Podcast: The Five Pillars of Happiness – Flourishing

Thursday, March 31, 2016

What makes people happy? What helps individuals flourish in their day-to-day lives?

Over the last 20 years, psychology has provided empirically-based answers to these significant questions.

five pillars of happiness flourishing

But most people are not familiar with this research. Instead, they depend upon philosophers, so-called self-help gurus, or other unreliable sources to find inspiration.

Over the next five weeks, I’ll share the evidence-based research on this important topic. Once you understand the trustworthy elements leading to happiness, it will inform every aspect of your life – including your business and recruitment decisions.

WorkPuzzleFooterDave

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Learning to Recruit in Death Valley

Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Last week, while attending the Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices conference in Dallas, I heard one of the speakers remind me of something I’ve read hundreds of times in articles, books, and speeches on success.

Everything in business operates on the indisputable law of the farm:o

Seeds must be planted and nurtured in order to experience a harvest.

superbloom

Surprisingly, this principle was recently on display in Death Valley. This desert, spanning parts of California and Nevada, is one of the hottest and driest places on earth. It’s not a place that would seem likely to support much plant life.

And yet, it wonderfully demonstrates the power and resilience of the law of the farm.  It also teaches an important lesson about recruiting—one that most hiring managers are very resistant to apply.

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Podcast: The Psychology of Persuasion: Consensus

Tuesday, March 08, 2016

Let’s say that two managers interview the same number of candidates. One prefers to interview candidates when the office is empty, and another manager insists on interviewing candidates when the office is full of activity. The manager with the latter strategy hires a greater percentage of candidates. What is going on?

busy office

 

Today, I’ll continue to offer scientifically based explanations on how to increase your batting average with quality candidates. My focus today will be on “consensus”. The principle is simple: we all are prone to look to others to help us make tough decisions.

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Learning to Use the Psychology of Persuasion

Thursday, March 03, 2016

Over the past few weeks, Dave has shared several insights on the psychology of persuasion.

There’s still much to learn, but hopefully you’ve already had an opportunity to apply some of these principles with the candidates you’ve interviewed and those you’re urging to make a final commitment to your team.

Rug Photo

Or, perhaps integrating these ideas into your day-to-day activities is more difficult than you expected.

I think many of us fall into this second category. We risk letting the theory remain just a theory. We intend to make use of the new information, but return back to doing things the way we’ve always done them.

How do you truly become a persuasive recruiter? Perhaps a quick stop in a Moroccan rug store will help.

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The Psychology of Persuasion: Likeability

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

You just interviewed a ThirdPool candidate who you really like and think would be a great addition to your office.

You are excited enough to ask them immediately to join your team. They sort of nod and tell you they’ll get back to you.

fb_fan_15_like

Several weeks go by and the candidate is not responding to your requests for a follow-up discussion. What happened? What caused this apathy?

Today, I’ll continue to offer scientifically based explanations on how to increase your batting average with these quality candidates. My focus today will be on likeability. The principle is simple: we are more influenced to say yes to people we like.

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Focus Your Recruiting Efforts on Disengaged Agents

Friday, February 12, 2016

In my last WorkPuzzle, I espoused the benefits of failure.

It’s important for both individuals and businesses to consider and implement many new ideas knowing a majority of them will not work out.

Hellomyname

Successes are often sparsely scattered among a string of failures.

While there are no true short cuts to success (you will have to experience some failure of your own), there are some smarter ways to proceed along the path towards success.

One of these ways is to learn from the failures of others, and this lesson can come from the world famous Zappos company.

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