Fair warning: If you get squeamish at the sight or thought of blood, you may want to skip this post. On the other hand, if you have vampire tendencies, this should be a treat.

They say a pint of blood could mean the difference between life and death and since I figured I had a pint to spare, it seemed like an easy contribution to make to the greater good. Plus, my church was holding a blood drive. At church. On Sunday. It really couldn’t have been easier to get on board with such a worthy cause.

After filling out a bunch of paperwork and certifying that I hadn’t had a corneal implant in the past 12 months, ever had Hepatitis or exchanged sex for money or drugs in the past 30 years, I was ready to give.

I had some reservations about having a needle poked in my veins since I am a notoriously “difficult draw.” When I go in for my annual physical, I always request the most experienced phlebotomist (fancy title for a blood sucker in a lab coat) because apparently it’s difficult for most of them to find a good vein on me.

Today was no exception.

After examining both of my arms and giving a big sigh, this lovely young vampire named Mia choose my left arm and with some intrepidation inserted the needle. Ouch! No success, but instead of starting over she began to dig. There had to be a vein in there somewhere and so she kept probing with the needle looking for pay dirt.

“Does this hurt?,” she asked sweetly.

“No, my legs always kick straight out like this when someone puts a needle in my arm and uses it as an excavation tool.”

Finally, right at the moment I thought I was going to pass out, she announced, “Yeah, we have blood.” And we both breathed a sigh of relief.

The blood flowed nicely and the bag began to fill. I was giving up a pint of life saving matter and I felt good inside. She announced when I was half way there and then again when I was 75% of the way toward the necessary pint. We were almost there, but she was concerned that the blood had slowed down so she asked me keep squeezing more intensely on the stress ball she had placed in my left hand. Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze.

And then it stopped. She told me we were 90 mg short of a pint with a look of despair on her face. As it turns out, blood is measured and delivered only in units of one full pint. Less than a pint might as well be nothing at all. Less than a full pint meant they would have to throw out the blood I had already given.

“Try again!”, I demanded. “We’re too close to give up.”

She informed me the only option was to, once again, dig deeper with the needle and she warned me, “It’s going to hurt.”

I didn’t care. The idea of coming this close for nothing was worse than the pain of the needle.

She called a more seasoned colleague over to probe for a better source and after moments that left me feeling light-headed, he pronounced that it was a lost cause. My blood had done what healthy blood does in this situation, it had begun to clot and there would be no more blood coming.

Failure.

If I had been able to produce 90 mg more (that’s less than 2 oz of the 16 oz needed for a full pint), this blood could have been used to save someone’s life. Now, at a scant pint, it was biowaste–trash.

I lamely joked and asked if I could have it back since they weren’t going to be able to use it, but the joke was just to mask the disappointment of trying and coming up short.

For the record, I hate coming up short. My three least favorite words in the English language are: almost, try, and maybe. All three represent a lack of closure.

How you finish is as important as how you start. In fact, I’d argue that it’s more important. Finishing well is the difference between time invested and time wasted.

Sourcing a talented candidate means nothing if you can’t land them.

Uncovering a hot new opportunity is not nearly as impressive as closing the deal.

Winning a new client is meaningless if you don’t deliver on your promises.

“Almost” doesn’t count for much. Finishing strong is all that matters.

Here’s a Bold, Offensive Prediction for 2010.

I’m going to predict your future…

Forgive me in advance if this hits a little too close to home.

It’s not meant to be offensive, but it is meant to be objective.

(I’ll explain in a second.)

1. You will break your resolutions by the end of January.

2. You will make the same amount of money as the average of your last 2 years’ total income.

3. You will struggle with the same habits, patterns, and behaviors that you always have.

4. You will get to the end of the year and have made very little progress but reassure yourself that next year will be better.

Why do I make these predictions? Well, statistically speaking, that’s what will happen to almost everyone.

So, it’s a safe bet that the same will happen to you this year. That is, if you don’t make some necessary changes.

I know … I know …

What nerve? Who the heck am I to say such things? Exactly. No one can make accurate predictions about an individual. Only about populations.

The fact is, it‘s people who are outside of the “norm” that really do anything significant with their lives.

Are those people made that way? Is it just luck, fate or genetics?

I don’t think so.

The fact is, success “can” be reverse engineered and reproduced.

You don’t have to accept what everyone else is getting but you must make a few new choices.

Suppose you decided today – right now – that you’re finally making a REAL commitment to turn your dreams into actions… and your goals into achievements. And suppose you had more fun doing it than you ever imagined!

