The Alexander Group

Category: Insights

The Alexander Group, recognized as one of the country’s top CEO executive search firms, presents “Five Questions With Extraordinary Leaders,” our interview series with visionary industry leaders. In this installment, Managing Director and Chief Client Officer Amanda K. Brady interviews Carly Caulfield, Race Director and General Manager of the Houston Marathon Committee, discussing management style, the evolution of the annual event, and the ephemeral nature of creating a marathon.

It’s not a stretch to describe Carly Caulfield’s career as a marathon, not a sprint.

As the longest-tenured Houston Marathon Committee employee on staff, Caulfield started with the organization at 19 years old, and over the next 25 years, the Chevron Houston Marathon grew to one of the nation’s premier multi-race running events.

She serves as Race Director and General Manager of the Houston Marathon Committee, an executive leadership role Caulfield knows from sneakers up.

Her early years with the marathon were lessons in on-the-spot training. She quickly ascended from office clerk to more senior roles and, in 2020, was promoted to her current position.

Caulfield is the marathon’s first female race director and won the Industry Leader Under 40 Award from the National Center for Sports Safety and Security (NCS4) in 2016. She currently serves on the NCS4 Advisory Committee. In June 2019, the world running Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS) named Caulfield as a founding member of the AIMS Sustainability Commission.

Caulfield earned a Bachelor of Business Administration from the University of Houston – Downtown and an Executive MBA program at the University of Houston’s Bauer College of Business.

Managing Director and Chief Client Officer Amanda K. Brady immediately knew Caulfield would be a perfect fit for our ongoing series “Five Questions With Extraordinary Leaders” because she’s seen firsthand how Caulfield leads before, during, and after the marathon.

Brady serves as Sector 4 Captain, enlisting and working with volunteers while coordinating with the Houston Police Department to keep runners, volunteers, and spectators safe throughout the race.

Read on to learn more about Caulfield, her mentors and how collaboration is key to achieving successful outcomes.

Q: You have been with the Houston Marathon for 25 years. How did you get into the marathon industry? 

A: By accident. I was a 19-year-old kid.  I was introduced to a board member of the Houston Marathon when they were looking for an office clerk; the job paid more than I was making at the time.  

I don’t recall wanting to pursue a specific career as a child, like a firefighter or a veterinarian. Around age 10 or 12, I read a book about a family with a lot of kids – I’m the oldest of six – and the parents were efficiency managers, and they practiced efficiency in their family. I read that book and thought, “That is what I want to be when I grow up, an efficiency manager.” I’m incredibly lucky to have fallen into this job, because every day I get to be the efficiency manager I dreamed of when I was a kid, and I love it.  

Q: How did you learn how to manage people? Were you trained, or did it come naturally? Has your management style changed over the last decade as the organization grew? 

 A: I wasn’t trained to manage people, and I don’t think it comes naturally, but I have learned a lot through experience and through making mistakes. I’m lucky in that when I was hired, we only had two employees. We used to be almost entirely volunteer-managed, with one employee to sell sponsorships and someone else – me – to answer the phone and man the fax machine. As volunteers stepped down or retired, I thought, “Oh, my gosh, I could do that.”  

First was registration, then volunteer coordinator, then charity coordinator. Eventually, it got to be too much. There’s only so many things you can do. I was 22 years old. I didn’t know you were allowed to ask for help, but I finally did. That is how the staff has grown over the years. I kept taking on a new job, and we kept hiring someone else to do the job I used to do.  

I’m incredibly lucky that no one has ever had my job before. So, no one ever says to me, “Well, Amanda used to do it that way.” No one’s ever done it before, and that’s an incredible source of freedom and power. I never had anyone to train me, but that also meant I had to learn many lessons the hard way. Maybe the first five or eight years, when we had emergencies – we still do –I got to swoop in and be a hero for those emergencies, and it felt great.  

Eventually, I matured or grew up enough to realize that was a ridiculous way to manage things. My greatest aspiration as the Race Director of the Houston Marathon is not to be needed, and it is what I ask of my team.  “You guys develop your teams enough so that if something happens to you, you get sick, get hit by a truck, you don’t need to be there,” that is my goal every year. I have a great team, and I’m proud that everyone on the OPS team has been around for more than five years. Many of them six or seven. 

My management style has certainly developed over the last 25 years. I believe in getting great people, giving them what they need, and then getting out of the way. That is my entire philosophy of management. And that comes from the fact that no one was in my way. I was making my own way.  

But I should add that the marathon community is an amazing community. There is no one I know in this industry that I can’t call and ask, “How do you deal with this? Will you loan me that? Can you send me this document?” It is amazingly collaborative. 
 

Q: You also manage a large group of volunteers. What are the challenges of managing such a large volunteer group, and how is that different from managing employees? 

 A: First, we couldn’t put on this event without our 5,000-plus volunteers. Volunteers have very different motivations from staff members. I love this event, but I also work to pay my mortgage. That’s not why our volunteers are part of the event, and I think volunteers, especially our Marathon Committee leadership, want to make a difference in the community. They want to solve problems. They want to feel valued. And it’s my and my team’s job to give volunteers the tools they need to feel that way.  

I don’t personally manage volunteers anymore. It is still my job to connect with our volunteers and make sure they have what they need to succeed in the important roles they play in the marathon’s success every year.  
 


From Left to Right:
Carly Caulfield, with her mom Mitzie Caulfield and sisters Bonnie and Betsy Caulfield, at the start of the Houston Marathon.

Q: Who are your mentors and guide stars?  Why them? 

A: First is my mom. My mom is a bad***.  She is a go-getter. I’m not a runner. But I understood running when my mom started running. She had never run a marathon, but she started training so she could go run “Carly’s Marathon.” She would talk to me every day about her training and that’s when I started to understand what it meant for people to train—putting in the miles, trying to avoid an injury, the nutrition, and just getting to the finish line. This is not a football game. You don’t buy a ticket to the marathon and attend it. It’s not about what you paid for your registration. It is about what you have paid in your life to get to this place. I didn’t understand that until my mom started running. But once she did, I understood that every marathoner and participant who called with a problem needed our attention. It was like solving problems for my mom. If my mom had a problem, I would go to the end of the earth to fix it. And we still do that. That is our guiding philosophy. We have rules. We can’t accommodate everything, but if we have made a mistake, we will fix it for you. I care so deeply about the participant experience because when I think about it, it’s my mom’s marathon. My family is out there running and volunteering. I hope that we treat every runner just like I would treat my family. 

The other person I would mention is Eric Berger with Space City Weather. He keeps us calm during weather emergencies. Their tagline is “no hype.” Just, “Here’s what’s happening. Here’s what we know. Here’s what we don’t know.” When I’m planning a marathon, I need to know what to expect, and Eric does that for me and many others across Houston. 

Q: What is the hardest part about serving as Race Director and General Manager of the Houston Marathon. Does any year stand out as particularly challenging, and if so, why? 

A: We are setting up for an event out of nothing in a few hours. You go to a football game in a stadium, you go to a show in the theater. Those are permanent venues. I think what’s unique about endurance sports is that we are building an entire event site out of thin air for just a moment. And then it goes away. So, every year has its unique challenges. Regardless of the challenges, our runners are investing their life in completing this event and we need to honor what these runners have invested in. 

As for a year that sticks out, I would mention two. The one that just happened in January 2025. I’m still really tired. There was a lot of stress and a lot of extra planning because of what happened in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve. 

Another was the Olympic trials in 2012. That definitely was a challenging year. Very proud of doing it. It was the first time the men and women had ever been hosted at the same time in the same place, and we went for it. We wanted to do something new and good for the sport and the city, and we did it.  

It was on Saturday morning before the marathon the next day. None of our signage was the same as the marathon signage. Everything had to be the Olympics and NBC and USATF. We set up the event, held the trials, and then we had to tear down that entire event across the city and, the next morning, stand up our normal marathon event with all those sponsors and that special signage. It was nuts. But it put Houston on the map for Elite Racing. “We had two American records here just this past January, and a history of record-breaking performances for many years. Our race is watched nationally and internationally, and that just wasn’t the case in 2000 when I started. We were just a local event with 7,000 runners, and now we are on the international stage with more than 35,000 runners.

