CBI Way blog spot by Lisa Van Ess, Recruiter On-Demand and Managed Staffing Practice Leader

Those of us in the service provider business are well aware of how service and success easily get tied to the engagement of that one-and-only-knows-my-business-resource. The client has been working with this one sourcer or recruiter since the beginning and no one you have in your entire fleet of talent could ever replace that individual…there is some truth to this, but so much can be done through a great transition, yet – that is a subject for a future blog…

This blog is about the benefits of going from working with My Favorite Sourcer to the (gasp!) Anonymous Sourcing Pool. At CBI Group, we look at sourcing as a multi-step process that begins with the research of potential candidates through all available pipelines and ends with the profiling and production of an interested candidate submitted to a CBI Group or corporate recruiter for entry into the interview process. We have a sourcing methodology and process to find all sorts of needles in the haystack. Yes, some of our talented sourcing team has more experience with financial services, others in pharmaceuticals and others in manufacturing but when our internal and external clients limit themselves to only work with their Favorite Sourcer they miss out on some great benefits.

Sourcing is about creativity, the more variety of opportunities given to a talented sourcer, the more creative they become, and this goes for every client. Having a strong vertical/niche is great in terms of knowing where to start the hunt but having different sets of eyes and different approaches leads to a wider variety of pipelines and candidates. When a sourcing team is behind you, they rely on each other for coaching, ideas, and support (you tend to get more than the Favorite Sourcer you might be paying for) and when your Favorite Sourcer goes on vacation, your recruiting pipeline does not go on hold for a week. Oh, and how could I forget to mention, your Favorite Sourcer is part of the nebulous Anonymous Sourcing Pool so you still do get their work included…

Remember – the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (or the one part you are most attached to!)

The CBI Way blog series explores the tools and practices used in Talent Acquisition. CBI Way is CBI Group’s recruiting approach and methodology – it’s how we do what we do! Check in with CBI Way for insights around workforce education and training, the latest trends in recruiting technology, and how to best utilize these tools towards improving your own recruiting practices.

I think it starts with a simple premise. The phone is ringing, so I answer it.“Thank you for calling CBI Group, Chris Burkhard speaking, I can help you!” However, everyday someone – a vendor, an applicant, a customer – seems so surprised when I answer the phone. 

To be specific, this is when the phone rings into my company. We want to get the caller picked up in three, ideally two, or even one ring.  We get busy like any other company and this job is bigger than anyone person who is primarily picking up the phone. We always have someone who does this most of their day. So where does the leadership thing show up in all of this?  One of the hardest things for a leader to do is to show a balance of leading, directing, and doing.  Trust is built when leaders do as they preach. Even if your company (mine) would prefer I stayed off the phones because I am not quite as good at it as some…

I have chosen a leadership model and organizational culture that is one of servant leadership while the business is organized in a flat, matrixed fashion. My goal is to squeeze the middle, empower my customer-facing staff, and force my leaders to work for them. Let that soak in. Empower the front line staff. Leaders work for them. So why should it come as a surprise when everyone in the company answers the phone? Habits. Experiences. Other places we work. All of these gained insights make it so much harder to buy-in.

However, how can an environment of equality exist unless the leaders do their best to be equal? Yes, roles are designed differently. Yes, some roles are critical to business success and very important to the success of a business.  This does NOT mean that there is not a place for a team mentality.

Some environments are siloed – don’t dare talk to someone in another department without having department heads do the talking! Some environments promote hierarchy and fear. Leaders do this by being ominous and scary or by forcing conformity to a practiced culture that all dare not bend or break from tradition.

My tradition and hierarchy are such that people are people and they perform best when they feel valued and they can be themselves – and where teamwork is sacred.  Teamwork is not an “opt-in” or “when and if I want to” kind of behavior. You’re either committed to the team or your not.  NOT just on your favorite tasks or to help your office friend out. So leaders step in and out of what needs to be done for the team.

Stepping in and out can be hard. Do I roll up my sleeves everyday? When will I plan? When will I work on business problems and opportunities?  How do I give feedback and do my leadership job? The answer lies within. But I can assure you if you never step in and help. Or worse yet, if you always dive in and help, you have a real opportunity to improve your leadership persona and have more impact!

So as ridiculous it is for you to think of someone’s President answering the phone because of their corporate culture, as a leader in an Outside-In company, not answering the phone is even more absurd to me!

