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Career advice for a CLO (Chief Legal Officer). Maximize compensation, proactively stay marketable, and deliver value to your firm.
Lead5 tracks the appointments and departures of C-level executives at over 40,000 public companies using public data sources and intel from the Lead5 network. The Lead5 brand is built around the five main filters by which an executive views his or her career: Industry, Function, Region, Ownership, and Market Cap.
This is the second in a series of videos designed to empower Lead5 members to discover intel and opportunities relevant to their career journey. Saving Search Queries in Lead5
Candidates departing an executive position often ask us how to handle updating their Linkedin bio. Recruiters advise them against adding an end date to their most recent job until they have secured a new job. This advice is rooted in the adage, “It is always easier to get a job if you have a job.”
It is common for executives to accept a package out of a company in a restructuring. Similarly, if a company is sold, the senior management team of the acquired company is often replaced. There are also instances in which an executive is fired or confidentially let go. It is normal for executives to have between 3 to 6 months between positions. The average executive search at the major search firms lasts over 120 days, closer to 150 days. The elapsed time from the moment a candidate is initially contacted by a recruiter to the moment they officially accept an offer will be, on average, greater than 90 days.
Considering this, savvy recruiters and companies view the executive as a “free agent”. That free agent status can benefit your standing as a finalist in the executive search process for multiple reasons. First, you can start the job more quickly than someone who must resign and give notice. Second, you do not have unvested equity or bonus monies to be made whole on.
When you possess the resume, experience, and stature of a C-level candidate, you do not need to “slow play” updating your Linkedin bio. At Lead5, we recommend you close out your tenure on any public facing bio within 30 days of departure from a company.
If the departure is contentious, have a succinct explanation and provide references. If the CEO will not be a reference, have a board member or key executive at the company who can validate the circumstances. Departures happen to every executive, some for good reasons, some bad, and everything in between. As recruiters, we have seen it all and we are more concerned with what you learned from the experience and how you will grow and excel in your next role.
Embrace your time as a free agent. Three to twelve months between deals is standard for executives in free agent mode. If you have been out of a full-time job longer than 12 months, try to secure a meaningful and substantive consulting role that keeps you in the market and on the pulse of your industry sector.
Also, be open to relocation for greater career opportunities. Post Covid, companies have become more flexible on hybrid or remote work. Even so, for executive positions, a willingness to be based at HQ with the senior leadership team can help distinguish you from other candidates.
If you have personal experiences and lessons learned from your time as an executive “free agent” we would love to hear from you. Join Lead5 today and take advantage of the free 7-day trial plus a complementary career consultation with one of our founders. www.lead5.com
Lead5 tracks executive openings and executive appointments for leading US based companies. Analysis for Lead5 for the second half of 2021 data shows executive appointments slightly up 3% year over year. For Q1 of 2022 executive appointments were down 20% along with executive opportunities also down YoY. Interestingly, the January 2022 executive appointments were up slightly YoY with February starting to trend down and March 2022 executive appointments down 40%. This corresponds with the timing of headline and market data from the war in Ukraine and inflation numbers. We will continue to monitor the Lead5 data set and the effect on executive hiring into Q2 and the summer months.
Now is a great time to research and prepare a pro-active strategy for your next executive career move. Join Lead5 today to stay connected to ever-changing market intel from the Lead5 community. Familiarize yourself with the Indicators of Management Changes, Negotiating Executive Compensation, How to Best Approach Executive Recruiters, How to Best Approach In-House Corporate Recruiters, and Sample Email Templates to Send Direct to Hiring Managers.
In my 20 plus years of executive search experience, I have worked on hundreds of C-level assignments and navigated countless compensation negotiations through the “offer stage”. Here are 5 tips for executive candidates to keep in mind when closing the deal:
Interested in more career advice? Sign-up for Lead5 and take advantage of the free career consultation plus gain more insight, intel and career tips from the Lead5 Community.
