WorkPuzzle

Interviewing and The Art of Not Talking

The most counterintuitive principle of interviewing is the discipline and art of listening well.  It is the magic sauce, if you will, in the recipe of winning a person over to you and your company. 

Despite this fact, hiring managers never cease to talk endlessly about themselves and their company, to the detriment of their recruiting numbers. 

In my recent road trips to visit numerous clients and prospects, I was reminded of this erroneous misconception and our need to revisit this topic occasionally, addressing how to bring about change to the way managers approach the interview exchange. 

Where do we get the impression that people will be impressed by us and decide to change their lives because of what we say, or how much we know?  Know this: Only the most desperate candidates will be impressed by what you say...and the best candidates will probably be repelled. 

So, what do candidates need?  They need to be understood. 

Everyone likes to be understood, but it is never more important than when a person is considering a massive life change, like the decision to become a realtor, or to move from one office to another (or even buying a house for that matter).

In their moment of crucial contemplation, what makes us think that learning more about us will be the critical information that helps a candidate decide whether to radically alter their life?  It might be how you’ve been trained to interview, or in some cases it could be your ego.  How do we check our ego at the door when we have been presented with the sacred task of guiding a person through this big decision? 

You may begin to think that I am suggesting that we not “sell” our office or ourselves at all.  I’m not.  I am simply saying that you must first thoroughly understand the candidate's story before you deserve to speak into their lives.  In other words you must attract and not promote. 

So, I want you to experiment with this idea.  In your next interview, commit yourself to understanding the candidate completely.  You accomplish this by asking questions about their story...with relevant and numerous questions.  Get to know them and then ask them what they want to know about your company.  Let them take the lead, and discover what the art of not talking can accomplish.

In the next edition, I’ll elaborate on why being understood is vital to recruiting and retention. I will offer a way of thinking about all of this that will change your goal of the interview... 

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Editor's Note: This article was written by Dr. David Mashburn. Dave is a Clinical and Consulting Psychologist, a Partner at Tidemark, Inc. and a regular contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

HIRING YOUNG AGENTS: THE REAL ESTATE AGENT GENE--Part 2

I decided to follow-up the last WorkPuzzle I wrote on the importance of entrepreneurism in the hiring of “new to real estate” agents... For young people, I believe this is a particularly healthy framework from which to approach a real estate career.

Why?  Because starting a business captures a unique balance between an individual’s hope for the future and the expectation that to pursue that hope, he/she will most likely need to follow a path that is long and difficult.

Approaching a real estate career from a traditional job perspective is a completely different proposition.  The job framework may cause people to expect quick payoffs and become discouraged when they do not materialize.

In relation to this topic, I recently came across an interview conducted by a writer from Nashville named Jeff Goins.  The interview is with Chris Guillebeau, author of a new book called The $100 Startup. 

This interview (and the book as well) peaked my interest because it documents the stories of hundreds of individuals who were willing to step out and start a business.  Here is part of the interview:

Jeff:  What’s the $100 Startup about, and why is it needed?

Chris:  Two things:  first, it’s the collective story of 1,500 “unexpected entrepreneurs” who all started businesses without a lot of money or special skills.  Second, it’s a blueprint for readers who want to create their own freedom by doing something they love.

It’s needed because people are dissatisfied.  They want more from life than a soul-sucking job that takes their energy without providing much in return.

People have always been dissatisfied, of course, but they haven’t always known which steps to take to create independence.  The book is an attempt at providing 300 pages of next steps.

Jeff:  In the book, you tell stories of businesses you’ve seen launched on a bootstrapped budget all around the world.  What was one of the most interesting ones?

Chris:  The book includes a wide range of stories, from six-figure blogging businesses to retail shops.  It’s hard to pick a favorite, but since you’re a writer, I’ll point you to Brett Kelly’s success.

Brett was a self-described geek who wrote the first eBook on Evernote, the free note-taking software.  This project earned more than $100,000 in its first year, and allowed Brett and his family to get out of debt.

