Hopefully you’ve had the opportunity to listen to Dave Mashburn’s podcast series on the five pillars of happiness.
If you need to catch up, go to WorkPuzzle and search “podcast” (the search tool is at the bottom of the page). You’ll quickly see the most recent podcasts, and you’ll be off and running from there. Each podcast is just under four minutes long.
Researchers discovered these foundational principles of what leads to happiness, and they are surprisingly simple. So simple, they are often ignored. It’s easy to say, “yeah, I agree with that” or “that makes sense to me,” but never make changes in our lives.
At ThirdPool, we’re trying to avoid the trap of hearing, but not doing. I’ll share one of our applications from the pillar of purpose/meaning.
The Nature of Recruiting
As you know, recruiting can be a grind.
Based on the metrics we track; it takes a combination of 12 calls/emails to get one person in a face-to-face interview with a hiring manager. In turn, it takes four interviews to realize the goal of hiring one high-potential new agent. For many hires, this progression takes several months.
There are no shortcuts to the process. The work has to be done. The contacts have to be made. Sifting through unqualified individuals is the only way to uncover the hidden potential that exists in every group of candidates.
How do you stay motivated to keep doing this work?
Find the Meaning in the Work
We asked our team at ThirdPool that question a few months ago. The common answers quickly surfaced: To help our clients accomplish their goals, to help recruiters and hiring managers be more effective in their work, to make a profit as a company, etc.
While these are all good reasons, they didn’t seem to get at the core of what could make us more satisfied and happier in our work. We were missing something deeper.
The true meaning and significance of our work became apparent when we moved past the people we serve day-to-day and focused on the people they hire.
These are the individuals whose lives were dramatically changed when they became successful in a new career.
The Birth of the Canvas Story
To capture some of these stories, we asked our clients to connect us with some of their “ThirdPool hires” whose lives were changed after starting their real estate careers.
The response to this request was remarkable. Many of our clients’ hiring managers were excited to tell us about their favorite agents who stepped into their new jobs and flourished quickly.
Next, we interviewed a number of these individuals and learned about their unique circumstances. We captured the essence of their experiences both in story form and in a picture that revealed something about their personality and interests.
The end result—a finished print to hang in our office and remind us of the meaning and purpose behind the work we do on a daily basis.
We call it a “canvas story” because most of the pictures have been printed on a canvas (something our local Costco does for a reasonable price). We have five of our favorite “canvas stories” hanging in our office now, and there are more on the way.
Over the next few weeks, we’ll share a few of these stories in WorkPuzzle. Perhaps they’ll inspire you to stick to the daily tasks of recruiting as much as it inspired our team.
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