At our company we examine every customer interaction and decide how we could take that experience as far as we can. We call this our Service to the N^th degree value. Can we take every moment of interaction to an extreme? How could we make it better for that person? For example, how can we answer a phone call with N^th degree thinking? Try getting to the caller quickly and eliminating voice mail. Or perhaps, always answer in three rings – or better yet, two. (Maybe even one!) Why keep that customer waiting? Create the best Outside-In experience you can.

However, today’s blog is about extending that service impression to the process of sales. In fact to put a fine point to it, for those of us that have to introduce ourselves and our companies to prospects, this is about the first 30 seconds of an interaction! Sales people struggle with the first introduction. Most of us spend hours preparing and researching our target. We know about their last annual report, we have read the press releases, we know about our competitors. My guess is that you’re loaded up with marketing materials. You have brochures, white papers, and case studies coming out of your ears.

So what do you need to focus on during the first 30 seconds? First off, your words.

1.  Be crystal clear with your purpose.  Sales people of the world… face it – we’re not crystal clear with our purpose in the first 30 seconds! We wander in these early conversations. We try to connect and “build relationships”. We try to impress with our knowledge of our offerings. We ask for the “order” when our prospect barely knows us. Be direct without being pushy. Be authentic.

2.  Don’t ask for a relationship right out of the gate. It is weird to ask to build a relationship in the first call. It did not work in the hallways of high school, and it is just as well, creepy when selling. This is just too much of a leap of faith for an audience that really is still paying attention to their email or the project they were working on when you called them and interrupted them.

3.  Differentiate yourself. Oftentimes, we act like and conduct business like everyone else. You could insert any product into your introduction and you would sound like the other ten voice mail messages your prospect deleted this week. Make yourself stand out. Think about how your company differentiates itself and how you can communicate it. Don’t let your introduction be “one size fits all”.

4.  Make sure to speak in terms of customer benefit.  As sales people, if we’re not careful our opening conversation sounds something like this to our prospect, “I am Chris Burkhard, I work for my company, I am interested in getting to know you so I can sell you my product so that I can meet my monthly quota, because I am falling behind on my bills, and I really need this sale now, you see.  Truth is, I need a a quick hit to stay on track, and keep my sales manager off my back.” Does your introduction sound like me, me, me?  It is subtle but true.  Until we learn to speak in an Outside-In way and in terms of the customers benefit, we will always sound selfish. Who wants to build a relationship, ever, with someone that is all about themselves?

Sales people of the world, if you’re on plan then you can ignore me.  If you’re falling behind, I bet I know why, and I have the answer – it starts with your first 30 seconds.  How good are you and your company at first impressions?

We are Defined by 3 Customers. We consider everyone we work with a customer – whether you are a client, an employee, or a vendor. All 3 perspectives add value and are integral to the success of our business. -Outside-In® Pocket Guide

Sometimes a value is perfect because it causes such debate and controversy. Defined by 3 Customers seems to be that value for our companies. The origins come from the desire to change the way company leaders and employees have typically thought about making decisions. And to alter the perception on who is considered most important in the business. Is it the vendor? Is it the customer? How about employees? Just depends on your point of view I guess. For me it was simple to think differently. My desire was to create balance and equality. To value all the same. And to use this sameness to allow the business to have balanced thinking. What would the impact be for employee customers? For our vendors? For paying customers?

In the past, I have worked with customers that put their stock price and shareholders first, and it showed in how they treated employees in big and small ways. In big ways, employees were numbers and disposable. In small ways, their needs, wants, ideas, desires and passions if at important seemed to come second. This is frankly still the case for many companies today.

The other common point of view is that there is only one customer. So don’t cloud the issue on this. A customer is a customer. An employee is an employee. A vendor/ partner is just that a vendor/ partner. I see the logic to the argument. But our goal is not clarity in words. We aspire to show the world we have a goal to be different and to value that difference in how we run our company!

By the way, this goes on all day long. In every facet of our business, in fact. There is magic in this message. I am often told and challenged about the vendor/ partner part. Why do we need to treat them special or go out of our way to stand out? When it comes down to crunch time and when you really need them they remember it. You take care of vendors by paying them promptly. By communicating effectively. By building unique relationships. Our goal is to pay our vendors in 10 days whenever possible. Some goals take longer than others.  As we grow, build the business and cash, this will become a guarantee!

Everyone has a choice to work wherever they want and for their own unique reasons. I want a place to come everyday where I can brag about our ongoing commitment to run our business while taking into account our three customers:  paying customer, vendors, and employees. Sure, we can overcharge our customers. And get away with it for the short-term. We can stop communicating with employees and tell people what to do. For a brief period. We can screw vendors by asking them to discount severely on one deal.  But they wont come back the next time. We face this ethics challenge each and every day. We have to find the equilibrium.