It’s an incredible success, of course, but in researching the book and talking to people, I heard story after story like Brett’s.  It seems that success can indeed be replicated, if you take the right steps.

Jeff:  You live your life, traveling the world and supporting yourself online.  What is it about this lifestyle that attracts you, and what advice do you have for aspiring entrepreneurs?

Chris:  Personally I couldn’t imagine doing it any other way.  I’ve been self-employed for nearly 15 years and extensively traveling for 10 years.  I love what I do and wouldn’t trade it for anything.

My advice to aspiring entrepreneurs is always focus on value.  Value is one of those words that is often used without much definition.  My definition is that value simply means “helping people.”

You aren’t likely to succeed as an entrepreneur, digital nomad, or whatever business goal you aspire to without helping people.  In other words, you can do what you love, but you must find a way to connect that with other people’s needs.

There are two lines that stand out to me in this interview.

1.  "It’s needed because people are dissatisfied.  They want more from life than a soul-sucking job that takes their energy without providing much in return."    

This is so true.  Many of the people that you will interview are languishing in their current jobs.  Tap into those feelings of dissatisfaction as you listen to their stories.  Attuning youself to their struggles will create attachment.  The first step to leaving an existing career is feeling some attachment to something new.

2.  "The book is an attempt at providing 300 pages of next steps."

This is where I believe your own creativity will be sparked.  When you are interviewing someone you believe will make a great agent, but who faces some obstacles (usually financial challenges), you need to offer a series of small steps that he/she can take towards becoming an agent.  Unfortunately, recruiting is not a transaction.  It's a process that takes time, focus, and effort to complete.

Here’s some homework for you—get this book and read it.  As you read it, jot down notes about some of the stories that would most closely apply to a real estate career.  And then, during your next interview, spend a small amount of time selling the idea of becoming an entrepreneur.  As we learned last week, those candidates who light up when presented with this idea, just may have the real estate gene. 

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Hiring Young Agents: The Real Estate Agent Gene?

I received lots of lively discussion from the last WorkPuzzle blog I wrote.  Some of it was very positive.  For example, the general manager of a large real estate company on the East Coast noted,

“[One of the managers you recently met with] hired seven new licensees in April.  Six of these new hires are under the age of 35.  It has changed the office dynamic in a couple of weeks.”

While others were less excited.  The owner of a prominent real estate company in the Midwest wrote,

“[What you’re saying] makes sense on paper, Ben, but we sure haven’t seen it.  In fact, we had four or five under thirty, quick in/quick out hiring failures in our flagship office, to the great discouragement of our manager there.

[Our executive team] has talked about a quality we call 'being settled' that an under thirty needs to have before they really take real estate as something more than an alternative to waiting tables.  Being settled often means being married or partnered up 'permanently,' and that spouses or partners have a solid, real, job.  Absent being settled, these young folk seem to be drifting and real estate is deadly for them.  They don’t have the discipline it takes.  I continue to be intrigued that you are bullish on this hiring sector.”

One of the executives from the same company added,

“I certainly don’t know how to build it into a profile, but with both young and not-so-young, one of the largest determining factors is willingness to embrace the concept of commission-only and to invest money and time into the start-up [of a new] career.”

There is no doubt this is a challenging task.  Figuratively, I’ve only provided you a prospector’s map to the location of a site that has valuable gems.  Locating the site is the easy part.  Mining the gems is much more risky, difficult, and frustrating.

I know many of you have noticed patterns (ex. “being settled”) as you’ve done your own mining for hires.  So, please email me what you’ve learned and I’ll share some of these best practices in an upcoming WorkPuzzle discussion.

While experience is probably the best teacher, we can also look to research to help us be more effective hiring managers.  Daniel McGinn (a contributor to Inc. Magazine) recently highlighted research done by professors Edward Mungai and S. Ramakrishna Velamuri, on the characteristics of individuals who start businesses.

The starting point for the research was the existence of several studies that firmly established that children of entrepreneurs are two to three time more likely to launch out on their own than are the kids of traditional salary earners.

