Hi everybody it’s Richard Milligan here with 4c recruiting, and here on the podcast recruiting conversations, thank you! thank you for tuning in today. I’m gonna have a continuation of last week’s podcast, which is, in case if you’re let’s just say this if you’re listening to this particular podcast, you’ll probably want to go back to the prior podcast if you didn’t listen to it, That’d be a great place for you to start that was episode I think 45 is episode 46 we were talking about six questions that you could ask yourself coming into 2020, that would give you clarity around the goals that you could have for the upcoming year and what we talked about at a high level is just having a 10-year vision or tenure set of goals having breaking that down into the next upcoming year, asking yourself “what did you want to accomplish personally?” what do you have that what do you want to accomplish that’s business in that and then a couple of really powerful questions which is “why do you want to accomplish that?” and then where could I double down in the upcoming year and then the last one is what where do I need to go outside of my normal arenas what events don’t need to attend, what voices you know do I need to give in my ear to you what books do I need to read, what places do I need to go in the upcoming year that’s going to expose me to what I don’t know and we made that statement “you don’t know what you don’t know until you know something different” well it’s up to us to really challenge ourselves to know that something different, okay? So, that was really establishing a foundational level coming into this week that we would have a very clear idea of what we want to accomplish, okay?
So I’m going to assume that you’ve done that and with that we will proceed. So, here’s something that I’m very aware of right now, okay? We’re in the first couple of weeks of 2020, I have with probably close to 50 people gone over the goals that they have for the upcoming year, and in doing that, one of the things that I am, I already knew because it’s just true about what is normal, I expected this coming into this year and what as I come through the past couple of weeks that I’ve become even more aware of, is that for the most part most people while they’re setting goals, they’re actually pretty vague. So, I’ll give you some examples of this and you can just challenge yourself in this space to say do I have specific goals or are my goals kind of vague the benefit and there’s a benefit to having vague goals, right? the part that doesn’t is not a benefit to you is that it’s highly unlikely you will accomplish a vague goal unless you just stumble into them. Specific goals then allow you to create specific measurements that hold you accountable not just in a year but that will hold you accountable into a day and that’s what we need. So, you know some of the vernacular verbiage i hear used around this is people will say things like you know I’m hopeful we will and they’ll feel in the brain live like we’ll be somewhere between 25 and 35 percent growth. I have a range of X to X that I want to grow and all of those are extremely vague goals, and that is the wrong place to start, because without a very specific goal you really leave yourself a lot of room to not accomplish that and then not have any real specific accountability around it.
Here’s one of the things I love when you look at Greek mythology the Greeks where they were feared warriors and one of the reasons why they were feared warriors is because when they would land on an another countries, you know island or Peninsula or piece of land when they would take their boats that would land on whatever new continent that they were going to invade, the first thing that they were known to do was, they would burn their ships, and that’s just a mindset in business right it’s like being real intentional about setting a specific goal and then sharing that with the people around you and casting vision with your team around that, of not just where we’re going but how we’re going to get there, the leaders that do that they really burn their ships, because there’s no turning back, right? It’s like we’ve said we’re gonna do this now we have to go do it look last week I set with my entire team and I kept you know one of the things I do every year is I have a vision casting meeting, a vision casting event, where I bring the team together and we take a moment to look back at where we’ve been and we celebrate those accomplishments and then we look into the future and we say “where are we going?” and I want everyone to understand that and I need everybody to understand that as an organization we have some really big goals for this year and even in our ten-year plan, that are gonna require everybody to be on board with and that everybody, everybody’s going to need to play a part in this. And so, if we’re going to get there so we’re it creates vulnerability is where like you don’t truly execute on the strategy to get there as a leader you do lose credibility, that’s the vulnerability in that. For the right people, you need that on the line to really go at this these goals that you have at all cost, and that’s an important statement here. Let’s make it again, at all cost as an organization some of the things that we’re moving towards in 2020 they’re way bigger than us. It has nothing in fact several these have nothing to do with specifically revenue growth, you have nothing to do with number of clients that we out or customers that we add this year these are things that were pursuing that’s really just chasing excellence it’s