This blog was originally published in April 2015 and remains one of The Alexander Group’s most-read blogs. A decade later, we’re revisiting “To Beard or Not To Beard.”

Close-up of young bearded man touching his beard while standing against grey background

The beard is back and in a big way. The past few years have seen a significant upturn in the number of men wearing their facial hair “loud and proud,” both inside and outside of the office – a trend spanning industry, age and even socioeconomic groups – leading to the inevitable question: “To beard or not to beard?”

For the first time in more than a century, many of the world’s business leaders are sporting facial hair. Beards grace the faces of Nike co-founder, Phillip Knight; Goldman Sachs CEO, Lloyd Blankfein; Time Warner Chairman, Richard Parsons; Jim French, CEO of Flybe; and Walt Disney’s president, Edwin Catmull; to name a few.

The newspaper’s front page hasn’t been this hirsute since Carnegie, Rockefeller, Gould, Morgan and other captains of industry were shaping the economy.

The shaving industry is not thrilled with this trend, which has had a surprisingly significant effect on business.

According to Newsweek’s Alex Renton, “sales of shaving equipment have fallen in both the U.S. and Europe for the first time in modern history,” and Proctor & Gamble, who owns Gillette, reported a drop in sales of 10% last year.

The New York Post’s Beth Landman points out that “investment bank Jefferies reported that sales of non-disposable razors dropped 15% in the last quarter of 2013.”

Growth of Growth

What has led to this dramatic change? Facial hair and capitalism have a connected history. Beards were once considered an indicator of liberal, anti-establishment views and dissident tendencies, championed by men like Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, Che Guevara and Fidel Castro.

However, not since the Robber Barons have beards been as popular in conservative, capitalist boardrooms as they are today. The hirsute look is currently not tied to any threatening economic or political ideology, and according to The New York Times, whiskers “no longer code as a threat.”

One interesting hypothesis is that many professionals began growing beards due to the recession. Christina Binkley of The Wall Street Journal describes two financial services professionals who lost their jobs and stopped shaving. She also points out that Al Gore grew a beard after losing the presidential election in 2000, stating that “it’s one of those tiny luxuries unleashed by unemployment.”

A significant contribution to the growing popularity of scruff comes from the technology industry.

Oracle CEO Larry Ellison, Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Marc Benioff of Salesforce, Netflix’s Reed Hastings and Richard Branson of Virgin Group all have beards. However, as Steve Tobak notes, they are all founders of their companies.

The Alexander Group Managing Director John Lamar comments, “I went through a beard phase about 10 years ago. Okay, it was a goatee, and not a very good one at that…I guess that was all I could muster.”

He continues “I still like to go unshaven over the weekend…the rebel in me has not quite died. But come Monday morning, I break out the ol’ razor.” Lamar believes that the resurgence of the beard has a lot to do with celebrities and techies. “The laid-back culture coupled with explosive wealth in these two worlds has created an “I just don’t care” attitude.”

Sebastian Dillion of NextShark claims that young CEOs sport beards to look older and wiser and to display their entrepreneurial, anti-corporate ideals.

According to an article in Daily Mail Reporter, men with beards “look as much as eight years older than their unshaven counterparts.” The late Steve Jobs of Apple is perhaps the epitome of how the image of the CEO has changed over the years.

Beard of Directors

Despite the growing popularity in recent years of facial hair on professionals, the number of unshaven business executives is relatively small.

The Alexander Group Managing Director Beth Ehrgott has only had one client with a beard in all her years of search, but says that “It seems strange to think that beards still seem out of place in corporate America, yet many companies all have diversity initiatives and programs.”

Sarah Mitchell, Associate Director in The Alexander Group’s San Francisco office, says there is so much facial hair in the Bay Area that “it’s more of the rule than the exception. But I suppose I don’t see it very much when I think about those working in a more conservative corporate environment, as opposed to Google or one of the many startups.”

Phillip Rudolph, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal & Risk Officer and Corporate Secretary at Jack in the Box, was fully bearded in 2007 when he was interviewed and then hired at Jack in the Box. He doesn’t believe beards “are even remotely disqualifying.”

However, before joining Jack in the Box, Rudolph was Vice President and Deputy General Counsel at McDonald’s. He explains that while interviewing for the position, the human resources executive “asked how attached I was to my beard. I noted to him that, more correctly put, the beard was attached to me.”

Rudolph continues, “But I took the hint and shaved off the beard. I remained clean-shaven throughout my five years with McDonald’s.” Perhaps geography plays a role. Jack in the Box is headquartered in San Diego and McDonald’s home is a Chicago suburb.

A recruiter for Shell Oil Company, says that she rarely sees candidates with facial hair, and hirsute executives at Shell “are few and far between.”

A Hairy Decision

The bottom line is that if you are going to go unshaven, there are certain written and unwritten rules to follow.

  • Know your company’s culture and whether or not there are regulations or unwritten “rules” concerning facial hair. Do your homework, or ask your manager.
  • If you are going to grow facial hair, make sure that it is trimmed and neat. The last thing any executive (perhaps outside of the creative arts) wants to see is something ill-groomed and distracting.
  • If you are interviewing, it is always better to play it safe. Research the industry and company. If in doubt, shave! You can always grow it back.
  • Finally, if you decide to grow facial hair, plan accordingly. Wait for a holiday or vacation for ample time for proper growth. Stubble tends to be perceived as sloppy or lazy.

John Lamar sums it up perfectly: “For me, it basically boils down to the corporate culture. There are places where ping-pong, beards and tattoos are completely acceptable and places where they are not. Having interviewed thousands of executives in various corporate cultures, I subscribe to one simple rule regarding facial hair – just keep it neat and clean.”

“A big bushy beard that could potentially house a family of robins says to me you don’t care about your appearance or how others may perceive you. That doesn’t bode well for a future leader.”

Anyone who has ever been involved with a not-for-profit will at some point be asked to serve on a search committee or lead a search committee’s search for a new CEO/President or senior officer. We have written previously about the responsibilities of search committee members and how candidates can prepare for a search committee interview. Still, we wanted to take a deeper look at the role of the Search Committee Chair. We turn to Steve Taylor, a leader in the not-for-profit community for nearly 30 years, currently serving as Executive Vice President and Chief Mission Officer of the Arthritis Foundation. Steve recently chaired the search committee for the President & CEO of the National Health Council, which has been widely viewed as a well-run search with outstanding results. Below, Steve answers the questions we are frequently asked as not-for-profit recruits using search committees.

How big should a search committee be?

I believe the ideal size is seven, including the Chairman, who should also have a vote. You could do nine or five, but frankly, if the Committee becomes too large, it can be hard to coordinate schedules. There are too many opinions in the discussions, and you want every voice to be heard. You’ll also want to ensure it’s an odd number; that way, there is no tie.

Who should be on a search committee?

Much of it depends on the position. One to three members of the Executive Committee should be on the Search Committee and supplement that with volunteers who represent different parts of the organization. I recommend looking at the various responsibilities of the position you are trying to fill. Which volunteers can best represent and understand these responsibilities? The key to a successful search committee is to want members with different perspectives who live in various places. On the other hand, you don’t wish to search committee members being so free-spirited that they are substituting their vision for that of the Boards.

The ideal Search Committee member understands the organization’s history and future vision.

And that is so important when selecting volunteers to serve on a search committee: they need to be familiar [with], embrace the board’s vision for the organization, and represent different constituencies.

Should current employees sit on a search committee?

Many organizations wrestle with this question. Sometimes, it makes sense, especially when long-term employees understand the organization. But this is only a choice with challenges.

  • If there are internal candidates for the position, it can be challenging to ask a colleague [to] make an unbiased choice.
  • Secondly, a committee staff member may have a different strategic view of the organization than a high-ranking volunteer or board member.
  • Thirdly, it can be sensitive for an employee to be involved in salary discussions involving the successful candidate.

