This past summer, Cathy Hawley stepped into the CEO role at Bolster. Cathy is one of our co-founders, and previously served as our COO. We sat down with her to learn more about her career, the transition to CEO, and her approach to executive talent.
How did you get started in the HR/People space? What sparked your interest in executive talent?
The short version of the story is that I’ve always been passionate about people and culture, and good at execution. I’ve worked in HR since graduating with my bachelor’s in HR/Organizational development, although I did leave the field twice during that time: once to become a counselor for victims of domestic violence, and once to become an entrepreneur.
When I started in the field, most companies didn’t truly care about people. I could sometimes influence a CEO to invest in their culture, but mostly my job was focused on hiring, compliance, and operations. Finally, I found an HR role at a company that did care about people and development and leveraged my strengths. After that, I could never go back to a company that viewed its people only as “resources” to be managed.
I needed to be in a company that cared about people and recognized that achieving their business goals was entirely dependent on engaging people effectively.
What excited you about co-founding—and then becoming CEO of—Bolster?
Building a culture at a scaling company, Return Path, was really fun and exciting. When we exited that business, I knew I wanted to have an impact beyond just one company. Bolster is a great opportunity to work with many companies and positively impact their growth, execution, and culture. I also wanted to work with Matt Blumberg —Bolster’s founding CEO—again, and Bolster offered me a chance to do that.
What has it been like to transition from CPO to COO to CEO?
Transitioning out of the CPO role at my previous companies into more of a COO role at Bolster was an intellectual challenge that I really enjoyed.
The move from COO to CEO has been similarly stimulating. I never saw myself as CEO. I knew I was a good #2, and could help the CEO achieve their vision through execution. I didn’t look like the majority of CEOs that I knew, and I never even considered this path. When Fred Wilson and Matt asked me to consider taking on the CEO role at Bolster, their confidence in my leadership abilities made me seriously consider taking on the challenge.
A number of things have made this transition pretty seamless. First, I have mentorship and support from Matt, our CFO Jack, our amazing board members and observers—Matt, Fred Wilson, Scott Dorsey, Cristina Miller, Andrea Rice, Greg Sands—and other people including Jess Oynick, Xiao Wang, Russ Hamilton, Martina Lauchengco, Jim Wilson, and friends and family. Having such great mentorship from the start has been truly incredible. Second, the terrific team at Bolster. Every single person on our team is committed to our success and the success of our clients. We’re building a great business and a great company, and both take a lot of intention from everyone involved.
What’s unique about your approach to executive talent strategy?
A few things are different at Bolster, but our people are our biggest differentiator. Everyone at Bolster cares about creating great experiences and outcomes for our clients, as well as for the executive talent we work with. Our holistic, consultative approach is unique, and our clients appreciate the care we take to understand their business and culture.
We often work with CEOs to evaluate their teams even before they even begin an executive search. We help them assess their strengths, weaknesses, and opportunities in order to create a talent strategy that aligns with their needs, stage of growth, and values.
We’re also incentive-aligned and focused on building trusting partnerships with our clients. Our pricing is a flat fee—meaning our team is focused on finding the right candidate, not the highest-paid candidate. Finally, we support our clients all the way through the onboarding process to ensure a successful hire and seamless transition.
Why is traditional search broken?
First, too many firms rely on their existing networks to find candidates. Bolster has deep networks as well, but we don’t rely on them as our only source of talent, and we don’t recycle the same candidates over and over. We broaden our outreach to ensure we’re offering our clients access to a wide and diverse group of candidates.
Second, search firms typically get paid based on a new hire’s compensation, which incentivizes them to present expensive talent and help candidates negotiate higher rates. We want our candidates to be paid fairly, but since we charge a flat fee, our focus is entirely on helping clients and candidates reach an agreement, not on our cut.
Finally, many search firms don’t treat their recruiters well. We’ve heard stories of long hours, minimal time off, and poor working conditions. I don’t think anyone does their best work in those environments. Our recruiters work hard, and they take vacations and back each other up. They also have long-term ties to Bolster; every employee is an owner and has a long-term incentive, which helps us all focus on doing the right thing for our clients.
Do you have advice for new CEOs on how to approach their talent strategy?
Yes! Approach your talent strategy with intention. Don’t just let things happen. Your company will develop a culture and shared values, and without intention, you could end up with a culture that you don’t actually like, or values that don’t match yours. Every piece of your talent strategy is important—how do you hire people, manage performance, support development, and compensate your team? How do you ensure people have meaningful work that is both challenging and rewarding?
Build your talent strategy around your business strategy. Every time someone joins or leaves the organization, you have a new team and should evaluate your strategy accordingly. Ensure your executive team is fully aligned on and invested in the business strategy and the talent strategy, since both are integral to your success.
Creating a talent strategy can be overwhelming for new CEOs, especially those who don’t come from a People or HR background. That’s what Bolster is here for. Find out how we can help with your executive talent strategy.