But digging further into the data provided some interesting insights:

“The researchers plumbed the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, a longitudinal data set run by the University of Michigan that has followed nearly 8,000 representative U.S. families.  First, they identified people who left traditional jobs to become self-employed.  Using the family income data, the researchers determined how the businesses fared in subsequent years.

They looked for signs of a start-up gone bad:  founders who were later unemployed, left the business after suffering losses, or reentered the traditional work force at a lower wage.  Next, they looked at the kids of these entrepreneurs and determined how old they were when their parents ran companies.  Researchers then examined whether the children ultimately became self-employed themselves.

The researchers found that kids who were young adults (18 to 21) when their parents ran companies seemed to be most influenced by Mom's or Dad's choice of career path.  The research also confirms that parents who fail in a business seem to act as 'negative role models,' making their kids significantly less likely to launch a company.  But this was mainly true for older kids who had seen a parent's business crumble.  Younger children were not as affected.”

Is this research the holy grail for hiring young agents?  I don’t think so.  But, it is one factor that may contribute to your success as a hiring manager.  Combined with other best practices, we may be able to piece together a “field manual” for bringing young people into real estate.

What have you noticed in hiring young agents?

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

A PROCRASTINATION OF PROSPECTING PARADIGM SHIFT

We are sometimes faced with uncomfortable situations or daunting tasks, both in our personal, and in our professional lives.  In real estate, or sales in general, prospecting seems to fall into this category.  Picking up the phone to cold call and deal with a potential negative interaction or rejection doesn’t resonate well with many people, so they do not execute, thus adversely impacting their overall success.

In past blogs I have discussed the notion of “re-framing” how we think about recruiting.  Specifically, I conveyed the benefit of shifting from our pre-conceived notion of the term recruiting, to the task of building relationships, which is something most real estate or sales managers do well naturally, and as a result enjoy.  It occurred to me that perhaps “re-framing” the task of prospecting could be beneficial as well, both in terms of recruiting, but also in your agents’ sales process.

I recently read a blog by Anthony Iannarino, Chief Sales Officer of a staffing firm and Director of a coaching consulting firm, that touched on the procrastination of prospecting paradigm.  Iannarino not only points out the importance and simplicity of prospecting in a successful sales business, but also touches on the ramifications of not picking up the phone.

“If you spent more time prospecting, more time cold calling and opening relationships, you would have more opportunities.  You’d even have a stronger pipeline.  But your resistance to prospecting keeps you from doing as well as you might.

Knowing all of this is true probably still isn’t enough for you to stop procrastinating.  You may not even be motivated by the fact that your fiercest competitors are prospecting, and they are calling your existing client and dream clients (just ask them).  There is a simple solution that makes prospecting easier.

Just start making calls.

If you run or do any aerobic exercise, you know how uncomfortable it is to get started.  My friends who run tell me that it takes them 3 or 4 miles to finally get their body to adjust.  That metaphor works for prospecting.  It’s just like that.

The most difficult call you make is the first call.  It has nothing to do with who you call or the outcome of that call.  It has everything to do with overcoming the internal resistance to starting.  Each call after the first gets easier.  You adjust.  You find your rhythm.  It gets easier.

This is why it’s important to prospect early in the day.  That’s when you have the mental focus and the greatest capacity to overcome your resistance.  As the day goes on, you will find other work to take the place of prospecting, and the world will start making demands of you.”

This new paradigm can be applied both in your recruiting process as well as in the training, coaching, and professional development of new and experienced agents.  Helping them to understand this prospecting framework may help them develop successful habits and a newfound commitment to prospecting in their own business.   

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Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

The 20-Million Candidates You’re Missing—Revisited.

Last spring, I wrote a WorkPuzzle blog on the dismal job prospects for new college grads.  In that discussion, I demonstrated how “underemployment” has become a reality for many college seniors looking to start their careers. 

If you do not remember reading this article (or you’re new to WorkPuzzle within the last year), it might be helpful to review it before you try to digest what we are going to discuss today. 

