WorkPuzzle

Another 2.8 Million Real Estate Candidate’s You’re Missing—Part 2

Earlier this week, I pointed out a new trend that has developed in the workforce.  This trend is the long-term and extensive use of temporary or contract workers.

If you need to catch-up, read the WorkPuzzle posted earlier this week.

The fact that these workers exist (and many are frustrated with their current work situation) was our previous topic, but how can a real estate hiring manager engage these workers successfully?

Finding where they work.   The first step to engaging contract workers is finding where they work.   Here are the industries where you’re most likely to find temp/contract workers:

Agricultural, Automotive Repair, Barber/Beauty/Nail Salons, Computer Programmers, Software Designers, Consultants, Insurance/Financial Services,

Long-Haul Truck Drivers, Medical Professionals, First Level Health Care /In Home Care, Office Personnel , Pharmacists, Political Campaigns / Petition Gatherers, Inside/Outside Sales, Telemarketing, Travel Agents, Information Technology, Engineering /Scientific, Accounting/Finance, Management (including executives), Legal.

It may seem a little awkward at first, but many of these workers are people that you could connect with during your normal business and personal dealings.  

For example, let’s suppose that you’re having a life insurance physical and the person sent to your office to take your blood sample shows up for her appointment.

It’s not that hard to say something like this:

“Hey, do you happen to be a contract worker?  I was reading recently that about the increase in contract positions...”

Learning about their frustration.  If individuals are doing contract work and they’re frustrated with their situation, they’ll be more than happy to tell you about it.

Ask a few questions such as:

“How did you get this job?” 

“Was this your first choice, or were you originally looking for something more permanent?”

“Do you feel like there is a future in this job, or is it a stepping stone to something else down the road?”

During the discussion, ask a few more open-ended follow-up questions based on their answers.   It won’t be long before you uncover a bunch of frustration about their employment circumstances.

Most of the frustration will center around two issues—they’ll probably dislike the work their doing, and they won’t see a viable future in staying in this role for a long period of time.

Offer a Better Alternative.  If someone is experiencing a high level of frustration, they will naturally be more open to new ideas.   It’s not hard to say something like this:

“Considering your situation, have you ever thought about working in a field that would offer more long-term potential and give you more control over your future?”

“I manage a local real estate office, and I work with many great agents who come from all different career backgrounds and now have successful careers.  Perhaps this could be a fit for you.”

As you carry on this part of the discussion, it’s helpful to also point out that transitioning to real estate from a temporary or contract position can be less risky and financially more palatable for workers in contract positions.  

Why?   Because contract workers often have some flexibility over the number of hours they work and the schedules they keep.   They may be able to slowly ramp down their contract work level as they increase their focus on real estate.

There are a lot of temps/contract employees working in today’s job market.  Try identifying them and engaging them in a discussion about their careers.  It’s not as hard as it may sound at first, and soon you’ll start to enjoy the challenge.  Let me know how it goes!

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Another 2.8 Million Real Estate Candidates You’re Missing

Last year, I wrote a WorkPuzzle on the large pockets of workers in the economy that would be well
positioned to transition to a real estate career.  In total, there are over 6-million workers who are “underemployed” and could potentially use their education and talent to upgrade their careers in the real estate industry.

Over the weekend, NBC News reporter Martha White uncovered another 2.8 million employees in today’s workforce who may be open to transitioning to the real estate industry.

Who are these individuals?  They’re temporary or contract workers (often called temps), and they now make up over 2% of the workforce in the United States. 

They may be more open to transitioning to industries such as real estate because the nature of the temp employment world is changing.   What used to be a pathway to fulltime employee status in many companies is now a dead-end road.   White makes these observations,

For Americans who can’t find jobs, the booming demand for temp workers has been a path out of unemployment, but now many fear it’s a dead-end route.

With full-time work hard to find, these workers have built temping into a de facto career, minus vacation, sick days or insurance. The assignments might be temporary — a few months here, a year there — but labor economists warn that companies’ growing hunger for a workforce they can switch on and off could do permanent damage to these workers’ career trajectories and retirement plans.

