Y Scouts places many executives into new, purpose based leadership positions. Here are five tips for first time executives going into a new role.

1. Rome Wasn’t Built By One Leader.
First time executives usually want to implement all of their ideas immediately. Resist that temptation. Focus on getting the buy-in of your team. When you have a team behind you, it’s a lot easier to implement your ideas.

2. Admit What You Don’t Know
Nothing is worse than a first time executive who acts like they know it all. Admit what you don’t know and ask for help by engaging with your support team. Putting in the time and effort with your team will show them that you’ll harness their unique talents and abilities to help accomplish team goals. Plus, admitting what you don’t know will help you get the buy-in.

3. Spend Time With Other Executives
Spending time with the managers and leaders who have previously walked in your shoes is a great way to understand what you’re walking in to. Having someone who’s done it before can provide insight that will help you succeed in your new, unfamiliar role. Do lunch and learn from their mistakes!

4. Spend Time With Your Team
Are your values similar to the values of other members of your team? Does the company culture align with your team members? Spend time to actually get to know the people you’re managing. Understand their vision for the company. Communicate your vision for the company. See what members of your team are fully bought in so that you can get things done.

5. Trust Your Gut.
You’ve made it to the executive level for a reason. Be confident in your abilities, stay humble, and lead with your “why.”

Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.

The post 5 Tips For First Time Executives appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

Here’s the slides for Brian Mohr’s most recent presentation, delivered at the Valley of the Sun Human Resources Association. Brian’s next How To Hire Top Talent speech will be coming up at the the upcoming Snell & Wilmer Emerging Business Seminar Series on June 5, 2013 at SkySong at 8am-9:30am. Registration and continental breakfast will begin at 7:30 a.m. Register by emailing: rsvp@swlaw.com.

Title: How to Hire Top Talent to Create a Purpose-Driven Business

Evolution of Management – The way we hire and manage employees has evolved over the centuries. Historically (industrial revolution, scientific management) people were hired and supervised to perform specifically-designed tasks, with a great focus on optimizing productivity. We still see the effects of those roots today. Later, the bureaucracy developed, and behavioral management emerged between the 1920s to 1950s to focus more on the real needs of employees. In recent decades we’ve seen much emphasis on management science (six sigma, lean) ad its main focus remained often on process or productivity rather than on people.

State of our Workplace Today – Despite contemporary thought leaders (like Peter Drucker, or the emergence of Servant Leadership), today’s workplace still produces much unproductive stress, eliminates much creativity and inspiration, and is characterized by high levels of disengagement. This in turn leaves significant opportunities for productivity, growth, and profitability on the table.
Research on Purpose – One of the key pieces we believe is missing is “purpose”. In Daniel Pink’s research on what really motivates people, he finds that purpose is one of the three main drivers. In Gallup’s research into why people follow, “hope” is one of the main factors. Dr. Seligman’s research in the area of positive psychology shows that having a sense of purpose is a key route to high well-being. Purpose is good for people, but for business as well. A range of studies has demonstrated the far-superior results that purpose-driven companies obtain over their money-driven counterparts.

Implications for You – For most companies this means there is a need t0 discover what their purpose is, to communicate, Y Scouts is proposing three main implications. First, what is your purpose? What are you most passionate about, and what are you doing to pursue that? Second, how can you help others find and pursue that? Second, how can you help others find and pursue their purpose? You have great influence over your existing employees (casting them in the right roles) as well as your new hires (interviewing them for fit and purpose). And thirdly, how can you develop and focus your managers and employees on their strengths? To allow purpose to thrive, managers will need to respect the employee for who he/she is and focus on bringing the best out in them.

What We Do – How Y Scouts can help

Q&A

Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.

The post How to Hire Top Talent to Create a Purpose-Driven Business appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

We thought we’d share these reasons with you. If you know anyone who fits into these groups, please refer them our way!

1. To match my profession with my purpose.

2. Further advance my career.

3. I own my own consulting company.

4. I’m relocating.

5. Currently employed.

6. Currently unemployed.

7. Because I know someone at Y Scouts.

8. A friend recommended that I join Y Scouts.

9. To connect with the Y Scouts community.

10. To do what I love!

Are we missing anything? Let us know on the Y Scouts Facebook page!

Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.