Last year, BusinessWeek and several other media venues were spouting optimism concerning a problem that seemed to be hanging on for much too long—adult children moving back home after college. 

Why the optimism?  Because there was a small increase in the number of adult children who were leaving their parents' homes and setting up their own households.   

Buried in the research was a shocking metric--over 20 million young Americans find themselves in this state.  Even under very optimistic conditions, researchers admitted that this huge backlog of stagnant labor could only diminish to about 11 million within the next five years. 

Well, so much for optimistic conditions.   

The Associated Press reported last week that for the graduating class of 2012, over 50% of the new college grads will either be jobless or underemployed.     

Here are some highlights from the article: 

“Young adults with bachelor's degrees are increasingly scraping by in lower-wage jobs — waiter or waitress, bartender, retail clerk or receptionist, for example — and that's confounding their hopes a degree would pay off despite higher tuition and mounting student loans… 

About 1.5 million, or 53.6 percent, of new bachelor's degree-holders under the age of 25 last year were jobless or underemployed, the highest share in at least 11 years.  Out of this 1.5 million, there is an even split of those who are unemployed versus underemployed… 

According to government projections released last month, only three of the 30 occupations with the largest projected number of job openings by 2020 will require a bachelor's degree or higher to fill the position — teachers, college professors and accountants.  

Most job openings are in professions such as retail sales, fast food and truck driving, jobs which aren't easily replaced by computers. 

College graduates who majored in zoology, anthropology, philosophy, art history and humanities were among the least likely to find jobs appropriate to their education level; those with nursing, teaching, accounting or computer science degrees were among the most likely…” 

So, what does this mean for the real estate industry?  As I mentioned last year in the second part of the WorkPuzzle discussion, some of these new college grads may be well-suited to start a career as a real estate agent.    

Rather than rehash the points I made in the previous discussion (all of which are still relevant today), I thought I’d share a quick story from a client I spent time with last week. 

This company is a large, independent, multi-generational real estate company on the West Coast.  They are leaders in their marketplace and have a long track record and heritage of success.   

Here’s the problem:  This company has an agent base where a large majority of their agents are above 55 years old.  This data didn’t impact me until I saw the demographic ranges they shared during our discussion.    

I don’t have the data in front of me, but I believe they had cataloged demographic age ranges as high as 55 to 65 years old, 65 to 75 years old, and over 75 years old....AND, a high percentage of their agents were in these categories.  The lowest age range category was “below 40.”  And for this company, less than 20% of the agents were demographically in this category. 

This company is not an anomaly in the real estate industry.  It is representative of the norm.  Most companies that we work with find themselves in this situation. 

So, here’s my challenge to you:  Step back and look at this problem from a 30,000 foot view.  Real estate companies are stuck with an aging workforce that will limit their growth and ability to change in the upcoming years.  Society is stuck with a large group of educated and aspiring young people who do not have adequate career opportunities.  There has to be a way to connect these dots.     

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

12 Mistakes You’re Making in Social Media

I’ve been spending a lot of time studying and experimenting with social media since the beginning of the year.  I know that some of you will certainly think I’m showing up really late to a party that started some time ago.  And, that may be true!  

But, the more I study the topic, the more I’m becoming convinced that being an early adopter with such a powerful emerging technology, like social media, is bound to lead to a number of mistakes and missteps.  For recruiting applications, some of these mistakes have been both profound (ie. disqualifying) and expensive.  

However, I’ve started to observe, in the last six to twelve months, social networking recruiting ideas that will likely be viable for the long term.  Makers of the new applications have gained insight from earlier mistakes, and the use of social media for recruiting purposes is really gaining momentum.

One thing that helps this process of improvement is that social media mistakes that companies make seem to be increasingly documented.  I’ve read many articles on this topic and thought I'd share one I recently found helpful.  

This article is based on a light study recently conducted on LinkedIn, where a group of participants were asked to document the mistakes they most commonly observe.  The original write-up included the top 16 mistakes, but I’ve cut it down to the top twelve I thought were most relevant.  