I typically recommend that one of the Search Committee members serve as a liaison to a group of employees or staff. In my recent search for the National Health Council, I led the search and maintained contact with the senior leadership team. While I did not discuss individual candidates, I asked the search firm for their opinions on the type of leaders we were seeking and communicated the progress of the search.

Who selects the search firm, and what should be considered?

I emphasize the importance of a strong partnership with the search firm. You want it to be a partnership, not just a firm presenting resumes. The chair should have meaningful input on selecting the search firm because they’ll be the one working [most] closely with them. Of course, the Search Committee reviews proposals and meets with several finalists. Ultimately, the Chair of the Search Committee should have a strong voice when selecting a search firm.

For me, it was critical that the search firm had experience organizing and administratively providing infrastructure to the Committee so that I and the Committee could focus on the candidates.

The chair should rely on something other than the Search Committee or search firm to coordinate all tasks. Sometimes, the chair must facilitate meetings or deal with scheduling or personnel challenges. The search firm should be willing to do more than search, as many search committee members have full-time jobs.

I advise my colleagues running search committees to be specific about what they want the search firm to do.

Do you want them to:

  • Attend search committee meetings?
  • Set the agenda for search committee meetings.
  • Provide interview questions.

It would be best to hire a search firm to do anything the Search Committee and its Chairman cannot or do not want to do due to time restraints.

It is a given that a search firm needs to have a robust Rolodex, but I’m still trying to figure out how to evaluate that. [laughing] You can determine recent searches a search firm has conducted for similar positions as we evaluated search firms, some listed searches that were conducted more than a decade ago! That was a lifetime ago in the not-for-profit world.

Finally, I believe you need to find a search firm that is upfront and honest with you about who the lead staff will be—and that you have the opportunity to meet with that lead staff to ensure compatibility and understanding of the process you envision—before you finalize your selection on a firm.

What allowances did you make during COVID-19 in the most recent search you chaired?

Overall, it worked out well. In specific ways, the process moved more efficiently, given that the Search Committee met via Zoom and the search firm, and we interviewed the candidates for first-round interviews via Zoom. One advantage we had as a search committee was that we all knew each other—some better than others—and this familiarity allowed us to work together well virtually.

Once we narrowed the process to our finalists, we asked them to meet face-to-face, socially distancing, wearing masks, etc., with another search committee member and me. Despite adapting to video conferencing, meeting the candidate personally makes a big difference. A candidate willing to invest the time to travel to a meeting and meet a group of people, some in person, some virtually, was critical to the final steps of our process.

We were able to observe how they handled themselves in the middle of a pandemic, watch how they coordinated their presentation, and even how they arranged the papers on the conference table. In a virtual interview, you have yet to learn if the candidate has sticky notes on their computer screen providing possible hints to questions. That was important to us because that’s what the job is going to be (ultimately):

  • Face-to-face meetings.
  • Working with different constituencies.
  • Being able to communicate and think on their feet.

Interestingly, we ended up with the same candidate if we had searched COVID.

As a search committee chair, how do you handle candidate withdrawals and surprises?

As a search committee chair or member, you understand that many candidates are currently in good positions, and you are hoping to attract them to your organization. You can’t get too nervous about that. It is part of the process. You reach for candidates; some attract, and some lose. And if a candidate pulls out, they should do it in the search process rather than later.

As for the second part of your question, as chair, you have to be flexible, responsive, and agile because issues arise that must be resolved quickly. Several times, I had to reach out to committee members individually to keep the process moving, either because a problem arose on a Friday night or because there was not enough time to call a full committee meeting. You establish that at the beginning of the search so there is a clear understanding. In every search, minor decisions may be made by the chair or by a smaller group on the Committee because trying to get everyone together all the time isn’t possible. Still, ultimately, the big decisions are made as a group.

How much time does it take to do a good job?

The time required ebbs and flows during the search. If you have a good search firm, as we did using The Alexander Group, there’s less time initially because you allow them to do the search and trust their judgment on the candidates they’re presenting. The search committee chair can focus on the higher-level items most important to finding the right candidate. Once the interview process is underway, you must be available for the search committee, search firm, [and] staff as the process unfolds. A significant time commitment is required from the chair. The organization needs someone who can commit time because you’ll never finish the search if it is not a priority.

Who should be the chair?

Choosing the right search committee chair is critical to a successful search. The chair needs to be a leader in the organization who understands its past and future vision. It does not have to be the current board chair. It could be a past board chair who might have more time because the position differs from the current board chair. It is essential that the chair can lead without supervision and is trusted by the board.

I don’t know whether to thank or ask him for my time and blissful ignorance.

Who do you ask?

I’m talking about the Chief Financial Officer candidate I worked with almost two years ago who said, “Oh, you have to be on TikTok to know where the world is headed.” This was the CFO of a $3 billion global organization. Indeed, he doesn’t have time to waste on an app that doesn’t add value to his life and career.

Off to TikTok I went, curious to see how it might reveal new executive hiring trends shaping the workforce.”

Embracing TikTok’s Influence on Executive Hiring Trends

I waded in the morass reluctantly at first. I thought of it as medicine I had to take if I believed the children were, in fact, our future. I’d scroll for ten minutes here and five minutes there. Yes, it was a lot of repetitive sound clips, dances, make-up tutorials, and University of Alabama first-year students showing their Outfit of The Day (OOTD, of course) as they rushed sororities (#bamatok in 2021. It was a magical time 🙄) 

My first impression was TikTok had little substance to offer to this (incredibly hip, vibrant, youthful) GenXer, but I admired these creators for putting themselves out there.

And then?

The algorithm started working.

When the Algorithm Gets It Right: A New Lens on Executive Hiring Trends

Before I knew it, I was fed applicable content from interior designers, immunologists and virologists, Diversity Equity and Inclusion warriors, registered dieticians, New York stage actors, human resources executives, physicians, and veterinarians. And a lot of beautiful and funny cats.

Have I been influenced? You could say so. I am typing this in my home office while strolling along on my new treadmill, which sits underneath my new standing desk. Thank you to the many 20-—and 30-somethings who showed me a day in their lives working for a Big Four/Big Law/FANG company from home with the treadmill setup.

I’m not here to tell you how you can get over 20,000 steps daily while feeling more energized, productive, and optimistic. But I wanted to share what I, a GenX executive search consultant, have gleaned from TikTok that is relevant, useful, and instructive to my career and outlook on business.

I scroll so you don’t have to. You’re welcome.

The Push for Salary Transparency

Hiring executives and those working in recruiting are aware of the new legislation in New York (and beyond) requiring employers to include a salary range, part of a broader move toward income transparency. 

It remains to be seen how effective and how much trouble these ranges will incite; we’ve seen executive search salaries range upwards of $500,000, which defeats the purpose of a range in the first place. 

That said, I have observed on this platform a significant push from Gen Z and Millennials to drop the veil on compensation, much as they push for transparency on all kinds of things that would make older generations blush. 

There are “man on the street” interviewers walking up to strangers on the street in busy metropolitan areas and asking, “How much do you make?” And people tell them! All kinds of corporate and non-corporate jobs. 

There are freshly resigned managers from well-known companies touting their employers when they post their roles with a lower salary range than what they paid them. 

There is a general, active push to normalize the salary conversation (just as they are normalizing what they weigh, how messy their house usually is, or their colostomy bag) to take out the mystique and power of those hiring. 

This active push raises the question: Is salary transparency a good thing for executive hiring trends and the broader workforce?” For organizations, it can promote trust and equity but also presents challenges in setting expectations.

Why This Matters to Executive Search

As salary transparency reshapes the hiring landscape, organizations face the dual challenge of meeting new legal requirements while aligning compensation with market expectations. 

The Alexander Group works closely with law firms and corporations to ensure their leadership hiring strategies incorporate fair and competitive compensation frameworks. This approach not only meets compliance but also attracts top-tier talent who value transparency and equity.