also tilt to a large degree thinking way outside our organization and the impact that we can have on industries, not just that but one of the coolest things that we have in our vision for 2020 is to actually begin planting an orphanage in a third world country, and so we’ve identified a place, a group of people that are in Uganda, that we are going to create a roadmap as an organization to actually building an orphanage in a third-world country, and that’s bigger than us, and so you start casting vision around things like that of having this big, large, impact and if you’re not willing to burn the ships and really move towards those at all cost, you can’t become border building I think a lot of leaders sense that, sense that if they were to do that their credibility is on the line, and so where I want to encourage you is step into that risk, because the high quality leaders, the activators, I call them the one-percenters, the people that have all the intangibles they’re hard-working high integrity you know innovative I mean the those leaders they always figure a way through that but if you don’t establish that larger vision, you don’t share it, and then you don’t create specific components around that, that tell you whether you’re gonna win in the day to day, you’ll just go at this and and you’ll probably grow yeah most people grow organically if you’re doing things right in your market, you’re gonna grow organically but you’re gonna leave a lot of meat on that bone you’re gonna leave a lot of room that you could have grown into your market that you could have impacted people under your leadership, and beyond that it’s available to you, if you want it. And so, here’s what we got to do no more vague goals, okay? No more hopefuls, no more we’re gonna have this range of numbers, no more somewhere in between, okay? We’re gonna get real specific with this.
Now, most people think that they’re being specific when they create that larger goal of volume or a number of hires or number of teams that they’re going to build and those are what we need those are ultimately not what I would consider lead metrics, those are logging metrics, those are logging measurements. I never hire I don’t come up with an arbitrary Network twelve people to my team in the upcoming year, okay? Unless I understand what are my lead metrics the lead metrics are the daily activities that have to take place in order for you to be able to actually accomplish those log metrics, so most people make a mistake of just tracking log metrics and then they show up in the year-to-year and you know what they do they say what I did for a decade which was that I’m just gonna work harder, I’m gonna be more tenacious, I’m gonna be more focused, and maybe more intentional these are some larger goals and some larger things that we say we’re gonna be and we think that the goal and focusing on the goal is actually what’s going to get us there. No, no, let’s not confuse this it’s the daily action right it’s the daily action in alignment with the goal is what creates success. It’s the daily action alignment with the goal that’s going to get us there, okay? Excuse me so here’s what I know Pearson had a law this is like 1800’s, it’s called Pearson’s law and I’m gonna give this to you now and I think that this is something that every leader should memorize and every leader should implement into their business at every level okay Pearson while he created this law in the eighteen hundred’s and spoke this into life, one of the things that is is you’ll see again and again in great books on CEOs on books on success, and people that have built things of significance, you’re going to notice what I’m about to tell you as an undercurrent in that. So, for example you know Peter Drucker wrote a great book the effective executive, what I’m about to give you is a undercurrent through that entire book here’s the statement “what is measured is improved” let me repeat that again “what is measured and improved what is measured and reported is improved exponentially, right?” So, what is measured is improve we’ve got to measure we’ve got to be able to measure you like these specific daily behaviors, right? And then beyond that I have to report those to get the exponential because what is measured and reported is improved exponentially, what does that mean there’s a layer of accountability here. If I’m going to measure by daily actions or our daily behaviors then I have to have a formula or a person where I report these things to, otherwise I’ll fail, right? I mean at some level if I’m not having to report what I’m measuring then what’s the point, look this is the first year and I think this will make a lot of sense to most people, it’s the first year and what we know about you know us Americans in general is that most people start the year with some sort of health goal, I’ll lose weight, I’ll get healthier, I’ll work out more, out you know develop my cardio, I’ll eat better, I mean these are some of the things that that people come up with. So let me just give you example around this what does measure doesn’t prove and what it’s measured and reported is improved exponentially ok so here we go what’s measured is improved right so if I just said look you asked me “Richard what are your goals for 2020” and I said I’m gonna I’m gonna get into better shape you said great that’s that’s impressive well how are you gonna do that I joined a gym. Oh awesome! Congratulations! Right? and I know inside your mind right now you like mere thinking that’s never gonna happen like if that’s this that if that’s the extent of how