IAM1853 – Co-Founder Specializes in Executive Leadership Recruitment

• CEO Hack: The importance of staying open and humble and maintaining a growth mindset
• CEO Nugget: The belief that life and business revolve around relationships and explores how one can assist others
• CEO Defined: For Debra, being a CEO means being herself, living out her passion, and effecting positive changes in people's lives

Debra Young Teaser 00:00

The other thing, which is really critical, is being able to see how a leader communicates in writing, right? Because you're going to be communicating with your boss maybe, or your board, and throughout your organization.

So you have to have great communication skills written.

Intro 00:19

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkness values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of.

This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:47

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I appreciate you listening to this episode. If you've been listening this year, you know that we hit 1600 episodes at the beginning of this year. We're doing something a little bit different where we're repurposing our favorite episodes around certain categories, topics, or as I like to call them business pillars that we think are going to be extremely impactful for CEOs, entrepreneurs, and business owners, or what I like to call the CB nation architects who are looking to level up their organizations.

This month, we are focused on leadership management and coaching. When we think of leadership management and coaching, we often think of doing all the other things, but often it's a person that's able to build up their team, that's able to cultivate a creative and innovative culture so that people can excel and actually be their own leaders. So that's why this month we're focusing on those 3 big topics because they make a huge impact on the organizations that we're part of.

Now, you'll hear some of those topics this month. Of course, some really great perspectives on how people are even defining leadership, which I think is extremely exciting. So sit back and enjoy this special episode of the I AM CEO podcast.

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Debra Young of Sheer Velocity, LLC. Deb it's awesome to have you on the show.

Debra Young 02:06

Thank you so much Gresh, I'm excited to be here. I love your podcast.

Gresham Harkless 02:10

Yes. See, you already got my day started off really, really well by saying that. So before we jumped in and hear about all the goodness that Debra is doing, I wanted to read a little bit more about that because she's doing so many awesome things.

Deb Young is a co founder and managing partner of Sheer Velocity LLC, a global retained executive search firm with headquarters in Denver, Colorado.

Deb started Sheer Velocity in 2012 and has grown the business into a global organization with offices across the country and reach in 40 countries around the world through INAC Global Executive Search.

Sheer Velocity is hired by organizations to find them very specific executive leadership talent and through Sheer Velocities, proprietary search process, they have solidified themselves as a thought leader in the executive recruitment space.

Deb, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

Debra Young 02:57

I am. I am.

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Gresham Harkless 02:59

Awesome. Let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to rewind the clock a little bit, hear a little bit more on how you got started. Could you take us through your CEO story? We'll let you get started.

Debra Young 03:09

Sure. Sure. So, I fell into recruiting. Most people fall into recruiting. There's no for your degree in recruiting. So anyway, in a former life, I was a flutist. I was a symphony musician. And life took a turn on me, and I wasn't able to do that anymore. So I had to reinvent myself, so to speak.

I got recruited by a single gentleman who wanted to start an executive search firm. This was almost 20 years ago, and he wanted to open it in Denver. So here comes me, he found me on indeed or something, right? Or career builders. Anyway, we met and I said, so what is it that I need to do?

He told me and I said, I can do that. Come to find out, I had zero relationships in corporate America, zero, none, because I was a musician, right? We weren't out in corporate America. So I had to do a lot of cold calling and a lot of pounding on doors and I was actually quite successful at it. I built that office to the point where I became a partner with this gentleman and we started opening other offices around the country.

Gresham Harkless 04:25

Awesome.

Debra Young 04:25

Four years into it, though, I got recruited to a top 5 firm, which was really exciting. And I thought this is great for my career. So, I joined the top 5 firm and I was there about 3 years. I found out that it really wasn't for me from the big company perspective, but what I did learn was the methodologies of how to sell search from a big firm and a boutique firm.

So, about three years into it, my business partner who I met at the big firm, he and I started Sheer Velocity in 2012 and started our own business. So we've been around, like I said, eight years now and have grown to have offices in Chicago, St. Louis, Denver, Seattle, and then through our global partners, and knock global executive search. They're the very first consortium of boutique executive search firms around the world. The first ones to have come up with that business model, so they somehow found us and they did not have a U. S. partner at the time.

So, long story short, we ended up joining the firm and what's really cool about it is we have partners in 40 countries around the world, boutique firms in each country that we refer and exchange business with, but I don't have to oversee those international offices, which is really nice.

Gresham Harkless 05:50

I absolutely love that. And I don't know, do you find that this is like a random question, but do you find like you being a flutist before, has that helped you in a lot of the work that you're doing now?

Debra Young 06:01

Yes, it actually has, because, I was a performer and I could get up in front of a room, hundreds of people and perform from memory, big concertos and all that kind of stuff. So getting up in front of a client, potential client, and trying to sell your business, you have to be able to have that outward personality, that ability to connect. across the table, so to speak, or across an audience.

Gresham Harkless 06:30

Yeah, I absolutely love that. As you said, if you're performing, you also have to have that awareness of what's going on while you're still staying true to those things that you practice and been able to do. So I love to hear how that's transitioned over.

Debra Young 06:41

Sure. I loved performing. I loved it.

Gresham Harkless 06:45

Yeah, I bet so. I bet. I know we touched on it a little bit, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about Sheer Velocity. So can you take us through exactly like what you're doing for your clients and how exactly that process works?

Debra Young 06:56

Sure. We actually, have designed our proprietary search process, which has been our secret sauce, so to speak. And it's about looking at candidates from a 360 degree perspective while having listened to our clients needs, wants, pains, right? We have to find out from them what exactly is it that they're looking for? What does that individual look like? What kind of DNA does that person have that they believe is going to help? Then again, grow and at the end of the day, drive the bottom line of their organization.

