As your Board Chair, it is my honor to regularly speak to members, both new and veteran, as well as those leaving NPAworldwide. In doing so, the vast majority of discussions are positive and productive. What is clear, is that the common denominator of success at NPA is being proactive and transparent. Click here for a great summary of NPAworldwide Best Practices.
I would like to speak about several bad practices that have crossed my desk of late.
Ghosting—It is bad enough we have to put up with this from clients, prospective clients and candidates from time to time. But such a practice between members is bad form. Please, keep your partner/member informed.
Insincere Posting—Again, it is bad enough that this game has been played for years by internal recruiters as a way of getting "paper in" to validate their own sourcing initiatives or to cover a search. In our network, if you have no true desire to do a split, then please don't post. AND you know who you are…
Client Transparency—In NPAworldwide, the client relationship is sacrosanct, but partnership transparency must also be respected. For example, in a recent discussion, a member would not confidentially share the name of his client with me. In spite of my remarks around the Bylaws, along with the fact that I may have a conflict, or I might inadvertently source into the client—my remarks fell on deaf ears. In practice, I trust, and I hope you will trust, all NPAworldwide members, unless they give me (you) a reason not to trust them. Honestly, if you are not going to embrace membership trust, I don't know why you are in the network.
You really don't have a set client agreement in place—If you need help in closing a new client by introducing, opportunistically, some targeted top candidates, fine. But be transparent and ask a member for a partnership with the prospective client. AND never post this type of new business activity as a job.
Don't be a "Paper Hanger"—to use an old Wall Street expression. Engage and qualify your candidate. Pick up the phone, do a Zoom, develop a relationship.
Of course, these bad practices are few and far between, nevertheless, they are real. In the main, transparency and respect are the enduring hallmarks, and THE ESSENCE OF NPAWORLDWIDE.
As always, here are some great shout-outs from recent days:
- We have 2 open Practice Group leader roles and for each role, 11 of you have expressed interest. Volunteerism is another hallmark of NPAworldwide, so thank you for your interest and commitment to your network. Well done!
- A half-dozen new members joined our New Member Engagement Call earlier this week—this is a fantastic way to learn more about NPAworldwide and how to be a successful trading partner. Thanks to our engagement team (Kelsea, Liz, Kristen, and Marcia) for helping our new members get connected early—we are seeing the results as new members are continually improving their "time to first split" metric.
Happy Hunting.