Sam Wallace: Executive Search and Championing Female Leadership

December 2, 2020 Marcus Edwardes Recruiting Trailblazers Comments Off on Sam Wallace: Executive Search and Championing Female Leadership

In this episode, Marcus Edwardes speaks with Sam Wallace, Managing Director at Sheffield Haworth, an international executive search and talent advisory firm. Sam is also Founding Member of Chief, a private network designed specifically for senior women leaders.

Sam is part of a globally-integrated team dedicated to executive search work across technology and professional services. She is a mom of identical twins, loves the mountains and mountain biking, is an avid reader, and partial to the odd Chardonnay.

Listen in as Sam shares how to support companies through change, how data utilization will play an even bigger role in the future of the staffing industry, a primer on “defensive hiring”, and the importance of considering the “art” of recruiting as opposed to looking at it simply as a transaction.

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

  • [5:19] What it is like to work at Korn Ferry
  • [12:42] Why Sam moved on from Korn Ferry
  • [14:38] Joining Carmichael Fisher Executive Search
  • [18:44] How Sheffield Haworth is different to Carmichael Fisher
  • [20:12] What makes a great leader and what is “servant leadership”?
  • [21:35] How COVID-19 has changed the way people lead
  • [22:47] The transformation of female leadership in 2020
  • [24:06] How much of recruiting leaders is “art” and how much is “science”?
  • [26:24] Evaluating candidates beyond the resumé
  • [29:33] How Sam gets to know candidates
  • [31:05] What is UPWARD Women?
  • [32:56] Avoiding the mistake of being a transactional recruiter
  • [34:21] Building a more valuable network
  • [37:29] Sam’s favorite kind of search
  • [40:18] Distinguishing yourself from other search professionals
  • [42:39] What is “the albatross search”?

Key quotes:

  • “Leadership needs to be defined for the specifics of the organization.”
  • “So much of leadership is about communication, empathy, and transparency.”
  • “Leaders fail when they focus simply on outcomes. While that is important, the first and most important thing for leaders to do is create teams that are truly motivated to get to the end game.”
  • “The role of an executive search recruiter is the consultant.”
  • “The challenge with search is when it becomes a transaction. When it’s reduced to the act of making the placement, that’s when the nuances regarding the art of recruiting gets lost.”

Resources Mentioned: