Digital Recruiting and Vision Casting for the New Year Ahead
Richard Milligan
Richard is a recruiting coach, high-growth specialist, speaker, and champion of recruiting leaders across the nation. During his time in the mortgage industry, he built more than 20 teams and held leadership positions in Area, Regional, and VP roles. For the last 5 years, he has dedicated his time to developing a system that makes recruiting simple.
He partners with and coaches industry leaders across the country to help them communicate their values, build systems that attract top talent, and position their companies for growth. Richard speaks at both public and private events across the U.S. He lives in Edmond, Oklahoma with his children and wife.
Digital recruiting has helped transform our industry in so many ways. This means a couple things for us:
- We have more access to one another than ever before
- More people than ever are engaging with potential recruits
- Now it’s more important than ever to stand out from the crowd
And the way we stand out to a potential recruit? It’s all about vision.
The more we can communicate our vision for the future, and spell out how exactly we will get there, the more we can appeal to our recruit’s interest. Namely, answering that big question: WIIFM–What’s In It For Me?
And although many people like to talk about vision (especially around this time of year), the truth is that very few people actually use vision to recruit.
Recruiting is a transference of passion. I can get really passionate about the upcoming year, about what we are going to accomplish, and about who we are going to influence. So I need to find a clear way to transfer that passion to my recruit, and spell it out for them in a way that:
Appeals to them on a personal level and gets them excited, too
Paints a picture that they can see themselves in
To put it quite simply: If I can’t share my vision for the future with a potential recruit, then I can’t get them past the finish line. So we have to have a clear blueprint that clearly spells out our vision.
This isn’t something we can just wing. It requires a plan with a good old fashioned pen and paper (even in this digital age!). Because: We need to be able to put our vision and goals down on paper in order to draw out a map for ourselves and others. Without a map, we don’t know where we’re going. And we can’t get anywhere if we don’t know where we are headed first.
We need to think about:
What’s normal for most businesses is to have plans on a micro level. They have goals. They have targets they want to hit in the upcoming year.
But vision is much greater and much larger.
So, when you think about your vision, you need to make the scope larger. Really think about: Where do you want to go in a 10-year window?
And from there, we need to create a plan of action. It’s not enough to have a big vision or a big dream. We have to put it into words, write it down, and create a roadmap.
So, when you think about your vision, you need to make the scope larger. Really think about: Where do you want to go in a 10-year window?
And from there, we need to create a plan of action. It’s not enough to have a big vision or a big dream. We have to put it into words, write it down, and create a roadmap.
My purest definition of vision is this: It’s the roadmap of what we want to achieve.
A roadmap is what answers for the recruit what’s in it for them (WIIFM).
Showing a recruit what’s in it for them would make you a unicorn in your market.
In any industry, there’s a lot of uniformity. And in today’s digital age, there’s a lot of noise coming at potential recruits from all angles.
You have to become a unicorn in terms of your offering to motivate someone to join you.
Because most people are satisfied with where they are at. (86% of people identify themselves as “satisfied” with their current role. And those people make up the majority of those we are looking to recruit.)
So we have to provide them with a unicorn opportunity that really appeals to them.
So we have to get them excited about our vision, and we do that by first identifying our dream. The original word for vision, from the original Hebrew, is “chazown.” And that literally translates to “dream.”
What’s your dream for your market?
Sharing your dream will inspire someone who is satisfied
Turning that dream into an actionable vision will motivate someone who is unmotivated
Gregory Shaw once said: “Everyone ends up somewhere. Few people end up somewhere on purpose.”
To get somewhere “on purpose,” you have to have a plan. And having a plan creates a trust framework. It’s what allows a recruit to see themselves within your vision for the future of your organization.
There’s actually an equation that can help create vision:
Action + Who + How + By What Date = Vision
For example, A market vision could be:
By 2033, we will be the lender of choice in each market we serve by impacting the top agents in our markets.
This is a great start, but there is no roadmap. And without a roadmap, it’s just a general statement with no direction. So to add direction, we need to break down each piece of this vision using the vision equation.
Action: What actions will I take?
For example: I will develop leaders, I will encourage and inspire others, I will use my gifting, I will train, I will impact
Who: Who will I take these actions with? (For example: Who will I develop with? Who will I encourage? Who will I inspire?)
This could include to agents or your team
How: What will we do to get there?
For example: What will I do to lead? What will I do to prepare? What will I do to model, preserve, or build what I wish to build?
By What Date: What’s the deadline?
For example: By 2033
Breaking your larger vision down–piece by piece–is what will create the roadmap for you, your team, and those you wish to recruit.
Write it down. Repeat it. Interact with it on an ongoing basis to give life to it.
This creates the roadmap that shows us how we will reach our vision.
In my experience, there are three critical elements to long-term vision success.
You have to write it down.
There’s something about seeing it visually on paper. You have to create a word framework that will paint a picture for someone.
Everyone on the team understands it, gets it, accepts it, acts on it
It must be seen and visibly accessible
Review it continually
Move it from something we say to something we are incredibly passionate about
Move from head to heart
It should become a tool you live and breathe by
Repeat it continually
Become the grandparent who always repeats their story
Repeat it so it becomes a living, breathing part of you
Follow these when you’ve created your vision and your roadmap, share it recruits, and you will absolutely stand out from the crowd–no matter how busy the digital landscape may be.
People follow leaders who have a clear vision and the passion to carry it out. Create your roadmap for your vision, and people will be sure to follow you, too.
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