The Attractive Leader is Someone Everyone Wants to Work For. So, What is This Exactly and Why Is This So Important When Recruiting? Richard Discusses This and More in This Episode.

What’s up everybody, welcome back to recruiting conversation to podcast, excited to be back with you today. And I’m going to share maybe the most important thing with that you need to understand as a recruiting leader. I will tell you that this piece is standalone single piece that I am going to talk about today, is the piece that define my recruiting efforts. Now there’s a lot of pieces that are critical inside recruiting, you got to have a system, you got to understand that you are a media company first, you need to be able to quantify who you are as a leader, vision core value, storytelling is critical to this. That is why we do the podcast because this isn’t a simple, recruiting is not simple as what most people think it is. Most of us think recruiting simply three things, I think it is identifying talent, making contact with talent, and then following up with talent. One of the things that really bothers me inside this recruiting leadership role and the way people coach the recruiting leader to recruit, one of the things that really just bugs me is that most people just say increase your numbers. So, just increase the number of phone calls you are making, increase the number of contacts, the number of meetings that you are making. It is all about smiling and dialing, right? That is really a low level management, that’s really low level leadership, when it comes to recruiting because it is not about increasing your numbers, it’s actually about honing your skillset. It is about understanding what you need to do, just to build relationships and in recruits in a lot of different capacity. So there is just a little straining out there. I remember first ten – twelve years in the business and I had frustrated, like I worked the methods of one, two, and three right that I just listed out for you. I worked that, just not kind of work but I worked it hard. I was frustrated because there was no direct correlation between my efforts and energy and my output – what I am actually getting in response to that but I knew that If I didn’t recruit, I didn’t keep beating my head against that brick wall that I wouldn’t win because you will have attrition, it’s just something that happens in business, people move, people’s lives change, you know things happen at your organization as well that is outside of your control as a leader. So you have to actually constantly recruiting or your brand, your branch, your team or whatever you want to call it, will actually weather and die. So, you know, this is the one piece, I want to bring you back to the day is this, you have to become an attractive leader. Now, you may not have to actually become one but you got understand the framework for this and you need to be able to insert yourself into it. Now, there was a long season for me where I actually had to become an attractive leader, I was not an attractive leader, okay? So maybe that is where you start but if you are saying right now, you know I feel like I am already an attractive leader then you just need to understand the framework on how to articulate this to people, I’ll give you that framework today. Let’s just start with this, what is an attractive leader? Attractive leader represents 3 things, now first and foremost, this is somebody I want to work for, this is somebody we all want to work for. I want to work for attractive leader, I don’t mean like you know, good looking, I want to actually work for someone who’s leadership, leadership style is attractive to me. Now, here is what I’ve been able to identify inside an attractive leadership style that is, that makes that person someone we want to work for. Okay, here’s first and foremost, this is someone that actually has a clear vision with define beliefs, okay? Clear vision, okay ask yourself right now do I have a clear vision? Can you immediately articulate this? okay when I say vision, if this is a lot of people have played some work craft or some of this have an idea like what they are trying to accomplish but most people don’t have a real clear vision, we’ll talk about that in a second, you got to have this. Got to have this clear vision, you got to have define beliefs, what is this means? This means you understand what your top core values are, means you understand what your core value system is, there’s just that each one of us has a define set of rules, define set of beliefs that we operate in. Now, an attractive leader has this and the unattractive leader doesn’t have this. This means that the unattractive leader just kind a wanders whatever works, whatever works best, whatever the easiest, whatever makes the most money, right? That is someone who hasn’t define their beliefs so clearly that they make decisions, high integrated decision based on their belief’s model. Attractive leader has this clear vision – define beliefs. Now the attractive leader also has this, the ability to articulate their vision, the ability to articulate their belief system. Now articulating this means that you are able to storytelling. Storytelling is a critical component to this attractive leader and the reason why is that when we articulate things through storytelling and we story tell right, okay? Storytelling correctly is not highlight real story, it’s not, let me beat my chest and tell you all the great things that are going on inside my team or under my leadership or inside our organization, that is not the correct way to tell a story. In fact, that is actually undermines the story, if you tell the story like that, okay? Stories told well, always go to the beginning, the highlight really typically peaks up at the end. If you went watch a movie and watch only the highlight real, you’ll be lost. You wouldn’t even understand; you wouldn’t have enough context to understand what you should be excited about. Right? Why it is such a big deal the happy ending part. Stories told correctly always have a beginning, okay? So this is part of this, being able to articulate through the lens of story. Story has a beginning, combat and struggle are always part of great stories. So, sharing the part of this, so when you articulate your vision, articulating your belief system, storytelling those is an element that actually makes you believable, okay? It’s a piece that connects to me in a really deep level and allows me to have empathy for you, to bond with you, to build trust with you, so not only this attractive leader have the clear vision – define beliefs that they are also able to articulate this through storytelling. Okay? The last piece is this, this is someone who lives and acts in alignment with their vision and their belief system. Lives and acts in accordance like if I send I am something then I need to be able