It can happen… but you’re going to have to shake things up a little. After all, if you keep doing what you’ve always done, you’ll keep getting what you’ve always gotten (is that a word?).

You can make some simple changes that will have a profound impact on your results and I will show you how. Click here more details about a free teleseminar I’m hosting on January 14th.

Happy New Year!

Jen

You learn interesting things when you’re stuck in bed with the flu watching daytime TV. For example: Did you know that Gretchen Bonaduce married Danny on their first date. You know Danny Bonaduce, right? Red-headed kid of “The Partridge Family” fame. That little boy grew up into a human trainwreck with a made-for-reality-show propensity for drug addiction, alcoholism, infidelity, steriod abuse and all other forms of debauchery. Gretchen stayed with him for 18 years before she finally called it quits.

She seems like a reasonable person, but how does a sensible person marry someone on their first date and then endure nearly two decades of living hell? She says a psychic foretold it. She met Bonaduce when she was working for a radio station booking guests for the station’s different shows. She booked a psychic for Bonaduce’s show who read his fortune and told him that he would marry Gretchen. Within a month that prediction was made reality.

I don’t believe in psychics. I think Jerry Seinfeld hit it on the head when he observed, “Do you ever wonder why you never see headlines like: Psychic Wins Lottery?”

Psychics can make things happen by placing an idea in someone’s head. That person then, possibly without even realizing it, begins to act in ways that make that prediction come to life.

I worked with a guy briefly who lived recklessly. He drove way too fast, chain smoked, partied like a rockstar and abused his body like a man who didn’t intend to live long. He didn’t. A palm reader had told him in his twenties that he wouldn’t live to see his 30th birthday. I lost touch with him, but if he made it to his third decade I would consider that more of a miracle than anything else.

The point is this–be careful what thoughts you allow in your head. What you accept as truth can work for you or against you.

One of my friends in the Pinnacle Society proclaimed at our April meeting that he had decided that the down economy was the perfect impetus for him to rededicate himself to his business and to work harder than he had worked in a long time. He said, “This will be my first million dollar year.” This declaration was made four months into the year. I just saw him three weeks ago and he has already personally billed more than a million bucks.

Your mind gravitates to your current dominant thought. Make sure yours are leading you in the direction you want to go. Thoughts lead to actions. Actions have consequences that can set the direction of your life. Just ask Gretchen Bonaduce.

As I write this I am on a flight headed home from the Fall 2009 meeting of the Pinnacle Society. Pinnacle is an honor society of 75 of the top producing recruiters in the country. Every meeting I attend leaves me inspired and challenged and this one was no exception. While my list of takeaways is long, there is one image in particular that will stay with me a long time.

I facilitated a roundtable discussion on increasing personal production. The ideas that the group offered up ranged from the highly strategic to the very tactical. There were discussions of brand building, referral marketing, time management, technology tools and more. Carl Coco sat across from me and took it all in before he spoke. Now, if you haven’t met Carl let me tell you that he is a man that has absolute credibility with me. He has been a top producing recruiter for 40–that’s right, 40–years. He didn’t get into Pinnacle by stringing together a half dozen solid years in a hot economy. He has been putting up big numbers for four decades in good markets and bad. When Carl speaks, we should all listen.

Carl explained, in his matter-of-fact way, that he had increased his personal production by increasing his call time. He reached into a folder that he had tucked under his arm and pulled out the most recent call accounting report and shared with the group exactly how many calls he had made in the last week. He knows down to the minute the exact amount of time he spent on the phone. He knows how many connects, how many sendouts, how many new searches, how many new candidates and more. Carl knows his numbers. He sets goals based on his numbers. Most importantly, Carl controls his results by his numbers.

I compare this to the people who I meet in the business who tell me that they refuse to keep track of their numbers. An underperforming recruiter told me in a recent phone call that he had “moved beyond putting tick marks on some sheet of paper.” This guy boasted that he was a senior recruiter and that keeping track of numbers is for rookies. But I have news for this “senior” guy. He is a rookie. In fact, I know many recruiters in their first year on the job who are putting up better billings than this self-appointed senior recruiter. Recruiting isn’t a union job. Time in the job doesn’t make you “senior” and there is no special status confered on recruiters based on tenure.

A professional athlete’s worth is measured by his win-loss ratio. A Hollywood actress is judged by her box office draw. A recruiter’s value come from his or her billings. That’s the way it works. It boils down to a number.