Like underemployed workers (those working less than 29 hours per week), these individuals are not receiving traditional employee benefits.  This “levels the playing field” for what real estate companies are able to offer new agents.

So while the frontend of the arrangement for real estate agents looks similar to the value proposition being offered to temp workers, there is much more upside potential in the real estate industry.   Agents who are successful establish independent businesses that produce higher wages and earn the capacity to purchase the traditional employee benefits. 

Most temp workers will never have this advantage.  White points out the structural changes that are happening in the workforce are probably here to stay.

Economists say it’s typical for temporary hiring to rise initially as the economy recovers, before businesses are ready to commit to hiring full-time employees. But, … the current pattern doesn’t fit historic norms.

Right now we’re seeing something interesting.  We’ve seen [temporary hiring] surpass its previous highs, so it looks like there could be a structural shift going on, too. There’s a reason to believe we might see some increase in the use of temporary help in general.

No one wants to be stuck in a temp job with little opportunity for growth and advancement, but that’s what most traditional companies are offering these workers.  To a person in this situation, transitioning to a real estate career may seem compelling.

Finally, who are the people who find themselves in this position?  In addition to being numerous, they also share a few other characteristics.  First and most importantly, they are people who want to work, and are more established in their careers.

Second, they generally have education and skills that allow them to get up and running certain jobs quickly.  For example, White demonstrates how diverse the temp worker market has now become:

More kinds of businesses seem to be drawing that conclusion, as industries not thought of as traditional temp work territory are using more contract workers. [For example, even] adjunct college professors face much of the same uncertainty and lower wages than their full-time counterparts.

Bottom line

There is a large and growing part of the workforce who are employed in temporary/contract jobs.  While many of these individuals are educated and talented, they are frustrated because they are not being offered permanent positions and see little hope for career advancement.   Transitioning to the real estate industry may be a better option for some of these individuals.

In my next WorkPuzzle, I’ll address the issue engaging these workers successfully and helping them make the transition to a career in real estate.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Key to Organizational Success Part 2: Teaching Agents to Get Over Small Offenses

Earlier this week, I highlighted research that Gallup recently published on the characteristics of high-performing managers.  Here is the list of common traits that great managers share:

They motivate every single employee (agent) to take action and engage them with a compelling mission and vision.

They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.

They create a culture of clear accountability.

They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.

They make decisions that are based on productivity, not politics.

As I think about leading my own team of employees, these traits set a high bar.  I personally need to make improvements in all five areas.

There is one trait on this list, however, that I think is particularly difficult to implement (#4): Building relationships that create trust, open dialog, and full transparency.

Why is this one so difficult?  Because it’s the only trait that requires the full bilateral engagement of those I manage.  I can’t create trust unless the other person chooses to trust me.  I can’t have an open dialog unless the other person agrees to talk.  We can’t have a fully transparent relationship unless both sides agree to reveal themselves.

Improving on #4 is certainly a complex topic, but I wanted share a strategy I’ve personally been trying to use to improve the trust and openness with those I manage.

The technique was brought to my attention by an article I read a few months ago written by Esther Inglis-Arkell on a blog called IO9.  Here is an excerpt from Arkell’s article:

We seem to have a kind of pettiness built into our nature. We will watch soppy movies about the redemption of murderers, or a long television series about gleeful serial killers, but have a character in a movie litter and we want them in prison.

Our real lives are not exempt from this. We can nurse a grudge against someone who gave us a dirty look for years. When someone we love screams at us, we forgive them in a few days.

A team of scientists from UCLA, Harvard, and the University of Virginia conducted a series of experiments that showed the people are bad at predicting how hurt will affect them over time.

We tend to assume the more painful injuries, the major ones, or the ones committed by loved ones, will cause the most pain over time… [But the opposite is true]. If the hurt is minor, we [tend to] let it fester...

Why do we furiously resent the minor insults but forgive, or at least let go, of the major ones? Why do we let those close to us insult us in ways we'd never take from a stranger? According to the study authors, it's because we can afford to….

