Lars Leafblad Principal, KeyStone Search http://www.larsleafblad.

com November 2011 Personal notes on The Rare Find by George Anders http://www.georgeandersbooks.com/

- "take the wide view" with regards to resume review - read resumes "upside down" - start at the bottom - what are their "loose ends" -> interests, passion, rare talents, unique experiences - what's their story? - "In fact, it's arguable now that our ability to identify great people has deteriorated. We have created so much data that we're drowning in it. We scrutinize people so exhaustively for signs of proven competence that we may be losing the ability to do anything else. All we see are past credentials. Trying to forecast what people might achieve is a bigger mystery than ever. As a result, executives shy away from the mavericks, the late bloomers, the overachievers with the underdog past, or the inexperienced newcomers with the amazing potential. We are so afraid of making a mistake that we have lost the courage to do anything spectacularly right." - "If talent spotters want to create a great organization, they must aim higher. They need to think constantly about how to find people with breakthrough potential, even if that's a chancier proposition that involves constantly navigating through ambiguity. The key question stops being: "Are you good enough to be here?" Instead, it becomes: "Is there a chance you could become spectacular?" - Traits seen in "spectacular" candidates - resilience. creativity. charisma. bravado. empathy. self-sacrifice. Camp Mackalll - Army Special Forces selection - Look for hidden virtues - resilience - how do they bounce back from adversity? - Find your unlikely stars by noticing what others don't see - many small impressions will add up to a decisive, accurate judgment - (body language, actions when they believe no one is watching, etc.) - Push your best candidates to grow even stronger - winners push themselves harder and farther if challenged - motivation Anna Simmons, "The Company They Keep" - observed Special Forces soldiers during training exercises -> most important strength - "mettle" - deal confidently with the unknown

Teach for America - Wendy Kopp - great teachers are unusually resilient Peter Drucker - spent much of his career studying how organizations hire - before you do anything else he wrote "Think through the assignment" -> what is this job all about? if the question isn't properly resolved at the start, mission myopia ensues. - What do the best talent assessors do? 1) Compromise on experience; don't compromise on character 2) Your own career is a template; use it (listen for melodies you have heard/experienced before) 3) Rely on auditions to see why people achieve the results they do. Jim Collins "Good to Great" - great talent selection -> "character attributes" such as work ethic, basic intelligence, and dedication to fulfilling commitments - "work ethic" - finding right ethos that's vital for a particular job - we should all strive to do the hard work of "extracting lasting truths from the zigzags of our own careers" - James Weiss - Johns Hopkins associate dean who oversees admissions -> one of his favorite methods to spot nonobvious winner is to see how candidates answer quartet of essay questions that ask students to talk about 1) rewarding experiences, 2) overcoming adversity, 3) areas of pride, 4) moments of exclusion Bob Gibbons - HS basketball scout - they are looking for character insights -> "Who tries hard? Who prepares well? Who recovers quickly and calmly from a setback? Who works well with others? Who can size up a turbulent situation and come up with a plan?" Heidi Roizen - Silicon Valley entrepreneur - no longer hands out business cards at conferences - if entrepreneurs want to connect with her they find way to get her contact info showing perseverance and ingenuity Facebook - "programming puzzles" to identify engineering talent - Puzzle Master program - "how we capture the long tail" - people who would never show up in regular recruiting systems

MacArthur Fellowship program - Catharine Stimpson (ran program from '93 to '97) - one regret "I wish we had looked more at the military" Daniel Socolow followed her in '97. -> "The pattern is that there is no pattern." - used to have 100 nominators paid $1,000 to nominate "nonobvious people" for the "Genius Awards" - then Socolow doubled size to 200 nominators, cut stipend in half to $500 and "results got better". Few years later he eliminated the stipend entirely and recruited new, wider pool of nominators and they have produced some of the most detailed and thoughtful nominations of all time. "Offering token pay made people stingy with their time. Offering nothing but the fun of helping a worthy project unleashed much greater generosity." Music scout - Scott Borchetta - wants to know two things about his new artists "Who are you? What do you stand for?" Hard for big companies to harness spirit of "extreme auditions" as leadership development programs stretch participants, but not too much. Dropout rates low by design. They want to create promotable executives rather that staging all-out tests of valor that elicit extraordinary efforts from everyone left standing at the end. - one prominent exception - GE's Corporate Audit Staff (CAS) team of 140 rising stars each year What happens when bad hires made? - "It takes a lot of humility and self-awareness to ask if the search itself was wrongly constructed. People in charge would rather mask their own gaffes and denounce their former favorites instead." Thomas J. Friel former chairman of Heidrick & Struggles -> need to ask the third question in line of questioning - hone "aggressive listening" skills John Isaacson - executive recruiter in Boston - looks for 3 key traits "hunger, speed, and weight" - "hunger - eagerness for new challenges" "speed is ability to do so" "weight refers to leader's judicious use of power within each job" last one most important -> speaks to "Why would anyone follow you?" Justin Menkes - "executive intelligence" research and author - Spencer Stuart acquisition - use business scenarios to evaluate executive intelligence and responses

Fitting pieces together -> experts converge on three principles 1) Widen Your View of Talent - character > experience - know your core values - ask "what can go right" as evaluating candidates 2) Find Inspirations That Are Hidden in Plain Sight - draw out "hidden truths" of each job - understand what a job really requires - master art of "aggressive listening" -> Keep digging "why?" or What happened next?" 3) Simplify Your Search for Talent - be alert to invisible virtues - curiosity, efficiency, self-reliance Find George Anders on Twitter - @georgeanders And here: http://www.georgeandersbooks.com/