The post Top 10 Reasons Why Executives Join Y Scouts appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

by: Janine Hill

When you hate your job is life really that bad? Can’t you just be satisfied if you are earning a desirable salary? That’s what I used to ask people. In the past, my advice was to dismiss what you hated about your job and tomorrow would be a better day. Find ways to cope. Unfortunately, that’s not always possible and your health and quality of life can be significantly impacted if you are miserable at work. Just one toxic person or deficient leader can have an intense negative affect on your life. Especially if that person can directly influence what you do at work or you have to interface with that person regularly. You might experience feelings of inadequacy, a loss of self confidence, fear of humiliation, shame or disloyalty. As a matter of fact, sometimes you don’t realize how deeply you are affected until you make a change and can compare the before and after.

Everyone has bad days or weeks at work. Over the past few years, the economy has made it difficult to find jobs. Unemployment rates in many areas are still peaking so the thought of leaving a job without having another one is not a reality for everyone. However, if you are fortunate enough to be able to leave the job, the healing process can begin earlier. Most people are not that fortunate so you must find ways to cope and figure out the best solution to the problem. You can’t write off a job because you had a bad day or a bad week but if the negative feelings and resulting behaviors are ongoing, you need to do something about it. So, how do you know when it’s really bad and what do you do about it?

Often, when things are really bad at work, you don’t realize how deeply you are being affected. You need to stop and consider if your personal behavior patterns have changed or you wish your behavior was different. Below are some major warning signs that indicate your situation is worse than you may realize:

• You have less patience for your children
• You are losing sleep
• You have excessive anxiety and feel worried
• Your conversations with friends and family are dominated by talk about work
• You are eating too much or too little
• You aren’t giving your pets the same attention you used to
• You forget things and don’t listen to others (but you think you are listening)

These are big red flags that you should pay attention to. If it’s really bad, you might be experiencing most of these symptoms but you don’t realize it until you stop and honestly assess yourself. If you aren’t experiencing these signs, work probably isn’t that bad and this too, shall pass. But if it is worse than you realized and you must come to terms with the fact that it’s not getting better, there are things you can do. Here are some suggestions to start getting back on the right track:

• Work with an employment coach or advisor to update your resume to ensure it will solicit a good response (Nothing is more depressing than applying to jobs and not getting any bites)
• Update the resume and start sending it out
• Leave your work at the office and focus on yourself and your family when you go home
• Try and adjust your work schedule to make time in the early mornings or late afternoons to schedule job interviews
• Schedule telephone interviews during your lunch hour (Identify a shady location with good cell phone reception where you can park to conduct phone interviews)
• If you aren’t always networking, start networking (Beware your company may notice changes with your social media profiles and take that into consideration)
• Get back engaged with activities and hobbies that have fallen by the wayside

Remember, you are not committing a crime by looking for a new job and it’s not a reason for a company to terminate you. It’s still best though if you can keep it under wraps. Do not get discouraged if the right opportunity doesn’t arise immediately, it will come. When have you ever known a person who was never able to find another job? The most important thing to remember is there’s nothing wrong with you and you aren’t alone. If you allow your morale to continue to decline, that will make it more difficult for you to find happiness and a new opportunity. Don’t procrastinate. Set goals and engage your escape plan.

If you are in a position where you can leave a job without finding another, I always advised not to do that. However, if you have all of the warning signs that things are really bad and they have persisted, my advice today would be to leave the job. It will make all the difference in the world. Only someone who has lived the nightmare may endorse such a decision but you will be happier, healthier and revitalized. When you look back and realize you were irritated because your child asked you to make her a sandwich or your dog wanted a biscuit, you will thank yourself later for returning to your own life when you feel the difference. Don’t miss out on the things that make life worth living.

Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role. Janine Hill also highly recommends the book “In Sheep’s Clothing” by George K. Simon. An excerpt from the book can be reviewed in this article from Rick Ross, “How to Deal with Manipulative People“.

The post What To Do When You Hate Your Job? appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

Here is the Simon Sinek’s Start With Why speech transcribed:

How do you explain when things don’t go as we assume? Or better, how do you explain when others are able to achieve things that seem to defy all of the assumptions? For example: Why is Apple so innovative? Year after year, after year, after year, they’re more innovative than all their competition. And yet, they’re just a computer company. They’re just like everyone else. They have the same access to the same talent, the same agencies, the same consultants, the same media. Then why is it that they seem to have something different? Why is it that Martin Luther King led the Civil Rights Movement? He wasn’t the only man who suffered in a pre-civil rights America, and he certainly wasn’t the only great orator of the day. Why him? And why is it that the Wright brothers were able to figure out controlled, powered man flight when there were certainly other teams who were better qualified, better funded … and they didn’t achieve powered man flight, and the Wright brothers beat them to it. There’s something else at play here.

