Posted: Thu 15 Apr 2010
Appeared in April 2010 issue of Recruitment International Magazine
Recruitment businesses need to look closely at their leadership models if they are to succeed in the next decade suggests Fiona Lander.
There is no doubt that the recruitment industry has been through some pretty turbulent times during the last eighteen months and unfortunately conditions remain, at best, unpredictable. Historically, periods of economic change and uncertainty have meant that organisations have to evolve but the difference this time has been the pace of change. No sooner has a structure to cope been put in place, economic conditions change again. Consequently, leaders do not have time to really take stock and can become more interested in solutions rather than why things went wrong in the first place. Additionally leaders may demand innovation from their people – but can then be unwilling to let them experiment. The resultant emphasis on short term results rather than looking at longer term strategy can mean that the organisation gets driven by the structure rather than by the talent.
More and more we are hearing that one of the keys to success and survival is innovation. If we are to truly innovate then we have to give our people the permission to experiment - and sometimes get it wrong. And as leaders we then have to accept that any failure is a shared failure – not the fault of an individual. It’s about being brave enough to allow people to have their voice – it may not work – but in the words of a delegate at a recent leadership forum I hosted, it may also result in ‘the next big thing’.
Leaders should be thinking differently about motivation. No-one would argue that recruitment is a competitive sales environment but against a backdrop of attraction, engagement and retention challenges, does survival of the fittest really work as a strategy? Can the ‘my way or the highway’ leadership approach really work? What do our Generation Y employees really want? Research and anecdotal evidence tells us that they want to work in a community. And this will only become more acute – just look at the way a large number of secondary school students collaborate on facebook to get homework assignments done. They don’t see it as cheating, they are not interested in who gets the best mark – they just collaborate to get the job done. Extrapolate that forward and we have a real opportunity to develop a whole new generation of recruiters – recruiters who will be equipped to deal with the new and increasing demands of our clients. There are already are some interesting examples of recruitment consultancies who have a no commission culture or who have developed more holistic approaches to performance management which take account of softer skills such as customer service, problem solving and team work. And to take that innovation even further, Aquent, the global marketing recruiter has taken the innovative step of only taking business from clients on an exclusive basis. They have also taken all jobs off their website and encourage clients and candidates to engage directly with a consultant. And they are rewarding their consultants based on customer feedback. Are you brave enough to try something completely different?
In essence, it seems there are fourmain challenges facing us as we begin this new decade: change; innovation, engagement and emotional intelligence. Change is not just a challenge though; it’s also an opportunity – an opportunity to innovate. Because change drives innovation just as innovation can lead change. The current market conditions are imposing change not only on our businesses but on the way we interact with our customers. Evolving technology for example can swamp an organisation if it is not ready to embrace the change that it brings. How change ready is your organisation? With tighter budgets, increased competition and reduced resources, our only option is to be more creative – but that means taking risks and creating an environment where innovation is actively encouraged.
So if we do become more innovative how do we communicate that to our teams so that they can engage with our aims? And how do we engage with not only our existing teams – but our future talent? The whole nature of the workplace is changing. Research tells us that gen Y and baby Boomers want informal frequent feedback; Gen Y want a community not a company; gen X expect structure - and what of those born after 1997 – what will they want? We will need to tune into all this emotionally as well as pragmatically, so developing emotional intelligence is a must. It is clear that we will need a much broader leadership toolkit in the future.
But let’s look back for a moment. During the recession you may have had to make some very tough decisions around headcount – and you may have had to spend a lot of time with people who you ultimately had to let go. What is crucial now is that those who remain are fully engaged – you don’t want to end up with unhappy stayers, particularly when CIPD research tells us that one in three of your workforce will move on unless you fully engage them.
We need to really push our thinking as leaders. The businesses that will succeed will be the ones that are willing to take risks and create new paths for others to follow – they won’t simply respond to change – they will drive it. All this being said, these are exciting times, rife with opportunity to learn and grow as leaders. A recent 2 year study by the Work Foundation shows us what makes leaders outstanding and then focuses on what differentiates them from ‘better than good’ leaders– there is plenty to aspire to… and many of the examples given demonstrate the need for highly developed emotional intelligence.
You may feel that this article posed more questions than it answers – but that’s a symptom of innovation and change. We recently hosted a leadership forum which explored some of these questions in more detail and we have produced a white paper based on the findings. For your free copy please email Julia@landerassociates.co.uk
Fiona Lander is Managing Director of Lander Associates, training and performance development specialists for the recruitment sector.