We were lucky to catch up with Peter Durand recently and have shared our conversation below.

Peter, appreciate you joining us today. If you had a defining moment that you feel really changed the trajectory of your career, we’d love to hear the story and details.

Early in my career at GE I was fortunate to lead the new e-Business initiative at one of the divisions. This meant being part of a matrixed team of leaders across other divisions.

I reported to the CEO of our division and dot-lined to the leader of the global e-Business initiative.

During one of our first cross-division meetings, I felt the room wasn’t moving to a solution, so took the lead and tried to get the team to a decision. This was common at my previous companies, where people looked to me to do this.

It was a mistake. Rather than engage the room, pull ideas from everyone, put them in front of the team to discuss and then work to the best solution, it appeared as I was driving everyone to my solution – intentional or not.

I didn’t realize how poorly this went over. My dot-line boss did. He pulled me aside, asked me how I thought it went and then shared what actually happened.

I had never had a mentor or a boss be that specific about feedback. After the shock I realized how right he was and that I wanted more feedback like this – to learn and be better.

He mentored me for an hour a week from that point forward. It was brilliant…and I crave that level of feedback today.

The farther you move up the chain of command, the more difficult it is to receive feedback, so I now seek it intentionally.

Peter, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

If you had told me ten years ago that I would end up in Executive Search, I would have laughed.

It just happened. We needed talent and the search firms we’d engaged weren’t performing. So, I started recruiting at night via LinkedIn.

I found some techniques that worked incredibly well.

I’m also old, I know a few people and the bridges built in the past allowed me to reconnect with old friends and colleagues. Word got out that I had helped a few friends build teams and Cruxible Partners was born.

It’s been five years and I can honestly say I love it. I meet great people connect them with great companies and expand my network each day.

What do you think helped you build your reputation within your market?

Reputation is earned.

We take our client engagements very seriously. I like to think we put in more time and energy than other search firms – up front and during the search.

We care – a lot. If we miss on a submitted candidate we take it personally, make a note and move on – avoiding that miss in the future.

We’ve never failed to fill a role. And we usually find talent that our clients are excited about. That’s only have the equation, the candidates need to be excited as well.

That’s what makes it great, we only win if everybody wins.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Oddly, I may have chosen Executive Search earlier.

I love this job. I also like the fact that my input dictates my output. That’s refreshing.

There is a sales component to what we do, but even the “work” of recruiting is satisfying when you make the right connection and fill a role.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.cruxiblepartners.com
• Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/petedurand