If holding a grudge means we have to be angry and miserable for a long time, we find a way to stop being angry. If we just suffer a little annoyance, we allow it. Or sometimes we even enjoy it.

So, here is my new strategy to create trust, open dialog, and full transparency with those I manage: 

I am making a point to overlook and forgive the small offenses that commonly take place in the work environment.

In addition, I am going to encourage others to do the same (both with me and with each other).  

My goal is to make this way of relating an integral part of our company’s culture:  We don’t hold grudges, we overlook the small stuff, and we forgive those around us who commit small offenses—even if they don’t ask for forgiveness.

Is this something you could also implement on your team?  Like me, you’d have to start with your own behavior and then let it grow into becoming part of your culture.

According to the research, this change will improve your chances of building trust-filled relationships among those on your team.  Combined with the other traits, you’ll then be one step closer to becoming a great manager.

Note:   If you like all the social science/organizational psychology stuff, you may want to read all of Arkell’s article, or download the original research paper.  Both are helpful in understanding why forgiveness in helpful in building trust.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Key to Organizational Success: The Right Manager

Are you a great manager? If so, you’re amongst a small minority of individuals who work for companies in the United States.  If you are not a great manager (yet), keep reading.  There is a recipe of talents that great managers possess and it is not as complicated or illusive as you might imagine.

The research on this topic (done by the Gallup Organization) was recently reported in the Harvard Business Review (HBR).  It outlines both the importance of good managers and the scarcity of their existence in business world.

Gallup has found that one of the most important decisions companies make is simply whom they name manager. Yet our analysis suggests that they usually get it wrong. In fact, Gallup finds that companies fail to choose the candidate with the right talent for the job 82% of the time. 

Managers account for at least 70% of variance in employee engagement scores across business units, Gallup estimates. This variation is in turn responsible for severely low worldwide employee engagement.

Gallup reported in two large-scale studies in 2012 that only 30% of U.S. employees are engaged at work, and a staggeringly low 13% worldwide are engaged. Worse, over the past 12 years these low numbers have barely budged, meaning that the vast majority of employees worldwide are failing to develop and contribute at work.

So, high-performing managers cause employees to increase their engagement in their day-to-day work. That begs the question: Why is employee engagement so important?   HBR goes on to explain:

Gallup has discovered links between employee engagement at the business-unit level and vital performance indicators [such as] customer metrics, higher profitability, productivity, quality (fewer defects), and lower turnover…. When a company raises employee engagement levels consistently across every business unit, everything gets better.

A negative chain reaction seems to be at play in most companies.  Employees (agents) who are disengaged cause companies to perform poorly, and employee (agent) disengagement is primarily caused by low-performing managers.

The purpose of this WorkPuzzle is not to beat up on managers.  Even if they wanted to do so, most real estate companies would have a hard time replacing their existing managers with higher-performing alternatives.

In most cases, it would be a better strategy to help the managers who are already on the job make improvements.  More specifically, these developments should be focused on the task of improving employee engagement.

Gallup outlines five critical talents that good managers possess as it relates to increasing employee engagement:

They motivate every single employee (agent) to take action and engage them with a compelling mission and vision.

They have the assertiveness to drive outcomes and the ability to overcome adversity and resistance.

They create a culture of clear accountability.

They build relationships that create trust, open dialogue, and full transparency.

They make decisions that are based on productivity, not politics.

If you’re a manager, review this list and take inventory of your day-to-day actions.  Are these the behaviors you find yourself doing?  If not, how can you start to focus your attention on these important tasks.  Remember, these are the tasks and traits of managers who manage highly engaged agents.

If you’re managing managers (owner, general manager, regional VP, etc.), set the example by making these traits part of your management culture.  Then coach your managers to take on these traits as they manage their own teams.

As a result, you’ll hopefully have more engaged agents who will produce the business metrics that make your company more successful.  That’s a purpose everyone can get behind.

 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Sales Meeting Prep: 9 Lessons from Shark Tank

Since the focus audience of WorkPuzzle is real estate industry leaders, owners, and managers, readers often tell me that they’ve used our blog content as discussion topics for their sales meetings.  Many of the topics we cover can be adapted to help agents perform at a higher level. 

