WorkPuzzle

Following Up With Candidates in Your Talent Pipeline

One of the most common questions we get from our clients is:

“What do I say to the candidates who are in my talent pipeline?  I know I need to follow-up with them consistently, but how do I keep a person engaged and interested over a long period of time?”

This is a great question and one that we’re going to attempt to answer in this week's discussions.  We’ll start with a simple principle that Dale Carnegie once recognized:

"You can make more friends in two months by becoming really interested in other people than you can in two years by trying to get other people interested in you."

The natural way to approach a talent pipeline (our term for the pool of candidates you are most interested in recruiting) is from a perspective of “What can these people do for me?”  After all, you are recruiting them for the contribution they can make to your organization, not the other way around, right?

In the recruiting process, however, you’ll find more success by operating under the opposite perspective.  You must legitimately put yourself in a mindset where you’re asking, “How can I help this person accomplish both their personal and career goals?”  This is what makes a lasting impression in the minds of your candidates.

This may sound oversimplified, but the human spirit has a way of drifting back to self-interest unless we continually prod it to take an interest in others.

The first step in this process is to focus your conversations with candidates on what the candidate is trying to accomplish in their life.  We already know that people like to talk about themselves, so ask questions that allow a person to talk about their accomplishments, what they’re proud of doing, and how they do their best work. 

During these conversations, listen for frustrations and obstacles that keep the individual from being more successful.  Don’t act on this information at this point—just listen and catalog the information for later use.

Next, find ways to address or solve one or two of these frustrations.  These solutions will carry more impact if they come from outside your organization and have nothing to do with the recruiting process.  In fact, the most thoughtful and empathetic people are able to pick up on the smallest cues during a conversation and turn them into action. 

I’ll give you an example from my personal life: 

I was at dinner with a group of guys last week.  During the conversation, the topic of youth baseball came up.  One of the guys in the group had some apprehension about his son leaving the Little League environment (only for 12 years and younger), unaware of what options are available at the next level.  Because I have sons who have played at various levels and in various leagues, I was able to answer some questions and refer him to a couple of websites and individuals who may be able to help him make a good decision.   

While my example doesn't pose a huge dilemma of sorts, it does illustrate how you can listen for a small frustration/concern and then act upon this information to help alleviate the frustration. 

If you can integrate these types of interactions into the conversations you have with those in your talent pipeline, it won’t be long before those with whom you interact see you as a resource.  It becomes natural (and comforting) to them to imagine themselves working with people who are helpful and insightful, like you. 

What's Your Value?

We are in the midst of preparing a series of articles on how to become a great recruiter.  No matter what business you're in, recruiting should always be a priority if you want to grow your business.

For our clients, recruiting is always considered a top priority.  But saying this and actually doing it, are two very different things!  Before we go into all the specifics regarding great recruiting, I want to address the fundamental foundation of recruiting.  You MUST be able to answer, with certainty and conviction, the following questions:

First, what distinguishing value do you provide, that's not provided by every other company in your industry?  And second, what, specifically, do you have to offer that is unattainable elsewhere?

If you don't know the answer to these questions, even the most steadfast discipline and best system of recruiting won't get you where you want to be.  

Here's a personal example:

When I began building a private practice as a Clinical Psychologist in 1987, I had to market my practice.  But, the problem was that the Seattle market was saturated with Psychologists.  So, I had to ask myself fairly quickly, what set me apart from others?  It became very clear to me, early on, that the busiest Psychologists were the ones who had gone beyond the work they had done to receive their Ph.D., and had invested in several years of extended supervision to learn a specialty, or a very specific way of offering great psychotherapy.

So, after some due diligence, I found an orientation of psychotherapy that made a great deal of sense to me.  I paid thousands of dollars each year for five additional years (beyond the initial nine years of school) to become proficient at delivering this very intense and disciplined way of helping people heal.

Now of course, all the while, I was marketing myself, by speaking publicly, meeting with physicians, etc... all the normal things you do to get your name out there.  However, what caused my practice to reach a state of critical mass, where marketing took care of itself, was offering services that people knew worked for them, services that were above and beyond the standard.