About three and a half years ago I made a discovery. And this discovery profoundly changed my view on how I thought the world worked, and it even profoundly changed the way in which I operate in it. As it turns out, there’s a pattern. As it turns out, all the great and inspiring leaders and organizations in the world — whether it’s Apple or Martin Luther King or the Wright brothers — they all think, act and communicate the exact same way. And it’s the complete opposite to everyone else. All I did was codify it, and it’s probably the world’s simplest idea. I call it the golden circle.

Why? How? What? This little idea explains why some organizations and some leaders are able to inspire where others aren’t. Let me define the terms really quickly. Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few people or organizations know why they do what they do. And by “why” I don’t mean “to make a profit.” That’s a result. It’s always a result. By “why,” I mean: What’s your purpose? What’s your cause? What’s your belief? Why does your organization exist? Why do you get out of bed in the morning? And why should anyone care? Well, as a result, the way we think, the way we act, the way we communicate is from the outside in. It’s obvious. We go from the clearest thing to the fuzziest thing. But the inspired leaders and the inspired organizations — regardless of their size, regardless of their industry — all think, act and communicate from the inside out.

Let me give you an example. I use Apple because they’re easy to understand and everybody gets it. If Apple were like everyone else, a marketing message from them might sound like this: “We make great computers. They’re beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. Want to buy one?” “Meh.” And that’s how most of us communicate. That’s how most marketing is done, that’s how most sales is done and that’s how most of us communicate interpersonally. We say what we do, we say how we’re different or how we’re better and we expect some sort of a behavior, a purchase, a vote, something like that. Here’s our new law firm: We have the best lawyers with the biggest clients, we always perform for our clients who do business with us. Here’s our new car: It gets great gas mileage, it has leather seats, buy our car. But it’s uninspiring.

Here’s how Apple actually communicates. “Everything we do, we believe in challenging the status quo. We believe in thinking differently. The way we challenge the status quo is by making our products beautifully designed, simple to use and user friendly. We just happen to make great computers. Want to buy one?” Totally different right? You’re ready to buy a computer from me. All I did was reverse the order of the information. What it proves to us is that people don’t buy what you do; people buy why you do it. People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

This explains why every single person in this room is perfectly comfortable buying a computer from Apple. But we’re also perfectly comfortable buying an MP3 player from Apple, or a phone from Apple, or a DVR from Apple. But, as I said before, Apple’s just a computer company. There’s nothing that distinguishes them structurally from any of their competitors. Their competitors are all equally qualified to make all of these products. In fact, they tried. A few years ago, Gateway came out with flat screen TVs. They’re eminently qualified to make flat screen TVs. They’ve been making flat screen monitors for years. Nobody bought one. Dell came out with MP3 players and PDAs, and they make great quality products, and they can make perfectly well-designed products — and nobody bought one. In fact, talking about it now, we can’t even imagine buying an MP3 player from Dell. Why would you buy an MP3 player from a computer company? But we do it every day. People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. The goal is not to do business with everybody who needs what you have. The goal is to do business with people who believe what you believe. Here’s the best part:

None of what I’m telling you is my opinion. It’s all grounded in the tenets of biology. Not psychology, biology. If you look at a cross-section of the human brain, looking from the top down, what you see is the human brain is actually broken into three major components that correlate perfectly with the golden circle. Our newest brain, our Homo sapien brain, our neocortex, corresponds with the “what” level. The neocortex is responsible for all of our rational and analytical thought and language. The middle two sections make up our limbic brains, and our limbic brains are responsible for all of our feelings, like trust and loyalty. It’s also responsible for all human behavior, all decision-making, and it has no capacity for language.