If you haven’t thought of doing this yet, try searching a topic on WorkPuzzle.com (right side of the
website, next to the search button).  There are more than 600 articles we’ve written over the last few years.

To get some ideas flowing, I’ve found an article that could be very helpful in teaching your agents to think like entrepreneurs.  It was originally written by Brett and Kate McKay and published on their popular blog.

The article highlights some lessons the authors gleaned from the popular television series Shark Tank.   If you’re not familiar with Shark Tank, it is a show where aspiring entrepreneurs get a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to pitch their business ideas to a panel of “sharks” — five self-made millionaires and billionaires and ask for funding in exchange for equity in their businesses.

Here are some excerpts from the top three lessons that I believe apply to real estate agents:

Learn how to pitch. If there’s one lesson you take from Shark Tank and this post, let it be this: master the art of the pitch.

Even if you don’t think you’ll ever find yourself standing in front of a bunch of venture capitalists, every entrepreneur needs to know how to effectively sell himself and his idea to his potential partners, employees, and clients/customers.

You’d think on a show like Shark Tank — in which people know they’ll be asking for tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars on national television – the entrepreneurs would prepare for their pitch like crazy.

But you’d be wrong.

I’d venture that 50% of the pitches on Shark Tank are absolutely horrible, 40% are so-so, and 10% are stellar. Some of the folks on Shark Tank just seem like they’re winging it, which makes for some awkward, yet entertaining moments.

If only 10% of Shark Tank participants are able to make good pitches, do you think some of your agents may be doing sub-par pitches to their clients?   I think you could bet on that. 

I’ve heard from several sources that the best pitch ever done on Shark Tank was by an 18-year-old girl who owns a skincare company called Simple Sugars.  It might be worth buying this episode and using it as a case study. (Season 4, Episode 19)

Know your business.   Mark Cuban once said, “Know your business and industry better than anyone else in the world.”

You need to know your numbers — sales, cash flow, debt, margin, and so on. The sharks often hesitate to make a deal with entrepreneurs who don’t know important data points like their customer acquisition cost.

But knowing your business extends far beyond having a handle on your numbers; it requires a deep understanding and grasp of the industry you’re competing in. Lots of entrepreneurs come on the show pitching a product or service they think is truly unique, only to be informed by one of the sharks that a very similar product or service already exists. If they had done just a bit of due diligence, they could have avoided that embarrassing “surprise.”

A perfect example of entrepreneurs who came on "Shark Tank" without really understanding their industry (or even business) was a pair of doctors pitching a social network for their fellow MDs called Rolodoc. The docs had no clue how social media worked, or even what it was, despite the fact that their business idea would supposedly revolve round it. Consequently, they stumbled over even very basic questions about how their idea would be executed and how it would actually make money. Mark Cuban called it the worst pitch in "Shark Tank" history.

Do your agents really know their businesses?    This is a great way to breach this topic without coming across as overly critical.  You can buy this episode also (Season 5, Episode 1).

Concentrate on your core competency. Sometimes an already successful business will enter the tank seeking more capital to expand and grow.  Nothing wrong with that. The problem arises when one of these companies wants to use that money to expand into a somewhat related product line or service that detracts from their original core competency.

Most of the sharks are leery of these businesses and will often tell the entrepreneur that they’ll only invest if they drop their plans for the expanded product line. Why would they want their money funneled into an untested product or service instead of being used to boost a proven winner?

It’s good to experiment and try different things in business, but never lose sight of your core competency. Getting sidetracked has been the downfall of many a business. This is especially true with the volume and ease with which you can get feedback on social media these days; you might hear from a bunch of folks who say, “I wish you guys would make this too!” leading you to believe there’s a popular demand for a new expansion in your business. Then it turns out that those commenters actually represented a very small but disproportionately vocal minority.

Know what you’re good at and stick close to it.