This is what will create the buzz - It's what caused me to pay top dollar to seek specialized training, and what caused my clients to follow a referral to my door.  Oh and by the way, it also happens to be the right thing to do... to offer something of true quality is in everyone's best interest; In my case, I improved myself by undergoing the intense training, and my clients benefited from my unique set of skills as well.

So, if you want to become an exceptional recruiter, ask yourself:  What do you offer that other managers or owners don't?  What value do you add, that's difficult to find anywhere else? 

Hiring Managers who can clearly articulate answers to these questions, and stand behind them, can recruit with confidence... 

The Wide Application of Your Talents

One of our readers recently wrote in with the following question:

"I left a  major  home building company after 12 years - after starting in an entry level field position, working up to a position managing the contracting for 40 to 70 million dollar projects.  I was responsible for scopes of work; contract negotiation and coordination.  It was my dream job, but I was unhappy with some ethical issues and left for a new company building low income housing in the inner-city where I was handed more responsibility, control and money.  My new company folded four months later and I have floundered ever since.  Some days I'm confident and hopeful, and others I wonder if a career change is inevitable and I'm just not seeing the writing on the wall. 

To finally get to my question, how, if the change from construction is inevitable, do I market my universal skills and experience (minus a degree) to companies outside my industry.  I know I am good and have the skills to transition, anyone I have worked for or with will tell you that.  How do I get that across?  How do I get the opportunity to prove this?"

---

Thanks for this great question, as it it cuts to the heart of 21st century hiring.

Allow me to break this down a bit:

First, let's address the overall philosophy that is inherent in your question.  That is, talent is talent...period.  We are moving away from 20th century recruiting, where managers made hiring decisions based solely on one's education, credentials, and match-for-match job descriptions.  The smartest employers and most confident, forward-thinking individuals are considering a wider definition of talent application these days.

These companies and individuals are realizing that prior job description isn't as crucial for predicting great performance as are general core strengths, talents and capacities.

We each have natural capacities to tackle certain tasks.  Even though these talents require some development, from the very beginning, they seem natural to us.  We all have a knack for certain activities - they give us energy and fulfillment.  These talents don't belong solely to a specific title or position, nor do they belong to a single profession.  These core talents can be applied to hundreds of positions.

Here is an example:  My brother was once (years ago) an excellent Jr. High School Teacher.  He then worked in software account management and development, and eventually for his state government as the go-to guy for pushing through major legislation and integration from their innovative IT department.  A few years ago, an international label & packaging company was in need of a Director of Project Development.  Instead of searching for someone with that exact job description, they searched for the talents they needed to fit the job they envisioned.  They sought someone who had shown a natural pattern of excellence in friendly negotiations among several stake holders, while diplomatically and systematically coordinating the efforts of multiple contributors toward a project completion. 

He was hired, despite the fact that he never had the title or job description of Project Director before.

So, I would recommend the individual who asked the question do the following:
 
Consider your talents carefully, and continue to push forward confidently, knowing that there is a company out there in need of your specific talents.  Diligently pursue companies that interest you.  Find a position that you'd like to fill, ignore what experience they are asking for, and figure out how your talents can be used to do the job well.

Be persistent in your efforts to get interviewed.  Good hiring managers will respond to persistence.  Your chance to "prove yourself" will come once you're on the inside...sitting in the interview chair.  During the interview, humbly, subtly and respectfully take charge.  Ask how that position contributes to the bottom line and overall company mission.  Once you thoroughly understand the core tasks and goals of the job, boil down your talents to brief descriptions and tell them how they can be used to accomplish the overall purpose of the position.  Encourage them to contact your references for feedback on how you would meet that challenge.

If they don't hire you after this, move on.  There are plenty of companies looking for this kind of desire to contribute to something great, rather than to just fill a position...