In other words, when we communicate from the outside in, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information like features and benefits and facts and figures. It just doesn’t drive behavior. When we can communicate from the inside out, we’re talking directly to the part of the brain that controls behavior, and then we allow people to rationalize it with the tangible things we say and do. This is where gut decisions come from. You know, sometimes you can give somebody all the facts and figures, and they say, “I know what all the facts and details say, but it just doesn’t feel right.” Why would we use that verb, it doesn’t “feel” right? Because the part of the brain that controls decision-making doesn’t control language. And the best we can muster up is, “I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel right.” Or sometimes you say you’re leading with your heart, or you’re leading with your soul. Well, I hate to break it to you, those aren’t other body parts controlling your behavior. It’s all happening here in your limbic brain, the part of the brain that controls decision-making and not language.

But if you don’t know why you do what you do, and people respond to why you do what you do, then how will you ever get people to vote for you, or buy something from you, or, more importantly, be loyal and want to be a part of what it is that you do. Again, the goal is not just to sell to people who need what you have; the goal is to sell to people who believe what you believe. The goal is not just to hire people who need a job; it’s to hire people who believe what you believe. I always say that, you know, if you hire people just because they can do a job, they’ll work for your money, but if you hire people who believe what you believe, they’ll work for you with blood and sweat and tears. And nowhere else is there a better example of this than with the Wright brothers.

Most people don’t know about Samuel Pierpont Langley. And back in the early 20th century, the pursuit of powered man flight was like the dot com of the day. Everybody was trying it. And Samuel Pierpont Langley had, what we assume, to be the recipe for success. I mean, even now, you ask people, “Why did your product or why did your company fail?” and people always give you the same permutation of the same three things: under-capitalized, the wrong people, bad market conditions. It’s always the same three things, so let’s explore that. Samuel Pierpont Langley was given 50,000 dollars by the War Department to figure out this flying machine. Money was no problem. He held a seat at Harvard and worked at the Smithsonian and was extremely well-connected; he knew all the big minds of the day. He hired the best minds money could find and the market conditions were fantastic. The New York Times followed him around everywhere, and everyone was rooting for Langley. Then how come we’ve never heard of Samuel Pierpont Langley?

A few hundred miles away in Dayton Ohio, Orville and Wilbur Wright, they had none of what we consider to be the recipe for success. They had no money; they paid for their dream with the proceeds from their bicycle shop; not a single person on the Wright brothers’ team had a college education, not even Orville or Wilbur; and The New York Times followed them around nowhere. The difference was, Orville and Wilbur were driven by a cause, by a purpose, by a belief. They believed that if they could figure out this flying machine, it’ll change the course of the world. Samuel Pierpont Langley was different. He wanted to be rich, and he wanted to be famous. He was in pursuit of the result. He was in pursuit of the riches. And lo and behold, look what happened. The people who believed in the Wright brothers’ dream worked with them with blood and sweat and tears. The others just worked for the paycheck. And they tell stories of how every time the Wright brothers went out, they would have to take five sets of parts, because that’s how many times they would crash before they came in for supper.

And, eventually, on December 17th, 1903, the Wright brothers took flight, and no one was there to even experience it. We found out about it a few days later. And further proof that Langley was motivated by the wrong thing: The day the Wright brothers took flight, he quit. He could have said, “That’s an amazing discovery, guys, and I will improve upon your technology,” but he didn’t. He wasn’t first, he didn’t get rich, he didn’t get famous so he quit.

People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it. And if you talk about what you believe, you will attract those who believe what you believe. But why is it important to attract those who believe what you believe? Something called the law of diffusion of innovation, and if you don’t know the law, you definitely know the terminology. The first two and a half percent of our population are our innovators. The next 13 and a half percent of our population are our early adopters. The next 34 percent are your early majority, your late majority and your laggards. The only reason these people buy touch tone phones is because you can’t buy rotary phones anymore.

(Laughter)

We all sit at various places at various times on this scale, but what the law of diffusion of innovation tells us is that if you want mass-market success or mass-market acceptance of an idea, you cannot have it until you achieve this tipping point between 15 and 18 percent market penetration, and then the system tips. And I love asking businesses, “What’s your conversion on new business?” And they love to tell you, “Oh, it’s about 10 percent,” proudly. Well, you can trip over 10 percent of the customers. We all have about 10 percent who just “get it.” That’s how we describe them, right? That’s like that gut feeling, “Oh, they just get it.” The problem is: How do you find the ones that get it before you’re doing business with them versus the ones who don’t get it? So it’s this here, this little gap that you have to close, as Jeffrey Moore calls it, “Crossing the Chasm” — because, you see, the early majority will not try something until someone else has tried it first. And these guys, the innovators and the early adopters, they’re comfortable making those gut decisions. They’re more comfortable making those intuitive decisions that are driven by what they believe about the world and not just what product is available.