you’re going to measure what you want to improve is that you simply just joined a gym, you’re not you’re not going to get there but let me give you an analogy of this where this does work, what is measured is improved and reported is improved exponentially. You asked me the same question “Richard what are some of your goals for 2020” and I say I want to get in better health and you say well how are you gonna do that? And I said well first off I hired a workout coach and I’m going to be meeting with him on Monday, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and be working out with him for the first 90 days for a full hour, until I can kind of get my rhythm and my routine down. Oh, that’s awesome anything else yeah absolutely I hired a nutritionist to actually build a food plant for me and then in turn she’s actually going to sign me up for a service, where they’re gonna ship my food in these prepackaged portions directly to my house every single week. So, I don’t have to go to the grocery store exposed myself to Oreo cookies and ice cream and cake, right? Whatever it is whatever your vice is right you’re like oh wow that’s impressive right and that’s not it my nutritionist is actually having me measure everything that I eat on a daily basis right now. And so, I’m having to write it all down not just like what I’m eating but the calories and the macros I’m having to write down proteins and carbs and sugars and you know all of those things that that I’m actually ingesting into my body as I get into this, right? You can kind understand like yes what is measured is improved but what is measured and reported will be improved exponentially, if I have to report what I’m gonna eat to somebody, you automatically know like you’re not gonna drink that Coke, and you’re not gonna eat that Snickers candy bar, okay it’s just not I’m not gonna be I’m not gonna be able make eye contact with you and I slide that that one sheet across it has all of those calories on it. I’m just not going to be able to do it, right? Because that one extra component of reporting it to someone is where we get the exponential improvement. So, in this yes let’s get specific on our goals, let’s actually then break those goals down into what I would consider lead metrics this is gonna be what are we gonna do on Monday, what am I gonna do on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. I’m gonna stablish goals around those behaviors or actions and if you’re a recruiting leader this isn’t complicated, what are the behaviors, well in recruiting there’s only three major behaviors really, right? Identifying talent, making initial contact, and following up, and following up, right? Forever! So, those are the three major components identifying talent making the show contact and follow-up so I need to have specific behaviors and actions around every single one of those and then if I do and I put that into some framework like a weekly recruiting scorecard, and I have to report that to somebody, okay? Now, I have something that’s of substance now I have something that I can’t with confidence say I’m going to achieve in 2020. I think this is a analogy for this, for the most part how people go at their year is they’re just they’re driving down a highway, right? It’s like 200, 2020 is the highway US Highway 2020, here we go we’re driving down the road, right? And we start to slowly gear off, we’re fired up in January come the 15th of January, it’s like now we’re starting to focus on alt with some other things, and you know life’s kind of getting busy now, we’re kind of getting into the rhythm of the year, and we get into February we’re about four lanes over, right? We don’t have any way to really pull ourselves back into that Lane we’ve started at January 1, but time we get to June, I’m 12 lanes over, but we get there and by that time it’s like these goals or these things that we really want to accomplish they’re a thing of the past, right? but if I’m driving down highway 2020, okay? And I have these rumble strips and I don’t know if you’ve got rumble strips, in your state but they scare the crap out of me, when I hit him at night, right? So these little these little strips that they’ve cut in the asphalt along the side of the road that when you hit them they make your top your tires make this weird rumbling noise, we call them rumble strips where I’m from, you may call them something else, but when I hit those rumble strips now that’s my where I’m reporting my behavior my actions to someone, I hit the rumble strips. Now, suddenly I can correct, I’ve got someone that I’ve given permission to say I need to be held accountable, and if you’ve got a leader over you, if they’re if your leaders not providing that, then you need to step into and ask your leader to provide that, and if you’re a leader that’s leading other people that’s recruiting because you’ve got to create this for your people, it’s necessary, let me just tell you why it’s necessary because this isn’t about micromanagement, right? If you present it correctly, so I think all great leaders allow the other leaders of the other people on their team to a large degree self-established goals, I just simply lead it, right? but if the goal isn’t my goal, and the goal is your goal is a leader, man there’s no commitment level to that, there just isn’t. So, I think great leaders allow the people underneath them to actually establish their own goals now they give them direction and they set kind of some guide rails for this but if there’s ownership of this because I’ve created it, then we’re you as a leader show up and lead