Why Do People Make Career Moves? - Part 2

Let’s suppose you make contact with a candidate, Brian, who you feel would be a great fit in your organization.  More than likely, you will have spent time and resources locating and contacting this person.  
 
After making a connection with Brian over the phone, you convince him that it would be mutually beneficial for you to set up a short, informational interview with the Hiring Manager, Nancy.

You follow up after the interview and discover that the Hiring Manager loved the candidate.  A quick call to the candidate reveals a similar feeling:  

“This is a great opportunity and I appreciate you setting up the interview with Nancy.  We really hit it off, and I can see myself working on her team and thriving under her leadership.”

Like many high-quality candidates, Brian is already immersed in his current job and does not really need to pursue the opportunity immediately.  He has a good income, a family to support, and a network of friends and contacts who regularly share new opportunities with him.  The next part of the conversation often goes something like this:

“I have a lot to process from what Nancy shared with me.  I’m also in the middle of a significant project at work that is going to take a lot of focus over the next couple of weeks.  Can you give me a call in a few weeks, after I'm done with the project?”

Now, what happens if you call Brian in a couple of weeks and ask him if he wants to work at your company, and he says he’s not ready to make a decision?  Many recruiters communicate a message something like this:

“Brian, I appreciate the time you’ve taken to learn about the opportunity in Nancy’s group.  You have Nancy’s contact information.  If you decide that you want to move forward with the opportunity in the future, just give Nancy a call.”

Of course, you never hear from Brian again.  Nancy never hears from Brian again.  Both of you have moved on to the next candidate, starting back at the beginning of the process.  If you're like many recruiters, you rationalize this course of action by telling yourself that if Brian were really a good candidate, he'd chase you or Nancy down and show initiative on his own.

This thought process is not reality.  It is your bruised ego telling you to justify an emotional decision.  "You'll teach that candidate for blowing you off!"
 
The reality is you’ve wasted the sourcing time and resources it took to originally make contact with Brian.  You’ve also wasted the time that both you and Nancy spent teaching Brian about the benefits of working in your organization.  This type of waste makes the recruiting process inefficient and frustrating for you, the managers you recruit for, and your candidates.
 
How can this be remedied?  Here are some thoughts:

1. Stop insisting that your company’s timing takes precedence over the candidate’s timing.  The best candidates have lots of opportunities and make career moves according to their schedule.  You need them, they don’t necessarily need you - At least not today.

2. Stop playing a numbers game you can’t win.  On occasion, you will happen upon a high quality candidate whose life circumstances have caused him/her to make a job change in perfect sequence with your company’s need to fill a position.  But as you well know, this doesn’t happen very often.  The candidates who immediately jump at your opportunities are often misfits, losers, and desperados you don’t really want anyway.

3. Approach your candidates with humility and empathy rather than arrogance.  The high quality candidates that you want to attract to your organization have lives.  They are going to respond to thoughtful and empathetic dialog much better than to someone implying they’re an idiot for not jumping on the opportunity that is in front of them today.

If you want to recruit the Brians out there, don't give up so easily.  Follow the advice above and be diligent in your follow-up.  When these candidates are ready to make a change, you will be there to guide and entice them to consider joining your team.

Why Do People Make Career Moves?

The quick answer to this question?   ...Because they have to make a change.

About a month ago, I wrote an article highlighting Po Bronson’s book, What Should I Do With My Life?  Bronson later published a follow-up article in Fast Company Magazine highlighting the most common misconceptions regarding finding meaning in one’s work.

The misconception that I’d like to discuss today is:

“People are the architects of their own change.”

Bronson notices:

“Extremely few people quit because of career ennui.  Rather most are pushed into change:  they’re laid off or can’t make ends meet or have at-home family demands or find their new, postmerger boss to be an absolute jerk.  They are not naive idealists.”

If you are a Hiring Manager or are responsible for recruiting in your company, this should be a principle you should consider nearly every day.  From a recruiter’s perspective, timing is everything.  Being in the right place (in the back of the candidate’s mind) at the right time (when the candidate is being forced to make a change), has a lot to do with your success.