These are the people who stood in line for six hours to buy an iPhone when they first came out, when you could have just walked into the store the next week and bought one off the shelf. These are the people who spent 40,000 dollars on flat screen TVs when they first came out, even though the technology was substandard. And, by the way, they didn’t do it because the technology was so great; they did it for themselves. It’s because they wanted to be first. People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it and what you do simply proves what you believe. In fact, people will do the things that prove what they believe. The reason that person bought the iPhone in the first six hours, stood in line for six hours, was because of what they believed about the world, and how they wanted everybody to see them: They were first. People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it.

So let me give you a famous example, a famous failure and a famous success of the law of diffusion of innovation. First, the famous failure. It’s a commercial example. As we said before, a second ago, the recipe for success is money and the right people and the right market conditions, right? You should have success then. Look at TiVo. From the time TiVo came out about eight or nine years ago to this current day, they are the single highest-quality product on the market, hands down, there is no dispute. They were extremely well-funded. Market conditions were fantastic. I mean, we use TiVo as verb. I TiVo stuff on my piece of junk Time Warner DVR all the time.

But TiVo’s a commercial failure. They’ve never made money. And when they went IPO, their stock was at about 30 or 40 dollars and then plummeted, and it’s never traded above 10. In fact, I don’t think it’s even traded above six, except for a couple of little spikes. Because you see, when TiVo launched their product they told us all what they had. They said, “We have a product that pauses live TV, skips commercials, rewinds live TV and memorizes your viewing habits without you even asking.” And the cynical majority said, “We don’t believe you. We don’t need it. We don’t like it. You’re scaring us.” What if they had said, “If you’re the kind of person who likes to have total control over every aspect of your life, boy, do we have a product for you. It pauses live TV, skips commercials, memorizes your viewing habits, etc., etc.” People don’t buy what you do; they buy why you do it, and what you do simply serves as the proof of what you believe.

Now let me give you a successful example of the law of diffusion of innovation. In the summer of 1963, 250,000 people showed up on the mall in Washington to hear Dr. King speak. They sent out no invitations, and there was no website to check the date. How do you do that? Well, Dr. King wasn’t the only man in America who was a great orator. He wasn’t the only man in America who suffered in a pre-civil rights America. In fact, some of his ideas were bad. But he had a gift. He didn’t go around telling people what needed to change in America. He went around and told people what he believed. “I believe, I believe, I believe,” he told people. And people who believed what he believed took his cause, and they made it their own, and they told people. And some of those people created structures to get the word out to even more people. And lo and behold, 250,000 people showed up on the right day at the right time to hear him speak.

How many of them showed up for him? Zero. They showed up for themselves. It’s what they believed about America that got them to travel in a bus for eight hours to stand in the sun in Washington in the middle of August. It’s what they believed, and it wasn’t about black versus white: 25 percent of the audience was white. Dr. King believed that there are two types of laws in this world: those that are made by a higher authority and those that are made by man. And not until all the laws that are made by man are consistent with the laws that are made by the higher authority will we live in a just world. It just so happened that the Civil Rights Movement was the perfect thing to help him bring his cause to life. We followed, not for him, but for ourselves. And, by the way, he gave the “I have a dream” speech, not the “I have a plan” speech.

(Laughter)

Listen to politicians now, with their comprehensive 12-point plans. They’re not inspiring anybody. Because there are leaders and there are those who lead. Leaders hold a position of power or authority, but those who lead inspire us. Whether they’re individuals or organizations, we follow those who lead, not because we have to, but because we want to. We follow those who lead, not for them, but for ourselves. And it’s those who start with “why” that have the ability to inspire those around them or find others who inspire them.

Thank you very much.

The post Simon Sinek Start With Why Talk appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

Do the results help you? Hurt you? Attract the right people? Steer away the candidates who might not be a great fit? Are the results transparent? Do they give a candidate a call to action?

For a great example, check out Infusionsoft‘s search results. The results are exactly what you’d want to appear. Infusionsoft gives you reasons why…

1) Why you WOULD like working at the organization.

