Once upon a time.....there was Ken, who was managing the SBA Division of a global bank. When we first spoke to him, he was trying to expand into the Pacific Northwest with the addition of an SBA lender. These candidates were public people with contact information clearly posted on the local sba.gov website. When we contacted him he indicated that he had a lead or two in mind and was confident that his search was soon-to-be complete. We politely set a date for follow up based on his projection of the completion of his private search.

Part II
Upon the appropriate date we left him a voicemail indicating that though he might have completed the search, these searches could be difficult and we were here for him if he needed us and would have the bandwidth to take on his search if needed.

We received an immediate call back. "No, I wasn't successful. But I am not ready to have you guys take on the Search," Ken said. "Do you guys have maybe one candidate that I could have a phone conversation with that gives me an example of who you could bring me?"

"Not a problem," we replied. We have good relationships with our candidates and immediately presented him with Kelly. Kelly was an exceptional SBA BDO and was open to exploration but not committed to making a change. This was now what we call a Matching Assignment.

Ken loved her. He wanted to hire her immediately. Who wouldn't in his shoes? She was a top producer. Problem was, Kelly was open to exploration but this just wasn't the right fit.

Part III
This is the reason why we believe in safety in numbers, we explained. It takes three candidates interviewing concurrently to have confidence your key role will be filled. Our suggestion was that he give us the Search. Our process, we explained, would be to deliver him a list of 30 names on a designated day (generally three business days) and he would be able to remove candidates that he had already talked to, didn't want or couldn't hire for whatever reason. The resultant 24 would likely yield the three candidates raising their hand for the interview that were qualified and attractive. Because we wouldn't recruit any of the 24 until he gave us the green light, there would be no overlap with his private candidates.

The timeline was set, the list of candidates delivered, phone interviews conducted. Now Ken set his date to fly in to interview the top three candidates - Dolores, Marie and (late entry) Ed.

All was going according to plan. Ken was flying in the next morning, our candidates were prepped and motivated. Joni and I shut down our computers and were ready to go home and have a good night sleep when...tragedy struck. Ed sent an email to pull out of the process. The email was gruff, abrasive and a little intimidating.

Part IV
"Ed," we explained, "this is a no lose situation. You can confidentially take the meeting, if its the giant leap forward for your career you'll send us a care package. If its not, it'll simply reaffirm you're in the right role. It'll only be an hour of your time." Ed was going to the meeting - what a saint!

All the candidates enjoyed the interview. The first two walked out suggesting Ken was a great guy and they'd take the position if offered. When we debriefed with Ed, we were a little nervous that he'd read us the riot act.

"Josiah, you [expletive]!", "Uh...what do you mean, Ed?"

"I rate it a 10, you son-of-a-[expletive]"

Ed was a sailor! But he was also exactly the kind of edgy, talks-like-a-sailor SBA BDO that they were looking for.

Two days later, the manager offered him the position. He accepted, sent us the kindest thank you note a Sailor has ever written and Ken has the Pacific Northwest built out into a profitable region for he and the bank.