Okay, Boomer

A spotlight on just how different the generation’s approaches work. There’s a video trope in countless iterations poking fun at how different generations respond to all manner of workplace situations (i.e., how different generations handle a meeting being scheduled on a Friday afternoon, taking PTO, or the clock striking 5 pm). 

Suppose these “funny” videos are to be believed. In that case, Gen Z is only concerned about getting through today because the world is going up in flames anyway, so don’t expect them to work one molecule beyond their job description or schedule. 

Millennials are anxiety-ridden and people-pleasing, and Boomers love rules and how things have always been done. 

Amusingly, Gen X is more often than not entirely skipped over; we do not exist in the Gen Z content creator’s world. And because I am Gen X, I’m okay with that. I’ll figure it out on my own. I always have. 

While many of these videos are incredibly reductive (understatement), I do think that there is truth to be found in the “comedy”; with four generations working alongside one another, it is up to us to investigate what those differences in perspective are and how we can leverage them to be more successful together.

Why These Trends Matter for Leadership Hiring

The generational shifts and workplace trends discussed here aren’t just passing fads—they hold critical implications for executive hiring trends and leadership hiring. For corporate leaders and law firm executives, understanding these dynamics is essential to staying competitive.

For instance, salary transparency reflects a broader cultural demand for openness and trust, traits increasingly sought in leaders. Similarly, generational differences in workplace expectations highlight the need for executives who can bridge divides, foster collaboration, and drive results in a diverse workforce.

At The Alexander Group, we help our clients interpret and respond to these trends. Our expertise lies in identifying and recruiting leaders who embrace these shifts and align with your organization’s goals, ensuring long-term success in a rapidly changing workplace.

Recession or Not, We’re Battening Down the Hatches

I’ve witnessed a blossoming of “de-influencing” videos in the last two weeks. In contrast to the tried-and-true influencing content that tells me, either directly or covertly, that I must have an air fryer, a Gua Sha facial massager, a Stanley cup (not about hockey), or a standing desk with a treadmill underneath it, these videos go through lists of products that they have tried and are not worth your hard-earned dollars. 

We could also call these “honest product reviews,” but that wouldn’t be as catchy. From this trend, the economic contraction is being felt at a granular level, and there is pushback on consumerism from younger generations. 

I’ve also heard and seen a lot from trend forecasters on TikTok about “recession core” as an aesthetic becoming popular amongst the wealthy. It emphasizes dressing more simply, with less jewelry or expensive accessories, and more emphasis on functionality. 

Are these leading or trailing indicators of a dip in the economy? Time will tell, but it’s good to stay vigilant. Emerging executive hiring trends also reflect this economic uncertainty, highlighting the need for adaptable leaders. Organizations are increasingly seeking leaders who can navigate a leaner, more efficiency-focused landscape, aligning with this cultural pushback on consumerism.

Layoffs, Layoffs, Layoffs

Two or three weeks ago, if you were scrolling through TikTok, you could conclude that every tech employee in the US was being laid off. Reductions in force (RIFs) have been a fact of corporate life since the Dawn of Corporations, but in the past, they looked and felt more like faceless numbers in the headlines and a nebulous, encroaching sense of doom. 

This time, it feels different. With access to a tool like TikTok, the individuals affected can share their stories directly to the camera and access a limitless audience. Multiple videos have gone viral that show the actual layoff happening over Zoom; the more cold and heartless the dismissal, the more viral. 

From there, I’ve followed several laid-off tech employees as they share their “day in the life” videos, looking for their next job and trying to stay sane (or trying to go viral and not have to get another tech job.) The window this access has provided into the layoff and job search process has spawned, in turn, countless reaction videos and more profound thought into the waves of hiring and firing and what employers owe their employees. 

Again, transparency, enabled by new tools and direct access, will likely change the dynamics within the org chart.

Take all of this with a grain of salt

The double-edged sword of TikTok is the algorithm; it will get to know you quickly to a sometimes-spooky degree, but it can lead you to think that everyone out there is interested in and seeing the same things as you. I will tell you what that CFO did not:

  • Follow @veronicaandthebabyboo if you like cats.
  • Go forth; engage with a few opposing points of view.
  • Set a time limit.

Stay Ahead of the Executive Hiring Trends

Our workplaces are evolving faster than ever, shaped by digital platforms, generational shifts, and economic pressures, and staying ahead of these changes isn’t optional—it’s essential.

As executive hiring trends evolve, The Alexander Group serves as a strategic partner, helping organizations navigate shifting workplace dynamics, compensation, and leadership to secure executives who excel today and drive future success.

The Alexander Group specializes in C-level recruitment for boutique law firms, having conducted management searches since 1987. With unmatched experience in this space, we have worked longer and more successfully than any other executive search firm in the country. While we are best known for recruiting C-Suite leaders for AMLaw 100 firms, the fastest-growing segment of our law firm administrative practice is for firms with less than 300 attorneys.

Managing Director John Mann of The Alexander Group discusses C-Level Recruitment for Boutique Law Firms

John Mann’s Perspective on Boutique Law Firm Leadership Hiring

Managing Director John Mann has identified and recruited C-level leaders for regional and boutique law firms across the country for more than twenty years. We are proud of our impact in recruiting talent for these clients—talent that impacts a firm’s profitability, efficiency, and growth while contributing to a firm’s evolving culture.

John shares his expertise and perspective on the executive leadership recruiting process for law firms with fewer than 300 attorneys and the best boutique law firm leadership hiring practices.

Q: How does C-level recruitment for boutique law firms differ from an AMLaw 100 firm?

A: Many mid-size and boutique firms have been successful because of a practice area or their attorneys; however, some are not known for their operational efficiencies. Some of our clients have initially depended on their partners to manage non-legal areas of the firm.  At some point, it becomes untenable. Many of our law firm clients come to us because they have grown to the point where their chairman or managing partner can’t devote the time it takes to manage all the administrative and operational details of growing the firm.

We often recruit the firm’s first administrative executive leader. Sometimes, it is a chief financial officer, and other times, it is an executive director or chief operating officer. Regardless of the position, the goal is to allow lawyers to focus on building and maintaining client relationships—in short, to practice law.

Q: What influences a law firm to hire its first COO?

A: The significant change we often see is a newly elected managing partner or chairman succeeding a long-time managing partner. The newly elected managing partner/chairman would like to put their stamp on the role, focus more on strategy and growth, and have an experienced professional focus on support functions. Law firms that have dedicated functional leadership beyond the expertise of the executive committee/managing partner clearly have a competitive advantage.

Q: How do you recruit a COO or administrative leadership for your clients?

A: Every hire is important but none more so than a firm’s COO or administrative leader. Our clients trust us to get it right.  To do so, we spend time getting to know our clients and gain an understanding of their culture and what is important to them. We also work with clients to craft a go-to-market strategy.   Some firms seek to hire leaders to meet anticipated growth; others hire leaders to reduce costs and increase operating efficiencies. Some firms want a slate of candidates from outside the legal industry.  Every firm is different in their needs. 

We believe that not all potential candidates are found in a database.  We pair our robust database with the best research team in the business. This allows us to present a slate of candidates that meet our client’s needs, whether they are home to 30 lawyers or 300 lawyers.

Q: You mention that some law firms want to consider candidates outside the legal industry.  

What are examples of this? 

A: One of our clients is less than ten years old, yet they have established themselves as one of the nation’s largest specialty firms.  Over the last five years, the firm has retained us to staff their entire executive team. Some are seasoned law firm pros, yet their CFO came from a Fortune 500 retailer. A 100-attorney firm in Michigan retained us to recruit an entrepreneurial Chief Executive Officer who could think about ancillary practice areas. The success came from a global consumer products company.

Q: Does a firm’s location matter? 

Can a firm not based in a major metropolitan area recruit top talent? 

A: We have successfully recruited leadership throughout the United States. One thing the pandemic taught us is not all roads lead to major metropolitan cities.