When you work in a growing, changing, stretching entrepreneurial company it is impossible to apply ironclad rules of thought to everything. This value has been challenged, and I have dealt with our imperfections. Try telling employees that you are Defined by 3 Customers when you need to discuss reducing headcount due to a recession. On the vendor side I have taken the calls from our partners when they feel shunned or ignored when we were not direct enough with our feedback on their performance.

This is not about the pursuit of perfection. You will not always make the right decision. This is the nature of decision making. We should all move to Vegas if we could get it right each and every time and win big.  This is about is your mindset. About having a belief that when you’re in a spot to make decisions or work on a project that you will think with all 3 Customers in mind as you wrestle with finding compromises and plans that treat all customers as if they matter for the long term!

CBI Way blog spot by Lisa Van Ess, Recruiter On-Demand and Managed Staffing Practice Leader

So as a recruiter your #1 goal is to find the best fit for a position. You assess the position requirements, responsibilities, team and company cultural fit and interpersonal interactions with the manager and the team, you begin recruiting against all these hard and soft responsibilities, and find the perfect person. How’s that for a happily ever after?

So what happens when this top candidate gets in front of the hiring manager and the message back to you is: I want someone younger/older/male/female? We all have or will have to face this at some point. Below are three suggestions on what to do when the inevitable occurs:

1.      Ask why - There are sometimes valid (and lawful) reasons to ask for an otherwise protected characteristic. For example, if the job requirement is to model women’s dresses, the most ideal candidate may very well be a woman, or if a job is to design apps targeted for the under 30 market’s use, a Millennial may be the most qualified candidate. It never hurts to ask questions to gain clarity.

2.      Educate – In the absence of a valid reason, it is always recommended you educate (teach don’t preach!) your hiring management about non-discriminate hiring and most importantly the value to the organization of having diverse teams. (Start by reminding them their clients are diverse!)

3.      State your purpose and get back to the first sentence – your job is to find the best fit for the position — to enable the new hire’s, team’s and company’s success! If the first two suggestions don’t yield any traction from your hiring manager, it might just be best to go back to the drawing board and find the best fit!

The CBI Way blog series explores the tools and practices used in Talent Acquisition. CBI Way is CBI Group’s recruiting approach and methodology – it’s how we do what we do! Check in with CBI Way for insights around workforce education and training, the latest trends in recruiting technology, and how to best utilize these tools towards improving your own recruiting practices.

You started your company to leave your mark and get away from the structure, hierarchy, and the limited impact you had in corporate America, right? So, you enjoy your leadership freedoms as an entrepreneur and you run your company like the Wild West. No rules, no regulations, and a strong individualistic identity. And guess what?  The Wild West actually works. I grew my organization an average 40% per year for five years this way.  And, if you were thinking I loved it, you are right on.

The Wild West is easy when you’re under 30 employees.  We would gather in a conference room or someone’s office and the entire company could get on the same page with the company direction.  In fact, everyone came to every meeting when we had them.  Which was not frequent, because I hated the meetings I had to attend in my last gig.

The Wild West is about letting people be themselves. Early employees join because they believe in the founder and in why the company exists. Employees simply made decisions. There are no job descriptions. When the phone rings someone answers it. When something needs to be done no one needs to ask, someone simply did it.  This time in the business is really special.  Every customer win or innovation is so easy to see and celebrate, and communication happens in real time, all of the time.

Then one day it all stops working.  The growth stops.  You might even lose ground!  This is my story.  The Wild West gun slinging era stopped producing results. Your staff hates it and can’t figure out why!  And they will leave unless you make changes to how you run the day to day. And many small business folks never figure out how or why.  As you grow communication begins to break down.

Everyone stops knowing everything. The business that ran so perfectly in its early years grinds to a halt. It seems like every person, every step in the business, every process, even every function of the business like accounting, sales, or marketing can’t keep up and does not know what the other parts of the business are trying to get done.

So why is growth so hard?

1.  Leaders find it hard to change the business routines.  Small business leaders love working long hours at first.  I was known to say “Every problem is mine to fix!”.  The variety of tasks and duties (although overwhelming) is intoxicating.  Delegation becomes really important here.

2. We have an identity crisis when it comes to putting process in place. If you worked in corporate America I bet there was lots of process and focus on systems. Early companies just exist. I find the hardest part of my job is right here. How much process is enough for the stage my company is right now?  Or if I am growing for next quarter? Don’t over-engineer and kill the entrepreneurial spirit. BUT, if you don’t put process in place your costs of doing business will escalate and not keep up of with your top line.

