In the last edition, I described the importance of understanding the psychological principle of self-activation, and how to take advantage of a candidate's first step toward joining your company. 

In closing, I described what is a natural reaction for most people to their initial steps toward any change…that reaction being anxiety and a depressed mood.  That's right, it is absolutely natural for most candidates to demonstrate enthusiasm and excitement when they first consider a new opportunity.  But don't count on this newfound excitement lasting very long.  You see, excitement and fear are opposite sides of the same coin — A candidate usually oscillates back and forth between these two emotions before, hopefully, settling somewhere in between and reaching a rational decision. 

If you have been discouraged in your recruiting efforts by your candidates' inability to maintain enthusiasm throughout the recruitment process, you need to understand that your candidate is likely experiencing something psychologist refer to as the defense triad.  If you don't understand this triad and deal with it as it arises, you might as well jump into the nearest sumo wrestling ring.  You will lose the fight.  

The Defense goes like this:  Self-Activation, leads to Anxiety, which leads to Defense.  

What this means is that once a person begins to experience anxiety, they will come up with a multitude of reasons why they can no longer consider moving in the direction they were just previously excited about.  And not only that, they will not budge an inch! 

Now, you'd think that it would be difficult to differentiate between a defense that is rational…and defense that isn't.  Take for instance, a candidate who says on Wednesday, "I am thrilled with the possibility of finding out more and seeing if this may be in my future."  And then on Friday says, "NO.. I'm really not interested now," or "I just spoke to my spouse who says this isn't a good plan."  These are most likely defenses.  How do I know?  Because the initial interaction was one of reciprocal discussion, but now they don't want any feedback.  Whenever someone does this kind of about-face, and you are suddenly treated like a threat, the person is truly acting out of a defense against their own first step of self-activation.  

You see, the only time that we are all very comfortable with first steps and change is when we are young.  Fortunately for most of us, we don't mind falling a few times before learning to stand on our own, or falling harder a few times before walking or running on our own.  But, as people get older, we resist change and become more attached to security and familiarity, even if we are bored with the familiar.  Research shows that if we get too bored, we don't grow and can't enjoy what we do.  We must continually challenge ourselves to remain vital. 

Unfortunately, educating the candidate about the above won't help.  Instead, you must understand how to deal with resistance when you see it.  In the next edition, I'll give you some insight on how to best do this in a way that leaves you more relaxed than you can imagine.

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.