Three Questions With: Lyn Currie, Managing Director, Executive Search

We’re sitting down with each the senior team members at Waterstone Human Capital to find out, in their own words, what drives them and why Waterstone is North America’s top firm for helping organization build high-performance teams and cultures.

We’re kicking things off by talking with Lyn Currie, Waterstone’s Managing Director for Executive Search.

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Waterstone Human Capital (WHC): How do you describe what Waterstone does?

Lyn Currie (LC): We inspire organizations to build high-performance teams and cultures. What we do that’s different from other firms, and I’d say most impactful to our clients, is that we recruit through the lens of culture.

We recognize that previous experience is important, but we see experience as the price of entry when recruiting for senior positions. We take the time to do a thoughtful, deep dive into not only the culture of your organization today, but also the culture that you want to build to accelerate your growth. We then work with you to uncover what those leadership attributes are that will be most impactful in achieving that culture and those results. And we find candidates that can help our clients reach and exceed those goals.

WHC: What surprises people most about working with Waterstone?

LC: I think the thing that surprises people is how participatory the process can be. We are an organization that is very flexible and that curates our strategy and our approach based specifically on the client’s requirements.

The second thing is maybe the level of transparency that we have. We show all of our work. It’s probably more data than clients need, but it’s because we want to build trust right from the get-go and make sure that our clients feel we have their back and that they are in the process with us.

WHC: Why should organizations consider working with a firm like Waterstone to fill their leadership roles?

LC: There are a few reasons. First, is how efficient the process can be, especially given the number of hours we dedicate to doing a curated, targeted search. Our clients consistently tell us how much they appreciate our ability to balance speed with deep research into top candidates. From a practical perspective, that’s a lot to ask of an internal resource, and quite often it turns out to be a side of desk project. And there’s a level of confidentiality that we can bring to the process that a client might not be able to ensure themselves.

There’s also a level of professionalism that resonates with executives when an organization uses a third party to attract and recruit candidates. It says that this client is serious about finding and filling this position.

Finally, at Waterstone, we bring not only our experience in recruitment, but also an additional level of culture data that we’ve gathered thought 20 years of administering the Canada’s Most  Admired Corporate Cultures Awards program. That level of experience and data is something that a client might not otherwise have access to.

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At Waterstone, we inspire organization to build high-performance teams and cultures through our retained executive search, cultural and human capital measurement and advisory, and high-performance leadership training services, We’d love the chance to work with you –book a meeting with our team and find out how we can help you achieve your growth and performance goals.