These are good lessons for any businessperson. They are especially helpful for real estate professionals because the best agents are entrepreneurs at heart.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Why Hiring Candidates Who “Hit the Ground Running” Will Eventually Kill Your Company

Dave and I had the privilege of spending time at two major real estate industry conferences over the last month.  I love this time of year because we get to interact with many real estate industry leaders, owners, and managers.

We learn a bunch by spending face-to-face time with our clients and other thought leaders during these times.  The most insightful information almost always comes in the one-on-one conversations.  So, we seek out opportunities to engage in as many of these discussions as possible.

In future WorkPuzzles, Dave and I will both share some of the things we learned at these conferences.  Today, however, I wanted shed some light on a myth that is alive and well in the real estate industry.

Over the last month, I’ve heard at least a dozen managers tell me that their primary objective in hiring is to engage candidates who can “hit the ground running” and make a quick contribution to their offices.

This typically means hiring an experienced agent who is working for a competitor or a new person that is already licensed or near the end of their licensing process.

If all other things were equal, of course it would make sense to use this criteria.  But what happens when this criteria takes priority over other criteria?

I’m going to let one of the most successful hiring companies in the world answer that question.  It’s not a real estate company, but they are in an industry where speed, competence, and successful hiring are just as critical to their business model as it is to yours.

The company is LinkedIn, and the details of their hiring practices were recently published by Max Nison on the Quartz financial news aggregator.  Here is an excerpt from Nison’s article:

“The thing that you start to hear as you get bigger, when someone talks about a candidate they want to hire, they often start talking about how they’re excited because this person will hit the ground running,” LinkedIn’s Dan Shapero tells Quartz. “And hitting the ground running is a very short-term benefit.”

Shapero’s organization has certainly gotten bigger. He heads LinkedIn’s Talent Solutions group, which provides tools for recruiters and is by far the most profitable of its three major divisions. It produced $245.6 million in revenue last quarter, 55% of the company’s total. In Q2 of 2011, the first time LinkedIn reported earnings after its IPO, the division made $58.6 million.

The better way to hire, Shapero says, is to think about long-term potential and cultural fit.

“I’m trying to change the language on a team so they’re not talking about hitting the ground running, but about long-term potential,” Shapero says. “Who, over the course of two or three years, is going to have the biggest possible impact on the organization? That pivot has changed the way we think about new hires.”

Some of his most successful people, he says, don’t have a background typical of the job they have. They take a bit longer to get going, but it’s worth it.

“There was something in them, a fit with who we want to aspire to be as a company, a real aptitude, and a real motivation that we saw something in and were willing to take a bet and wait a little longer to see play out,” Shapero says.

Let’s imagine you’re wandering around the halls of LinkedIn and you’re listening in on what your counterparts (hiring managers) are talking about in their team meetings.    You’d be hearing many of the same topics you discuss in your team meetings—how to hire people who can make a contribution quickly.

Many real estate hiring managers think this issue is unique to the real estate industry. Nonsense!  This problem exists everywhere humans run companies.  Every hiring manager has to fight the urge to grab the short-term benefit at the expense of long-term progress.

There is more to this story that I’ll cover in a future blog.  For today, I encourage you to follow the lead of the most profitable division at LinkedIn—focus on hiring people who have the highest long-term potential for your organization. 

Know that this strategy will take more work, patience, and discipline than other methodologies because high-potential candidates are rarely at a place where they can “hit the ground running” when you first meet them. 

Remember what you learned in kindergarten—the tortoise does eventually defeat the hare.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Retention: Predicting Who Will Jump Ship in Your Organization

Many of our company’s clients are increasingly focusing on the metric of “net hires.”  While recruiting is critical to any growth strategy, it must be coupled with outstanding retention strategies if growth is going to materialize.

The work of a real estate leader is to create an environment where agents are first attracted to join and then compelled to stay and contribute their talents to the organization.

There are very few tricks and gimmicks that produce long-term success in the quest to retain agents.  If you’re not providing an environment that offers real value, cracks will develop in your proverbial bathtub and water runs downhill.

Today’s topic assumes you have a great bathtub and you’re doing the work of keeping the cracks from developing.   Here’s reality--even under the best of circumstances, good agents will sometimes become disillusioned and leave your organization. 

