation in “Dollars & Cents.”

About Chris Hingle
Executive recruiter Chris Hingle has been a trusted leader in recruiting talented leaders in homebuilding, property management and commercial development since 1985. A graduate of The Citadel in business, Hingle is recognized as one of the nation’s premier executive recruiters.

About Christopher Frederick
Christopher Frederick is an executive recruitment firm located in Houston, Texas, offering over 20 years of hands-on experience in recruiting world-class executives with integrity, responsibility and efficiency.

With little more than a job description and an advertisement, any company could set out to find candidates to fill executive-level positions.

However, all too often hiring managers begin a search with high expectations thinking they will be able to easily recruit qualified candidates in a soft market only to be disappointed in the end with either a marginal hire or no hire at all.

While it is true it is an employer’s market during a downturn, there is no guarantee companies will be successful in attracting good quality candidates.

In fact, most executive searches will require more planning and preparation because quality candidates, whether employed or not, will be more diligent and cautious in making a change.

Following three simple steps will help hiring managers attract the best candidates for their executive-level positions:

1. Make the Interview Process More Equitable & Personable

Want to attract world-class executives in a soft market? Making the interview process equitable and more personable is one of the best ways to ensure success in searching for qualified executive candidates.

Aside from paring the best candidates from the field during an executive search process, the hiring manager’s main objective is to sell the opportunity and woo attractive candidates to the company.

In today’s market, persuasion is necessary to attract seasoned candidates from other companies who can help bring valuable assets to your own organization.

But, achieving success means you need to close the deal.

While the odds of a quality candidate leaving for a less attractive position or a position with less security is slim to none, companies who emphasize how their opportunity meets common motivating factors stand a better chance of wooing strong talent.

2. Emphasize the Real Benefits & Motivating Factor

Hiring managers who seek to attract world-class executives in a soft market need to illustrate how their company meets the needs of quality candidates.

While compensation is important, the most qualified candidates will be motivated instead by three factors: relationships, culture and investing.

Companies who offer compensation as the major opportunity stand little chance of attracting strong candidates; mangers who emphasize an opportunity’s value over compensation will find more success. Consider these three factors:

1.) Relationships: Employers and executive candidates who place high value on their relationships are more likely to maximize performance, production and profits. Fostering a strong relationship among team members and illustrating how your company actively builds conducive relationships is important to executive prospects.

2.) Culture: Traversing the executive search requires hiring managers know their company’s own DNA and how their individual traits mesh with the business culture. While experience is often given more weight than culture, this consideration can better predict the potential for long-term growth and stability.

3.) Investing: These tough economic times are ideal for the innovators, strategists, and self driven entrepreneurs who have the will to take risk and the patience for the reward. Be upfront and accurate about the position. It’s far better to present a balanced picture by addressing real issues fairly and concisely so the person hired understands what is expected of them and can stay focused in getting the job done.

In addition to these three common motivating factors, hiring managers must also remember to minimize uncertainty for executive candidates.

3. Battle Uncertainty, Attract Solid Candidates

While tough economic times can create uncertainty while working to attract world-class executives (link to main article), taking the time to minimize those concerns early will mean all the difference in filling executive positions.

From the beginning of an executive search, hiring managers need to give considerable time to developing a list of qualifications for available positions.

Furthermore, a strategic, measurable marketing plan will help these managers attract the very best in the field while developing a winning operation for future executive searches. By outlining the ideal candidate profile, managers can cut time paring down candidates down the road and increase chances of hiring well-balanced executives with the wealth of assets and experience the company needs.

During the executive interview, managers will also want to illustrate to candidates the company’s commitment to progress. By conveying to executive candidates how important the company considers an opportunity and the support of upper management within reach, hiring managers will help close any gaps as a result of uncertainty.

By approaching the hiring process with fresh ideas, managers can successfully create opportunities that are unique and finally have the resources to attract the very best candidates during their searches.

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Chris Hingle offers more than 20 year of hands-on experience in recruiting world-class executives. Discover how Chris can help you in your next executive search.