Kent Burns Blog

I encounter a surprising number of people who are afraid of success.  In their defense, I’m not sure most of them are aware of it.  It commonly reveals itself as resistance to my call, in responses like: “I’m happy where I am.” “I’m not in the market.” “I’m not looking.” “I’m not interested.” In some [...]

I recently called an executive about someone who had worked for him in the past.  I was seeking feedback on this person as a potential candidate for a search I was leading for another client.  My executive friend was candid as always, explaining to me this individual’s strengths and weaknesses.  The overall feedback was positive. [...]

Every day for the past 20 years, I have helped people make decisions.  Pretty big ones.  At times stressful ones.  In 1967, psychiatrists Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe began a project that led to the creation of the Holmes and Rahe Stress Scale – a checklist of 43 items designed to inventory “fundamentally important environmental [...]

It’s not unusual or infrequent, unfortunately, that people in my business are received poorly by corporate human resource and talent acquisition professionals.  Some of this...I get.  There are lots of schmuck recruiters out there.  That’s unfortunate as well.  But, this is reality. One of my Search Consultants recently connected with a business executive who is [...]

Occasionally, I run into the scenario where a company does not hire my candidate because they are “too good.”  It just happened to me last week.  A client I have done business with in the past referred me to one of their sister companies.  The sister company needed a Controller.  I was flattered by the [...]

Communication is such a funny thing.  When executed poorly, two people can walk away from a conversation with very different perceptions of what just happened.  I just experienced it today. My Firm was negotiating an offer between client and candidate.  We had all the terms buttoned up and were awaiting the offer letter.  Upon receiving [...]

Candidates ask multiple times weekly about the option of working from home.  There are many approaches, from the reasonable “Would I be able to work from home if the roads are bad?” to the overt, “How much will I be expected to be in the office with this job?” Working from home can be nice.  [...]

I have a personal bias against out of office email replies and out of office voicemails.  There.  I’ve said it.  It’s out there.  During the Summer months especially, I hear/read over and over again: “This is Tim, I’ll be out of the office from July 15 – 23 with limited access to voicemail and email.  [...]

Earlier this year I partnered with a key client to recruit a very high-performing individual.  It was a fun process, complete with a few twists and turns and some fairly intense negotiations.  Recruiting top performers is a challenge in any employment market; however, in 2018, the competition is brutal.  Companies know how hard it is [...]

Holidays are an interesting phenomenon in American business.  They’re also an interesting study in human behavior.  This year, the 4th of July obviously falls on a Wednesday.  When I became aware of that a few weeks ago, I warned my Team, “Most people will use this as an excuse to destroy an entire week of [...]

I recently watched a video clip of Ray Allen talking about “The Last Shot”. Ray is an NBA Champion and Olympic Gold Medalist who is destined for the Basketball Hall of Fame. He’s famous for his ability to hit jump shots under pressure in game-winning situations. A couple of his comments stood to out me. [...]

My family and I went to a local restaurant on Father’s Day. It’s a place I really like that has great food. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a good experience. Our server greeted us cheerfully and took our drink orders. She delivered the drinks, sans straws, but assured us she’d be right back. She wasn’t. When she [...]

I’ve been working on a sales role for one of my best clients.  Although finance/accounting is my specialty, it’s fun when a loyal client asks me to step into another area for a one-off search.  It’s an opportunity for me to stay sharp and engage with different personality types. Salespeople are interesting – I have [...]

Last week, I had the privilege of being stuck in an elevator with several other people. It was a fascinating study in human behavior. Going up, we stopped on Floor Three, and a few more folks got on. Then something odd happened. As the doors closed, we started falling. There was screeching and grinding. In [...]

Every day I’m told several times how busy someone is. I’ve gone through an evolution in how I choose to receive that information. First, I was empathetic. I’d take a moment to sincerely acknowledge the person’s current state. After a while, I adopted the eye-roll, listening and then moving on. Next, I allowed this seemingly [...]

There have always been people who want something for nothing. But there are many more of them now. Technology has made important things free. Take knowledge, for example. My nephew flips diesel pickups as a hobby. He researches dozens of pickups online in search of one that has problems – sometimes significant problems. Occasionally the [...]

Technology continues to make tasks easier and faster to execute.  Until the mid-19th Century, if you needed to communicate with someone, you had to either write a letter or be face-to-face.  Now all you have to do is press a button. Yet…although the methods have changed dramatically, and things have never been easier or faster, [...]

We live in a culture of immediate gratification.  We’ve been trained to expect everything now.  And  when I say “now”, I mean NOW.  Success and career are no exception.  Blame (in large part) the technology industry.  From a historical perspective, the emergence of technology giants Facebook, Amazon and SpaceX happened fast.  Careers were made, and [...]

“Where do you see yourself in five years?” has historically been a popular interview question.  Perhaps at one time, it was considered clever and forward-thinking.  Now it’s just tired, overused and perhaps irrelevant.  Does anybody really know what they’re going to be doing in five years?  Employees don’t work for organizations for extended lengths of [...]

One of the best things you can do to advance your career is to adopt this mindset that you’re always interviewing.  Conventional wisdom says that we interview in order to get a job, and then we’re done...until, for some reason, we’re looking again for a job.  But the most successful people don’t think that way.  [...]