You may not be a CEO, but that doesn’t mean you can’t think and act like one. Adopting CEO traits for yourself and your recruitment strategy can put you a step closer to more effective and fruitful hiring results.
CEOs Think Differently
Harvard Business Review conducted a study in 2016 on what differentiated good CEOs from mediocre CEOs. They found that good CEOs all shared six distinct characteristics:
- Resilience
- Active Communication
- Team Mentality
- Original Thinking
- Vision
- The Ability to Catalyze Others
Using these core CEO characteristics, we'll discuss how you can use them to strengthen your hiring.
How Core CEO Characteristics Can Transform Your Hiring
Resilience
CEOs have thick skin and can bounce back from setbacks and failure. When your round of interviews doesn’t yield any positive results or when a placement doesn’t work out, learn from it and move forward instead of beating yourself up and letting it define your success.
Active Communication
Express your vision, nip obstacles in the bud, and get your team on the same page by talking, talking, talking . . . and talking some more. Hash out your recruiting strategy for the upcoming quarter, give feedback on your existing recruitment systems, and talk it out when you’re dealing with conflict to deal with issues to make sure you’re working together with your fellow recruiters as a team representing your firm.
Original Thinking
Original thinking and outside-the-box ideas can set your recruitment strategy apart from your competitors. Don’t be afraid to think big or try something different.
Team Mentality
Rally your team as a catalyst for growth and change. Call a group to action to think of ways to work together to increase candidate response to your postings or to hone in on quality leads from your talent searches. CEOs have a powerful ability to motivate their teams and keep them focused on bringing recruitment goals to reality. It’s not enough to think like a CEO yourself. Your whole team needs to get on board with your game plan.
Vision
Your team members may struggle to know if they’re on the right track if you haven’t established systems and procedures to measure the success of your recruitment plan. Be focused and crystal clear on the specific results you want to see at each stage of hiring, whether it’s the number of candidates who applied, the ratings you can create after each interview or the number of hits your job board posting received. Rather than waiting until your system fails to wonder where things went wrong, create tracking systems for your team to follow along the way. Ensure that everyone knows the roadmap.
The Ability to Catalyze Others
Even a leader’s vision has room for collaboration. Ordering your team to do what you want is generally less effective than creating something together. Sit down for a brainstorming session. What works in your current hiring practices? What’s not cutting it? Identify where you fall short and work together to create a cohesive strategy. This will motivate your team to take ownership and more successfully implement your team-built plan into your next round of recruitment. Remember you're catalyzing your team to action, not just inspiring them. There's a big difference between catalyzing and inspiring. One is about feeling. The other is about action.
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