After 20 plus years in executive recruiting you start to see a pattern of reasons for leadership changes. Here are a few of the most common indicators:
New PE Deal – A public company is looking to shed a non-core division and sells the “carve-out” business to a private equity firm. These deals always seem to work out very well for the new financial sponsors and this deal announcement is an almost certain trigger to build a new leadership team.
Newly Appointed CEO – A new CEO is announced and within 12 to 18 months on average more than half of the leadership team will be replaced. This concept works one-level down as well. A new CFO will have a new financial officer team within 12 to 18 months, etc.
Late-Stage VC Investment – A start-up company receives a late-stage VC investment of $50 million. At this point, the company starts to fully build out the infrastructure and regulatory framework needed to achieve its growth and strategic goals. Think of roles like Chief Accounting Officer, Chief Risk Officer, General Counsel, and Chief People Officer as roles that are often upgraded or established post a large late-stage VC funding round.
Company Emerging from Chapter 11 – The team that takes a company through chapter 11, the turn-around group, is not the same leadership team that focuses on growth post emergence.
Company Caught Flat-Footed – Julie is a star Chief Marketing Officer for BlueVision Tech Corp. She is identified and recruited away to become the CEO of a well-funded VC backed start-up. BlueVision Tech is caught flat-footed and quickly commences a search for Julie’s replacement as the internal team is not yet ready for promotion.
New Stage of Growth – Building a company from idea stage/pre-revenue to $1 to $5 million in revenue is a unique skill, as is scaling a company from $5 million to $20 million + in revenue. Here are the most common revenue hurdles where a new type of leadership is needed for the scale involved:
Did you know the Lead5 Platform identifies these types of scenarios combined with the crowd-sourcing power of the Lead5 community to uncover hidden opportunities and companies you should be pro-actively networking with?
Join today and discover the power of the Lead5 Community to help advance your executive career!
Want to learn more? Join the market discussion on Lead5 here:
Members of the Lead5 Executive Community have frequently asked us about executive assessments, which have become standard in the executive recruiting process. In this video, Peter Thies from the River Group has joined Lead5 CEO, Josh Wimberley, to discuss assessments, including the best way for executives to approach them. The extended video can be viewed in the Lead5 Executive Community forum section where you can ask questions about assessments, or anything else career-related.
Did you know Lead5 has a unique company list feature that you will not find online or with any other database? For these lists, Lead5 focuses on US based companies that are actively recruiting executive level talent because these are the companies that are seeking the men and women who comprise the Lead5 member base.
As a busy executive, you probably don’t realize how many companies in your area are seeking executive-level professionals. That’s because every area has a handful of well-known companies, but there are many high-growth and successful companies that often fall under the radar. Additionally, most executive jobs are hidden or unlisted. At Lead5, we strive to provide you with company lists that give you the full picture of the companies hiring executives in your particular function and region. This empowers your ability to conduct proactive outreach, putting you in the driver seat of your next career move.
Here’s an example of how you can use Lead5’s company lists:
Let’s say you are a healthcare-focused CFO who wants to remain in Atlanta. There are 27 companies in the Lead5 database when you filter for region ‘Atlanta’ and select industry ‘Healthcare Services + HealthTech’ that are private equity backed, and another 17 that are privately held with no institutional backing. Do research and become familiar with those companies. Learn about the cultures of those companies through networking. If you have been in the same market for some time, you will be amazed at how quickly you can connect with someone who knows the inside story or culture of the company.
Lead5 also shows you that 6 private equity deals have taken place in the last 12 months in the Atlanta market in Healthcare Services + HealthTech. Did you know that when a PE firm acquires a majority stake in a new company, that 70% of the time they replace the CFO within 12 months of the deal? PE deals are important hiring indicators for most C-level functions.
What about a newly appointed CEO? New CEOs will likely restructure their leadership team within the first 12 months on the job. With Lead5 you can track and monitor new CEO appointments for companies in your industry and region. Lead5 has recommendations for how to approach a new CEO directly or through networking contacts. Timing is key and Lead5 gives you an edge for how and when to make these connections.
Here is a breakdown of the companies we cover at Lead5:
This mix gives our members a broad lens into the executive hiring landscape across company ownership types and market caps, allowing our members to target companies that are perfect fits for their career elevation strategies.