This is one of the most important differentiators in separating successful recruiters from those who struggle.  It only makes sense that if these right place / right time interactions are left to chance, they are not going to happen very often.
 
Successful recruiters do the hard (and often boring) work of maintaining a presence in the back of the most desirable candidates’ minds.  This work takes creativity, persistence, and an understanding of human nature.  Tomorrow, I’ll discuss the principles that help recruiters find success in this endeavor.

Knowing Your Business

A friend of mine, who once grew an accounting firm from four million to 400 million annual revenue, recently told me that an important epiphany for him was the day he realized that he was actually in the recruiting business, not the accounting business.  Yes, his company provided accounting services and always needed to provide top notch and often specialized services.  But in order to do this, he realized his company had to be exceptional at recruiting.

He realized that if his company focused on the goal of being the best recruiter in the accounting business, they would rise above and beat out their competition.

I don't know about you, but that gave me goose pimples!  How insightful and how true.

What business are you really in?  I know that many of you are our clients - And most of our clients are in the "Real Estate" business.  But is this really your primary business?  What separates you from your competition?  I suspect, more often than not, the most successful Real Estate companies are not so coincidentally, also the best recruiters.

So what is good recruiting in Real Estate?

Is it waiting for people to knock on your door?  Believe it or not that is what many companies really do.

Is it going after the lowest hanging fruit in your pipeline; the ones that you only have to call once?  Again, many Real Estate companies operate with this focus.

If you are only accepting people who take little effort to recruit, you're going to get the most desperate people.  Is this really how you want to define the core of your business?

Here is a analogy we can all appreciate:  When you were dating, did you only date people who approached you, or did you pursue someone, or at least flirt with someone, that you had your eye on?  If you waited to be asked, you might have settled...  Generally the pursuit is well worth the work.

The most talented candidate for any given job is out there doing something else right now.  They are doing a very good job and they are not desperate, and more than likely, they are not actively looking for work.  To entice those individuals to join your team will take time, patience, creativity, and persistence (not to mention a well-run system to track the pipeline).

So, get your team together, and make sure that you are in agreement regarding your key business and how you'll pursue the best talent out there...

The Brain Science of Management

"First, we need to relinquish the fact that people are rational.  Recent research has shown emotions hold more sway over our decisions than reason; we turn to logic merely to justify our choices after the fact."  (Ellen Gibson, Business Week).

This excerpt is one of the summaries to a review of Management Rewired:  Why Feedback doesn't Work and Other Surprising Lessons from the Latest Brain Science, by Charles S. Jacobs.

If you've read the latest Workpuzzle blogs by Ben Hess (1,2) trying to rationalize his coffee addiction, you have witnessed, first hand, this principle at work.  He is physically, and therefore emotionally attached to coffee, and continues to look for evidence to justify his addiction.  He does a pretty good job of this, I might add.

What Jacobs details in his book has actually been conveyed previously in countless other ways - Jacobs has just written a book using the latest brain research to justify a well found truth.  The truth is that people respond more to their emotions than they do to rational motivations.

It's long been known, for instance, that people respond best when they are performing meaningful work and striving to do their best, and when managers don't manage out of reward and punishment.  Professor John Seddon from the University of Cardiff in his work, Freedom from Command and Control, states that:

"Dysfunctional behaviour is ubiquitous and systemic, not because people are wicked but because the requirement to serve the hierarchy competes with the requirement to serve customers."

When management becomes out of control,

"...people's ingenuity is engaged in survival not improvement.  By causing managers and staff to lose sight of their customers, they can ultimately contribute to putting the organization out of business altogether."

In Gibson's article, The Stop-Managing Guide to Management, Gibson explains:

"Whether we're a chimpanzee or a corporate employee, we don't like being controlled by others.  Instead of trying to alter behaviors by fiat, he recommends that managers stop managing.  Employees should set their own objectives, critique their own performance, and come up with their own strategies for improvement.  People are self-motivating, Jacobs says, especially when they feel they're doing meaningful work.  (In case this strikes anyone as a dubious assertion, the author points out that engaging tasks stimulate the brain's dopamine system and deliver the same 'high' we get from food and nicotine.)"

