How to Effectively Deal with Resistance

Monday, August 20, 2012

In the last edition, I described the psychology of why people become resistant after initially feeling and acting excited about a proposition that requires change. Specifically, I described this very natural human reaction within the realm of recruiting.

I won't repeat what I've described already in my last two editions (1, 2). Instead, I will focus today on what to do when you meet resistance or a sudden change in direction.

Let's say that an excited candidate, who has been positive about the prospect of beginning the licensing process, suddenly says: "I'm no longer interested."

What do you do?

Before I tell you what to do, allow me to describe, instead, how to think about it:

Do you believe that this candidate has no internal conflict in their head about the decision? In other words, do you really think that they are that adamant about not moving forward? The answer is NO. They DO have internal conflict. The only reason that they sound adamant about their decision to initiate an about-face, is to ward off their own internal conflict. They are, in essence, pushing the conflict outside of their head.

You see, the anxiety that comes with change is temporarily diminished when we allow ourselves to believe that something is a "bad decision." At that point, it really doesn't matter what reasons we come up with to justify our decision to remain stuck and resist change; Our objective is to not have to consider both sides of the argument.

So, what does the above scenario cause you–the recruiter, salesperson, or manager–to do?

If we don't know any better, it causes us to take up the other side of the argument, and begin to come up with numerous statements and explanations to counter their reasons. This is the fatal error. As you take on the other side of the argument, you leave the candidate free to bolster their side of the argument. Game Over! Once you've done this, you've lost all power and credibility. You are no longer viewed as someone who is simply helping facilitate the best decision, rather, you've become in the eye of the candidate, someone who is in it for your own selfish reasons.

So, what do you do instead?

You must force the candidate to take the conflict back within their own head, rather than construct this duel. How do you do this? You must simply reiterate what you have observed in their behavior and speech that represents both sides of the argument. For example:

"Two days ago, you said that you were very excited about going to licensing school, had enjoyed meeting our agents and manager, felt as if it fit you and who you are, and now you are saying it's not for you…. What happened between then and now?"

Get them talking and owning their flip-flop…not to make a point, but to drive them back to the whole dilemma, which is their anxiety around change.

If you catch yourself wanting the change more than they do, you will lose. That NEVER works. There must be a certain amount of indifference to the outcome…very warm and friendly indifference, but indifference. The more indifferent you are to the outcome, the more bold you become in your observations and questions.

So, here is a quick checklist to refer to when dealing with resistance:

You can't want it more than they do.
Force the conflict back into the their head.
Patiently make comments that force them to answer the question: Where did the positive reasons disappear to?
Exercise the power of warm, friendly, persistent, and hopeful indifference.

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.

Understanding Resistance

Wednesday, August 15, 2012

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.

The Importance of Self-Activation

Monday, August 13, 2012

If you've ever attended any of our presentations, you've heard both Ben and I refer to Self-Activation, a concept that is the foundation on which much of our recruiting platform is built.

What is Self Activation you ask?

Allow me to begin by explaining what it is not. If someone were to call you right this minute, and ask if you'd like to purchase one of their new or used cars, what would you say? My hunch is that you would quickly interrupt their sales pitch and tell them to never call again. Why is this? There are several reasons, but the primary issue is that you have done nothing to demonstrate any interest whatsoever. This is the coldest of cold calls. They are chasing you, much like a predator chases its prey — the target (you in this case) has never taken step one towards demonstrating any interest in the product.

On the other hand, let's say you drive on to a local car lot, and someone approaches you… Are you offended? I hope not. Of course you might say something like, "Allow me to look around a bit" and then later ask him/her questions. But their approaching you is completely reasonable and expected because you're taking the first step. The first step is another way of understanding self-activation. The act of you driving to the dealership to look at cars is one form of self-activation toward the ultimate goal, purchasing a car. If "self-activation" were on one side of a continuum, the other side would be disinterest, and in the middle would be apathy.

If you've ever tried to teach a child to swim… oh, how important is it to let that first step be theirs! Right? Because if you force the issue, they will resist it for months to come. How to establish the perfect conditions to get them to take that first step, is the primary problem to solve.