The list is arranged so that the mistakes are numbered and listed in bold.  Under each mistake is a relevant comment from a user in the study.  It may seem a little disjointed at first, but these eclectic comments do paint an interesting picture.  If you want more detail, take a look at the original article.

1.  Thinking it's a sprint instead of a marathon.

"I find most expect social media to be a sprint not a marathon.  They get really into it and then let it fall by the wayside by not posting regularly and not engaging with others.  As my partner says, ‘It's a marathon, not a sprint.’  You must give it time, you are building relationships."

2.  Not having a plan or strategy.

"I think the biggest mistake is not having a clear strategy around why they are using it that aligns with a strategy of what they want out of it.  This is closely followed by not measuring if they are on track.”

3.  Talking too much and not listening enough.

"They need to talk less and listen more.  Social media is all about making connections and, just like in the real (rather than virtual) world, people will be more drawn to you if you actually listen to what they're saying, than if you try to force your message upon them."

4  Airing bad feelings.

"I think the biggest mistake is airing bad feelings / arguments over sites like Twitter.  I watched a CEO debate rather childishly with a PR guy - going so far as to use derogatory and inappropriate language."

5.  Too much time spent on self-promotion.

"One big mistake small business leaders make in social media is to spend a lot of time trying to promote themselves.  They also forget to keep an eye on how their brand is being perceived.”

6. Not making it relevant to me.

"I don't want to get ten tweets a day hearing about YOU.  I want to hear things that are valuable for me and my life... and they need to be fast.  And not too frequent:  I don't want to incessantly hear about your business.  It won't make me think of you more, it'll just make me annoyed with you.  So:  short, sweet, pertinent, and valuable to me."

7.  Blurring the lines between personal and professional.

"They blur the line between personal and professional.  If you are using Facebook, use it only for personal or business, not both.  Same applies to Twitter.  I think LinkedIn is ideal in that it is all business/professional."

8.  Creating a business profile first and a personable profile later.

"They make their profiles appear as their company portals, trimmed with lots of company/brand information.  It results in viewers bouncing out of the profile quickly—ie. professional visits the profile, but flips to another profile without scrolling down the entire profile.  You should create an interesting profile first, engage people, and then propagate your message."

9.  A serious underestimation of the amount of resources it takes to administer a social media effort.

"The number one mistake I've seen is a serious underestimation of the amount of resources required to engage and maintain a social program."

10.  Expecting social media to do all the work.

"You can't just blast the world with your ideas, products, and services, then sit back and expect everyone to think you're so wonderful.  That is unrealistic."

11.  Getting on social media just because everyone else is doing it.

"I see many businesses getting on social media because 'everyone else is' or 'we just have to' but without clear purpose or a plan.  One wouldn't open a new store, address a new market, or open a new sales region without extensive planning, goals, organization and thought.  And yet, many small businesses (especially sole proprietors) just up and register for Twitter, etc. one night and wade right in."

12.  Not understanding that it's all about relationship building.

"What I see so often is that a business decides to jump into social media because they're afraid they might be left behind, but then they fail to put a well thought out strategy in place.  They end up throwing a bunch of profiles on the internet, trying to market and sell to everyone, and basically failing."

Do an inventory or your organization’s social media efforts.  Are you making any of these mistakes?  If so, put a plan in place to make corrections.  I do believe your effort will pay off.  Social media is here to stay, but you’ll need to apply effort and focus to make it work for you.

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

New Research: Transitioning to a Real Estate Career Could Save Your Life?

As you may know, our company closely follows the recruiting trends in the real estate industry.  Even though we are starting to see signs of recovery among many of our clients, it is still a challenge to get high quality “new to real estate” candidates to seriously consider becoming an agent in today’s market. 

One of the metrics we use to track this trend is the amount of advertising dollars it takes to source an individual candidate.  We track this metric across more that 30 metropolitan areas in the United States and eventually arrive at a “cost per candidate” average (aggregate) for the whole country.  