Numbers matter. Carl knows that. That’s why he has such a deep and abiding respect for his numbers. I wish I had taken a picture of Carl sitting across from me with his metrics report tucked under his arm, nestled right next to his heart. I would send it to every recruiter who tells me that this business is about more than numbers. Even after 40 years in this business producing at the highest levels, he knows he hasn’t “outgrown” the numbers. And he wouldn’t have it any other way.

I’m a lucky person. I was born to wonderful parents who nurtured me and provided me with a safe and loving home. I have been blessed with good health, a sharp mind, and unlimited drive. None of these things were “earned.” Before I wake up in the morning, I start off ahead of the game because of the many ways in which I have been blessed. I know that others have faced far greater challenges and overcome much more significant hurdles and I stand in awe of them. I am enormously grateful and give thanks to God for all the things I have been given–literally given.

Now it’s your turn? How have you been blessed? Why do I ask? Because the answer is so important to your success. Gratitude turns all you have into enough and more. Recognition of your gifts is the first step to leveraging them. Your good fortune is not just the prologue to your story, it’s the overarching theme.

Successful people acknowledge the good things in their life, expect more good things and then determinedly move forward making more good things happen. And it all starts with gratitude because without gratitude, it’s easy to fall into the trap of entitlement. Entitled people expect good things to be given to them and consequently spend their lives disappointed and ultimately bitter.

Stop what you’re doing and think for a minute. What are you grateful for?

“Don’t let it end like this. Tell them I said something.”

-Pancho Villa (1877-1923), last words

In everyone’s mind there is a film quietly running. In this film, we see the version of our best self. In this film, we are the hero of the story. We are wise, we are witty and we are powerful. We always know what to say and do. It really is a wonderful and inspiring story.

It’s too bad it’s all fantasy.

I can confidently say that no recruiter in our firm has ever failed for lack of training. They all know what they should do. Recruiters who fail in our company, most often do so because they know what to do and yet do something entirely different.

Let me give you a real example. Recruiters in our firm are trained on debriefing candidates after interviews and provided with a debrief form with scripting included. They all know, like they know how to breathe, that at the end of every debrief they should ask: “So money aside, if they offer you the job will you accept?” It’s classic Danny Cahill “End Game” stuff. It’s a simple and powerful question that tells you if you are moving toward a successful deal. If the candidate has hesitation or concern, you’ll hear it and have the opportunity to resolve it. This simple and elegant question asked early and often in the process virtually eliminates surprise and heartache at the end of the process.

Every recruiter will tell you that they ask this question every time and you know what? They’re all lying. No, they aren’t liars. They aren’t trying to deceive you. They really believe that they are asking that question. What I hear when I observe recruiters are watered down versions of that question. I hear them perverting a strong closing question into a soft open-ended question like: “So does the job sound good?” In their mind, it’s the same question and it isn’t. In the film that’s playing in their head, they are being strong and powerful. The trouble there’s a huge gap between the story they tell themselves and the story that’s playing out in real time. That gap is where deals die and recruiters become jaded.

There are 99 different reasons a recruiter takes the weak path and I won’t even attempt to address those in this post. The first step is to acknowledge reality. The recruiter needs to face the fact that the film that plays in her head is out of synch with the truth. There are several ways to accomplish this.

1. Put on a public performance. In our offices, recruiters work in open spaces where they can overhear one another. By design no recruiter has a private office. It’s not because we’re stingy about space. It’s not because we are trying to recreate a boiler room environment. Our recruiters work in an environment where others can overhear them for one simple reason-it makes them better. We ask recruiters to act as accountability partners for one another. They are told from day one, if you overhear someone sabotaging their own success, hold up the proverbial mirror. We have created a culture where calling one another out is considered an act of loyalty.
2. Capture the performance on film. Okay, maybe not film, but there needs to be some observable performance so that the recruiter can hear with her own ears the weakness, the ambivalence, the less-than-best delivery. We’ve all had the experience of hearing the recorded version of our voice and asking: “Do I really sound like that?” Recording calls has the same effect. You can no longer kid yourself about the bravado with which you delivered a message when you hear the actual recording and you sound more mousey than mighty. Different states have different laws about recording phone conversations so you’ll want to check with your attorney about the best way to move forward implementing this.
3. Managers, get in the game. I am a huge fan of managers working amongst their team. Can you imagine a football coach skipping a game and then relying on his players to give him their recollection of the game? How could he effectively coach behavior he hadn’t actually observed? For that reason, I don’t work in a private office. I have a private office for private meetings and doing other work that requires focus but I use that space less than 20 percent of the time. I travel to different offices and work in a cubicle right in the middle of the team so I can observe actual performance and others can observe mine. Accountability is for everyone.
4. Hire a coach. If you’re a solo practitioner or a manager who could use an accountability partner, consider hiring a coach. Look for one who will listen to actual calls and provide you real-time feedback. If you’d like more information about my private coaching options, please contact me at Coaching@ElevatePerformanceSystems.com.