The question for today:  Can those agents be saved if you were given enough warning of the impending departure?

Yes.  They can be saved, but only if you have enough time (usually several weeks) to solve problems and address issues that are causing the disillusionment. 

How do you get advanced notice that someone is going to leave your organization?  Several years ago, the researchers at the Huntsman School of Business (Utah State University) started putting thought into that question and came up with some surprising answers.

The research was led by associate professor Tim Gardner and focused on the symptoms that lead to voluntary turnover.   Here is a summary of the findings:

[Gardner] was surprised when his research showed, for example, an employee who starts taking more vacation time, punching out at 5 p.m. every day and looking at outside openings on company time, is not necessarily someone who is about to leave.

Gardner discovered, however, one thing most employees had in common before they left was that they began to “disengage” in the workplace.

Here are a few examples of subtle but consistent behavioral changes people often make in the one to two months before they leave their job:

They offered fewer constructive contributions in meetings.

They were more reluctant to commit to long-term projects.

They become more reserved and quiet.

They became less interested in advancing in the organization.

They were less interested in pleasing their boss than before.

They avoided social interactions with their boss and other members of management.

They suggested fewer new ideas or innovative approaches.

They began doing the minimum amount of work needed and no longer went beyond the call of duty.

They were less interested in participating in training and development programs.

Their work productivity went down.

Gardner said if employees were demonstrating at least six of these behaviors, his statistical formula could predict with 80 percent accuracy that they were about to leave the organization.

So think about this:  If you can detect one to two months out a person’s tendency to leave your organization with 80% accuracy, this information could significantly improve the retention percentage of agents on your team.

With this type of foreknowledge, you’d have time to probe for the irritations the agents are experiencing, uncover obstacles that are causing them to lose focus, and solve problems before they become deal-breakers.

How could you execute a system that would make use of this research?  For starters, you could create a simple scorecard that allows you to rate each agent on a scale of 1 to 3 (never, sometimes, frequently) for each question.  

Then color-code (green, yellow, red) your agents w/ a probability of staying in our organization.  Those agents receiving a score of 24 points or higher should probably be marked as red.  Those are the ones that need your attention.

Gardner sums up his research by saying,

“It appears that a person’s attitude can create behaviors that are hard to disguise,” he said. “As the grass starts to look greener on the other side of the fence to you, chances are that others will soon notice that you’ve lost your focus.”

Become proficient at detecting that loss of focus, and you’ll head off retention problems before they become your realty.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

The Case Against Positive Thinking to Achieve Success - Part 2

Last week, I started a discussion about the prospects of positive thinking alone being a pathway to success.  When researched in an objective manner, this philosophy has been shown to produce less-than-positive results.

Don’t get me wrong—there is nothing harmful about being optimistic and having positive thoughts.  However, there seems to be a line that is crossed by some people where positive thoughts become a strategy.   Under the scrutiny of objective research, this philosophy appears to be flawed and unreliable.

As much as researchers have been critical of positive thinking success strategies, they have become excited about the concept of “grit.”  Grit is a success strategy that does withstand the rigors of research.

If you’re a long-time WorkPuzzle reader, you’ll probably remember this topic.   Dave and I have both written about it several times over the last five years.

For those of you who may be new readers, I’m going republish parts of two blogs (1, 2) Dave wrote in 2009.   Even if you’ve read these blogs already, it is a good reminder on how success is truly achieved.

Angela Lee Duckworth, PhD, has conducted a series of studies on a concept called "grit." 

Grit is another word for backbone, chutzpah, fortitude, guts, stick-to-it-iveness, etc. 

It all started when Dr. Duckworth observed that it wasn't necessarily the smartest people who succeeded and made a lasting impact on science. She had a hunch that it was a person's personal "grit" recipe that made the difference in their level of success. 