In whatever you do, whether it be sales, recruiting, or management…begin to consider how to watch for, and even actively elicit from others, forms of self-activation. Without the other party self-activating, you are stuck in the very weak position of wanting something more than they do. That never works.

So, the question that we continually ask ourselves in order to assist you in attaining more candidates and to build software systems to track those candidates is, "How do we elicit a self-activation from people who have never thought about working in real estate before?" Without going into great detail, we attempt to understand the pain that ordinary people feel, and use this knowledge to appeal to that pain in a way that resonates with reality.

Once the candidate takes the CCI and expresses interest in being contacted, they have activated their "self" to do something unusual and new, thereby leaving the door open for you to pursue them for an interview. Voila! No cold call.

In your work, how can you spend more of your time talking to people who have already taken steps toward you without wasting time pursuing people who are running the other way?

Identify the pain of your target audience
Identify the answer for that pain
Identify ways that you might already have access to that target audience (people you could truly help)
Identify easy steps that you can take with them with little commitment in each step
Have a solution that addresses their pain

You might be saying, "…but many of these warm leads seem to resist the very thing that they have shown interest in."

That is absolutely normal and should be anticipated. In the next edition, I'll share with you how to deal with the defense that usually follows self-activation.

Surprise Your Candidates: Play the Respect Card

Wednesday, August 08, 2012

I think I highlighted one of Peter Weddle’s articles a couple of months ago, and I usually like to let more time go by before I cite him again as a source for a new discussion.

But, the content in his latest newsletter was just too good to pass up.

Why? Because Peter (unknowingly) identifies a hiring advantage that real estate companies can quickly and easily use to differentiate themselves from traditional employers.

This may surprise you, but that differentiator is respect.

I wish that I could report there has been a sudden and unexpected groundswell of respect that candidates have gained for the real estate industry in recent months. While this would be well-deserved among many of our clients, there is no real evidence that any change in behaviour has actually occured here.

The change has instead happened among traditional companies who hire employees. Many of these companies have become very disrespectful toward their applicants, and many candidates have noticed this change.

Peter makes the following observation from the candidate’s perspective:

“For the first time in modern American history, those in transition now have to worry about serial unemployment. They must endure a grueling and often lengthy job search, and then they have to deal with the ever-present possibility that they may lose their job 6, 12 or 18 months down the road. No sooner are they employed, it seems, than they face the prospect of becoming unemployed all over again.

There are, of course, a range of reasons for this phenomenon. The lousy economy, changing consumer tastes, and the introduction of new technology certainly deserve some of the blame. In far too many cases, however, there's another cause. It's employers behaving badly.

What does that mean?

Bad employer behavior includes misrepresenting the nature of a job – the tasks it involves or its compensation – and/or the nature of the organization – its culture, values and leadership. The former is rare because it can only occur if recruiters and other employees are complicit in the cover-up and thankfully few are willing to do so. The latter, on the other hand, occurs far more frequently than it should primarily because the warning signs are overlooked or, worse, ignored.”

At first, you may not see traditional employers as your competitors, but when it comes to attracting and hiring talented candidates, they are the ones who most commonly lure candidates away.

And while they seem to have the “unfair advantage” of offering upfront salary and benefits, this advantage has a disproportionate impact on desperate people—these are the individuals who put up with the abuse and ignore warning signs of poor employers.

Every real estate hiring manager knows that desperate candidates do not make good real estate agents. They typically cannot afford the start-up costs and sustain focus on the long-term payoff of a real estate career.

So, an interesting dynamic has developed– We have traditional employers who disrespect candidates and naturally filter out the desperate candidates for themselves. Who’s left in the pool? Non-desperate candidates who have the resources, talents, and self-esteem to not jump at the first thing thrown their way.

Anytime your competitors act badly, it’s an opportunity for you to differentiate yourself. But you have to counter their missteps with good behavior of your own.