In 2011, this cost per candidate average rose steadily over the entire year.  After evaluating a number of marketing process variables (ex. # of ads, frequency of postings, ad content, etc.), it became clear that the elephant in the room was the constant negative dialog that the public is fed concerning the state of the real estate market by media sources. 

As a result, the default mode of thinking for most people in our society is that the real estate industry is not the place to find exciting and lucrative career opportunities. We're flying into a head wind.

So, here’s an important question:  How do you counter this type of thinking?  This is something we ponder every day as we fight the advertising and sourcing battles.  But, it is also a question you should be considering if you are going to successfully interview and guide a high-quality candidate through the hiring process. 

To win your battles, I would suggest that your best weapon is creativity.  To break people out of their status quo thinking, you’ll need to challenge their assumptions and help them see their careers from a new perspective.    

I ran across one example of this type of thinking earlier this week that I thought was worth sharing. 

This idea comes from Issie Lapowsky, a free-lance writer who discovered some research recently conducted by professors at Louisiana State University and Baylor University.  The research centers on the health benefits individuals experience by starting and managing a microbusiness (a business with less than five employees). 

By examining data from more than 3,000 counties in the United States, the researchers documented the number of microbusinesses per 10,000 residents in each county.  Then, they compared Center for Disease Control and Prevention health data to the same study groups.  

Their findings revealed a strong correlation between the health and well-being of citizens in those counties that had high percentages of microbusinesses.  More specifically, compared to national averages, mortality rates were up to 55% lower, obesity rates were up to 63% lower, and diabetes rates were up to 55% lower in those counties that had high numbers of microbusinesses. 

Check out the embedded info graphic to learn more (click on the graphic to see a larger version of the graphic):

Becoming a real estate agent is, in essence, starting and managing a microbusiness.  During an interview, the argument could be made that choosing an non-traditional career field like real estate leads to a lifestyle that is not only more financially advantageous, but also beneficial to a person’s health and physical well-being. 

This line of reasoning may sound a little crazy on the surface, but people spend billions of dollars each year trying to better their health.  And, many people are stuck in jobs that carry serious health risks (extensive travel, high stress, long commutes, sedentary work conditions, etc.).    

Could starting a microbusiness in the real estate industry be part of a healthy lifestyle that a candidate is striving to obtain?  Of course it could.  And, by successfully making this argument, you’ve moved the focus of the employment dialog away from the script the media so relentlessly repeats. 

This is just one example of how creativity is going to be necessary in order to increase our recruiting batting average.  I believe you should have four or five of these types of “alternative arguments” at your disposal when you’re talking with a candidate.  As you listen to a candidate’s story during the interview, be ready to creatively match non-traditional benefits to the candidate’s pain.  

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

UNDERSTANDING THE PINTEREST PHENOMENON—Part 2

So, have you had a chance to check out Pinterest?  If you’re like a lot people, maybe you got sucked in and spent more time on the site than you intended! 

To finish up the discussion we started last week, I’ll restate the question that I left unanswered: 

How can the Pinterest insights be used in your business? 

First, I’m not suggesting that your company establish a Pinterest account and start trying to use this avenue to accomplish various business objectives (marketing, recruiting, band building, etc.).  Instead, I’m proposing that we try to learn from their methodologies.   

I know that most real estate companies are already participating in various social networking initiatives.  Much of the involvement is early stage and there is much to learn as we all try to make these venues produce results.  So, what has Pinterest figured out, and how can you apply some of the lessons to your social networking efforts? 

Here are some ideas that came to mind as I pondered this question. 

1.  There is a difference between congregating around interest and congregating around relationship. 

Pinterest teaches us that there can be an appropriate (and sometimes necessary) separation between my interests and my relationships.  The personal nature of information that I share with family and friends is not interesting to most people.  

People seem to open up a little more on-line when they are communicating about their interests.  In doing so, there is more diversity in the types of people who can connect around a topic of shared interest.   