We have recently completed searches including Portland, Maine, Cleveland, Ohio, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Indianapolis, Indiana, and Greenville, South Carolina.

About The Alexander Group

The Alexander Group excels in C-Level executive recruitment for law firms, offering tailored solutions that drive growth, efficiency, and cultural transformation. With decades of experience and a proven track record in identifying and securing top law firm COO and administrative leadership, we are the trusted partner for boutique and regional firms seeking to redefine their leadership and operational success.

The Alexander Group, recognized as one of the country’s top CEO executive search firms, presents “Five Questions With Extraordinary Leaders,” our interview series with visionary industry leaders. In this installment, Managing Director Sally King interviews Michael Caplan, COO of Lowenstein Sandler, discussing leadership style and advice for those seeking a Chief Operating Officer role at a large professional services or law firm.

Michael Caplan believes in diving in.

All in.

It’s how he connects with his team, peers, partners, and clients. Caplan is intentional about his leadership style, setting expectations and seeking growth opportunities. He interacts, listens, and strategizes with the goal of positively impacting his professional leadership team, attorneys, and firm.

With more than 30 years of experience in the accounting, financial, investment, and consulting industries and 20 years of corporate legal and law firm experience, Caplan takes a holistic approach to his role.

He combines his understanding of the business of law and his financial acumen with effective communication skills and a strategic approach to challenges.

Caplan joined Lowenstein Sandler in March 2024. A national law firm with over 350 lawyers based in New York, New Jersey, Palo Alto, Utah, and Washington, D.C., the firm represents leaders in virtually every sector of the global economy, particularly emphasizing investment funds, life sciences, and technology. It is recognized for its entrepreneurial spirit and high standard of client service.

Caplan believes Lowenstein is poised for exponential growth, and he is ready to lead the way.

Read on for Caplan’s “Five Questions With Extraordinary Leaders” conversation with King.

You recently joined Lowenstein but have served in this kind of role for over 10 years. How did you navigate your transition from Professional Services firms to law firms?

I’m a business-oriented COO, and I have a client’s perspective.  This approach has served me well in corporations across various sectors and serves me well as COO at Lowenstein.

Learning about law firm culture requires an understanding of practice groups, building relationships with partners, and how these elements work together in a competitive industry. But effectively leading any organization requires knowledge of basic business principles: What is

demand? What is productivity utilization? How should we think about our business differently? Why is revenue different from profit?

Additionally, I am very focused on how the law firm’s professional staff should be involved in client development, specifically in areas of operational expertise. I take these basic tenets and incorporate them into what I call “the business of law.” At Lowenstein, we have even branded these as “BEST—Business Enterprise Solutions Team.”

As a law firm COO, I work with both the attorneys and the business professionals who support them to facilitate the firm’s success. Internally, we are a team, and every participant understands their own value —what each of us brings to the firm. Externally, we need to differentiate ourselves from our competition in an increasingly competitive environment. One of the ways we do this is by helping clients with their operational effectiveness and operational excellence.

Lowenstein was looking for a leader on the business side who could help them think about how the firm can grow and adapt in the future —across different categories and different work streams. I am now part of the leadership team that is discussing and planning how to scale the firm. This was a big part of what attracted me to join Lowenstein.  After working in legal operations for two decades, this opportunity was more than being strategic.  It is leading-edge and innovative, and leading a team that can engage in driving revenue and the business is pretty cool. 

I relish having this seat at the table at Lowenstein, where the partners are eager to discuss best practices and growth strategies.

Recently, we’ve been focused on a strategic plan that leverages the business of law to serve our clients, our colleagues, and our communities.  We are looking at lateral partner hiring, innovative technology and solutions, data and business intelligence, cross-selling, conflicts, and lateral partner hiring, and we are looking at these elements in new ways. This approach will enable the firm to grow, be competitive, and STAY competitive— not only in our tier-one practices but how across all of our different groups from a cross-selling, collaborative perspective.

What have some of your biggest challenges been in law firms? Having 20/20 vision in hindsight, what might you change, and what might you do exactly the same? 

The role of a COO is different today than it was ten—even five years ago. A COO must communicate with partners so that the focus is on attracting profitable clients and efficiently running the business and practicing law. In addition to building a focus on lawyers, the firm must also invest in firm infrastructure and non-legal talent.

Today, we are seeing law firms that resist change.  The COO can play a big role here. Firms have to allow their COOs to have a voice, and partners with senior leadership need to promote and mandate that the COO have a voice. A strong COO with excellent communication skills can bring the partners in and drive change. On the other hand, if a firm has a COO unwilling to get out in front of a partnership that’s not letting the COO get out front, it will be ineffective in taking its law firm to the next level.

It is important for any COO to establish relationships with partners so that they feel heard.  Trust is very important. Once that is established, a COO can then effectively communicate to the partners how investing in the firm will help their practice. Any strategy will only be successful if the culture and partnership support it.

Currently, there is a highly competitive marketplace for clients and C-Suite leaders. I’m trying to hire chief officers, different levels of directors, and others within my professional staff with a strategic view of the business. Of course, every other law firm is seeking the same type of talent! However, Lowenstein Sandler offers an excellent proposition for highly qualified candidates because our firm truly values the opinions of its business strategists.

Now, looking back as an 11-year tenured COO of a law firm, I don’t get too bothered by the challenges that I faced earlier in my career. I’ve learned to take challenges in stride, reflect, and partner with other people to solve problems. I spend a lot of time with partners and our Chiefs brainstorming, strategizing and thinking about messaging and how to handle people challenges: how do we think holistically about where we want our teams to go and how do we get them there?

Running a law firm is not that difficult from an operational standpoint. But running a firm of partners and professional staff is the hardest part of the job. The people part of the job is challenging because you are literally managing “talent.” Every day can bring up new challenges from a people standpoint, but it is both challenging and invigorating as a leader.

What are some of the challenges you see on the horizon that you will need to address, and what is your game plan? 

AI presents an opportunity, but it’s a challenge. Where do we begin? How much data do we have? What is the data that the clients have? How are we thinking about our rate structures? How are we thinking about our hiring plans? How are we thinking about leveraging our profitability model? How are we getting in front of these communication plans with our clients?

AI presents a significant opportunity to engage clients, attorneys, and professional staff, but how do we address this? What comes first, second, third? Every vendor has a solution. I get 500 emails a day from unfamiliar vendors who want to solve all my problems.

Our chairman, Gary Wingens, and our full leadership and strategic planning committee are very focused on AI information and innovation. That is how we are managing this roadmap of products, data, communication, and client relationships as we guide our firm’s growth.

The other challenge is the growth of the lateral partner market. As a competitive national law firm, we want to grow our practices and become a destination firm for our key practices with lateral partners. But we are competing with many firms for the same lateral partner hires. The challenge is how we continue to be that destination firm and grow with the strategic plan of lateral partner hiring; as COO, I have to evaluate how to scale my teams to meet our projected growth.

If we hire 200 lawyers in the next two-and-a-half to three years, how many BD people do I need? What does practice management mean? How do we manage paralegals? How do we look at conflicts? How do I look at my recruiting team? How many billers and collectors do we need? Yet, at the same time, how do you manage the expense growth before the revenue comes in when you’re making partners so you continue to be very profitable?  This analysis requires a strategic view of how to manage the challenges of expense and investment, along with the revenue that will come in behind it.

What do you look for when hiring your chief team or people who will report to you, and how do you ensure you have a good mix of leadership attributes amongst your team?  What is your leadership and communication style? 

I believe that chief officers all need to have real leadership.  To me, this is table stakes. I operate as a COO, and I manage a team of people, but it’s a very flat organization. I love to embrace leaders and resources at all levels because I really try to truly create career aspirations for the folks who are on my teams. I want my teams to invest in their careers. It is not just about title and promotion, but there’s responsibility. Learn the firm, learn the partners, learn the practices, lead at every level. I’m really looking for people that are hungry, people that love to work, are excited and have ideas, and are not afraid to talk about them.