So what's a boss to do? 

"Managers are better served by using subtle tactics to influence employees. Understanding that people are strongly motivated by emotion, he recommends that leaders create evocative 'narratives' about an organization's mission. For a small startup, it could be as basic as a David-vs.-Goliath plotline.

Here's an example of a rewired manager in action:  A team with a specific goal feels it's understaffed.  Jacobs suggests the manager defer to the team's point of view rather than react irritably.  Acknowledge that the team is shorthanded, he advises, then convince members that adding staff would dilute their accomplishment.

The book draws parallels between the couch and the cubicle.  The goal of the talk therapist is to guide the patient away from self-defeating mindsets.  But it's hard to imagine the average boss having the patience to apply these techniques, and Jacobs acknowledges that his approach takes more effort than employing carrot and stick.  Even so, reading Management Rewired might soften the touch—and boost the effectiveness—of many a corporate drill sergeant."

Keep in mind that most of you who have been raised under the reward and punishment system, with little exposure to the more subtle motivations, are emotionally attached to that way of relating, and will find ways to justify that management style.  But if you do this, you'll be rationalizing something that's not good for you or your team, much like Ben continues to rationalize his coffee addiction.  

Coffee Research and Recruiting

Yesterday, I shared how I recently became a guilt-free coffee drinker due to the research that recently surfaced regarding the health benefits of my addictive obsession.

As I read more of the article yesterday, something caught eye - The article explains why coffee got a bad rap in the first place:

“Many people take their coffee with a small dose of guilt, worried that it isn’t good for the body.  That’s a holdover from studies done in the 1950s and 1960s showing that coffee drinkers were prone to pancreatic cancer, heart disease, and other woes.  These studies failed to account for cigarette smoking, which once went hand in cup with coffee drinking.  Since then, the medical community has done a gradual about-face on the health effects of coffee.”

I think there is a principle here worth considering when it comes to recruiting. 

Part of the service offering we provide our clients is the design and implementation of recruiting systems.  From an end-to-end system perspective, recruiting can look very different than it does if you just examine each component on its own.

For example, we often hear comments such as:

“We’ve tried job boards, and they don’t work for our company.”

or...

“I took an assessment in the past that indicated I would be a poor salesperson, but I’m a great salesperson!”

or...

“I’ve called and left voice mails for the candidates on my sourcing list, and they don’t call back.  We must be calling the wrong candidates because these people aren’t interested.”

Just as the coffee researchers discovered, the overall system matters most when it comes to results.  Just because your Uncle Joe drank a lot of coffee and died of a heart attack, doesn’t mean the coffee killed him...It was more likely his overall lifestyle that led to his demise, from which coffee drinking was a mere part.  Likewise, it is not likely the pieces of the recruiting process that cause recruiting failures, it is the system itself that is faulty.
 
As humans, it is much easier for us to focus our attention on part of an overall process, rather than to look at things holistically.  Why?  Because whatever is causing the pain is what gets our attention.  If you’re responsible for recruiting, that’s a mistake. 

You’ll get much better results by identifying as many parts in the recruiting process as possible and then testing to see how changing each component affects the end result.  This takes time, attention, and focus...but it works!

The Seattle Lifestyle is Finally Vindicated

I thought we’d cover a fun topic today.  As many of you know, our company is headquartered in Seattle.  Near the top of the list of things to hassle residents of Seattle about (right behind how much it rains here) is how much coffee we drink. 

It’s true -- We drink a lot of coffee.  Howard Schultz was no dummy when he founded Starbucks in this dark, dreary town where almost everyone needs a pick-me-up to face the day.

Some would say that I am particularly excessive.  A couple a years ago, we set a revenue goal as a company, and as a reward for meeting our goal, we bought the office a Gaggia automatic espresso maker.  This is a wonderful machine.  With just the push of a button, it grinds fresh coffee beans and makes two shots of steaming espresso.  