Peter goes on to describe how this is achieved in the hiring process (again, from the candidate’s perspective):

“A decent employer is one that provides the environment, encouragement and support for you to succeed. In short, it's an organization that respects you as a person of talent. It recognizes the contribution you make to its success and treats you accordingly. As a consequence, you are able to perform at your peak, and that outcome – excelling at your work – is the best guarantor of continued employment.

Respect, however, is a two-way street. Yes, an employer should respect you, but you must also respect yourself. You must think enough of your talent to ensure you can always deliver it on-the-job. You must constantly refresh your skills and knowledge so that your talent is as strong, versatile and durable as it can be and must be in today's highly competitive global economy.

With self-respect in place, you are in the right position to evaluate the level of respect you would get from prospective employers. How do you make that judgment? Look for telltale signs in the recruiting process of each organization.

For example:

Does the employer acknowledge the receipt of your resume when you submit it and thank you for doing so?

Does the employer keep you informed of your status as the evaluation process unfolds?

Does the employer remove filled positions promptly so you are not applying for jobs that are no longer available?

Does the employer provide a clear and complete description of its culture and values on its organizational web-site and/or Facebook page?

If you are invited in for an interview, are you greeted in a friendly and courteous way or are you treated as if you're just another widget with DNA?

And, while you are interviewing, are you able to meet with the people who would be your coworkers and are they able to speak freely about their working conditions?”

All of this boils down to respect. Are you willing to put in the time, effort, and focus on details to show another human being respect in the hiring process? If you make this commitment, you’ll be well-positioned to attract and engage the next generation of talented agents for your office. If not, know that you’ll be in head-to-head competition with traditional employers to hire desperate candidates. That’s a game you can’t win–even if you do make the hire.

Editor's Note: This article was written by Ben Hess. Ben is the Founding Partner and Managing Director of 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.

Candidate Sourcing: How Do Candidates Search for Jobs?

Monday, August 06, 2012

There seems to be a fascination with the intersection between a person’s quest to find meaningful employment and the technologies that enable such an individual to be successful in that venture.

In fact, if I were to categorize the questions that I get from our clients, more than 50% of the inquiries relate to this issue. Owners and Hiring Mangers often have questions such as …

How does top talent evaluate new opportunities when they become dissatisfied with their current employer/career?
What really gets a candidate’s attention?
What impact have online social networks had on candidate behaviors?
Where are candidates going on the internet to find jobs?

…and many more.

As you probably know, this is a complex topic. The Tidemark team spends most of our working hours trying to find answers to these questions. As insights are gained, we use this information to tweak our methodologies and optimize our results.

Last week, I captured some new insights that I think are worth sharing. The new information came in the form of research that was recently conducted by PeopleFluent, a talent management company headquartered in Raleigh, NC. The research was co-sponsored by SmartPost, a subsidiary of the Bernard Hodes Group, a prominent global HR consulting firm.

The researchers cataloged the performance of more than 27,000 job boards, company career pages, and other employment-related internet destinations in the first six months of 2012. The database evaluated the behavior of more than 45 million employment related website visits across a diverse set of industries and locations (global).

Here are some of the findings:

1. General source of the hire. About 55% of candidates who eventually are hired come from outside sources, such as job boards and other career-related sites. About 45% of candidates come from internal sources, such as employee referrals and company-sponsored career pages (ie. what is behind the “career tab” on your home page).

2. Impact of Job Aggregation. The biggest surprise in the research is the continued growth of job aggregators — particularly Indeed.

A job aggregator is an employment website that collects job postings from many other sources and lists them on one site. In essence, it’s a search engine for job opportunities.

If you were to go onto Google and type in “Italian Restaurants Seattle,” Google would return a list of appropriate entries. If you were to go to Indeed and type in “Marketing Jobs Seattle,” an appropriate list of job openings would be returned. An Indeed listing could connect the candidate directly to an employer’s website, or refer a candidate to a job listing on another job board, such as Monster.

What does this mean for a real estate company? In order to be effective at sourcing candidates, you’ll have to become increasingly proficient at search engine optimization (SEO). Even if you post ads on prominent job boards, such as Monster and CareerBuilder, your job opportunity may not be prominently displayed in a job aggregator like Indeed unless it is optimized for their environment. And without getting Indeed’s traffic (three out of four job searchers start there), the chances of getting your job opening viewed is greatly diminished.