Across six studies, Duckworth found that grit significantly contributed to successful outcomes:  Undergrads with the most grit earned higher grade point averages than their peers.  West Point Cadets with the highest levels of grit were more likely to return after the first summer.  Even "grittier" spelling bee competitors (a situation where IQ would seem the best predictor) out-spelled their less tenacious competitors.  Among older individuals, people with substantial grit had higher levels of education and made fewer career changes than less gritty peers of the same age.

Many successful people don't attribute their success to their IQ or level of talent [or positive thoughts], but rather to their tenacity.  Thomas Edison was one of those people.  Edison once said:

"Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.”

Here is another prime example of grit:  Poet David Baker is Director of Creative Writing at Denison University, and author of seven books of poetry, including "Midwest Eclogue."  Mr. Baker laments:

"Unfortunately, no one comes in my window and whispers poems to me... Poets [have to] work hard.  I may work on a single poem for weeks or months and write 60 or 70 drafts—only to decide that draft 22 was the good one.”

Along these same lines, people often refer to Mozart's diaries, where he divulges that an entire symphony appeared, supposedly intact, in his head. However, Jonathan Plucker an educational psychologist at Indiana University points out:

"But no one ever quotes the next paragraph, where he talks about how he refined the work for months.”

So, if you review the research I referenced in the last blog… you’ll see that grit appears to the vital component to success.

Success comes to those who work harder and demonstrate perseverance in the face of obstacles. 

"When you get into a tight place and everything goes against you, till it seems as though you could not hang on a minute longer, never give up then, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn."  (Harriet Beecher Stowe)

Where does that leave the positive thinker? 

Not as far from the truth as you might imagine.  Having positive thoughts is a great start, but it must be combined with hard work, tenacity, and focus on doing whatever it takes to accomplish the goal. 

This is grit.  It’s far beyond positive thinking, and it’s what effective people do to be successful.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

The Case Against Positive Thinking to Achieve Success

The idea that positive thinking alone can change a person’s circumstances is a seductive thought.  It’s something that we all, at some level, want to believe is true. 

It’s easy to head down this path.  For sure, positive thinking is better than negative thinking, but what happens when this becomes your sole strategy for success?  

According to new research highlighted in the New Yorker Magazine, you’ll probably end up with a good dose of disappointment and failure—exactly opposite of the success you’re thinking about experiencing.

Adam Alter an assistant professor of marketing at New York University’s Stern School of Business, tracks the renewed growth of the positive thinking movement back to 2006:

Since publishing “The Secret,” in 2006, the Australian author Rhonda Byrne has been writing self-help manifestos based on the idea that people who think positive thoughts are rewarded with happiness, wealth, influence, wisdom, and success….

Byrne’s idea isn’t new—it’s been a mainstay among greeting-card companies, motivational speakers, and schoolteachers for decades—but she’s become one of its most visible prophets.

‘The way to change a lack of belief is very simple,’ Byrne writes. ‘Begin thinking the opposite thoughts to what you’ve been thinking about yourself: that you can do it, and that you have everything within you to do it.’

How does Byrne’s philosophy work out in real life?  Not very well.  

While you can always find a few (what Byrne calls) “heros,” the vast majority of people end up even more frustrated than when they started.  Alter highlights some of the research that debunks this philosophy:

According to a great deal of research, positive fantasies may lessen your chances of succeeding.

In one experiment, the social psychologists Gabriele Oettingen and Doris Mayer asked eighty-three German students to rate the extent to which they “experienced positive thoughts, images, or fantasies on the subject of transition into work life, graduating from university, looking for and finding a job.”

Two years later, they approached the same students and asked about their post-college job experiences. Those who harbored positive fantasies put in fewer job applications, received fewer job offers, and ultimately earned lower salaries.

The same was true in other contexts, too. Students who fantasized were less likely to ask their romantic crushes on a date and more likely to struggle academically. Hip-surgery patients also recovered more slowly when they dwelled on positive fantasies of walking without pain.

The research documents the dismal results of this philosophy, but it doesn’t offer any information on why this philosophy doesn’t work.   Alter offers two hypotheses on this topic:

1.  Less Preparation.  Ceaseless optimism about the future only makes for a greater shock when things go wrong; by fighting to maintain only positive beliefs about the future, the positive thinker ends up being less prepared, and more acutely distressed, when things eventually happen that he can’t persuade himself to believe are good.