If you have any questions about how to yield the most value from Lead5 company lists, please email us at support@lead5.com or you can email me directly: josh@lead5.com
Hello, Josh Wimberley here, CEO and founder of Lead5 – The Executive Career Platform. I wrote this blog to help you elevate your executive career by highlighting the 5 dimensions that successful executives must master. It’s also intended to be a reference guide for Lead5 members to help them get the most value from the platform. I have broken this information into 6 modules. Please email me anytime with your feedback or if I can assist you in any way! josh@lead5.com
Your partner in success,
Josh Wimberley
Before forming Lead5, I led the largest executive search firm’s CFO practice. In over two decades, I have helped 100’s of C-level executives just like you advance their careers and achieve their goals. As such, allow me to share some important C-level recruiting insights that you were probably unaware of:
– Most of what you think about managing your executive career is wrong because most of the key information is hidden. This hidden information includes: job opportunities, insider intel, and meaningful ways to network. I formed Lead5 to unlock those doors and I will be covering these elements in more detail in this blog.
– The proactive executive always has the edge on new opportunities. As an executive, you have been trained to wait on a recruiter’s call that may never come. You’re also probably relying too heavily on your personal network. These approaches provide you with only a fraction of the total opportunities available to you. Through a combination of AI, dedicated research teams, and crowd-sourcing, Lead5 provides you with instant access to hidden executive jobs, expanding your universe of opportunities.
– Your openness to relocation is a critically important variable for your success. Most c-levels will move multiple times over the course of their careers, and an unwillingness to relocate will ultimately hold you back in your career. Lead5 helps you find opportunities worth the move, wherever you are.
– A ‘full-cycle career plan’ is your means to continue your success in today’s challenging economic climate, and Lead5 is built around the 5 dimensions that comprise this career strategy. Executives are often so maximized in their current role that they think about their career through only 2 dimensions: managing their current role and then scrambling to find their next one, and often, when it’s too late. You must understand that it typically takes 4-6 months for executives to find their next opportunity, and this is during strong economies. The Lead5 Executive Community keeps you connected throughout your career life cycle with thoughtful insights and discussion, expanded opportunities and key contacts.
Lead5 Is Built Around the Following 5 Dimensions That Successful Executives Must Master:
1. Proactive Opportunity Outreach
2. Continuous Networking
3. Honing Your Skill Set
4. Connecting with Peers
5. Establishing Yourself as a Thought Leader
Because this 5-dimension full-cycle career plan is so important, we offer a complimentary phone consultation to help you develop this approach. To set up this up, please contact me: josh@lead5.com
My5 is the name of Lead5’s search filters that you will set to deliver to you personalized open opportunities and career intel on the Lead5 Platform. My5 consists of the 5 company attributes that most C-level executives consider as they pursue their next opportunity.
The My5 components are:
1. Function
2. Industry
3. Region
4. Market Cap
5. Ownership Structure
Once you’ve set your My5 filters, you will see focused opportunities and intel in your dashboard, and you can quickly apply these filters in the section called “Jobs & Intel.”
As your search criteria changes, remember to keep your My5 filters up to date so that Lead5 can work for you optimally.
My5 Search Filters are located at top of all Lead5 web pages:
My5 Search Filters: Simple check boxes give you complete control:
Tip: Expand the plus symbol (+) for more granular filters.
By selecting “Apply My5”, you quickly surface relevant intel when browsing.
To maximize your total universe of opportunities for your outreach, Lead5 offers two types of opportunities – ‘potential opportunities’ and ‘verified opportunities.’ Here’s what you should know about these.
Potential Opportunity – This means that Lead5 has discovered that a company will likely be looking to fill an opening soon. Not every potential opportunity evolves into an actual opening, but potential opportunities have significant value because candidates can enter a potential job search at the earliest possible moment, increasing their likelihood of being discovered.
– How to Pursue Potential Opportunities: We advise members to reach-out to a ‘recommended contact’ that we provide and make an introduction.
