Richard Shared a Story of How He Had a Breakthrough in Protecting His Time for His Recruiting Efforts

Hi, everybody, it’s Richard Milligan again with recruiting conversations, welcome back, excited to have you here today. I’m intentionally going to keep this one short because it is so important that you can come back to it again and again. I know it can be hard to dedicate 15, 20, 30, 40 minutes to a podcast at times, so we’re going to keep this one short. And this one is about time management, around the time blocking. I’m going to share a story with you that’s a real story from my own life as a recruiting leader that will relate to a lot of you that are recruiting leaders today. And so to make sure you understand what the recruiting leader role is, it’s someone who manages his team but then also is responsible for recruiting to that team. With that said, because you manage a team and because you have so many other responsibilities, time management, time blocking can be something that is a challenge. It is typically a challenge for most recruiting leaders simply because of all the responsibilities they have. There is at least need for them from the team where it can create situations that are out of control. The rotating door, the revolving door as we call it, the firefighter roll, the heart surgeon roll, whatever it is you want to call it, where you are so needed that you are afraid that if you are not needed, that you are not doing the right…  you’re not doing the right thing, you are not managing the team will. That’s just not true because boundaries are healthy for everybody. In fact, I would dare say we stopped people’s growth when we’re that particular needed where we’re always available. People need to realize how to become a resource for their self. And one of the best videos out there that Tony Robbins has ever done is in this Lane off the greatest resource we have is our own resourcefulness. So where you circumvent people for us to become resourceful, you actually stunt their ability to grow inside an organization and to grow personally.

So naturally, when you time block and you manage your time well, what will come from that is your people actually grow as a byproduct of that, believe it or not. But that’s not what I’m here to talk about. I want to talk about the story that’s really shaped my forever piece inside time management and the time blocking. I can remember back in the early days of the recruiting leader role that I play and just the frustrations of people standing at the glass door and staring at me until I made eye contact so they could come in or knocking on the door and when I didn’t answer because I was on the phone, then just coming in or whatever the situation is for you. And soul they’re began the season where there was a bit of frustration, there was a lot of tension for myself of, “I have to solve this problem, because if I don’t solve this problem, I won’t win at the level that I want to win around growing and building.” And so I begin to just think about this, “Like how do I solve it?” And in that season, I have this moment. I’d actually time blocked my recruiting efforts, there was a knock on my door, somebody opens the door, I don’t remember specifically who opened the door, I don’t think I would give them credit for this story because it’s actually one of my memories that change how I manage my time. And I had my back to the door, door knocks, I’m on the phone, and then I hear the door open. And I couldn’t respond to the door and they couldn’t see me because at the time, that door they have one design, it was a solid door. They couldn’t see me and that’s where they open the door and I heard the door open but I did never hear the door closed. So after probably several minutes of trying to maintain my concentration of this phone call that I’m on with the recruit and knowing somebody is staring at my back, I spin around in my chair to actually face the door and find the individual just standing there. They didn’t actually just open the door and walk out, they stood there as though they were expecting me to get off this phone call in order to be able to address whatever their issue was. And I don’t remember the issue being a big issue, I remember it being like a very normal issue. They left my office, I remember looking in my corner and I remember seeing a box in my corner and saying, “I’m going to go put a sign on my door.” I walk over to the cardboard box, I took a pair of scissors, I cut the corner of the box off one of the ear flaps off, I take a marker and I put, ‘In meeting’, I walk to my door, I duct tape it to my…  I Scotch tape it to my door, close it when I go back in. Get back on the phone with another recruit, I hear a knock on my door and I hear the door open again and I’m on another conversation. And so in that moment, I realized, this problem is big enough I have to keep moving towards whatever I need to do in order to resolve it. The time was already time blocking, my calendar was already visible to my team. They could see that at that hour, I had been blocked off for recruiting efforts and they knew that if the door was closed that I was dialing people or was trying to make phone calls. That didn’t work, and it’s not working for you either as a recruiting leader. And especially, I know this for a fact, especially if you are in an environment where your team resides.

So maybe if you are in a stand-alone office, it’s different. Maybe if you work from home for that particular day, it’s different. For the majority of you, you are working in an office environment with that team and therefore, this happens repetitively. The cardboard side didn’t fix it for me and it won’t fix it for you. So I went out and said, ‘“I’m going to solve this problem.” I was talking to my wife around this topic, my wife happened to be at a store so A beautiful almost foot-and-a-half tall hourglass that has reticent in it, she bought that, brought it home and said, “I think if you use this, it will help you.” And I was like, “That’s brilliant, absolutely. It’s a visual item that people can see, and so I’ll use the hourglass. I’ll actually put it outside my door, people will see how long it’s going to before I’m available.” I created a sitting area, I had a very wide hall in front of my door at the time. I created a nice sitting area, had magazines, everything, “And oh, by the way, team, here’s the hourglass, it’s, you know, going to be on the table.If it’s standing, I’m still in my meeting, when it’s empty, you can come in,” because I was time blocking an hour at a time. That didn’t work either. People would walk right by the sitting area, right by the hourglass, right by the cardboard sign and walk right into my office and a barge in with whatever it is that they had going on. So out of this desire to grow in this area, I went out and I bought, no joke, a whiteboard easel. So I got the Whiteboard, I got the easel, easel is probably about four and a half to 5 feet tall, I bring it to my office, I put it in front of my door, take my magic marker, my grease marker and I marked on it, “In meeting, don’t come in. If you have an issue, I’ll be available at this time. You’re also welcome to write your topic that you have need on here,” and I actually used that to block my door. When I finally did that, I finally moved the needle to a place inside protecting what was a priority, which was my time and my recruiting efforts so that I can actually move… actually go to the behaviors I need to do in order to win.

So I give that story to you in this to say, this is a problem you have to solve. Some leaders have to get off premise. And there was even a season for me before I actually used the Whiteboard where I would grab my laptop, I would grab my cell phone, I would jump in my truck and I would drive to a community league and I would sit on the bed of my truck at that come into Lake and I would make my recruiting calls from there. And I did that as a way to protect it because it was important to me. Now, I’ve got some very fond memories of those times where I’m like, I’m not in the office, I am actually I’m a lover of the outdoors. And so I’m in the outdoors and I’m doing the things that I needed to do to win, it was all a win-win for me. But you do what you have to do to what extreme you have to do it because the truth is this. You time blocking is going to be one of the most critical elements to you winning in this place of recruiting. so think your situation out. I’ve had some leaders that said, “There’s an office in another part of my office that never gets used and people wouldn’t expect me there and I can go hide out there with my computer or I can set it up to be my recruiting office.” There have been people that said, “I’m going to work from home, work from home on Thursday afternoon and Tuesday afternoon in order to protect that time.” Some people have created physical barriers like I have. Whatever you have to do to protect this piece, do it. And when you do it, what you will see is in a very short window of time, your behaviors will become habits and there was habits are going to be the conduit to you becoming a successful recruiting leader.

Hope this brought some value to you today. I always enjoy sharing this stories of seasons of my life where I struggled so that they can be conduits for change for you. And so I just hope and pray that that story is just that for you. Don’t get to a place where you have to get that frustrated and have that much tension and the time management to go win. But to do this and you will become a better recruiting leader, no doubt. I would love it if you shared this. If you’re not already a subscriber and you came across this, came across this randomly, please do subscribe. We’re doing two of these a week, Mondays and Thursdays are where these become available. And on till we meet again on recruiting conversations podcast, have a great week and we’ll talk to you again.  

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