]]> http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?feed=rss2&p=82 0 http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?p=81 http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?p=81#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 04:19:48 +0000 jenifer http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?p=81

I stopped into a boutique stationary store last week to pick up a last minute gift for a friend. The woman who helped me with my purchase had operated the store for 25 years. She corrected me when I asked her how long she had “owned” the store. “I operate the store. To say you own something is such a passive statement. Operate is a verb–it implies action.” She’s right, of course.

Owning a house is different than making a home. Owning a car is not the same as taking a scenic drive. And we all understand that owning a treadmill is not necessarily synonymous with running.

Best-selling author, Sue Grafton once said, “A writer is someone who wrote today.” It’s the act of writing that makes you an author.

It’s the same for recruiters. Just calling yourself a recruiter doesn’t make you a credit to the industry. Being a professional recruiter requires a commitment that is brought to life through a certain set of daily activities. The most important of those activities is to recruit. If a writer is someone who wrote today, then a recruiter is someone who recruited today.

In this economy with unemployment rates inching upward, it may be tempting to sit back and let the candidates come to you. It’s a huge mistake. If you do this, you will become an “interviewer”–not a recruiter. Interviewers are not a credit to the industry and, worse, bring no value to their clients. “Recruiters” who take this path of least resistance will not survive a prolonged downturn.

Your client can find unemployed candidates on their own. They won’t pay you a premium fee to pull someone off a job board. You’ll find more and more fee pressure when the candidates you produce aren’t discernably better than those who respond to their job postings. Simply put–a recruiter who doesn’t recruit and produce high value candidates will find they have become irrelevant.

My recommendation in the current market is to maintain some daily dose of recruiting calls to keep your skills sharp and build a pipeline of placeable and marketable candidates.

Any day you go home without actually recruiting, you are taking a step backward. You are choosing the path that leads to downward to lower value, lower billings and lower personal income. It’s your choice. Choose wisely.

This post should be labeled “for owners and managers only” but I’m all about full-disclosure so if you’re interested read on.

A question was posed to me by an owner/manager about the proprietary nature of candidate data. It used to be, before the days of LinkedIn, Facebook, Plaxo and all the other myriad of social networks, recruiters entered all of their candidate data into a confidential company-owned database. If the recruiter left the firm, the data stayed behind. Today, recruiters are paid to develop networks and source candidates that could walk out the door with them when they leave the firm visa vis these social networks. This manager wanted to know my thoughts about trying to manage the risk of this happening.

This was my response:

In a world that’s becoming increasingly open source and where social networking is connecting strangers and calling them “friends”, “owning” connections is an antiquated notion. I used to lose sleep about who else had access to my connections and what would happen if the recruiters I was paying to build their network left me and took all their “friends” with them. Then, I realized that sleep deprivation accelerates aging and promotes weight gain so I decided that nothing would interfere with the quality of my sleep.

Seriously, “owning” people in a database makes as much sense to me as an employer accusing me of trying to “steal” one of their employees. We don’t own people and you can’t buy relationships. It’s all about adding value. If I have a better relationship and bring more value to an individual who is linked to 100,000 other recruiters he will work with me. If I bring enough value to the recruiter who works for me and she believes she’s better off working for me than someone else, I don’t have to worry about her taking her social network and her billings out the door. Non-competes could be a solution, but I’ve never used one. Frankly, a recruiter who isn’t clever enough to figure out how to get around one isn’t someone I want to lock down and I can’t reconcile the hypocrisy of spending my days helping candidates figure out how to break their non-competes while I try to enforce them with my recruiters.

On a very practical side-note, I make sure I’m in my recruiters’ social networks so I have access to their contacts. Of course, by doing so I also give them access to mine. That’s the way the world works today. The only other option is to isolate yourself and your recruiters but the downside to that is obvious. Better to run the risk of paying a recruiter to build relationship and have them leave than not build relationships and have them stay.

]]> http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?feed=rss2&p=78 0 http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?p=77 http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?p=77#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 02:42:34 +0000 jenifer http://www.recruiterrocketfuel.com/?p=77