You Can’t Make Me Do That

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

I ran across an article in The Harvard Business Review last week that I found very intriguing. The article was written by Dr. Samuel Bowles.

Dr. Bowles is an Economics Professor at the University of Siena and he specializes in the study of how economic issues affect human behavior. While the financial information is interesting (especially in today’s economic environment), what struck me was the human behavior side of his research.

Dr. Bowles sited two examples where incentives were supposed to produce a desired result, but backfired. The first example concerned asking people to donate blood. An English social researcher, Richard Titmuss, first hypothesized in the 1950's that if you offer to pay someone to give blood, the blood supply would be significantly reduced.

At the time, people thought he was crazy, but the research later proved him correct. Studies have since shown that offering to pay people to give blood, in fact, decreases the number willing to donate by almost half. In follow-up studies, the same clinics allowed the blood donors to contribute the payment to charity, and the trend was then reversed.

The lesson here is that motivation is a tricky thing to tap. If you’re a manager or responsible for coaching someone, it is important to learn what motivates people. What seems intuitive on the surface may not produce the anticipated result.

For this specific case, there is an underlying principle that explains this behavior. Rather than give you the answer (which I learned by reading the HBR article), I thought I’d give you the opportunity to ponder the puzzle on your own…

Tomorrow, I'll elaborate with a similar example and connect the dots.

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Coaching for Possibilities

Monday, March 09, 2009

“A true friend knows your weaknesses but shows you your strengths; feels your fears but fortifies your faith; sees your anxieties but frees your spirit; recognizes your disabilities but emphasizes your possibilities.” -William Arthur Ward

Over the past 25 years of providing Psychotherapy, my chief mission has been to free people from unconscious ruts that control their lives. This isn't easy. People rarely see how they have boxed themselves into a view of themselves and the world that limits their perspective, beliefs and actions.

When a person is in a rut, they limit their own movement, growth, vision and freedom to act. They see the world in a fixed way, and try to convince everyone around them of their "rut trapped" perspective. Their perspective on life unveils consistent themes, describing their own personal rut repeatedly acted out.

A person who is not stuck in a rut flows like a river, emanating wisdom, humor, and humility. They may have a long list of things that haven't worked out, but have no regrets for their efforts.

When things are going well, economically, emotionally etc., it is easier to ignore the ruts that would otherwise bind us. However, in these difficult times, ruts are bound to surface. Even the most fluid people can be temporarily thrown into a rut in these extreme circumstances, simply because life isn't familiar or secure.

Losing a job, a home, and plans for the future can certainly appear as an insurmountable rut. "River people" however, don't allow themselves to get stuck there. They manage to continually pull themselves up and out of the rut, dust themselves off, and move on with life. I feel fortunate to know many river people.

As leaders, you owe it to yourself and those you coach to help free them from their ruts…even those who your letting go. Help them find hope and envision the opportunities that can unfold as a result of this economic period. Help them realize their freedom and potential to pursue a new river in the form of new ideas, new innovations, new training, new commitments, new values, and perhaps even an entirely new direction.

You will find that everyone within an organization benefits once the individual tributaries find their "flow", and can contribute their full potential once again.

Choosing Hope

Friday, March 06, 2009

Most of you have heard about the four football players who were recently involved in a Florida Boating accident. What you might not have heard is that, apparently two of them gave up hope and quit fighting to survive within a few hours of the boat capsizing. A third person eventually took his life jacket off and swam in an attempt to get help, while the fourth remained steadfast, clinging to the capsized boat. Unfortunately, this young man was the sole survivor of this catastrophe.

Fox news reports:

"As the Coast Guard ended its search for three missing football players whose boat tipped over in high Florida seas, the lone survivor said two of those lost gave up after hours in the frigid water and the third tried to swim to safety."

Why would people behave this way? The answer is fairly simple. When we humans experience fear, our central nervous system switches over to a high alert system that causes us to stop thinking rationally, and either fight, run or give up. Once a sense of despair and hopelessness encroach on a situation where you continue to be bombarded by wave after wave of stress, it becomes very difficult to hold on. Our problem solving brain (cerebral cortex) shuts down and our limbic system (oldest part of the brain) takes over.

Undoubtedly, facing high winds and seven to fifteen foot swells caused constant stress, both emotionally and physically. The human body can only take so much fighting before it exhausts its resources, especially with so much adrenaline pumping through the system.

