Leadership Lessons from the Midwest
Cindy Hilsheimer’s retained executive search business, BeecherHill, has grown each year since its founding. You might think that’s due to an obsessive focus on getting bigger. Or bringing in new revenue. But it’s not. Maybe it’s a result of great branding or self-promotion? That’s not it either — the firm has grown almost exclusively year after year through referrals. Surely, just like The Last Dance’s explanations for the success of the 90s’ Chicago Bulls, it has to do with an ego-driven focus on “winning?” Nope, not at all.
BeecherHill’s success stems from Cindy’s desire to serve.
Service is a word you hear a lot when talking with Hilsheimer. This goes back to her family. Early on, her parents taught her the importance of engaging the people around her to find ways she can help. That service in everyday non-work life can be replicated in business. That in fact, it should be replicated in work. That’s why for Cindy, it’s not about balancing work and life so much as blending the two. For her, this is the best way to consistently live out her values.
This focus on service is evident in her actions. Just talk to her clients — and see how they keep coming back again and again. Or consider the warmth she showed to an entrepreneur new to town looking for advice relating to his emerging venture capital fund, Heartland Ventures. Cindy’s actions demonstrate a deep desire to help people, regardless of whether there’s anything in it for her.
People are your Business, No Matter What You Do
The nice thing is, this genuine respect Cindy and her team show to each individual is what drives more and more clients their way. It’s rather simple when you think about it: show up for people when they need help, listen, be willing to collaborate and remove your ego from the equation. People and businesses will value such interactions. Practice this approach everyday in an area in which you have deep expertise, and you will find more and more businesses that want to work with you.
For Hilsheimer and BeecherHill, that area of expertise happens to be people. They are engaged to provide strategic advice about building executive teams. But the values discussed here hold true across all industries. At the end of the day, every firm lives or dies based on its ability to provide value to others. So we’d all be wise to take lessons from BeecherHill.
Level 5 Leadership
Jim Collins’ best selling business book Good to Great is required reading at hundreds of firms. But there’s always been something dissatisfying about Collins’ leadership lessons. His top “Level 5 Executive” is someone that channels their ego away from themselves and into the larger goal of building a great team and company. I can’t argue with that. If an executive wants to build a winning team, it will not happen if he or she prioritizes personal renown or personal riches over shared goals.
My problem is this is stated as a lesson that can be taught once a person rises to management, as opposed to a character trait one is born and raised to embody. While people can certainly become better leaders over time, I’d argue that without at least some humble foundation, they don’t have much to improve upon.
With Cindy, it’s obvious these traits come naturally. She insists on listening to her team, clients, and general community members. When she tells her consultants to make certain they seek to understand the culture of a client, to then incorporate what’s best in that culture in the selection of an executive, instead of trying to impose ideas on to a team that might sound good to uninformed experts but just won’t work for that particular team — this is her thinking about what’s best for the client and her team, not herself.
Her humility is matched by a strong resolve to do whatever needs to be done to help clients solve their challenges — whether it’s working nonstop to source more and more talent, improving BeecherHill’s value-add technology, or spending extra time with a client’s new board member to ensure a comprehensive view of the business. It’s a mix of this unrelenting desire to serve, personal humility, and deep understanding of people that best demonstrates Cindy’s Level 5 leadership.
Today’s Talent Challenges
Hilsheimer and BeecherHill serve clients that find themselves in an ever-changing workplace. As the Midwest economy booms, businesses are employing five generations simultaneously. All of this is occurring due to challenging labor economics and important diversity discussions forcing boards to confront questions they may not have addressed in the past.
Cindy’s advice to clients asking about diversity is characteristically straightforward and genuine: “Don’t just fake it. Be intentional about actually doing it.” You can’t help but think this goes back to her humility, which seems to be a theme across the Midwest. Don’t call attention to yourself. Just do the right thing and good results will follow. BeecherHill and its clients have definitely proven that you can live your values with good results.
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BeecherHill is an executive recruiting firm that serves thriving middle market companies, including multi-generational family businesses, private equity portfolio companies, and publicly traded corporations. They also serve educational institutions and high-impact nonprofits. BeecherHill aspires to be the preeminent consultancy trusted to discover and attract exceptional leaders who elevate purpose-driven organizations.
Heartland Ventures is a Seed and Series-A VC fund based in the Midwest with an LP base made up of Midwest-based businesses and business owners in logistics, construction, manufacturing and real estate. For more information, contact anna@heartlandvc.com.