Indeed is applying a principle that is nearly ubiquitous on the internet: Influence cannot be bought, it must be earned.

3. LinkedIn is starting to have an impact on candidate behavior. If you take the job aggregators out of the previous slide, here is how the rest of the major players in candidate sourcing rank:

You’ll notice right away that LinkedIn has recently become a significant force among traditional job boards. This is a new development that may be attributed to the increased direct sales effort they recently placed on the job search part of their business.

Does this mean that public social networks will have a new place at the candidate sourcing table? Probably not. Facebook is a minor player and will probably remain so unless their newly announced job board initiative gains traction (and it has very little to do with being a social network). LinkedIn didn’t start to prosper in the candidate sourcing arena until they started selling and acting like a job board.

The big coup in the candidate sourcing marketplace is the dominance of Indeed. Just like you’d be foolish to start a high volume website without considering how Google would impact traffic, candidate sourcing plans now have to compensate for the dominance of Indeed.

Bottom line: Most recruiting problems start out as sourcing problems. It’s tough to be selective and commit yourself to hiring the most talented individuals without an abundance of individuals from which to choose. The first step to “getting to yes” with your talented new hires is being able to frequently say “no” to the candidates who are not a fit.

The Toggl Experiment: Time-Tracking Tasks

Wednesday, August 01, 2012

I'd like to follow-up on a discussion that Dave started earlier this month (1, 2) on the importance of finding and consistently following a system. One of the tools he suggested using as part of his quest to stay on track was a web-based time tracking tool called Toggl.

There is a story around this tool that I think is worth sharing…

Toggl was first brought to my attention by another Tidemark partner as a way of tracking the contributions that were being made on various projects. In essence, it is a web-based software application that asks one simple question:

“What are you working on?”

The user types a simple task description (for example: Preparing a WorkPuzzle blog) and then presses a “start” button. At this point, a timer starts ticking away and documents the time the user is dedicating to this task.

Since Tidemark develops recruiting software, I appreciate an elegant software design. On this front, Toggl has some great characteristics—simple to use, works well on any browser/computer platform, has both mobile and desktop applications that integrate with its core web-based environment, etc… And perhaps most importantly, the user interface design is well done—simple and easy to use.

While these characteristics are noteworthy, they are not what makes Toggl such a useful tool. Like most successful software businesses, Toggl helps solve a simple problem:

The fact is…most people are disengaged and waste a lot of time at work.

This business reality has been well-documented over the last decade and has probably been going on for many years before that. Kyle Lagunas, an HR Market Analyst for the popular blog, Software Advice, recently wrote a very insightful article on Engagement, that highlights recent Towers Watson research revealing that more than 60% of the U.S. workforce is not fully engaged in their work. He also cites Gallup research, estimating that this lack of engagement costs businesses in the United States more than $300 billion in lost productivity each year.

While I’ve read and known about this problem for years, I’ve never considered myself part of this “disengaged” group. I’ve always prided myself in tightly scheduling events, creating detailed tasks list, and seeking out accountability.

I work hard and stay focused.

At least I thought I did…until I started using Toggl.

Toggl has opened my eyes to a new reality. It has forced me to reach a new level of self-awareness that has been (initially) disheartening. I'm find myself asking these types of questions quite frequently:

“How could that task take so long?”

“Did I really spend two hours on email yesterday? I don’t seem to have accomplished much with those dialogs.”

“I’ve started this task four times and I’m constantly feeling distracted. What is it about this task that I don’t like doing?”

“Why is there 15 minutes of downtime between tasks (you can’t push the start button until you start the next task)? Could that downtime be used for something that renews my mind and spirit?”

In essence, Toggl has given me the ability to look backwards—across my day, across my week, and eventually across my year. While I’ve always been pretty good at putting together a plan, I was surprised to learn how poor I am at executing that plan.

So, thank you Toggl, for creating a great tool. If you’d like to try Toggl for yourself, check out their take a tour page. It is a free app for personal use and not very expensive to use with a team.