At Henning Coaching part of our mission is building stronger communities through placements!
The Background
It was early in my career. I started working with a candidate that had all the technical skills required. After several conversations with him, something seemed off. My gut told me that his personality would not fit the culture of the client long term. Later, I shared my concern with my direct supervisor. He responded, “That is the clients’ problem to figure out.” Continuing he said, “Do whatever you have to close this deal as it is a large part of our quarterly goal.”
Those two statements immediately struck me at my core. In short, I knew it was the wrong solution for the client and candidate. The fear of getting fired for not following his orders overwhelmed my conscious. As a result, I moved the candidate forward in the process. Three weeks later the candidate accepted the client’s offer.
Due to this experience and other questionable practices, I decided to move on. Later I found out that my intuition was right. The client fired him four months later. Unfortunately, this was not the only organization with this mentality in my career.
Misaligned Again
Similarly, the next company I worked for seemed to have three core values. Greed, profit, and deception. As an example, the owner said in a meeting to the entire team, “It’s your job to make placements no matter the costs.” Opposite to the clients or candidates best interests in mind.
The owner was a compulsive liar. Skilled at building lie on top of a lie. It didn’t matter if it was a candidate or client. Lies flowed out of his mouth faster than the Amazon river during the rainy season. If he had to lie to put another “deal on the board” there was no hesitation.
He would exaggerate numbers by 50% when selling to potential clients. Additionally, he’d leave out important details when working with candidates. Resulting in increased stress because the lies would put professionals in compromised situations. After seeing his example, I set out to prove that there was another way.
The Shift
It was then that I decided that no matter the consequences I would start taking a different approach. One that aligned with my core values and focused on helping people. The reason why I chose the profession in the first place.
I was determined to be completely transparent with clients. That way they could make informed decisions. My focus was on building trust and long term professional relationships. I knew there must be a better way to build and run a company.
A firm focused on serving the best interests of others first. Doing the right thing for everyone involved. Knowing the long-term benefits would outweigh the short-sighted greed. All while having a larger impact on society in general beyond making placements. The yearning became stronger and stronger throughout my career. Planting the seeds of building stronger communities through coaching. Which grew into the vision for Henning Coaching.
The new Chapter
I launched Henning Coaching a career advisory, interview intelligence, and outplacement services company. We serve professionals where they are at in their career to help them take the next step towards being a better version of themselves personally and professionally. Our mission is to help professionals self-actualize and building stronger communities through our work. Aligning professionals to roles and organizations that propel them to achieve their goals. We are building stronger communities by donating to charities or scholarship funds. All chosen by our clients.
A couple of professionals recommended that I not make this a public statement. They told me that it would make things more complicated from an accounting perspective. I have learned over the years to trust my gut. Which also happens to align with the vision of Henning Coaching which always does the next right thing no matter the cost.
Below is a further explanation of our why, how, and what we due to build stronger communities.
Why?
We all have a responsibility to leave the world a better place. That includes the businesses we start and run. I wanted to shift the focus away from the traditional profit and greed recruiting mindset. Not only improve the lives of those we work with but have a broader impact.
Also, one of my gifts is to help individuals take steps towards self-actualizing. To do this, I start with where they want to end up in their career. Then we discuss the next logical step towards that end game. We identify their current skills and talents. I coach them how to communicate those talents throughout the interview process. Then align them with clients to enable them to achieve the next step towards their potential etc.
Similarly, both charitable organizations and scholarship funds help others towards self-actualization too. Many charities help others take their next step toward the best version of themselves. Education and enlightenment are fundamental to self-actualizing. Scholarship funds help lessen an individual’s financial burden on that path.
How?
It is a simple process. We ask clients to provide the name of the charity or scholarship fund they would like to benefit. We keep this information on their file in our customer relationship management system. That way the specific organization or fund they chose receives a donation.
Additionally, the majority of our business comes from referrals. So we have included referrals in our donation program as well. When someone refers to us a candidate that we place or a new client that we have a placement we make a donation. Our goal is to build the most robust referral network. Similarly, we keep this information in our CRM to ensure the donation is made to appropriately.
What?
The program will have two donation levels:
$250.00 – selected by anyone who chooses or refers us to a new client that engages in a Gold or Platinum package.
$500.00 – selected by anyone who chooses or refers us to a new client that engages in a VIP package.
**Disclaimer the donations come after our client guarantee time frames.**
Every year we’ll set and increase our donation goal. Hopefully, you can help us build stronger communities through our coaching services!