What advice would you give someone wanting to be a COO at a large professional services or law firm? How does Lowenstein manage succession for these roles, and how do you think other firms manage that process?

First of all, my advice to somebody who wants to be a COO is that you have to really invest in getting to know that firm. You have to truly take on the job as an owner.

I tell everybody whom I hire to take the first six months to a year and get to know people, build relationships, learn the firm, go on a listening tour, get on airplanes, go to different offices, make sure you work out a lot because you’re going to have a lot of meals and a lot of coffee, but listen and learn.   If you really truly want to be successful at the job of the COO, you have to build trust with your partners. And then you also have to build trust with your team under you, so that they will embrace you as the COO and keep you in the loop.

A reputation can be made or broken very quickly. You have to be willing to make those investments and sometimes sacrifices to be a very successful COO. The other piece of advice I would give is you’ve got to understand the financials. You have to truly get how the firm makes money, how we bill, how we collect, how we look at rates, how we price, what profitability means, what staffing and leverage utilization, productivity, demand go down the line, what is contribution? If you don’t understand the numbers of a law firm, it’s very hard to be a COO.

Leadership puzzle piece symbolizing the CIO role in law firms as a crucial element.
Leadership puzzle piece symbolizing the CIO role in law firms as a crucial element.

Historically, the CIO role in law firms has required an innovative strategist with an ironclad technology background to drive success. However, as law firms and client needs continue to evolve in the wake of artificial intelligence and client needs and expectations, so does the legal CIO role.

The Evolving Responsibilities of the CIO Role in Law Firms

A 2023 survey conducted by CIO Magazine reported that 47 percent of technology executives said security management and improving IT operations and systems performance were their top two responsibilities. Tasks such as business innovation, identifying competitive differentiation opportunities and business strategy were at the low end of the to-do list.

Fast-forward two years, and CIO feedback is changing along with expectations. CIO Magazine reports that the same technology leaders see driving business innovation as a top priority.

The surveyed CIOs said increased levels of business-focused strategic responsibilities will become part of their daily agenda, with technological emphasis being handed to other tech professionals within the firm.

It’s a sentiment echoed by The Alexander Group’s coterie of managing directors and directors, who have conducted dozens of CIO searches for law firm clients over the past four decades. We know the specific needs of law firm clients seeking forward-thinking CIOs who cover the tech infrastructure and bring leadership, communication, and innovative thinking to the table.

What will the expanded role of the law firm CIO look like in 2025, 2026, and beyond? Our team weighs in on this evolving role’s position requirements and responsibilities.

Insights from The Alexander Group on Law Firm CIOs

As the CIO role in law firms expands, so does the skill set required to excel. Today’s legal CIOs are expected to be more than just tech-savvy—they are strategic leaders, collaborators, and innovators. Here, The Alexander Group’s seasoned managing directors and directors share their perspectives on the essential qualities and evolving responsibilities that today’s top law firm CIOs must bring to the table.

“Today’s​ ​CIO​ ​possesses​ ​a​ ​combination​ ​of​ ​technical​ ​expertise​ ​and​ ​strategic​ ​leadership.​ ​They​ ​have​ ​become​ ​client-facing and ​ ​seek​ ways​ ​to​ ​enhance​ ​the​ ​client​ ​and​ ​lawyer/employee​experience.​ ​

Clients​ ​and​ ​lawyers​ ​are​ ​demanding​ ​innovative​ ​and​ ​cost-efficient​ ​technology​ ​solutions.​ ​​Artificial Intelligence continues​ ​to​ ​dominate​ ​potential​ ​technology​ ​solutions, and although it’s in​ ​its​ ​infancy,​ ​it​ ​will​ ​certainly​ ​increase​ ​and​ ​automate​ ​various​ ​billable​ ​activities. However,​ ​​it​ ​poses​ ​many​ ​challenges​ ​around​ ​ethics,​ ​security​, and​ ​compliance.”

John Lamar, Managing Director, The Alexander Group

“Just as law firm marketing has evolved into strategic business development, so has information technology. Now, stemming from IT roots, you will find chief innovation officers, chief security/data security officers, and chief knowledge management officers roles. All of these require an understanding of technology, both firm-side and that of their clients.

That said, IT infrastructure and support are table stakes. The CIO role and these newer, evolved roles begin with understanding business and client relationships, actively collaborating with clients, and finding ways to make those client relationships sticky.”

Amanda Brady, Managing Director/Chief Client Officer, The Alexander Group

“In the past, CIOs were primarily concerned with the network and infrastructure side of technology, but that has changed considerably. Many firms now understand the applications, various databases, and ease of use by all constituents is a much more valuable set of skills.

The amount of data collected by law firms is huge, and this, coupled with cross-level cyber security and AI, means that a top-flight CIO has to have extraordinary technical skills and understand what solutions may help lawyers in the practice of law and business professionals run the operations of the firm. 

The entire landscape is considerably more complex. An effective CIO must also be a strong teammate to other chiefs and an excellent manager of people who are perhaps not as blessed with good communication skills.”

Sally King, Managing Director, The Alexander Group

“The CIO role has been in the spotlight recently–from mitigating increased cyber-security threats and addressing client-driven information security requirements to shepherding and leading the migration to robust and reliable remote-work capabilities; to evaluating and deploying next-generation AI tools and pilot programs. And as a result, the level of institutional change management, business acumen, and firmwide strategic leadership skills have become equally important as technical expertise and operational know-how for top-tier CIOS.”

William Lepiesza, Director, The Alexander Group

“Law firms are increasingly hiring new CIOs. Historically, the IT function has been a critical operational function for law firms. The increasing demands on the technology function to be a driver of the business, as opposed to a supporter of the business, has led to a need for more business-savvy, forward-looking, strategic CIOs.  

The job description has evolved from infrastructure, software, and support aspects of the CIO role to a much greater emphasis on information security and technology innovation (including, but certainly not limited to, AI).

Many of our law firm clients have created separate, peer-level Chief Information Security Officer and Chief Innovation Officer roles to elevate those functions and work arm-in-arm with the more traditional CIO.”

Sarah Mitchell, Director, The Alexander Group

Essential Skills for a Forward-Thinking CIO

The law firm CIO role is evolving to become a top-to-bottom position emphasizing strong internal and external communication skills and the ability to be nimble in all aspects of the role. The CIO is a vital element of firm administrative leadership and will have the opportunity to contribute to a firm’s future in ways not previously imagined or expected.

Progress and innovation lie at the heart of technology, making this time in the CIO life cycle more dynamic and challenging than ever before and setting the stage for what’s next.

Visit our website for C-suite recruitment services tailored to law firm leadership and navigating the evolving CIO role in law firms.

With 2025 just around the corner, we’re looking to the future of legal industry trends, anticipating and planning for what’s next. While we don’t have a crystal ball, we do have 40 years of executive recruiting experience, a deep well of data, and the trust of our clients, who express their leadership needs to us as they plan for 2025 and beyond.

Managing Directors John Lamar, Amanda Brady, and John Mann, Directors Sarah Mitchell and William Lepiesza and Senior Associate Anthony Ott share their thoughts and insight on expectations and trends for 2025.

John Lamar, Managing Director, The Alexander Group

“AI continues to dominate people’s thought process in making the firm efficient and profitable. Tech is a driving force, but it’s not where it needs to be. Everyone’s doing window dressing right now, hiring chief innovation officers, but in reality, firms are buying off-the-shelf software products. That will change in the years to come.

Another trend garnering attention concerns partners getting paid ungodly amounts of money. They are offered multi-year 25- to 30-million-dollar deals. How long can the industry sustain that?

I’m hearing a lot from chairs about work-from-home. It’s interesting in Europe; they all comment that everyone’s back 100 percent; the U.S. is the only country with three days in the office. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next year. Do firms hammer the idea of return to office? Maybe you will spend four days in the office, but you won’t be sitting at home on a Monday. The associates will give them the best work in the office, but the partners are not leading. It starts with them. They are in a bit of a conundrum. People are struggling with it. You have to hit them in the pocketbook so that people can start showing up.