I’ve been known to drink a few of these every day that I am in the office.  In fact, after five of these double-shots within one day, I usually stop counting.  The ladies in our office claim that I’m addicted to this high-octane stuff, but I don’t think so.  I’ve always thought that it was healthy for me, and now I’ve got someone to back up my hypothesis...

Harvard Business Review ran an article this month that vindicates my position.  It turns out coffee is good for you:

“Large, long-term studies show that coffee doesn’t promote cancer and may even protect against some types.  It’s safe for the heart—so safe that the American Heart Association says it’s OK for heart attack survivors to have a cup or two a day even as they recover in the coronary care unit.
 
Results from the long-running Health Professionals Follow-Up and Nurses’ Health studies show that drinking coffee cuts the risk of dying early from heart attack or stroke.  Coffee also appears to offer some small protection against Type 2 diabetes, gallstones, and Parkinson’s disease.”

So, keep the espresso coming!  Here’s the bad news.  If you put anything in your coffee (cream, sugar, flavoring, etc.) you start to negate the health benefits. 

If you drink one of those 16-ounce Mint Mocha Chip Frappuccinos with chocolate whipped cream every day, you’re probably going to gain a bunch of weight, be depressed from an overdose of sugar (one of these drinks contains 58 grams of sugar—that’s 14 teaspoons!), and eventually die from heart disease. 

Luckily, I drink mine black....

Gratitude - Part 2

In Friday's blog, I described the many benefits to a daily exercise of gratitude. I suspect that had I listed the benefits (even powerful benefits to reaching your goals), without explaining the prescription, many of you would have reached for your wallet to pay for whatever it was that could lead to such great benefits.

But, given that the solution requires some personal daily discipline, and might be seen as kind of corny (especially to the macho types), you might be inclined to blow it off. Much like Rosanne Bar said many years ago: "I'd do absolutely anything to lose weight.... except diet and exercise."

Here's my promise:  I am going to start following the below prescription daily.  If you haven't yet read Friday's blog, please do, so you can learn why I'm so emphatic about building gratitude into my daily life. It is my hope that you (and those whom you manage) will too aspire to improve your outlook on life via a conscious practice of gratitude.   

Beginning a Gratitude Journal: (Modified from How to Keep a Gratitude Journal)

Step 1:  Choose a blank notebook or journal to write in every night.  Consider a spiral-bound journal that opens flat for ease in writing.  Select lined or unlined paper.  Keep this notebook next to the bed with a pen readily available.

Step 2:  Look for things during the day for which you are grateful.  Make mental notes throughout the day, every day.  Notice how the gratitude journal serves as a catalyst in shifting your focus to a more positive outlook over time.

Step 3:  Write five things you're grateful for each night before bedtime.  Review the day and include anything, however small or great, that was a source of gratitude that day.  For example...the morning sun (rare in Seattle), the sound of a Harley, a flower in bloom, your child's laugh, or the smell of a newly cut lawn (...or cinnamon toast).  Make the list personal.  Write a few words about the five benefits or blessings.  Be brief and increase the length as time progresses.

Step #4:  Begin looking every day for the positive angle in all things.  You will begin to view obstacles as opportunities to appreciate.

Step #5:  Focus on the wonderful things in life to attract similar encounters in the course of the day.  Use positive emotions as you interact with others to elicit more positive emotions (There is a lot of research supporting this finding).  Note these attractions in the gratitude journal.

Step #6:  Personalize the gratitude journal.  Expand it with clippings, photos, quotes or verses from magazines or other sources.

For most of us, this seems like such a stretch -- It seems like something Oprah would do (As I recall, I believe she actually does keep a gratitude journal...). Nevertheless, the benefits are clear and profound. 

While researchers are stating their findings loud and clear, religious leaders have been emphasizing the benefits of gratitude for thousands of years.  I invite (challenge?) you to join me in this endeavor, and post your results.  I think you'll be surprised how much you will gain from this exercise....