So our job is to go out and find these individuals. So we created this process that looks at candidates from 360 degree perspective. We've got, up front very heavily technical skill set, of course, up front. Because if they don't have the technical fit, then there's no sense in starting, but we have our own proprietary cultural alignment that we created that really gets at things that are important from a cultural perspective at the leadership level, like teamwork, innovation, empathy, competitiveness, decision making, financial execution, management style, those kinds of things, is what our alignment gets at.

So we have candidates complete that and the client complete that at the same time. We have a baseline of the client compared to the candidate and we can see degrees of separation in response. It's because what's the next biggest buzzword to Starbucks right now? It's cultural fit, right? So my mentor early on that I talked about taught me technical fit here, cultural personality leadership here. Whereas everybody else has had it reversed all these years. Now culture is coming to the top. So, that's part of our process. It's unique to us. Then we also do a written questionnaire on the top of a must have that are non negotiable to our client from a technical perspective.

So we can see really, truly sometimes opportunities, or I should say opportunities, skill set don't come through on a resume as much as they come through when you ask a behavioral interviewing question around a certain topic of skill set. Tell us the time and place when you did X, Y, Z. What were your challenges? What was the outcome? How did you achieve a result? So we ask a behavioral interviewing question on all four of the top must haves from our client. But what's nice is you can either see if someone has their experience because it comes shining through, maybe not on a resume, but you look at the response and you're like, oh, my goodness, they have what we're looking for, or they don't.

The other thing, which is really critical is being able to see how a leader communicates in writing, right? Because you're going to be communicating, with your boss, maybe, or your board and throughout the organization. So you have to have great communication skills written so we do that. Then, obviously we do our very unique behavioral interviewing questions. We're good at really creating good questions, and they're not cookie cutter questions. They're unique to each and every search because each and every search has a life of its own and has its own needs and wants and whatnot.

So, we do the behavior interviewing and then when we get to our top, 3, 4 candidates, we put them through the Hogan assessment and I'm certified in Hogan. So, I've been doing Hogan for a long time. I'm certified in its administration and its interpretation. So you have to go to hold in school. In order to get that. But basically, it's an assessment on personality at the leadership level, and it gets at the 7 characteristics of occupational success. The 11 derailers are dark side. We all have a dark side, right? more so than others, colorful, beautiful, bold, mischievous, excitable.

So some of us derail quicker than others under stress. So this is what this is all about. Then the third is a motives and values and preferences inventory to get set. What environment aesthetically motivates you? Is it recognition, power, altruism, hedonism? So when you look at this person's assessment, you get a full read across the board of their personality leadership skills. The beauty of that whole thing is it's designed to be used at the very end of a search process when you're getting to your final candidates. We provide behavioral interviewing questions that were red flags in that person's Hogan assessment to be probed in a final interview for the hiring manager to help them make a better final hiring decision.

What's great about the process is when someone walks through the door on their first day of the job as a new leader because they just got hired, they've been through this process. They know they should be set up for success, right? All the I's were dotted, all the T's were crossed and the client should know that they should be set up for success. It's a very robust process. We've had clients that have picked and choose what they want, what they don't want. But I really believe strongly that if you have a good process, the end results cannot help, but not most likely be really, really good.

Gresham Harkless 12:36

Appreciate you for sharing that and of course the secret sauce. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and ask you for what I call a CEO hack. This could be like an app, a book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Debra Young 12:50

First, as far as business grows, and success starts happening with your business, you need to remind yourself to really stay open and humble. I believe. So going from being a young and really hungry entrepreneur to this industry superstar, now what? Now what happens? How do you keep that fire lit to continually be challenged? I think it's always having a growth mindset and as an owner, keeping your people engaged because the more higher engagement, I did a lot of studies on engagement the more your people are healthy.

In our firm, our job is to set our people up for success, right? If everybody felt that way, good things are always going to happen. If your people are engaged, they're set up for success, their whole, financially, mentally, health, physical. You look at that whole mindset, anything you can do to help that, I think will really help your businesses continue to grow.

Gresham Harkless 13:55

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So I wanted to ask you now for what I call a CEO nugget. That could be like a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what might you tell you younger business self?

Debra Young 14:05

So, I think life and business is all about relationships and that's what I have learned. We're in the relationship business, everyone is in relationships, right? And if we can help each other out, be a net giver, we all talk about going to networking events and meeting new people, the key, I believe, is to not always be looking what's in it for you, but rather how can you help someone else?

Gresham Harkless 14:30

Awesome. Now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. We're hoping to have different clinical CEOs on the show. So Deb, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Debra Young 14:40

So, being a CEO to me allows me to be me and live out my passion that's very dear to me and watching me grow into something meaningful that changes lives for the better. Because what we do really can be so impactful to say a family that really could use a little bit more money and if a husband or wife needs a better opportunity, they need to be in a different kind of role or in a different geography.

Gresham Harkless 15:10

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Deb truly appreciate that perspective and I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know.

And then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things your team is working on.

Debra Young 15:25

We do have a book out called before onboarding. It's written by our colleague, Michael Burrows. He's now a retired executive recruiter. He was with our firm for many years and he's doing executive coaching now, but we still use this process.

One way to get ahold of me is on LinkedIn under Deborah Young. On linkedIn, Sheer Velocity, LLC. Website is sheervelocity.com. Or you can reach me at 303- 9901-518.

Gresham Harkless 16:01

Awesome. Thank you so much again, Deb. We will definitely have those links and information in the shownotes so that everybody can follow up with you. And I think that book and so many things that you guys are doing are definitely helping. Thank you. So many organizations do that.

So truly appreciate that reminder, I appreciate your time even more and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 16:17

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