Mergers and Acquisition activity is not slowing down within legal as the industry continues consolidating. A few firms at the top are leading the way–and there’s more to come.

Amanda K. Brady, Managing Director/Chief People Officer, The Alexander Group

“Synthesizing data to inform strategic growth.  (Some) law firms are becoming more sophisticated around coordinated growth initiatives. Business intelligence is evolving beyond the typical matter, partner, or practice profitability analysis into deep dives into all that touches firm and practice growth. It combines knowledge management on the practice side with knowledge management on the business side, merging information from CRMs, experience databases, historical financial metrics, targeted industry research, and honest assessments of the firm’s talent. It’s all data. This is most successful at firms with cultures that allow their leaders to be innovative – not business as usual, set ambitious business goals, develop corresponding growth strategies, and pull the puzzle pieces together to make things happen.”

John Mann, Managing Director, The Alexander Group

“In 2025, strategic legal recruiting functions will be crucial for law firms, as they focus on proactively identifying and recruiting top talent with specialized skills aligned with client needs.

Artificial Intelligence will continue to impact the legal industry by automating routine tasks and enabling more efficient client service. It will ultimately transform how legal professionals work and deliver value.

In 2025 and beyond, law firms will continue to build sales-focused client development teams who generate revenue much like public accounting firms and are responsible for driving business growth by developing client relationships, identifying new business opportunities, and promoting the firm’s legal services.”

Sarah Mitchell, Director, The Alexander Group

“The return to office push/pull is still strong, but law firm leaders seem to be “over” the discussion. Unlike the trends we see with technology companies and banking, very few firms seem willing to implement any mandate. They are shifting to making the office space somewhere that lawyers and business professionals want to be—not with pizza parties, but fresh, thoughtfully designed office space that feels “alive” and opportunities to connect.

Discussions around generational differences are being discussed more forthrightly, and I think it might become more pronounced in the next couple of years. We currently have four well-defined generations working together, and they each tend to have distinctive attitudes concerning technology use, adaptivity to change, RTO expectations, dress, and communication. One law firm COO mentioned they have introduced training around generational differences as part of their professional development curriculum, and it has been well received and actionable.”

Bill Lepiesza, Director, The Alexander Group

“As I consider legal industry trends for 2025, I believe we will continue to see the rise and evolution of the Chief Innovation Officer role.

We will see the further integration of firmwide talent/strategic human resources functions across lawyer and business professional populations and the continued elevation in caliber, leadership expectations, and strategic value-add of law firm business executive roles.

Anthony Ott, Senior Associate, The Alexander Group

“Each year, there is a swing of trends. I anticipate seeing more Baby Boomers retiring, and vacant leadership opportunities will be available for those who have earned a right to be in consideration.

As work-from-home policies shift, so will their impact on the candidate pool. Jobseekers will be willing to explore new industries in order to receive job title advancement and increased compensation. Similarly, law firms will look at candidates from other professional services companies outside of their industry.

We will also see people on the move to improve their quality of life. As the cost of living increases, it may encourage people to explore opportunities in new cities for a better quality of life and employment opportunities. For example, people may be able to afford larger homes less expensive in major metropolitan cities, so they move to grow their families or be open to other career opportunities.”

Several years ago, I was a guest on the Price of Business radio show discussing what to do if you lose your job. Back then the economy was doing well nationally, but Houston was starting to struggle. Since December 2014, the start of the energy downturn, energy job losses nationwide have totaled over 155,500, and the current downturn in the energy market looks mild compared to what has happened globally as a result of COVID-19. The numbers are staggering. As of July 2020, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate is at 10.2%, while the current number of unemployed persons is reported at 16.3 million. Although no one is predicting that the worst is over, the country is starting to adapt to an uncertain future, and there is hope for those out of work. What to do?

Pause

The first thing most people say is, “I’ve got to get my resume done ASAP. I’ve got to get going.” I counsel people to put in the clutch for the day, maybe a weekend. Anytime you’ve been laid off, whether it’s expected or not, it’s the death of a part of your life, a part of your career. It’s really important to pause and grieve for the loss—the financial loss, the career hiatus, the loss of self-esteem and confidence, whatever loss you may be feeling. Pause and reflect, feel the sadness, and go through your grieving process. If you’re angry, reflect on that too because anger and sadness will not help you get another job.

Take Inventory

What do you want to do? Would you like a different type of job? Do you want to work in a new industry or culture? Are you considering a different location? Look at the loss of your job as a clean slate to explore new and different opportunities. Who do you know working in the field to which you aspire? Talk to them, reach out to former mentors and managers. If you know people who have been laid off and are now working, get their insight on what did and didn’t work. If you want to change fields, have at least two resumes—one for the field you come from and one tailored to that which you are interested. For 30 years I have recommended the book “What Color is Your Parachute?” It is updated every year and always offers good advice for those searching for the ideal job.

Get Going on a Resume

Most people already have an up-to-date resume; hopefully, you do too. My philosophy is: no matter how happy you are in your current role, have an up-to-date resume to record your accomplishments in each role you have held. If you need to prepare your resume, understand that you may need help. Just as it’s hard to be your own doctor or lawyer, it’s hard to compose your own resume. Ask friends to proofread or use one of the many professional resume writers, which can be a good investment. However, make sure that the person you hire can give you references, a fixed price, and examples of resumes that he or she has prepared for people holding similar positions.

Start with LinkedIn—A No Brainer

LinkedIn is a valuable tool that you can use in several different ways. Look to other LinkedIn members who hold similar positions to yours or the one you aspire to for profile examples. It’s also very important to understand how LinkedIn works; the more people you are connected to, the more easily you can be found by recruiters and corporations who use LinkedIn. LinkedIn is so finely tuned that if an employer wants to hire a Texas A&M; grad who went to graduate school at the University of Colorado and works in finance, they can tailor their search for those results. It is that easy. Additionally, you can only connect with people who are one, two, or three degrees away from you, so the more people you connect to, the more likely you are to be found. We have written several blogs in the past about using LinkedIn. You may find them useful.

A Few Quick LinkedIn Tips

1) Have a fairly detailed background with a profile picture. One study found that you are 16 percent more likely to be called or contacted if you have a picture.

2) Spend time updating your connections via LinkedIn. Connect with your previous colleagues, managers, and mentors. If you’ve dealt with outside consultants, lawyers, and accountants, connect with them as well. “Linking in” with as many people as possible should be considered part of your “day job” now that you’ve been laid off.

“. . .anger and sadness will not help you get another job.”

3) Are you a member of a college, graduate school, military service, or industry specialization group on Linkedin? Connect with people in those groups who might be able to help. I went to Rhodes College, a small liberal arts school in Memphis, Tennessee, and I never turn down a request to help alumni. There is a kinship formed with people who have shared the same experience. Leverage that kinship.

Research Your City’s Book of Lists

Along with LinkedIn, your city’s “Book of Lists” is going to be one of your best friends in finding a job. For example, The Houston Book of Lists is published every year by the Houston Business Journal and lists the fastest-growing, largest employers, and best companies to work for in Houston. Other major cities such as San Francisco, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. also have a Book of Lists. Look through your city’s Book of Lists; see if there are any companies where you can say, “I’ve always heard this was a great company to work for.” Then go back to LinkedIn and ask, “Do I know anyone at that company?” It is much more effective to utilize your LinkedIn network and ask for an introduction, rather than submitting a resume through a company website. The personal connection will always work better. Use the Book of Lists.

Submit Your Resume to the Leading Executive Search Firms

If you are a manager, officer, or C-suite executive, upload your resume to the websites of the largest search firms: Korn/Ferry, Spencer Stuart, Russell Reynolds, and Heidrick & Struggles. If you are in the energy business, don’t overlook energy boutique firms such as The Energists, Preng & Associates, and Ducatus Partners. Keep in mind, they are retained search firms, which means that they only represent employers, and if they have not been retained to work on a search that requires someone with your qualifications, they will not call you. Their business is not helping the job seeker but, usually, the searches for which they are retained are interesting and high-level positions.