2.  False Feeling of Working Towards Goals.  [Positive] fantasies hamper progress and dull the will to succeed.  Imagining a positive outcome [just] conveys the sense that you’re approaching your goals, which takes the edge off the need to achieve.

So, now that everyone is depressed, what does work?  We’ll cover that in the next WorkPuzzle.  There is a success philosophy that is counterintuitive to positive thinking that researchers have shown to produce much more reliable results. 

For those of you who are high performers already, you’ll instantly connect with these ideas.  

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. 

Informatica Reveals the Latest Cutting-Edge Recruiting Tactic

A few weeks ago, Laura Montini of Inc. Magazine reported on the Social Recruiting Strategies Conference that took place in San Francisco earlier in the month.

This is a global conference attended by many of the most progressive technology companies in the world.  The purpose of the conference is to promote the idea of using social media to recruit in today’s talent acquisition marketplace.

The keynote speaker was Brad Cook, the global vice president of talent acquisition at Informatica.  You may not have heard of Informatica, but this company has 3,500 employees and operates in 28 countries around the world.  Informatica is one of the worldwide leaders in cloud-based data storage and management technologies.

Considering his background and place in the technology world, Cook gave some unexpected advice during his keynote address.  Here is an excerpt from the article in Inc. Magazine.

"For me social recruiting doesn't mean social media. With the digital age that we have today, nobody knows each other," Cook said.

He recalled how, when he was in the sales department at Cisco Systems, he'd periodically get calls from recruiters asking, how's your job going? Are you looking for a change?

Now Cook is in charge of finding talent for… a software development business--arguably one of the most difficult areas to recruit in right now due to heavy demand for a particular skill set and strong competition from tech giants like Google and Facebook.  

Cook said the best recruiter he's ever worked with is a woman who doesn't incorporate social media into any part of her job. She makes a point of maintaining all of her candidate relationships via phone. "She knows who their grandkids are, what their dogs' names are. She has all of that stuff," Cook said.

 

"The point of this strategy isn't just to make your candidates feel warm and fuzzy. Maintaining these relationships cuts down on the work you have to do in the long run," Cook said.

"You're going to continue to be busy because you've got to go through 10 people to find one. Wouldn't you rather go through five people to find one?" Cook posed. "When you start building those relationships longer-term you can actually get to that point."

Here’s a surprise:   The most effective social recruiting tool available today is already sitting on your desk!  Also, the most effective social recruiting tactic (picking up that phone and calling candidates) is something most real estate hiring managers (who used to be real estate agents) are already proficient at executing.  Isn’t this how you built your real estate business in the first place?

Cook was later asked what kind of technology investments recruiting organizations should be considering.  His answer was surprisingly simple:

“Of course, there is a very important role for modern technology in the recruiting process, especially once you have a candidate who is interested. Applicants should be able to go to a well-designed and informative career page on your site. “

This is where you will get the highest return for your recruiting technology investment.  Many organizations spin their wheels chasing after the latest social technologies that may reduce workload in the short-term, but are not effective because they result in keeping the candidates at an arms-length away.

Here are some applications for the real estate hiring process from Cook’s keynote address:

Talk to New Candidates on the Phone.   Modern technology (social networks, twitter feeds, drip email campaigns) has its place in the recruiting process, but the most progressive and effective hiring managers pick up the phone and talk to candidates.

Talk to Pipeline Candidates on the Phone.  Many hiring managers view the recruiting process as a one-time event.   It’s an interview and then plug the candidate into a drip email campaign and hope for the best.   Progressive and effective recruiters don’t just rely on this tactic—they also frequently pick up the phone and talk to their post-interview pipeline candidates.

Invest in Your Company’s Career Page and Application Process.   Cook ended his keynote address by suggesting, “If you do nothing else at the end of this (conference), go back and apply to your career site…. you need to know what pain you're putting your candidates through. That's the best way to learn how to fix it.”

This is all good advice from some of the top recruiters in the world.

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle.