Defining White Rhino Partners: Executive Search, Executive Coaching and More

In the past several weeks, I have had a “Ground Hog Day” experience in several of my conversations. The same phrase keeps popping up. At some point in my conversations with clients, candidates and new acquaintances, the other person has said something like: “You are not a typical recruiter! You are a lot more than an executive recruiter; you should not limit yourself by labeling yourself as just a ‘head hunter.’”

With that impetus, I realize that it would be helpful to give the readers of The White Rhino Report a thumbnail sketch of all of the kinds of services that I do offer under the umbrella of White Rhino Partners. I will lead with the newest emphasis – Executive Coaching/Career Coaching

· Executive Coaching/Career Coaching – The overarching goal in my coaching practice is to work closely with leaders who are already functioning at a high level of success and effectiveness, and to encourage them to move from being an “A player” to becoming an “A+ player” in terms of experiencing both a sense of success and of significance in their career and in life.

I serve as a client’s private coach, confidant and mentor. I help the client to address the ongoing challenges of being a leader. I also work with the client to help develop greater emotional intelligence, fine-tune his/her ability to develop their team, and accelerate passion and leadership fire.

Each coaching relationship is customized to fit the needs of the client and the organization that he/she leads. Some of the topics that are commonly addressed include:

• Personal and career development and goal setting
• Hiring and development of key team members
• Coaching or terminating non-performing and under-performing employees
• Communicating with stakeholders
• Conflict resolution
• Employing the power of narrative to inspire and challenge
• Developing a healthy relationship with your board
• Conducting and delivering 360-feedback
• Making important strategic and operational decisions
• Succession planning
• Fine tuning written and verbal communication skills
• Work/life balance
• Creating a high performance team
• Developing a corporate culture of accountability and innovation
• Becoming a better motivator, listener and transforming leader
• Clarifying personal and corporate mission and vision statements
• Enhancing your creativity and intuition

Each coaching relationship is unique, but most include face-to-face sessions, telephone consultation, reading and writing assignments, 360 degree evaluations of your effectiveness as a leader, self-evaluation tools and reflective feedback, accountability and benchmarking. The scope of the work, the length of the relationship and the cost of the coaching are negotiated on an individual basis depending on the client’s needs.

Let me offer a few vignettes that briefly describe a few of the leaders I have been able to help:

· A Fortune 100 Financial Services company Division President who knew that it was time to move on from his current company to explore new options, but was not quite sure what approach to take in exploring those options.

· A software company executive who needed to find a way to deal with cutting expenses, bonuses and headcount during the recession without destroying the morale of his team.

· A serial entrepreneur who was running a maturing company while bootstrapping a start-up who needed help in ordering priorities for the best use of his time and resources.

·A leader in a major foundation who felt that it was time to move back into the private sector and needed help in narrowing down the possibilities.

·A leader in a think tank who needed help in exploring whether a move into consulting, private equity or the corporate world offered the best chance to use his knowledge and skills.

· A founding CEO who needed to find a more compelling way to tell the story of his firm’s products and services.

· An executive whose staff relationships were sub-optimal and who desired to improve his ability to communicate with and develop his support team.

· A founder whose business had grown faster than the infrastructure could support who needed help in prioritizing staffing and use of space issues, as well as helping staff deal with the tensions caused by the rapid growth.

· A biomedical executive whose approach to sales and marketing was at odds with other members of the senior leadership team.

· Executive Search - Client companies look to me - not just as a recruiter - but as a trusted advisor. I specialize in placing senior executives who are "Renaissance Men and Women," and who are entrepreneurial leaders - many of whom have had a distinguished military career and/or are service academy graduates and hold MBA's from a top-tier business school.

I have conducted searches in a wide variety of industries, including Homeland Security, Finance, Professional Services, Software Development, IT, Telecom, Bio-tech, Medical Devices, Nanotechnology, Aerospace, Manufacturing, e-Commerce, as well as the Food & Beverage, Entertainment and Theme Park industries. The scope of my practice is nationwide in the U.S. and includes working with companies doing business in Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

My goal is to serve my clients as a trusted advisor and to add value to the hiring and job search process by carefully matching the intangibles that make or break a good "marriage" between an A-level candidate and a "best practices" company.

· Boards of Directors - I work closely with a variety of companies, as well as with Private Equity and VC firms in finding outside board members for their portfolio companies. A growing number of senior leaders, including a significant number of retired generals and admirals, have asked me to advise them in finding the best fit for them as board members in companies where they can make a strategic contribution.

· Succession Planning – With most members of the Baby Boom generation reaching retirement, many companies are facing the challenge of identifying and developing a new generation of leaders. Because I have had an opportunity to build strong relationships with the best and the brightest of this next generation of leaders, companies recognize that I am in a position to help them with their succession planning. Young leaders with whom I work closely include women and men who have seen significant leadership experience in Iraq and Afghanistan. I have access to outstanding pools of candidates in a wide range of nations, including senior military leaders, Rhodes Scholars, former White House Fellows, and thought leaders in a variety of industries.

If you and your company find yourself in need of any of those services outlined above, I would welcome an opportunity to talk about how I may be able to help you and your team to attain the next level of success, significance and profitability.

achase47@gmail.com

Al