I can remember when I first got into the recruiting game hearing about special training sessions being run for ‘experienced perm consultants only’; or perhaps for those consultants considering a move into the Executive Search space. Every few weeks a group of carefully selected consultants (who had received the exclusive invitation to attend the workshop) […]
I’m sure we all have a few “life lessons” that we have learned or picked up along the way that, for whatever reason, have made a particularly strong impression. When I was in 1st grade I distinctly remember Mrs McIntyre telling us that it was rude to point at other people when you spoke to […]
Many years ago I was sent along to an external training course. A group of us had supposedly been identified as ‘rising stars’ and the seminar was going to help us reach our career goals. “How to be a Successful Salesperson and Still Deliver First Class Customer Service”. This was going to be my career game […]
One thing I learned very early on in my career looking after teams of recruiters is that every single new consultant needs to know that, as their manager, you truly appreciate where they’re sitting in terms of their level of competency. I also quickly learned that their perceived level of competency then had a direct […]
I wrote this post on a plane from Australia to Singapore. Before my flight I had a bit of time in the airport so I went for a wander through the bookstore and found myself looking at some of the latest releases … biographies, fiction, ‘true crime’ (really?), sci-fi (no thanks!) … It didn’t take me […]
My flight home from San Francisco the other day was delayed by over an hour. It felt like every 10 – 15 minutes the boarding time would be pushed out, resulting in a mass sigh or groan of frustration from the all the passengers waiting in the departure lounge. I wasn’t paying too much attention […]
A few years ago when I was running a recruitment business in Hong Kong the server went down unexpectedly one morning. I remember watching as many of my team immediately began packing up their stuff and heading for the door like it was the end of the day. “Where’s everyone going?”, I asked casually as […]
I once ran a course for a group of Human Capital Managers. The topic of the workshop was Strategic Recruitment Metrics for Driving Measurable Value to Your Human Capital Investments. Please allow me to blow my own trumpet for a moment, but I know how much the delegates enjoyed it and I know they all got a lot […]
Recently, I was driving to a meeting and my phone rang. I didn’t recognise the number but I answered the call anyway. “Oh hi, Paul. It’s Francis here from [I honestly didn’t catch the company name]. I tried to connect with you on LinkedIn last week but you didn’t accept my invitation. I was hoping we could set […]
I’ve seen far too many people fall into this trap over the years and you may well have found yourself in a similar situation either as a hiring manager or as a recruiter. You have a key requisition to fill within your own business; or perhaps you have a client with an urgent brief breathing down […]