Remember: making a connection is always the first step to landing an executive role. Even if a potential opportunity doesn’t pan out, making a positive impression expands your network and could open up new doors in the future.
Verified Opportunity – This means that Lead5 has uncovered intel that a company is actively seeking to fill this role.
– How to Pursue Verified Opportunities: We advise members to reach out to the recommended contact and/or recruiter. In some cases, an application link is provided. At a minimum, you should strive to make a connection and broaden your executive network.
Action: Once you’ve identified an opportunity to pursue – whether potential or verified – click the “Pursue Opportunity” button on the opportunity details view. This will trigger the ‘Lead5 Advisor’ which will make a recommendation on the best approach.
Here’s an example opportunity:
Most of our opportunities are unlisted, meaning there’s no online application. Once you click the “Pursue This Opportunity” button, it launches the Lead5 Advisor to organize your steps.
The Lead5 Advisor:
When launched, the Lead5 Advisor gives you specific guidance, recommended contacts, email templates, and more — everything you need to pursue opportunities of any type.
Additionally, we provide suggested email outreach templates to help guide your messaging to the suggested contact(s).
A full cycle career approach includes proactive outreach and continuous networking. To perform these tasks effectively, we built the Lead5 Playbook to help you organize your activities and store important data.
Your Lead5 Playbook helps you track, plan, and organize:
– Opportunities you wish to pursue in the future
– Opportunities you’ve already pursued
– Contacts you wish to reach out to
– Phone call notes
– Future scheduled activities
Here is a My Playbook example:
Your time is valuable. By using your Lead5 Playbook, you can maximize your productivity on Lead5.com.
Utilizing insider intel is key to your executive success. Lead5 offers actionable intel that will help you in every stage of your career life cycle. This intel can be found in the ‘jobs & intel’ and in the ‘community’ sections on Lead5.com.
Verified Opportunity – This means that Lead5 has uncovered intel that a company is actively seeking to fill this role.
Action: You can pursue this role or make important connections with key company contacts.
Potential Opportunity – This means that Lead5 has discovered that a company will likely be looking to fill an opening soon. Not every potential opportunity evolves into an actual opening, but potential opportunities have significant value because candidates can enter a potential job search at the earliest possible moment, increasing their odds of being discovered.
Action: You can pursue this role or make important connections with key company contacts.
Executive Moves: typically covers executive appointments which indicates a near term executive hiring (example: CEO will soon be appointed and will seek to build his/her team). These executive appointments all signal potential changes in vendors and suppliers.
Action: This is a perfect moment for you to make a connection.
The Lead5 Executive Community: here you can exchange intel with an exclusive membership base comprised of your executive peers. These intel focal points are: opportunities, career insights, and career best practices.
Action: This is a forum where you can establish yourself as a thought leader, hone your skills, and connect with peers in a meaningful way.
Private Equity Deals: represent acquisitions or assumption of a controlling interest in a portfolio company. These deals indicate near-term C-level executive hiring flows, new growth capital, and potential changes in vendors and suppliers. Most PE-backed companies replace the executive team in the first 6 months of the deal closing.
Action: This is a perfect moment to make a connection to the PE deal partner while new leadership teams are being formed.
Connecting with peers and establishing yourself as a thought leader are important fundamentals to achieving full cycle executive career success. In an economic environment that is increasingly isolated, we have received feedback from members who have expressed a desire to connect and contribute. In response, we recently launched The Lead5 Executive Community to help you exchange information with our exclusive network of top executives and executive career experts.
This information includes:
– Member-Contributed Opportunities
– Career-empowering insights
– C-level best practices
It only takes one opportunity, insight, or connection to elevate your career or the career of one of your peers. As the Lead5 Executive Community continues to grow, our members will reap the benefits.
Here are some specific ways that you can benefit and contribute:
– Ask a confidential career question on our message board and receive insights from peers and the Lead5 leadership team who has decades of experience in executive recruiting and executive career management
– Submit an opportunity that may not be the right fit for you
– Provide impactful insights that helps your peers and establishes yourself as a thought leader
Participation is completely voluntary and you have the option to provide information under your name or anonymously.
