Rolodex

When a tough req surfaces you should think of a person.  That person who comes to mind is the one who you’ll talk to about their knowledge of the skill set. Their’s is the profile page you’ll search for connections on, looking for new candidate leads.  They may be the person you ping to ask about a given candidates reputation.  There may in fact be several people who come to mind.  The point is, it’s a person, not a system that will be most helpful filling a tough position.  All of our modern recruiting tools are just enhancements to the only real source for finding great talent.  It starts with who you know.  New tools make it easier for you to more quickly know who you know.  They also help you understand more information about your acquaintances and colleagues.  But in the end, they are all just a modern Rolodex.  Great recruiters make friends quickly, find interests in common with their new friends, and share their network.  You can use a Rolodex and a phone book.  There are easier ways, but over the long haul it’s still the person the matters not the system.

Feel free to suggest exceptions, examples and ideas on this topic below.


Good Intexting

So…, I was texting someone a very timely, sentimental message. It was a close family member who was opening up to me in an unusual way. It was a great bonding opportunity during a time of real need.

As I was putting the appropriate words together with my right thumb, the car in the opposing lane swerved a bit and I found myself looking wide-eyed at a pair of headlights glaring at me trough the rain. Ok. It was stupid. I get it. My loved ones in the car with me were risking their lives so I could spill my bleeding heart into a touching, but life-threatening text. So, yeah, I get it. I also get this: good intentions mean nothing! Protect what matters. Your life, your loved ones, your love, your customers, your career… Don’t gamble the dearest things in well intended folly. The right heart isn’t all that matters. The right priorities matter too.


Dig a Deeper River

Thought flows like water; to where it naturally falls.  With water, gravity and depth define the flow.  The gravity of thought is familiarity.  The depth is the significance of a thought to a person’s life.  There are ways to re-route water.   Consider the gutters on your roof, city curbs and storm drains.  In nature damns are built and trenches are dug to direct water where it’s wanted.  As we’ve all seen, there is no amount of infrastructure you can create to keep complete control of water.  Broken levies, puddled landscaping, and overflowing gutters happen.  Water will find low ground.

So goes the mind.  Thought flows naturally to the most familiar and most critical perceptions and assumptions.  You can build constraints in the mind for a time.  But if you intend to live safely under the flow of a new thought process, dig a river.  Don’t just create a rule.  Create memories.  Build assumptions intentionally that are deep and impactful.  If it’s going to flow reliably in a new direction, it has to become the greatest depth in the mental landscape.


Ugly Sweater Recruiting

Sometimes hiring managers need to be encouraged to make a decision, but other times they just need a way to tell you why they can’t.

Remember when your Great Aunt Mable was so excited about her Christmas present to you?  She told you how much you would like it, mentioned it to your mom, had it wrapped by the department store in gold paper and marked it, “A very special gift for a very special kid!”  A contoured weave sweater wasn’t exactly what you were hoping for, but what did you say when she asked, “Well, how do you like it?”  I bet you were desperately hoping that it didn’t fit, and that the department store was all out of your size.  Perhaps then you would at least have a chance to steer her toward something you actually wanted.

How motivated are your customers to give you real feedback about the candidates you present?  Is your presentation so full of promise that they feel like they would embarrass you to say no?  Are they desperately looking for an out – an easy way to tell you you’re way off without having to confront you?  If you really want to get them what they want, take them shopping with you.  In other words, communicate in such a way that you leave the door open for conversation when it’s necessary.  Being an expert recruiter doesn’t mean you have to know precisely what they want every time.  There’s a reason they are in their job, and you are in yours.  If you over-sell it’s hard for your customer to push back, even if you’re really nice.  Aunt Mable wasn’t harsh or arrogant, and she absolutely wanted to make you happy.  But she wasn’t exactly a partner in your search for the perfect present either.


Wrath and Reward

You’re a villain.  You’re a hero.  Love will find you in both roles.  It is life’s greatest joy, and its most wicked curse.  Love is the judgement of god - the power of heaven and hell.  It’s a direct connection between opposing universes.  Love will have you there and back in moments.


Hurricane

Good music is all about how it feels, and how it makes you feel.  Do the lyrics matter?  Sure, but not as much as the tone, rhythm, the concept of the sounds, and the quality and consistency of those sounds.  There’s a message in most songs.  Sometimes it’s a heavy story.  Sometimes it’s just chatter.  Certain audiences are more impressed than others with depth, stories and wit in a song.  Some genres are more focused on them.  But great music is about the music.  Even the beauty of unaccompanied poetry reading is subject to the quality of its delivery.  And in music, even the singing is more about the voice and the persona than the words. 

It’s about the delivery.  Make it beautiful.  It matters.  What you say has some significance, but few brilliant musicians are touted exclusively for their lyrical prowess.  The most successful writers are known for their performances, their music, their persona, or their voice.  Understand that I am someone who appreciates savvy prose.  But I know the limits of vocabulary and analogies. Consider Bob Dylan’s brilliant song, “Hurricane”.  You can read it, and it’s an impressive story.  But listen to it attentively in the climax and character that Dylan’s musical performance puts it in, and it will move you.  The best music is all about how the message is delivered.  So is the best love.


Cain, Able and Yourself

The sons of Adam and Eve were equally loved. They were, after all, the very flesh and blood of our famous first-parents.

No father hates his son… unless, of course, that son makes himself an enemy of the father’s own flesh. See, for a mother or a father, a child is loved like their own being. But what about when your own being attacks your own being?

Cain killed Able, as the story goes, out of jealousy and spite.  In turn he was cursed and scorned.  If your right arm develops a mind of its own and attacks your left arm, and then attacks your nose, and then your legs, what do you do?  You cut off your right arm! Even your own being is hated when it hates the rest of your being.

Consider self-loathing and insecurity. Consider how it feels to the one who truly loves you as their own.  When it’s said that you have to love yourself first to be truly loved by another, remember Cain and Able - Adam’s own hating Adam’s own. The one I love hating the one I love, even if it’s self-hate, is like my son hating my other son.


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