2) Why you WOULDN’T like working at the organization.

3) Opportunities at the organization.

Today’s challenge: see what comes up when you Google “Working at (YOUR COMPANY NAME)”

Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.

The post Google: Working at COMPANY NAME appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

Matt Klentak is the Assistant General Manager for the Anaheim Angels. Here he talks about how he became one of the youngest executives in baseball.

I graduated with a degree in economics from Dartmouth. My first job was working as a teacher assistant at the same collaborative my mom works for. I’d be there from seven to two, and when I got home at 2:30 every day, it was my time to call and email clubs. I used that time as my platform to make contacts and put myself in a position to be ready for something. That’s really all I could do.

I faced all the same challenges that a lot of us face. All my friends lined up to buy new suits for interviews with the Goldman Sachs, JP Morgans… and I really felt the pressure. But bonds versus baseball…it was no comparison. I didn’t know in what role or for what team, but I knew that baseball, the business of baseball, was what I was meant to do.

I remember it was Columbus Day, in a brutally busy time for baseball clubs, and I was sitting at my kitchen table having a conversation with Theo Epstein. At the time, he was not a household name by any stretch. Theo took an hour, maybe more on the phone with me to tell me how he got from A to B and to offer his suggestions and advice. Less than a month later, Theo is the youngest GM in baseball. Me and five thousand other people emailed him to wish him congratulations.

Maybe a week later I get an email from someone in the Red Sox office conducting the search for next year’s internship. The Red Sox wanted to talk to me based on the conversation with Theo. So I go through phone interviews, in person interviews…a long, drawn out month and a half process until it’s down to me and one other guy. For whatever reason, I don’t get the job. It killed me.

The best piece of advice I ever received was, ‘Do not leave a conversation without getting the name of at least one other person to talk to.’ That’s the profession. You get to know one, you get to know another. Sooner or later, you get to know all the guys in this inner circle.

I told the Red Sox and Jed Hoyer, “Listen. If you hear of anything else, let me know. Anything with another club, or with the Red Sox…I’m still waiting it out…baseball is still what I want to do.”

Maybe a month later he called me and said, “Matt. You gotta give this guy in Colorado a call. His name is Thad Levine. The Rockies have a similar internship to the Red Sox and I heard they haven’t filled theirs yet. Give him a call.”

I called Thad, he puts me in touch with someone else there…within two days they offered me a full time baseball operations internship in Colorado. Contingent upon me being able to get there in ten days.

I picked up and moved from the east coast, somewhere I’d lived my whole life, and moved to Colorado, where I didn’t know anybody. That was my first real job out of school. And it was definitely my first real baseball job.

The Rockies were a low revenue team with a lot of financial trouble, so I really was exposed to the baseball side from a very financially prudent standpoint. They lost two guys and didn’t replace them so a lot of full time projects fell to me. I learned the value of a dollar. Got to go through a draft, the trade deadline…did some work on arbitration at the end of the year. Did some video scouting. I feel like it was a blessing to be able to be exposed to the Rockies.

The hardest part for me was there was no definitive end date to the internship. I had a desire to stay. They had a desire to keep me. But their hands were tied from a dollars and hiring freeze perspective. I operated for a few weeks under the assumption that I was going to be there for another year, or indefinitely, but that plug was pulled. I had to leave and I didn’t know what I was going to do.

Dan O’Dowd, the GM of the Rockies, called me in. We identified what would be a good fit for me, moving on. He got on the phone and called the labor relations in the Commissioner’s Office. Dan convinced them to take me on for a few months to help with arbitration hearings.

So Dan totally hooked it up. And he has a tremendous track record with placing his interns. I was in the third year of the Rockies internship program. The first year was Jon Daniels, who is now the GM of the Rangers. The next kid ended up working for the Scott Boras Corporation. And then me. Everyone who had a desire to stay in the game has stayed in the game. Dan is just awesome at helping people.

Finished my gig in Colorado and come to New York. New York is not a cheap place to live. I literally lived on my buddy’s couch in Queens. Indefinitely. As long as I was going to be at the Commissioner’s Office, I was going to be on his couch. So you talk about challenges, try sleeping in the living room on a leather couch with no air conditioning through the months of May, June, July. That’s hard.