to show you proof that I am that. Now, here is where we are at the distinct advantage in this time of history. If I told you define your vision, define your core values, core belief system, develop stories that you can tell professionally, like a professional storyteller would around those why are those true about you. And then simply do document you acting and you living in alignment with those values, we immediately just go okay social media right? Like you can go documenting to identify places where you’re living out your value system and now I can go places like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, even to some degree text messaging, to some degree email, I can document that I am living and acting in alignment with my value system. That is why in this time in history that social media being 10 years old approximately right now, we’re in the sweet age, in a sweet timeline of just being in leadership, especially if you’re in leadership in your recruiting. If you are the recruiting leader and you are not maximizing your energy and efforts on Facebook, and Instagram, and LinkedIn, and you don’t have the lens that you are looking through that says that I am looking for moments where I am living out who I am and I am actually showing this to people. Then you are not maximizing social media from a possession of being a recruiting leader, okay? The power of social media being able to connect with a large audience means that your funnel, your recruiting funnel has gone from being very small which most people would say they have a twenty to max fifty top recruits they’re going after. I can actually in social media expand that and make it thousands. Now if I go from fifty to thousands, the numbers are now in my favors right? Because it’s easier for me to find my tribe, easier for people to identify with me because of one being an attractive leader I’m living out who I am out loud. And now that I am putting it in this platform of social media, I am able to have a larger audience that can look at that and say that resonates with me. The attractive leaders polarizing, think about this, polarization simply this idea that I can take a magnet and place it in the middle of a table, and I could sprinkle that table with a lot of things, I could sprinkle paper, rubber, plastic, whatever, I’ll sprinkle a lot of things on that table but I am also going to put some paper clips on that table, what happens with that, when those papers clips get on that table is that if they are close enough to the magnet they get hold into it, right? They get hold in, now at the same time polarization also means I am pulling people in because I am clear at my value system but it also means I am pushing people away, okay? If I say that I am something and somebody isn’t that same thing that doesn’t have the same belief system, then it pushes them away, either way it’s a win. One of the things I see recruiting leaders do again and again and again is they try to be Switzerland, they try to be neutral, I am afraid that if I say this It’ll offend somebody, well my question is what you are about to say is that in your core value system, if you put it in the lens of your core values, your visions, your belief model, is that true about you? If you could answer yes to that and it’s not unprofessional it’s not intentionally offensive, then why would you put that out there? Like if I say that family over business is one of my core value, which by the way it is. Shout out to my family, but if I say that, that is part of my core value system and you believe that business should come at all cost including the family, we are not in alignment. When I say I put my family before my work, that would actually push you away. Now, on the other hand, if you are someone that has the same belief system, and I am being clear in that and am storytelling that as part of my attractive leadership, when you see me post on the social media around that, man, I become more attractive leader to you. So, social media empowers you today, to communicate your message of who you are but then also connect to really large audience, and I get excited of how the size of that audience. That is why being attractive leader is critical today. Look early in my carrier, someone told me this and it was not true, someone said this, Richard when you recruit you need to understand these two things, human simply wants to either seek pleasure or avoid pain. So when you do recruiting you look for pain points and at the same time or as an option you possession yourself as the opportunity they can actually come and experience pleasure. Which could be better system, better technology, whatever. But that was the belief model that someone imparted on me for a long season, so I figured out that is not true, that is actually not true. Now, the lowest forms of human motivation are simply safety and security, that mean if I am not safe, as an example, If I just found out my company is getting bought out and I am regional manager, and suddenly I am afraid that my job might be in jeopardy because the other company also has the same you know middle management piece that we have, we’re going to integrate that and so I might be at risk. Immediately, I am thinking safety and security. I am thinking how do I provide, how do I protect my financial situation, my family, that is the lowest form of my motivation. You can’t be a motivator in an environment that there are chaotic things that are going on, where there are some unknowns. But the highest form of human motivation comes from completely different lens, okay? It is not avoiding pain, it is actually through what I would called the “B.A.M.” zone, and here is the “B.A.M.” zone belonging, affirming, and meaning zone. People are more motivated in coming through the lens of belonging, affirming and meaning than they are through seeking pleasure and avoiding pain, okay? Understand that the attractive leader now will do another podcast on the “BAM” zone. Understand that the attractive leader is representing a sense of belonging. The attractive leader is clear on their vision; their core values represent a larger sense of meaning to coming an aligning to working alongside that individual, okay? That belonging and meaning pieces are in that “BAM” zone okay? And so this is why attractive leadership is so critical, if there is a part of this that you need to understand and you need to actually incorporate into your leadership right now, is you have to have a vision, you have to be clear on your core values, what is authentic and what is true about you, okay? Now, here is what I found out, is that there are really three stages to vision and three stages to core values. Here’s what it is number one, I called them three C’s, number one is creating, you simply need to create it. Now here is the problem for a lot of you, your perfectionist, okay? Now, if