Blog
Customer Service – do we need it in the tech age?
I have been very fortunate to participate in two vitally important events over the last few weeks centred on customer service and candidate engagement. One was an industry event, led by Brett Iredale, CEO of industry software practice management giant Jobadder....
The importance and power of mental models
The most successful people in business have the ability to visualise and deliver their desired strategic goal without distraction. They do this by using tools known as mental models. By taking the time to properly picture what success looks like, they make the right...
Managing for performance
My discussions with senior leaders and executives often gravitate towards the best way to determine if someone is going to be successful. People in senior roles, and those in just mid-level performance roles are often assessed by their managers on a range of issues....
Pay more to get more
Good candidates are hard to find, in times of low unemployment and high unemployment. Often when recruiting, clients want to ‘squeeze the lemon’. This is an expression regularly used by one of my clients, meaning they want to get as much as they can out of their...
Is it about the experience?
There is an old adage ‘it is not what you say to people it is how you make them feel’ that really resonates with me. Having recently been at an international conference in the US for our NPA network there was a lot of discussion around giving people an experience that...
“Who have you got on your books?” The commonly-used recruitment question holding you back
I am often approached by clients looking for a quick solution to a resourcing problem. Perhaps someone has left them unexpectedly, a new recruit has fallen through or their organisation has been evolving in ways that do not align with their current skills base. Either...
The death of the interview
Over the past 12 months or so, I’ve noticed a growing trend with candidates taking a more active role in the interview process. The interview as we know it is gone, with candidates no longer simply responding to behavioural questions and providing examples of previous...
The CEO as the chief recruiter: key to business continuity and growth
You often hear talk of the CEO being an organisation’s number one salesman. As figurehead of the company, they are the most visible, influential, recognisable and most likely to articulately ‘sell the dream’ of their organisation and therefore attract external...
Healthy teams drive greater value
We’ve all heard the saying that people don’t leave companies, they leave managers. There is some truth to that statement – and some misdirection too (for more on that, read this piece from CultureAmp –...
Filtering vs selecting. Does the difference matter?
The ability to select the right person for an organisation is one of the most prized skills of leaders – because people drive an organisation’s success. Simon Sinek famously tweeted: “The responsibility of a company is to serve the customer. The responsibility of...
Executive reference checks. Are you missing an opportunity?
We were recruiting for an executive role and had already undertaken six reference checks on the candidate. Those referees confirmed that, yes, they believed the candidate could do the job. However, they neither confirmed he was superbly well suited to the role, nor...
What makes for star talent?
When you consider the uniqueness of roles, organisational cultures and individuals, the adage that we are all one of a kind rings true. However, in our work, having interviewed thousands of people and placed hundreds in roles, there is no question that there are some...