So I work on salary arbitration for three months, and then had an assessment to see what was going on. I made the case that I contributed in this way, and expressed that I really enjoyed working here. From that meeting, we collectively set forth to getting me hired full time. Which was not easy. It wasn’t like I was replacing someone who was already there. This was creating a new position. But it happened. I’ve now been here two and a half years.

I think what kept me going through the hardship and the failure is…its just fun. Even during the trying periods when you don’t know where you’ll be sleeping tomorrow night…the work product is just cool. Would I have gone through the trials and tribulations to land a municipal market data job? No, of course not. I would have liked that. But I would not have slept on a couch, or taken an internship for a year. You have to have the desire and the passion…that’s what makes it all worth it.

Y Scouts is a purpose based search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.

The post Matt Klentak – Assistant General Manager of the Anaheim Angels appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

Gen Y is loosely defined as those born between 1980 and 1994 (or 2005 depending on who you talk to). Eight million strong,, Gen Y’s expectations of the workforce are vastly different from all other generations.

“When they get to the workplace, they have a sense of entitlement, a need for validation, difficulty in really discerning what to do because their whole lives were managed,” says Christine Hassler, a Gen Y career expert and consultant. ”They have challenges with making decisions and have expectations of work-life balance. They want their opinion to matter and [want to work] for a company that is really making a difference.”

So, what are a few things Gen Y looks for? And, how are they motivated? How do you exploit their strengths? Here are 4 ideas:

Give them tasks and goals – not detailed how-tos

I was recently asked in an interview how I would feel about being given ambiguous or vague instruction or direction. I almost jumped out of my seat, and said something to the effect of “How can I get an offer letter?”
The idea being that millennials like me just want to be given goals. Concrete goals. Let us figure out how to get there, and you just might be surprised how well things work out.

Of course there are exceptions; however, when this is applicable (usually with a few years experience in the job and/or industry, your company will be rewarded greatly because this generation is chock full of creativity, innovation, and efficiency. It may not look like what those terms looked like a few decades ago, but it is.

Encourage the use of cutting-edge technology

A recent Cisco report said that 45% of young professionals would accept lower-paying jobs if they had more access to social media, more choice in the devices they could use at work, and more flexibility in working remotely. This is absolutely 100% true for me and many of my friends.

I recently was offered a job that included a Blackberry. Uuuhhhhh…. Needless to say, my first thought was, “Do I have to?” The fact is that most of GenY is attached to their devices (iPhone and Android almost exclusively). Add to that, the dreaded 2 year contracts we’re locked into, and you have a real problem.

Further, with gas prices and sprawling metropolises that many live in, working remotely even part of the time will not only be attractive but add production in many cases. Not to mention, most solid employees just want to be treated like adults like this HBR article points out. The moves by Yahoo! and others have been widely second-guessed.

And, finally, despite what many want to believe or even know, social media has become an extremely productive asset to many positions if not all if for no other reason than networking.

Promote a family-oriented culture

What I’ve heard time and time again from friend who are looking for work and recruiters that are constantly recruiting is the that those millennials looking for work “don’t want a job. They want a place where they fit in.” A place where they feel at home, and can grow into their career much like a child grows into the family dynamic at home.

Another tangential point is that they value time at home with their budding families of their own. The ability to duck out a few hours early to catch a recital or soccer game, is invaluable to them. And, rest assured, if they like what they do and where they work and who they work for (points from above and below included) they don’t mind opening up their laptop at 6, 7, or 8 at night to finish the projects they are working on from home.

It’s not a matter of skipping out early and doing less, it’s the flexibility to do when it’s convenient for them and still make deadlines and the TRUST that comes from a culture that will allow that.

Promote an achievement-oriented culture

GenY has had and continues to have the “Everyone Get’s a Trophy Stigma.” Well, like it or not, this is true to an extent. But GenY craves recognition and thrives in an achievement oriented culture. Be prepared to recognize when someone does something well. It doesn’t always have to be company wide or public. But, just dropping them a line or catching them in the break room and let them know you recognize it.

And, perhaps most importantly, in this area – let them know what they are doing is a part of something bigger and great. Give them that sense of purpose. Gen Y wants to know that they are a part of something bigger than themselves and contributing meaningfully.