So, how did the sole survivor hang on? He used the power of his brain to overcome his circumstances. He began an internal dialogue, repeating to himself:

"My mother is not going to attend my funeral."

He kept his mind on a central, rational thought, that guided every decision he made. In doing so, he kept his cerebral cortex working at least as hard as his limbic system.

So what does this mean for the rest of us? While our everyday crises may not compare to the perils these four men faced, current stressors can lead to similar reactions. Don't let yourself get stuck in fight or flight. Set goals daily, weekly, and monthly, and more importantly, stick to them. By doing so, you'll survive and eventually thrive.

If you do find yourself in a fight or flight scenario, by all means, fight! But, don't allow your circumstances to dictate your outcome. This applies in emergency situations as well as daily encounters. Engage your brain to take charge, choose hope…and hang on to your boat. There is always something better waiting.

Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting – Part 2

Thursday, March 05, 2009

Tracking and following trends is human nature. It gives us a way to make sense of what is going on in the world around us. In a sense, it also gives us a way to predict the future.

If you’re a job-seeker, trending information by itself is probably not going to directly help you land your next job. However, understanding what is happening in the world of employment, Hiring Managers, and recruiting can help increase your odds of being noticed by employers who could benefit from your talents.

In yesterday’s entry, I discussed two of the Four Trends Affecting the Future of Employment. (For a better understanding of the topic, please review Part 1 of this article before reading further.)

The remaining two trends I’ll address today are:

(3) Referrals Will Become the Primary Sourcing Channel for All Positions
(4) Recruiters Becoming Partners with Their Clients and Consultants to Their Candidates

(3) Referrals Will Become the Primary Sourcing Channel for All Positions:

If you’re a job-seeker, networking and obtaining personal referrals needs to become an essential part of your job search strategy. In fact, if you’re not focusing on networking, you’re probably missing the boat altogether. Lou Adler makes that observation:

“In a recent Execunet survey, 70% of over 6,000 executives and executive recruiters indicated that networking would be the key to either finding a job or finding candidates, compared to 16% through online advertising.

While this would be expected at the executive level, our own 2007 survey of 800 corporate recruiters filling staff and mid-level positions indicated that networking and employee referrals represented about 35% to 40% of their hires.

This is about five points higher than last year, so not only is networking important, but the trend is up. LinkedIn has helped accelerate this trend, in combination with Facebook, MySpace, and some of the niche social networking sites.”

If you’re a Hiring Manager in search of talented employees, then a strategy for getting referrals is essential.

(4) Recruiters Becoming Partners with Their Clients and Consultants to Their Candidates:

This issue is being addressed more to identify an existing problem, than to presume it will be remedied in the near future. There is a disconnect between those who perform the sourcing of candidates and ground work on the front end of the hiring process, and those who actually “pull the trigger” on a hire.

“Our 2008 Recruiting and Hiring Challenges survey revealed two big problems. The first was pretty obvious: 76% of the 775 respondents said it was becoming increasingly difficult to find enough top candidates.

The second problem was a bit unexpected: 59% of the respondents said their hiring manager clients were the real problem in recruiting top people. Some of the problems attributed to this nefarious group included lack of good assessment skills, over-reliance on skills and experiences to weed out people, lack of responsiveness, and an inability to recruit top performers.”

What does this mean? If you’re a job-seeker, understand that the hiring system in the company you’re applying to likely does not work all that effectively. As quickly as possible, gain access to the hiring manager and build a connection with that person. This is the best chance you’ll have of being hired.

If you’re a recruiter, you have tremendous opportunity in the future to improve. Partnering with the organizations you service not only promotes your own job security, but is the path to your own personal excellence.

Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting

Wednesday, March 04, 2009

I’m sure you’ve read articles that claim to have figured out the future or have insights about some developing trend. However, when you refer back to the article a few months later, you quickly see that the author wasn’t quite as good at prognosticating as he thought. It’s rare to find something that still rings true a year after it is written. Well, I think perhaps I have…

About nine months ago, I read an article that I have referred back to several times. Lou Adler is a recruitment industry consultant who has studied recruiting trends for many years. His consulting company, The Adler Group, provides executive staffing and recruitment consulting. The article he wrote last year is called Four Trends Affecting the Future of Recruiting.

