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How We Shape Our Own Futures
An Easy Recruit
Rising
early this morning to write about recruitment and
retention I had a flash back to seeing my eldest son
the day he came home to tell me he was "recruited"
to join the U.S. Army. Walking down the hall to turn
on the coffee pot, my memory of him those eight
years ago is as vivid as if it was just yesterday.
His large brown eyes were alive with excitement; he
couldn't even come close to stop smiling in the
weeks before departing for boot camp. His body was
ready to go, go, go and there was no turning back.
Michael knew what he wanted and was ready to show up
"big" for his new employer.
Mike was
an easy recruit for the armed services. As a young
boy he always knew what he wanted and he practiced
for that until the day came he could start living
it.
Many of
us start out in the world with careers that just
"find us" or that we "fall into", or we needed a job
and years later here we are doing what we do. In
some ways, the career defines who we are and how we
move in the world at home, work and in the
community.
Recruitment and retention is the expression of the
same activity: finding and sustaining unique talents
to serve others. Organizations identify how they
will make a difference through strategic plans, and
the most important aspect of fulfilling those
commitments is recruiting the right people to get
"on the bus". Matching those talents to the
organization's commitments creates sustainability;
employees who can express their gifts in service
want to stay put.
Are
We the Same Person at Home?
Some
believe in the need to segment work from home in
that we have different behaviors, values and
emotional responses from one environment to the
other. When I hear others speak like this it
generates concern in me for who we believe we can be
as human beings and how we step into those lives.
Fundamentally, what are we teaching our children and
the younger work generation? Are we advocating that
we need to be two different people in one body? What
stress does this create in us and what is the impact
on leadership?
Somehow,
over the years we shape ourselves to the environment
and slowly leave behind bits and pieces of our
authenticity. Does our employer hire the real you or
just the part they want for a specific role? Where
do we put the part of us that we leave behind
everyday? In our car in the parking lot? Or, outside
the door as we walk in every morning? At home in the
driveway to greet us as we return home? Years later,
we wonder why we are tired, what happened to the
passion, or what died in us.
The
culture of the organization shapes the performance
of the employees. The culture is defined through the
values and behavior of the executive leadership.
This is vastly different than the words written in a
mission statement or how we articulate in writing
our core values. How employees respond to issues,
manage breakdowns, vision the future and move
strategically directly stems from the observable
behavior of the executive team starting with the CEO.
The CEOs' commitment to authenticity impacts how
employees consciously or unconsciously decide to
show up.
What
would the world be like if we all showed up at work
everyday and believed we could be who we really are,
to live in our full potential? How would we better
serve our members if we brought forth our full self
in values, beliefs and calling within the work
place?
Dictionary.com defines "recruitment" as to
"strengthen, to engage, to enroll, to renew or
restore the health, vitality or intensity of..."
As I
write these words my curiosity flashes to our own
executive recruitment service for financial
institutions and the challenge of ensuring that
every placement adds value to both the candidate and
organization; that every new hire is a form of
renewal for both the employee and employer. This
aspect of recruitment is the most difficult and the
longest sustaining; if the hire is wrong it
generates an outcome where multitudes of people are
impacted and it takes, on average, up to two years
to recover from a bad hire.
What
Wants to Happen?
Recruitment and retention in their ultimate forms
are key success factors for organizations that live
and embody their strategic plans. Discussions and
dialogues, around recruitment and retention, focus
on what wants to happen, what needs to happen in the
organization in order to best serve members while
remaining safe and sound. This strategy is different
than hiring a "resume" as it encourages the
evaluation and assessment of what the role needs in
expertise, values, behavior, personal mastery and
emotional intelligence. For example, if the job
could talk what would it say?
Here is a
structure for dialogue among stakeholders to
articulate what the role needs for both recruitment
and retention. For the sake of this example, the
role is a Vice President of Branch Operations. Here
is a starter set of questions:
- How
will this role add value to the organization today?
In three years?
- Who
will be served by this role both internal and
external to the organization?
-
Be sure that your stakeholders extend
possibilities in their response to this
question.
-
Rather than respond with a generic "All
employees will be served", be more specific and
rigorous.
-
Segment the internal populations as each
employee group has unique requirements. There is
a distinction in language and what it produces.
Branch Managers, Marketing, Call Centers, Human
Resources, Member Services, Employee Development
and Training have their individual needs that
may or may not be the same as the entire
employee population. External population groups
served may be facility vendors, maintenance
providers, security and the community.
- What
competencies are required to serve in this role?
Education, expertise, leadership, emotional
intelligence, preferred behavior patterns and other
attributes of personal mastery such as Conflict
Management, Coaching, Flexibility, Problem Solving
and others. There are good tools available to assess
what competencies are required for the role and
which ones are mastered by employees or candidates.
- How
will performance be assessed? What will feedback
look like? How will the employee know she/he is
successful? Who is accountable for helping the
candidate or incumbent succeed?
Generative Feedback
Dynamic
and generative feedback is a powerful way to
increase retention. As human beings it is meaningful
for us to know that we are adding value and showing
up in a way that is needed and expected. Annual
performance reviews are not the ideal structure or
timeframe to communicate observable and measurable
behavior. We need to know more than once a year that
we are meaningfully adding to the value of the
organization, that we can be authentic, and how we
can most effectively put our talents in service.
Teams
that give and receive assessments, both positive and
critical, embody a greater desire to fulfill on
commitments. If assessments are primarily and
frequently negative our core strengths will be
minimized which is counterproductive. As managers we
should spend a few minutes each month sharing what
we saw that was critical to success and to do a
"check-in" with our employee. This check in might
sound like this: "Matt, I see that you have been
diligently working to complete the system
conversion. Let's do a check in. How is it going for
you?" Your purpose, at this point is to listen
actively.
Leadership or Career Development Plans are a
powerful way to engage employees in their own path
to success. They are initially written in
coordination with strategic planning with emphasis
on required competencies for success. Quarterly
check-ins, updates and modifications are influencing
factors for retention. Ongoing development is
accomplished through commitment and purpose; it is
not accidental. Leadership starts from within; if we
can lead ourselves then we will be successful in
leadership of others. This level of leadership will
have greater success in an organization with a CEO
dedicated to authenticity.
As I
complete this writing I am reminded of the tours my
son, Michael, had in Bosnia, Korea and Iraq. The
smile and passion are still very much a part of his
life story,but he is a different person than the one
who left for boot camp eight years ago. He has a
greater understanding of leadership and how
important it is to be self-generative.
Deedee Myers is a co-founder of the Advancing
leadership Institute, a division of DDJ Myers, Ltd.
She is the mother of nine children and is the daily
practice of leadership for the sake of raising
leaders of the future. Her work with clients focuses
on Leadership Development, Succession Planning and
Building Powerful Teams. For information regarding
job or role assessments contact Deedee at (800) 574
8877 ext. 101 or visit
www.ddjmyers.com.
Deedee Myers is a certified executive and leadership
coach with 16 years expertise in recruiting and
competency development for financial firms. She
founded DDJ Myers, Ltd. and the Advancing Leadership
Institute to work with boards, executives, managers
and supervisors to develop leadership cultures.
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