While I was working for one major job board (during the highs AND lows), I began to see a trend in social recruitment with the advent of LinkedIN and growth of Facebook – some dots were connecting for me. I truly began to see the shift in the way people (particularly Gen Y) network, process information and communicate with one another. It is at this time that I truly began to become passionate about employment brand and realizing the impact decisions made in a matter of weeks in this area can have on companies for years to come.

I hope you agree. And, I’m fine if you don’t. Feel free to be a part of the discussion either way.

The post 4 Ways To Give Gen Y What They Want In Work appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

Y Scouts wants to help you get the most out of being a part of our Talent Community. That’s why we’d like to connect you with professionals in our community who can help you with anything from a lead on a job to an intro to a company.

Here’s how our weekly email works:

1. On Mondays, you receive an email from Y Scouts asking what you need help with. If you need something from the Talent Community, such as a lead on a job or an intro to a company, you can submit your request by replying to our email.

2. On Tuesday, we collate all of your requests and send them out to the Y Scouts Talent Community in a single email. If you feel that you can help with a request, simply reply to our email and we’ll connect you with the requestor.

If you don’t want to participate for any reason, there’s an “unsubscribe” link at the bottom of your email. Otherwise, it should be fun and hopefully very useful for everyone. Sign up using the form below.

What do you need this week? Here’s some example requests.

“I’m looking for _________________.”
“I’m on a mission to ______________.”
“I’m offering ___________________.”
“I’m looking to hire ______________.”
“I’m looking to meet ______________.”
“I’m wanting advice on ____________.”
“I’m offering advice on _____________.”

Simple enough? Sign up!

Y Scouts is a purpose based executive search firm that helps companies recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or looking to attract talent, we can help. To get started, share your why with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new role.

The post What Can Y Scouts Help You With This Week? appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.

The commitment Goodmans has made to their customers and the architecture and design community has made Goodmans the largest office furniture dealer in the Southwest and synonymous with quality and customer service. A six time winner of the Best Places To Work, Goodmans provides employees with a workspace that’s unlike any other we’ve seen on our What’s Your Why? Tour.

Here are the reasons “why” people work at Goodmans.

Adam Goodman, President + CEO
“To change the community.”

Jennifer McKinney, Director of Service Quality
“I teach The Why. How is the by product.”

Steve Miller, CIO
“Solving Problems.”

Sandra Vondrak, Project Designer
“Help create better spaces for people to work in.”

Brian Turner, HR Manager
“To create the BEST place to work!!!”

Tori Nienaber, Showroom Manager
“To provide the support necessary for success.”

Kevin Hoehne, Account Manager
“To prove Dilbert wrong.”

Shelby Smith, DIRTT Design Specialist
“Create love for great design.”

Lynn Andrews, Project Manager
“We can change our community.”

Brandi Rhoades, Project Designer
“Create great places to heal.”

Eric Bashan, Account Executive
“I love what I do!”

Jerry McKinney, DIRTT Champion
“To build sustainable interiors that grow with your company!”

Marlyn Chavez, Order Entry
“Redefining success in customer installations.”

Stacy Stuart, Project Coordinator
“Creating a GREAT learning space!”

Karen Gutierrez, Greeter
“To greet you with a (: in person or on the phone.”

Kirstin Tharrington, Accounts Payable
“Working as a team gets the job done.”

Bryan Voiles, Assistant Controller
“To be successful while helping others prosper!”

Stacey Huld, Project Coordinator
“Provide ergonomic solutions while adhering to budget and aesthetics.”

Becca Richards, Project Designer
“Great design should affect the workplace.”

Doug Klein, CFO
“Help entrepreneurs and stakeholders build organizations that improve the quality of life around the world.”

Theresa Prophet, Project Coordinator
“Because I really am changing our community!”

Barbara Wheaton, Sales Completion
“2 make people more comfortable at work.”

Steve Scott, Foreman
“I am making a difference in healthcare and your workplace.”

Mariano Larson, Scheduling
“To help others efficiently achieve their goals.”

Y Scouts is a purpose based executive search firm that helps organizations recruit leadership talent. Whether you’re looking for meaningful work or are looking to recruit leadership talent, we can help. To get started, share the reason why you work with us. Click here if you’re an employer. Click here if you want to make a difference in a new leadership role.

The post Why Do People Work At Goodmans? appeared first on Executive Search Firm | Executive Recruiters | Phoenix, AZ | Y Scouts.