Mr. Adler identifies the four trends as:

(1) The Merging of Candidate Sourcing and Consumer Marketing
(2) Increasing Reliance on Metrics, Forecasting, and Workforce Planning
(3) Recruiters Becoming Partners with Their Clients and Consultants to Their Candidates
(4) Referrals Will Become the Primary Sourcing Channel for All Positions

I believe that these trends resonate with me because these are some of the issues our company’s most progressive clients ask us to address on a regular basis. I’ll cover two trends today and then two more tomorrow.

(1) The Merging of Candidate Sourcing and Consumer Marketing:

When performed efficiently, candidate sourcing involves getting your message in front of as many of the right people as possible, at the lowest possible price. The traditional job board model is at odds with this principle. When candidate sourcing is viewed as marketing, a new paradigm emerges:

“The buzz in consumer advertising is narrowcasting. This basically means segmenting your customer base into narrow subsets (i.e., professional single women between 25 and 30 who live in the city) and pushing your advertising message to them using a variety of techniques.

Some of these include search engine optimization, organic search, behavioral marketing, the use of talent hubs and microsites, and pay-per-click. The key here is to make sure your advertising can be easily found by the right audience.”

(2) Increasing Reliance on Metrics, Forecasting, and Workforce Planning:

In an era of strained resources, companies want to make sure their recruiting budgets are producing results. This means measuring all data and documenting outcomes to assess the effectiveness of recruitment efforts.

In our company (Tidemark), we provide our clients with real-time sourcing results. Hiring Managers can tell how many people are viewing their ads, navigating their on-line HiringCenters, and ultimately, how many are completing employment inquiries.

Effective forecasting involves treating the recruiting process as a work flow. A work flow is a defined process that, if followed, will produce a predictable result. A work flow allows recruiting execution to be measured and then bench-marked over time. It has become commonplace to compare recruiting results across organizations in similar fields to gain a perspective on how efficiently an organization is operating.

Application:

If you’re a recruiter and you’re not using some of the techniques listed above, this is a great time to make a contribution to your organization in this way. Most companies strive to operate more efficiently and would welcome this type of optimization.

If you’re a person looking for a job or coaching someone looking for a job, then it is important to understand the methodologies companies are now using to source candidates. With this knowledge, you’ll be better able to identify opportunities and gain access to Hiring Managers.

Furthermore, the focus on measurement doesn’t end with sourcing. During the interview process, companies are increasingly looking for measurable results. Does your resume demonstrate measurable results? Do the prepared interview questions/answers you draw from during an interview illustrate a measurable track record of results? These are important issues. In this competitive market, it is becoming increasingly necessary to capitalize on the opportunities that come your way.

Surviving on Cupcakes

Thursday, February 26, 2009

For the past couple of weeks, we’ve been discussing the research surrounding survival and resilience. Among other things, the research suggests that about 35% of unemployed persons will come out of their ordeal stronger and more physically healthy as a result of their hardship.

If you’re going through a difficult time, it may be difficult to imagine yourself as one of these individuals. Research is great, but wasn’t all that data collected in the past? Maybe the economic circumstances have changed to the point where very few are going to survive under today’s economic circumstances. Certainly these are the doubts that go through my head.

With this in mind, I came across an article this week that I think is worth sharing. The article is from a new publication that Business Week began recently, called Small Biz, and it details the survival of a resilient few.

From Wall Street to Main Street, highlights five individuals who have been laid-off from major Wall Street firms. All five of these people saw their lay-off status as an opportunity to start something new…and they did.

My favorite story of the five is about Jessi Walter who was the Vice President of Credit Strategy at the now defunct Bear Stearns. Ms. Walter is now the proud owner of New York's Cupcake Kids!, which facilitates hands-on cooking events for birthday parties, schools, and corporate functions. The company also offers teacher training. Ms. Walter employs five part-time cooking teachers.

“I learned what was happening to Bear Stearns [they were in deep financial trouble] last March by watching TV. Friday your life was one way; Monday it was nothing like that. So I took a step back to consider what to do next. I love food, I love kids, I love business. I cooked for my boyfriend’s nieces. They asked me to host cooking birthday parties, which generated a lot of word-of-mouth interest. After losing my job in June, I decided to go for it.

Birthday parties are our largest revenue source. Whole wheat pizza is popular and everything is from scratch. Kids learn learn how the main ingredient is grown and why dough rises. It’s a whole new adventure.”

Will Jessi survive? I think so. The business she recently opened may fail, but she seems to have the knack for picking herself up and looking for new opportunities. If she does this enough, she will eventually win. There is also a good chance she’ll “win bigger” than if she stayed in a corporate job.