you’re not a perfectionist, that’s fine, but the recruiting leader typically becomes a leader because they did something extremely well and a lot of times they can tend from mid to high D’s if you are in the desk profile, let me explain that, if you are in the desk profile, mid to high D is someone that can tend to be a perfectionist, okay? When I say you have a vision and you are a high D, if you don’t have that vision, you immediately think that is a little overwhelming because you have to perfect the vision, and the truth is you don’t. You need to create one, because here is what will happen, when you create that, there would come a season where you get clear on is it perfect or is it me, but you have to create it first. So go write it out, go spend, go find some quiet space outside the noise, outside the matrix, and you determine what’s your vision going to be and you create it, okay? Now clarity which is the second C of vision that comes in the season of using your voice around it. Sharing it with your spouse, sharing it with your partners in business, would that be your employees or an equal you know co-leader or someone who’s over you – company owner. I mean share it with partners that aren’t inside your actual you know company that maybe people you partner with outside the company, share it with friends. The clarity comes from actually using your voice around it. If I showed you the original vision that I had back in two thousand and nine, you would see a sheet that has a circles an X’s and arrows and words at it, and words subtracted and that vision the original vision that I created then I got clarity around it as I begun to use it. And once you get a clarity around the vision, what you will eventually, typically in six to twelve months move into a place where your able to the third C casted very clearly, okay? You could cast a vision very clearly, what happens is you becomes the visioneer, now if you ever come across a visioneer, even if you can’t partner with them, even if you can’t join forces with them, let’s just say they are in completely different industry, when you come across a visioneer for whatever reason you want to go align with that person. Look, one of the first visioneer I came across was the guy with the name Greg Gunn, Greg wrote the book Family-iD, iD stands for intentional direction, Greg is an incredible visioneer, in a very short wind of time, I was so drawn to Greg because of his visioneer ability, I was sitting on the board for his non-profit organization that I had aligned myself with him. There was something about Greg that was attractive, Greg was an attractive leader. So you probably right now thinking, yes there is somebody, it may have been someone you heard speak on stage, maybe somebody in the business that you are in, maybe somebody in the sphere of influence that you are in as well, but you know somebody that’s a visioneer most likely. You want to become the visioneer, the visioneer has no problem recruiting people, okay? That is because they are clear in their vision, they are clear in their core values, they have spent the season creating and gaining clarity on it. Now they are this place that can actually cast it very clearly. So, this is homework for you, if you don’t have this, now if you got struggles, I am not sure you know what vision actually is, not sure how to identify my core value is, there is a lot of resources out there. Some of those resources are provided by me, some of those resources are available in my couching but they are also available on my website –, on my youtube channel, my vimeo channel, you can follow me on LinkedIn, I’ve written an articles around this, there are such a lot of information out there that you can go and get a better grasp of what vision and core values could mean to you, should mean to you. Here is the one thing I would leave you with a vision, vision should be something you can see, a lot of people think vision is a game of word craft, and so they put a lot of pressure on themselves to articulate something that is extremely perfect. So, that is not true, vision in itself, is actually something that you can see. So as an example, I could say, you know, If I was coming in the new market, let’s go back to my past season, 15 years since in the mortgage industry, I could say in this particular market, I want to be top 5 in the purchase market share by 2022, okay? That’s a vision. Okay? We will do this through the lens of and I can put it in the lens of my core value. What are those core values, okay? That’s a vision, okay? If you want some examples of this, check out my website – there are some example of this on there. There’s another podcast recorded done on this to some degree, and will do more in the future on this. I want you to understand from this podcast the importance of you become an attractive leader, vision – core values you have to have those and then you got to be able to articulate or story tell those and in the end you got to be living and acting in an alignment with that and your social media content strategy has just been given to you. You simply document and identify, you being an attractive leader and as you do that living out loud because personal persona and business persona are no longer separate, they are only one in the same today. As you live this out loud an attractive leader, what you will find people will move towards you. I know it, I couch to this, I see people that go and hire people in 10 months simply because they have possession themselves as an attractive leader and willing to put themselves out to a larger audience through social media. So, hope this has been helpful to you, I love doing this podcast, it takes me back to the season where I did not have resources and where I didn’t understand what I needed to do in order to win in the space of recruiting. So, I enjoyed giving the content away, if this is helpful to you find somebody else and share it with them, that is the biggest complement that you could pay me. There is a big investment of time for me to do this, and it takes away from the other places that I could actually I can be out there making more money, but in my heart what’s most important to me is the fill like capping hole in a lot of industry which is this recruiting leadership role and equipping recruiting leaders to actually become great recruiters. And so, it’s my mission to fill that hole in one of the ways I do this is through the podcast. I would love if you would share it, if this is helpful to you, drop me a line, let me know. You can find me on all the social media platforms, would love to hear your feedback on this that would help us improve this as we move forward and continue to bring value to you with that said have a great rest to your week and we will see you again next time on recruiting conversation.


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