I hope this blog has been useful to you. Please email me anytime with your feedback or questions. josh@lead5.com
Your partner in success,
Lead5 CEO
As an executive candidate you need to be aware of the “numbers” of a typical retained executive search where the search firm over a 90 day time frame may interview/screen as many as 40+ qualified candidates. In contrast, when you connect with a CEO or other recommended hiring contact of a company when the news breaks of an opening, there are times when companies work their own network to see if they can interview quick hits for the position without going the full retained search route. In this case, if you are qualified for the position, you are one of 4 or 5 as opposed to 1 of 40 in the typical 150 day exec search.
The Lead5 view is to pursue all angles (direct and through exec recruiters) to maximize your flow of awareness of available opportunities and obtain a greater understanding of the dynamics at play behind the recruiting process.
In summary, at times a position warrants a quicker fill time with best athlete available vs. the “take our time” 150 day full due diligence process. Lead5 is built to create awareness, leads, and ultimately connections for both types of openings. Below are sample emails Lead5 recommends you send to CEOs and other recommended hiring contacts in various scenarios, along with commentary in BOLD italics.
Hi Carol,
Good afternoon. I recently became aware of the CEO opening at ComTech. I would like to confidentially submit my credentials to the search committee. I am an experienced executive officer most recently with (insert current company, a $x billion market cap publicly traded insert industry sector/brief description of your current/most recent company). I am actively seeking out my next executive career opportunity and we are open to relocation. Please find my attached resume and I would welcome the opportunity to confidentially discuss the position. (Also consider adding a line or two about your combination of experiences over the last 5 to 7 years leading large teams, driving P&L, working in a related biz model, etc. that might relate to the particular company). Thanks in advance for your time.
A note that is efficient/to-the-point they can read in less than 30 seconds and have a good summary understanding of your skill set is best – they can always click on and read your resume if they want more information.
Best Regards,
Jason Candidate
Robert,
Good afternoon. I recently became aware of a potential CHRO opening at your company. I am an experienced CHRO most recently with Smith Corporation, a $5 billion market cap publicly traded industrial manufacturer (or best description of your most recent company). I am actively seeking out my next executive career opportunity and we are open to relocation. Please find my attached resume and I would welcome the opportunity to discuss the position if it remains available. Also consider adding a line or two about your combination of global manufacturing, leading large teams, process improvement, etc. that might relate to the particular company – i.e. “I have 15 plus years of experience leading the HR function for global manufacturers that would be highly relevant to Smith Corporation. Thanks in advance for your time.
A note that is efficient/to-the-point they can read in less than 30 seconds and have a good summary understanding of your skill set is best – they can always click on and read your resume if they want more information.
Best Regards,
Elizabeth Candidate
Catherine,
Good afternoon. Congratulations on your appointment to NewCo Corporation as CEO. I wanted to make a brief introduction. I am an experienced Chief Human Resources Officer most recently with Smith Corporation, a $5 billion market cap publicly traded industrial manufacturer. I am actively seeking out my next executive career opportunity and we are open to relocation. Please find my attached resume and I would welcome the opportunity to confidentially discuss available leadership positions that may be open in your company. NewCo Industries is a company I have targeted for my career search given the similarities in business model and industry sector to my career experience. Thanks in advance for your time.
Best Regards,
Joseph Candidate
Robert,
Good afternoon. Congratulations on the recent deal of NewCo Corporation’s recapitalization with MountainTop Capital. I wanted to make a brief introduction. I am an experienced Chief Human Resources Officer most recently with Smith Corporation, a $5 billion market cap publicly traded industrial manufacturer. I am actively seeking out my next executive career opportunity and we are open to relocation. I am interested in pursuing HR leadership roles with private equity backed middle market companies in the industrial and consumer products sectors. Please find my attached resume and I would welcome the opportunity to confidentially discuss an HR leadership position if it becomes available with this new investment/growth phase for NewCo Corporation. Thanks in advance for your time.
Best Regards,
Elizabeth Candidate