Short, medium and long term goals for recruiters

I asked my son’s dentist what motivated him to study dentistry. “Because I see an immediate result at the end of the procedure,” he said. “I considered becoming a doctor, but you have to wait months, even years, before you see the fruit of your efforts.” It makes sense to me, I thought.

I also want things to happen faster. I wish I could close a deal every day and see an immediate impact, the same way my son’s dentist does. Rather than fill your teeth and go to bed satisfied, our industry is the high-priced selling that occurs every now and then when the gods of deal smile at us, not the daily conclusion of endeavors that a dentist might see.

I will never forget when my son was three years old and passionate about fire trucks. He owned fifteen toy fire trucks, wore fire trucks on his shoes, fire trucks on his shirts, firefighter caps, and posted fire department stickers all over the house. We were regular weekend visitors to the fire station, and all the firefighters knew us by name. Sometimes Dagsen would wake up in the middle of the night saying, “Fire truck! Fire truck!” In your dream. We even had a toddler puzzle (really big pieces) with a fire truck. “Dagsen,” I said to him one night, “to put the puzzle together, we need to see the picture on the box.” I explained that we first start with the visual image of our goal and break it down into individual pieces of the puzzle. By looking at the photo on the box, we know where all the pieces fit.

If recruiters understand the whole puzzle and how all the pieces fit together, then they are less likely to be frustrated with the ongoing daily routine, even when the end result is not yet in sight. When I first entered the business thirteen years ago, I couldn’t stand the time it took for some deals. That’s probably why I never tried gardening. I would be tempted to pluck the plants out of the ground to see how far the roots had grown. I can’t help it. I am part of the microwave generation. But when I started to focus on action steps rather than my production or billing goal, I felt less frustrated and started billing more. In other words, I started to focus on each individual piece of the puzzle and made sure that each part of the puzzle was in the correct place. But I never took my eyes off the photo on the box. I focused on the following three actions and always kept looking at the picture (monthly goals) of my desired result:

1. The number of conversations per hour. (goal per hour)
2. The number of candidates submitted per month. (monthly goal)
3. The number of face-to-face interviews per month. (weekly and monthly goal)

Olympic-level athletes focus all their energy only on the next foot placement when on the ice in the middle of an event. They don’t focus on the fact that they are competing in the Olympics for a gold medal during their routine. Sure, that’s your ultimate goal; But while they are in the middle of their program, they are only focusing on the next action step in their event.

If you keep your eyes on the “box lid” but focus on location-specific action steps, your desktop will be affected as follows:

1. Less frustration. A major and frustrating problem for newbies is not seeing things happen quickly enough. Like my son’s dentist, we all need immediate gratification. Set daily and hourly goals. Your whole year is made up of a series of hours, and if you make each hour your best hour, you will have your best year. Here’s a simple, easy, and effective hourly goal for you: set a goal for the number of people you want to connect with each hour. Stop measuring how many times you dial the phone. Set goals for connections only. Connections make you money. The dials are just attempts. Plug in the count. The dials do not. This telephone discipline tool can help make every hour, every piece of the puzzle, the most effective hour you’ve ever had.
2. More fun. My son would rush a lot when a piece of the puzzle fit into the puzzle. I also! Although we would still have to complete the puzzle, we would see it come together as each piece brought our project visibly closer to the desired goal on the box. If you focus on each part of the process and make that part your goal, you will have more fun and feel more satisfied because you can begin to see that it all comes together.
3. More effective. I have studied sports psychology by reading several books, and this is the most important thing I have learned: if an athlete does not focus on their specific action steps during their routine, they will drown. I’ve even seen this happen with recruiters when they have multiple deals closing. It is almost too overwhelming for them and they forget to have those difficult conversations with candidates and clients that are necessary to close the deal. They start to see how big your potential fees could be and it’s almost too much for them. So they drown and subconsciously begin to sabotage deals. The same thing happened at the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake in the women’s figure skating competition. Two seasoned competitors drowned on the ice as the underdog, a very young teenager, said: “This is great. I’m at the Olympics and I never thought it could happen. Just being here is enough for me. Skate my best. program and be happy with it, “and won gold. The other two were thinking, “Oh wow. I’m at the Olympics. I’m at the Olympics. Billions of people are watching. This is what I’ve worked for my entire life and the next three minutes are what I spent last. thirteen years preparing for, “instead of thinking about each individual action step. And … CHOKE! Tears followed and we all felt empathy. We have all been there.

Focus on every action step, every piece of the puzzle, and every hour’s effort. Set hourly goals for connections, monthly goals for candidate presentations, and weekly and monthly goals for the first face-to-face interviews; And like my son’s dentist, you will be satisfied regardless of how long it takes to close, because you will see the pieces of the puzzle come together, one piece at a time. And when people ask you why you became a recruiter, you can tell them it’s for the satisfaction of seeing the results of your efforts, each and every day.