3.  All of a sudden competitors and clients know you exist.  Small business does not claim market share. Small business goes out and does what it needs to do to sell things and create top line revenues. Bills must get paid. The big hope really is that as you pay some bills, your customers will help refine and improve your products and services. This Outside-In® interaction with your market will drive creativity and new offerings to solve your customers challenges – and your growth cycle continues.  However, if you grow, your (bigger) competitors get to know you, …and they can lower costs or press to take away your clients.  So it is hard to mature and grow as a business, everything about your business must grow up too!

I know I said three reasons growth is hard.  However, there is one additional big challenge to stay aware of and that is the entrepreneurial leader. We as leaders must change our approach and style with the phases of growth of your business.  Yes, you still want to open the mail, and show that you’re hands on. But how does your role need to evolve? It involves trust in your colleagues and employees. Are you able to let go of the reins a little bit and let your vision grow in the hands and minds of those you hired?

Today’s companies operate differently than a decade or two ago. Globalization, technology, cultural and social change, demographic trends and shifts have all impacted the way business is conducted. This structural shift has impacted the worker too. Today’s worker must be focused on knowledge building and embracing change skills to maximize themselves.

However, I think this structural shift has impacted the way leaders need to lead. One of my personal pet peeves is when leaders don’t take the time to admit fault. There is this funny thing called “leadership pride” that keeps our lips shut.  We may act like we did something wrong, we may make amends or attempt to fix a mistake, however, we don’t often vocally admit mistakes enough. When we don’t admit our mistakes, we damage trust on our teams and in our company. Trust is a funny thing. Easy to lose. Hard to get back.  Must be built through your actions and of course, your words.  They better be close to one and the same.

By not admitting mistakes we look fake and disingenuous. Today’s worker must do their job on the edge of their seat and take risks in their job to create some wow (or do something Nth degree in Outside-In® language). But the risk is the key.  If you won’t show vulnerability as a leader and expose yourself how do you expect others to do so?  And if you expect creativity or new thinking from your people, then celebrating mistakes is a requirement.

Making mistakes makes you real.  By making mistakes you are human. By admitting them, you allow others to admit them and creates an open channel for improved communication to blossom. A problem said out loud, is a problem half solved! Openly addressing mistakes you’ve made as a leader allows trust to grow and build between you and your employees. It’s about being Open Book — being honest, vulnerable, and transparent – and living Outside-In® leadership, where accessibility and trust are key components of a strong leader.

We all need a culture of admission, right?

Sales is not an easy profession. By the very nature of the role you have to be able to deal with a lot of negativity and rejection. Most buyers say no. This is simply a fact. The job requires so much hard work – busy work, really – research, preparation, meeting planning, detail follow-up with emails and phone calls, all for brief “performances” with your prospect and customer.  Sales is 99% hard work, planning and preparation, and 1% actually selling.

There is so much we can do to be better sales people.  Reading about sales and going to workshops on sales technique is a must. Being prepared and planned everyday is critical. Many sales people sometimes wing it; they count on their strengths too much, and they don’t prepare to to maximize their time. They do too little in the way of the activities that are necessary to produce the volume of output their quota probably requires!

However, I have come to grasp that sales people can’t do it alone! Your company has to work hard on your behalf.  I believe a company must work hard on its brand, and that the brand must be an honest representation of what the company stands for, whats it personality and character are like, and what promise you can make to your prospects.

This is always a brand challenge for any business. Every business has a brand.  Sometimes the brand is intentional; sometimes it is the absence of a plan. In all cases your company gives the marketplace an impression of what it is all about and what it stands for.

In my experience, I have found that being an Outside-In® company matters. Our brand is about being all about the customer. Our brand is our culture, and our culture is how we view ourselves. You can call this our overall personality! This personality is how we help our sales staff add value and clearly how we stand out in a world that is terribly the same! We are definitely not the same. However, we are not different for the sake of being different.  Our difference is because we chose to turn ourselves inside out. We are what our customers need and want us to be!

Our culture and our values? 100% a reflection of employee behaviors that will best enable each employee to be the best they can be in the unique business landscape we all operate in today. Our brand is our culture.  Our culture is our values.

Remember, good marketing helps you amplify the truth, not pitch something that you wish exists. That is the difference!

Watch our video for our truth!