them into an accountability system of sorts, if you’re just coming alongside them, and saying I want to help you accomplish your goals I think that’s what great leaders do is they help other people accomplish what they’re motivated to accomplish. So there’s the big win is that I’m gonna help you accomplish this, by putting some framework in place, I’m on your team. The other part that it does is this, this, you know metric system so to speak, where I’m tracking my behaviors and my actions on a Monday through you know Friday, a Monday through Sunday framework, what it does is as a leader and even as an individual that I’m doing this myself. It allows me to see early where there’s an issue, if I go if I go one week and I’m off base on that 50% of whatever my behavior or actions were supposed to be for that week, it’s easy to now self-correct. If I have no measurement over the course of year other than a big large established goal that’s at the very end of the year. I can get all the way to June and it doesn’t really matter whether I’m on track or whether I’m not on track. So, I need a way to establish an early alert system, right? where is there an issue and that issue might be time it could be time management, let’s just say that for the most part for most people it is time management an inability to manage the 12 to 15 hats they have in a day. This is we’re talking about you know you actually wear 12 to 15 hats you’re probably the equivalent of 5 to 7 people an organization, right? So, if recruiting and growth is one of our number goals and what I found is that for most leaders it can be as much as 60% of whether they win or they lose in a given year. I’ve got to have a system that tells me whether I’m on track or not early, not late, okay? And that’s where this where I would consider a weekly recruiting scorecard is an important component to whether you’re going to win or lose.
So, here’s what I want to do I’m going to actually put a weekly recruiting scorecard a blank example of one that we use that we coach too – I’m gonna put it on my website 4crectuiting.com/scorecard okay? I’ll put it there now, I’ve had this up before, I tell you one of the things I will also do it we’ve had this up before in our recruitingconversations.com website we’ve had some problems with that website, we’ve actually had because we have so much content on that website, we’ve actually had that website actually taken over a couple of times by people that are in foreign countries, and so we’re in the process of actually fixing that situation. So, I’m trying to provide a workaround here so here’s a good workaround I’m gonna post this in my social media feeds tomorrow, okay? So, this will be on LinkedIn go find me Richard Milligan and just search my recent posts and you’ll be able to find this it’s gonna be as a document in a recent post which by the way you can do this on LinkedIn if you didn’t know this what a cool tool, okay? I’m gonna go to LinkedIn and provide this document as a public document go get it there but then I’ll also load it onto our 4crecruiting.com/scorecard and you’ll be able to find it there as well this is a great place to start leaders please implement a system around this with the people that are other recruiting leaders underneath your leadership, and if you’re an individual that doesn’t have a leader who’s leading this, figure out creatively how you can lead yourself through this. You could create a creative accountability system with someone else in the organization that was to win as much as you that’s in the same position as you and say hey here’s a podcast or to listen to this here’s the scorecard that I’m going to start using would you be willing to hold me accountable would you be interested in using this as well, and figure out how you can measure this, and report this because when you do, you get the exponential which is what we’re after here I don’t want normal returns I want exponential returns, and that’s why I’m willing to measure myself on a daily basis that’s why I’m willing to report this to somebody else as accountability because when I do I get the exponential return, okay?
So, another recruiting conversations in the books and we are off to the races in 2020. I hope you’re having an awesome start to your year, and if there’s ever any way that I can help you, look my calendar is it’s normally booked about two weeks out right now. And I’m thankful for that but if there’s anything that I can do to help you are welcome to get on my calendar at booked Richard now calm into the future I actually had an army recruiter in New Jersey. He got on my calendar and I was asking and asking me questions and I loved it I loved every minute of it, and so if you’re in a recruiting role and you want to just have an hour conversation with Richard a time block everything any time thought that’s available on that live calendar there is available to you and would love to pour into you and just provide you with some value no strings attached, that’s what we’re about here is actually helping support the recruiting leader as much as we can in the season that we’re at. There will come a time in a place where that will not be available and I won’t have the time to do that, and I’m sure that that will happen later on this year when we launched our book the attractive leader, we’re recruiting and leading overlap, but until then I want to be as accessible as I can to my audience, and so there you have it. Have a great week and I look forward to seeing you again here next time next week on another recruiting conversations have a great week everybody.