2.  Business more naturally connects with interest. 

You’ve probably heard the old saying:  People hate to be sold, but love to buy.  When there is a common interest that a group of people congregate around, it is natural for people to talk about the products and services they use to support that interest. 

However, it’s usually awkward to first have a relationship with someone based on a personal connection (ex. alumni of the same high school), and then have a conversation about a product or service.  I’m not saying that this never happens, but it quickly raises on-line privacy concerns for most people; Many people feel that a relational interest is being contrived for a business objective.  

3.  People are drawn to pictures.   

Pinterest didn’t discover this phenomenon, but they’ve certainly mastered its application.  There is something magnetic about an interesting picture. 

For example, one of my business partners has a 24-year old daughter who lives in New York City and works for a publishing company.  Now, I’m not overly interested in the publishing industry or the daily life of a young female who lives on the other side of the country.  But, this young woman takes incredible pictures. 

She writes a blog about what she calls her wonderful adventure in New York City.  My wife and I will occasionally pop on her blog with the purpose of seeing what cool pictures Heather has posted this week.  There is something very captivating about a person who has a passion and captures it with pictures. 

4.  Facebook and Twitter may get you where you want to go. 

There is a bunch of discussion among real estate companies in the last year or so about using Facebook and Twitter as avenues for promoting business interests.  The thought is that they are the largest and most prominent social networks, so it only makes sense to attempt to leverage their large membership bases. 

Pinterest may be teaching us something different—it is a social networking site that does just one thing really well.  For many real estate companies, it may be worth considering this idea as well.     

Can you really successfully compete in the Facebook arena, or would it make more sense to consider some less prominent social networking sites, or even create your own network?  For example, the music industry has largely benefited from the second of these options.  

Bottom line:  There is a lot left to learn when it comes to on-line social networking.  When a site like Pinterest scores a huge hit, it’s worth paying attention and trying to figure out what they’ve discovered.   

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Fear of Change

Here is a great quote I came across today: 

"Change has a considerable psychological impact on the human mind.  To the fearful it is threatening because it means that things may get worse.  To the hopeful it is encouraging because things may get better.  To the confident it is inspiring because the challenge exists to make things better."  King Whitney Jr.   

Have you ever thought about how fundamental “change” is in your recruiting pursuits?  I submit that many of the people in your pipeline are fearful of change, at least as it pertains to their career.  Addressing those fears during your dialog may help you in your efforts to develop authentic relationships.   

Anyone whom you wish to onboard will be facing a change, either the minor change of switching companies, or the major change of pursuing a completely new career.  How you address that with them will make all the difference in your recruiting success.  

Jorge Barba, a self-professed “Innovation Insurgent,” made this observation in a recent blog he authored:  

“When employees do not feel understood, they resist change more fiercely.  But when they are included in the decision-making process and treated as valued resources, they can be the staunchest champions of new initiatives.”  

This statement is certainly valid in terms of managing your existing employees, but let me re-frame it relative to recruiting...  

As a hiring manager, you have a tough job.  You’re tasked with helping a person come to the realization that their current job circumstances are mediocre or poor.  And, to fix the situation, they are going to have to overcome their fear of change and envision something better for the future. 

The key to handling this discussion well, starts early.  Reread the above quote.  When do people stop resisting?  When they see themselves included in the decision making process.  

How do you get a candidate involved in this process?  The first step is to truly understand the person’s fears.  We all want to be understood in general, and that is certainly something you should strive to do and demonstrate, but taking it a step further and addressing and empathizing with one’s fear of change is important too.  

Once you have conveyed an understanding of their feelings around change, you can begin the conversation about how they can empower themselves to improve their situation.  This conversation does not start with what you can do for them, but rather listening to their ideas about what they think would help them get to a better place with their career.  

In doing so, you will begin to move the conversation away from fear and towards hope.  Wouldn’t it be nice to be the catalyst for that conversion?

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Editor's Note: Lee Gray is the Senior Account Manager at Tidemark Inc. Lee is a guest contributor to WorkPuzzle. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.