Don’t be an entrepreneurial poser. Yes, poser. (Thank you to my very cool son Josh for the edgy word.) Not really the words you might expect from a grown man but boy does it fit. When you go out as a teenager and buy a whole lot of skate board clothes but can’t stand on a board, they call you a poser. When you dress like a surfer, but don’t actually surf or even boogie board on your family vacation, you are a poser. Don’t be something you’re not. Be true to yourself. And by George, skate or surf a little bit, or try at least! This is coming from the Outside-In® Guy who had surfing on his bucket list. When I went surfing, the guide said, “Dude if the 400 pound Samoans could surf than, well, I guess you can too.”  Ouch! I’ll show him! All morning in the ocean, and a total of three seconds in an upright position and enough board rash and bruised ego to skip the next lesson!

So what exactly is an entrepreneurial poser? Lately, I meet many people who want to be entrepreneurs. I read about how hard it is today to start a business. That conditions are not ideal. That if money were easier to secure, or space was available, or “If I didn’t have all this college debt, I would definitely be starting my own business”. 

Starting a business is always hard. Starting a business is never easy. It is not supposed to be easy! You have to have a passion for what you’re trying to accomplish and you better believe in your big vision and in yourself. Because some days and weeks running a company hurts. But starting one? Bootstrapping was the hardest single thing I ever tried.

Today, there are so many resources to start a company. There are books, counselors, college courses, start-up weekends, angel networks, chambers, beehives, incubators, even junior high and high school programs with wonderful institutions like Junior Achievement. Some days I think this is the problem. You have too much information. Too many “so called” experts. Too many road maps that describe others’ path to “success”.

So, to all you entrepreneurial posers: Start a business because you have passion and believe in an idea. Because you see a gap in a market. Because you think you can do something better. But don’t you dare do it for the fame or the money. Without passion there are rarely profits in the long term!

Furthermore, please don’t tell me why you can’t start your business. It just gets old. A downturn is the best time to start a business by the way, less competition and labor is available. These are pretty good times too. There have always been barriers. There have always been funding issues. You’re not unique to think that living on savings and not drawing a salary for a year or two is too much to bare. Yes, I know, working 20 hours a day with no days off is hard, and you won’t get any days off (including weekends) in the early days. This is simply the price of admission. If you lack the money than you have sweat equity to give.

A business exists as long as the owner says it does. There is always a way. Trust me. I know. Floods, theft, fire, and collapsed roofs make competition seem like nothing! For all you posers, you have a choice, work for an entrepreneurial company, or get up on the entrepreneurial board and go for it!

Guest blog spot by Kelly Hocutt, Marketing Team Lead

Back in January we kicked off our company-wide annual theme, The Outside-In® Happiness Project, inspired by the best-selling book The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. As followers of the business practices outlined in Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish, we choose to establish a theme to motivate our company to accomplish its quarterly and yearly goals. Our company’s goal this year? To promote internal happiness and in doing so, optimize our company culture, Outside-In®.

Another business practice outlined in Mastering the Rockefeller Habits is working in a rhythm. At CBI Group, we have built in some of those best practices into our team’s routine: Annual Theme, Quarterly Kick Offs, monthly leadership meetings, weekly team meetings, daily huddles and so on. All of these things are about communication and being a part of something. All of these things keep us as individuals aligned with our co-workers, leaders, teams, business lines and our company.

Today, I realized that all of these things, each of which may seem like just another meeting are much, much more than that. They make me feel a part of something. And that feeling contributes to my happiness. When I did my job search and found CBI Group, I was looking for that feeling. I wanted to wake up in the morning and be excited about the energy, atmosphere, vibe of what a company stood for. I can manage projects, be part of task forces and committees, design collateral and write at any company. But not every company offers that feeling that you are a part of something.

So today, I recognized one of my “commandments” or “secrets of adulthood”as Gretchen would call it: Be a part of something.

Being a part of something, in any aspect of my life makes me feel happier. I have a close family but sometimes I take them for granted. When I focus on daily texts, weekly dinners or outings and don’t let holidays come and go without focusing on traditions, I truly feel a part of my family – and that makes me happy. I’ve signed up for team sports, shown up for happy hours with friends and RSVP’d to party invites that come my way – but when I truly focus on the rhythm of my time with friends, I recognize the value of my friends and feel a part of something – and that makes me happy.

In the office, maintaining rhythm and recognizing its value makes a huge difference. It can transform a job from being “work” to being a part of something. And the cultural aspect? The culture reinforces that feeling of something greater. With The Outside-In® Happiness Project, we hope that our team’s personal happiness will reflect within our culture, and in doing so, improve our customer’s experience; and in being a customer-centric culture, that is what Outside-In® is all about.

What are you a part of? Does it make you happy?