Reach Out—Ask for Help

Start networking every day; look at it as a job to tell people you have been laid off and are seeking a new opportunity. Set a goal of making ten contacts a day. Ask for help—people are so willing to help. “Thank you for letting me share my resume with you. Are you aware of any organizations or opportunities that would be a good fit?” Whether they say yes or no, thank them and ask them how you can return the favor. By doing that, you get your contacts thinking, “This is a two-way relationship, and how can I help?”

The Emotional Highs & Lows

While it is normal to go through every emotion—panic, sadness, hopelessness, despair, anger, you name it—during the grieving process, remember that no one wants to hire someone angry with their last employer or who is feeling sorry for themselves. During my 35 years in the search business, I have observed that a positive attitude makes a great difference. There can be hope and anticipation in looking for a job that is an even better fit . Truth be told, some people who are laid off weren’t that happy in their jobs anyway. The sooner you see this as an opportunity to not settle but instead go for a better fit, the better your results will be. Also, spend time visualizing and dreaming about the type of job you want. Do things that will keep your spirits up; spend time with friends who are uplifting and want to help, or volunteer to give something back while you are searching.

Final Thoughts

The hardest part about looking for a job, especially for those who have not changed jobs frequently, is the rejection. It may feel personal, even though it is not, and rejection—“nobody wants me”—is certainly difficult. View it as there is “X” number of calls, emails, and resumes that I will need to submit to get a job. I don’t have a magic number for how many; maybe it’s 100, maybe it’s 500. Consider it as kissing a lot of frogs to find the right person, which is an important exercise, and commit to it every day; after all, looking for a job is your new job. We are in a tough economy, and many people are in the same boat. Although we have never seen a downturn or pandemic like this before, we have seen business downturns before, and sadly we will see them again. There are not two winters in a row, and one of life’s givens is that nothing stays the same. Today, for many people, it feels that the global pandemic and its resulting unemployment will never end. It will. Things will improve and one day jobs will be plentiful and the world will look brighter. That, I can promise.

The Alexander Group, recognized as one of the top CEO executive search firms, presents “Five Questions With Outstanding Leaders,” our series where we interview visionary industry leaders. In this edition, we speak with Jonathan Horowitz, President of the Houston Hospitality Alliance, about key challenges, successes, and future opportunities within the hospitality sector.

Jonathan Horowitz and friends for top ceo executive search firms blog
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Houston is a foodie city.

Full stop.

Houston offers every global cuisine, and diners are only too happy to explore and experience what the city is serving.

However, Houston’s hospitality and tourism are more than its vibrant dining scene.

Just ask Jonathan Horowitz, president of the Houston Hospitality Alliance.

Managing Director John Mann of The Alexander Group, one of the nations’s top CEO executive search firms, sat down with Horowitz to discuss the business of Houston’s hospitality and tourism industries–struggles, successes, and the future.

Executive Leadership Recruitment for Hospitality: Horowitz’s Vision for Houston Hospitality Alliance

Horowitz’s deep experience within the hospitality industry and his background as an attorney and real estate agent made him the ideal hire for the high-profile president position. The HHA is an organization that strives to promote, connect, and energize Houston’s hospitality and tourism business and create industry success in Houston.

For more than 17 years, Horowitz developed, operated and led multiple marketing restaurant/bar concepts, including Legacy Restaurants (Original Ninfa’s on Navigation Tex-Mex restaurant and the Antone’s Famous Po’Boy sandwich concept) Lasco Enterprises, LLC (The Tasting Room Wine Cafe, MAX’s Wine Dive, Boiler House Texas Grill) Midway Hospitality Development and Convive Hospitality Consulting, a full-service hospitality consulting service. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from Rice University and a JD from South Texas College of Law.

Mr. Horowitz was a corporate executive search firm’s ideal candidate, and since being named HHA president in October 2023, Mr. Horowitz has addressed Houston City Council members at City Hall, discussed the Houston Hospitality Alliance and its mission to promote, represent, and advocate for the entire hospitality industry in Houston, and led the HHA Business Forum.

Horowitz is an ardent community supporter of many organizations, eager to illuminate the city while growing the HHA.

“I am thrilled that Jonathan joined the Houston Hospitality Alliance as the new President, bringing with him over two decades of leadership and innovation in the hospitality industry, as well as a deep-rooted commitment to the Houston community,” said Mann.

Challenges in Hospitality Leadership Recruitment: Navigating the Changing Houston Landscape

JM: Let’s discuss opportunities and challenges concerning hospitality development within the Houston landscape.

JH: We currently are in the most challenging environment ever for the entire hospitality industry. Prior to the pandemic, things were in a pretty good place; however, the pandemic changed everything for the industry. There are a few areas where hospitality continues to struggle:

  1. The overall cost of doing business—everything is considerably more expensive than it’s ever been. The cost of goods, labor, rent, insurance, and just about everything else has increased dramatically and shows little sign of slowing down anytime soon.
  2. Labor shortages—the industry lost millions of workers during the pandemic, and many have not returned. It’s been difficult, and it will take a long time to organically replace them in the labor cycle.
  3. Changing consumer habits—Consumers now demand more efficiency and value when considering hospitality purchases. Technology advanced considerably during the pandemic, making it easier to obtain things quickly and cheaply, and consumers are demanding more for less. This stresses an already stretched system.
  4. Overall competition—while many operations have closed, a slew of new companies have opened here in Houston. New restaurants and hotels appear every day and create a more competitive environment for all involved. Notwithstanding the fact that our population continues to grow, there are only so many customers to go around.

JM: Houston is a destination for new businesses and conventions. How do you take advantage of that momentum moving forward?

JH: It’s all about providing a complete and memorable experience. Consumers expect more and more now, so they have to be “wowed” once they’re here. Many people have preconceived notions of Houston and don’t realize how diverse, cosmopolitan, and exciting the city really is. Once they get here – for whatever reason (business, pleasure, a convention, the Med Center, etc.), they come away with a great appreciation for what Houston offers. The overall hospitality industry in Houston is extremely strong, and once people get here and experience it, there’s a good chance they’ll come back.

JM: The Greater Houston Partnership’s latest data reports that almost 11% of Houston’s employment is in the Leisure and Hospitality sectors. How do you grow that industry?

JH: It’s happening – see above. New places are opening every day, and companies from all over the country are coming here because they recognize the great opportunities here.

JM: How does your background as a hospitality business professional and an attorney support your role as HHA president?

JH: I am fortunate in that I’ve seen both sides of the industry – having been an owner and operator, I can understand and empathize with those who are running hospitality businesses in the city, and I’ve been involved in a restaurant trade association for nearly two decades. These perspectives help me on a daily basis to help guide the HHA. As for being an attorney, that helps me all the time – not only with work but with general life issues. It’s a great education and experience to have, and it gives me a better understanding of how to deal with people, contracts, and potential disputes.

JM: What are the next steps of growth for the HHA?

JH: We are focused on growing membership every day. Just this year, we’ve doubled the number of members and are not slowing down. We recognize that, in order to keep members engaged and to attract new ones, we need to provide great value. We have four primary value propositions as an association:

  1. Promotion of the Houston hospitality industry locally.
  2. Advocacy on behalf of the industry in Houston.
  3. Connection – providing the members of the industry the opportunity to connect with each other, share best practices, engage in business together, and find community with each other.
  4. Education—We provide educational opportunities for industry members to learn more about issues and topics key to their businesses’ success.

Continued Excellence in Executive Leadership Recruitment

As one of the top CEO executive search firms, The Alexander Group continues to engage with and learn from industry leaders like Jonathan Horowitz. By fostering deep relationships and understanding the specific needs of each client, The Alexander Group remains committed to elevating the quality of executive talent acquisition across industries, ensuring visionary leadership for businesses poised for growth. 

Learn more about their expertise and approach at The Alexander Group.