Why Do People Leave Your Office? Lessons From Google

Take a minute to envision your dream job and the organization in which you’d most like to work.  Maybe some of you had Google float through your head during this exercise.  The extravagant nature of the Google workplace has been well-publicized over the last few years.  

In case you missed it, here is a little intro from Google’s career site: 

“We provide a standard package of fringe benefits, but on top of that are first-class dining facilities, gyms, laundry rooms, massage rooms, haircuts, car washes, dry cleaning, commuting buses – just about anything a hardworking employee might want.  Let’s face it:  programmers want to program, they don’t want to do their laundry.  So we make it easy for them to do both.” 

What’s included in that “standard package of fringe benefits,” you might ask?  I won’t republish the whole list (it is quite long), but here are a few things Google considers standard: 

• A full 12 weeks of paid maternity leave for Mom and/or seven weeks of paid paternity leave for Dad.  Stressed out when you bring the baby home?  No worries -- Google will pay for $500 worth of take-out food so you don’t have to cook. 
• Want to go back to school?  No problem.  Google will pay up to $12,000 per year for education expenses. 
• Want to adopt a child?  Great.  Google will pick up the first $5,000 worth of adoption expenses.  And yes, you still get all the maternity and paternity benefits. 

Here is a complete list is you care to read more: http://www.google.com/jobs/lifeatgoogle/benefits/ 

I think it is safe to say there is no real estate company on the planet who could match these types of benefits.  

So, here is an important question to consider:  If an individual worked in such a great environment, why would he/she leave?    

Some light research was recently conducted on this question by Matt Lynley at Business Insider, and I think the results might surprise you.  Here is some of what Lynley reported: 

“People leave Google because… 

1.  They are not part of the ‘well-respected’ group.  If you aren't an engineer, get ready to be below everyone else.  At most companies, it's the product manager who's more valuable than the engineer.  At Google, engineers get the final say in just about everything.  That leaves designers, ad operatives and just about everyone else in the dust.  

2.  They are bored and want something new.  Sometimes, it's time to move on.  Two former Google employees we spoke with said they had been at Google for an extended period of time and wanted to try something new.  A lot of them move on to new companies. 

3.  Feel disconnected and not part of a team they enjoy.  If you're at a satellite office, you might feel disconnected.  The former Google Wave Team left because they felt like they weren't getting their say.  One former Googler said that New York wasn't really a satellite office, but just about everything else was.  You have to make your presence felt in Mountain View if you want to have a say in the company. 

4.  Some are feeling the entrepreneurial itch.  Chris Dixon tweeted just a short while ago some Google diaspora:  Ev Williams, who founded Twitter; Kevin Systrom, who founded Instagram; Dennis Crowley, who founded Foursquare; and Ben Silbermann, who founded Pinterest.  One former Googler we spoke to did just that, and got a nice acquisition deal out of it. 

5.  They want to diversify their experience.  Facebook is the largest company where former Google employees end up.  Seriously — who wouldn't want Facebook, Google, and Microsoft all on their resume?  One former Googler we spoke with said this was a huge draw." 

As Dave Mashburn wrote earlier this month (Why Money isn’t the Right Incentive), money is often not the primary reason people leave their job.  Now, as Google alumni have shown us, the same rings true about benefits.  

As a real estate manager responsible for hiring and retaining agents, I’m sure this is hard to believe. Most discussions you have on both ends of the spectrum (hiring or retaining) center on splits and benefits. 

While you’ll always have to deal with the money issue, don’t make it the center of your discussions.  Instead, focus on the reality of the human condition that the Google research teaches: 

Human beings have an insatiable capacity for dissatisfaction. 

Become an expert at detecting dissatisfaction.  Everyone has some.  Once identified, spend time helping individuals relieve that dissatisfaction.   

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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. Comments or questions are welcome. If you're an email subscriber, reply to this WorkPuzzle email. If you read the blog directly from the web, you can click the "comments" link below.