From Johanna

The Second Half Starts Now

Summer is ending, the calendars are filling back up, and the decisions everyone parked in June are back on the table.

, There is a rhythm to this time of year. The kids go back to school, the out-of-office replies stop, and the second half begins in earnest. In our world, that means the leadership decisions that quietly stalled over the summer are urgent again, and they are landing in a market that is still cautious. Hiring slowed through the summer, money is still expensive, and boards are taking longer to move. The pause is ending. The pressure is not.

Here is what I keep coming back to. People call leadership a soft skill. It is not a soft skill. It is the whole game. You can have the strategy, the capital, and the market, and still watch it come apart because the person in the seat cannot bring people with them. The leaders who last are the ones who make the people around them better. That is not a personality trait you hope for. It is something you can screen for, coach, and build.

That idea is exactly what I took to the Gulf Coast Symposium on HR Issues this month, and it is why this newsletter is called The Business of People. It is also why I am glad to introduce someone new to you in this issue, an advisor whose whole craft is finding the leaders who fit. More on the symposium, and on her, just below.

The Business of People, in One Session

The session I presented, Leadership Depth as Business Strategy, was built on the idea every issue here comes back to. Every other function manages a thing. Finance manages money, legal manages risk. People are the only asset that can walk out the door, hold a grudge, or quietly stop trying. Growth does not come from the strategy deck. It comes from whether the people in the key seats can actually work together.

Here is the part worth taking back to your own organization. When a leader is hired or promoted, almost everyone evaluates the individual: the résumé, the numbers. Far fewer ask the relational question, and ask it early. How will this person actually work with the team they inherit, the peers they will rub against, and the board they answer to, not only today but as the company changes. That forward read is usually the difference between a hire that lands and one that stalls.

A New Advisor at Artemis

Meet Shannon Talbot

Shannon Talbot Executive Talent Advisor Shannon has joined Artemis with a specialty this market is short on. She spent more than twenty years in executive search, starting at KPMG, where she was national lead recruiter for International Executive Services, and went on to build practices focused on one thing: finding the finance, strategy, and operating executives who can actually perform in the equity world, not just look right on an org chart.

Her network runs deep in the talent private equity is buying right now, the former McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and Big Four leaders moving into PE operations and portfolio companies. She is known for a relationship-first approach, complete confidentiality, and a focus most firms overlook: building executive benches that include the exceptional women leaders too many searches never reach.

In Shannon's Words: The Talent PE Is Really Chasing

Two trends are worth watching this summer. Private equity is buying professional services firms, and I am watching closely where the Big Four talent lands. At the same time, PE operations teams are pulling in consulting leaders, mostly from McKinsey, Bain, BCG, and the strategy arms of the Big Four, to run the value-creation playbook inside portfolio companies.

Here is what both trends have in common: the leaders who can actually do this work are not on job boards. They move through relationships. And a deep bench of qualified women executives rarely makes the shortlist, which is a miss firms cannot afford when hold periods keep getting longer.

That is the work I do: finding those leaders, pre-vetted and confidential, and making sure the women who belong on your list are on it. If that is the talent you are building toward, let's talk.

Companies Are Reaching Outside for Their Leaders

Last year, outside hires jumped to about a third of new large-company CEO appointments, up from under a fifth the year before, the highest share in nearly a decade. At the same time, only about one in ten HR leaders say they have a strong bench ready to step into leadership roles. The talent is moving, and most organizations are not deep enough to fill from within.

That is the exact gap Shannon works in, and the one the symposium session was built around. When the bench is thin and the seats keep turning over, the relationships and the read matter more than the posting.

Before the Quarter Gets Away From You

If there is a leadership decision you have been circling since spring, the next ninety days are when it gets made, either by you on your terms or by the calendar on its own. The most useful thing you can do before year-end is name the one seat that matters most, and get honest about whether the person in it, or your plan to fill it, is actually ready.

That clarity is worth more than any search. Once you have it, the search is the easy part. It is also the best possible place to start a conversation with either of us.

Start a Conversation

Reach Johanna or Shannon directly, or book a conversation with our team.

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Find Leaders Who Fit, Perform, and Stay.