How to Get Your Mojo Back and Keep it

The Heady Highs

We’ve all been there, we can’t seem to do anything wrong, the placements are rolling in, the clients and candidates are writing us glowing testimonials, the team love us and seemingly nothing can break our confidence. Until, as it is written in the “Champagne and Razorblades” law of recruitment, we lose our last drop of recruitment mojo and things look positively glum.

How Did I Arrive Here?

Well, sometimes a stretch of success can you make you a little “heady” and cause you to get a tad over confident, you then take your eye off the dashboard, drive a little recklessly, lose control and before you know it you’re skidding all over the road, trying to regain control and then crash! When things are going well, keeping an eye on the activity dashboard seems fit only for rookie’s and those walking around in grey suits with a black compendium; it’s just not cool.

Metrics and KPI’s for their own sake are just dumb, but so is aiming for nothing. You may have got away with it as a recruiter but as the business owner, there are just too many things that can go wrong if you’re not watching your dashboard. If you don’t understand and become a slave to the metrics that get you to your numbers each month, you will always have an inconsistent business and not understand what is titrating your profit. You will be slipping and sliding all over the road, using up all your energy in overwhelm and frying your kidneys because you are living on adrenalin. This is exhausting, stressful and overall brings your business down in spite of your long days and tireless efforts. I know, I’ve driven that car!

What Keeps You Down?

– Not doing the right activity
– Not being able to see clearly what that activity should be
– Loss of confidence

Getting You Back in the Driving Seat

I’m going to take a closer look at the above points and share a few tips on each one so when you next lose your mojo you can quickly kick yourself back into gear.

Are You Doing the Right Activity?

Do you know what you should be doing?
Do you know why it’s important?
Do you know how much of it you need to be doing?
Do you know when you should be doing it?
Should it be you doing it?

TIP # 1 If you take nothing more from this blog than a commitment to understanding and doing the right activity, you will get your mojo back and fast!

If we don’t know why something is important we won’t do it. Look at your business and understand the rationale for the activities in your business and do them.

Here Is What You Should Be Measuring

Consultant Recruitment Metrics
– You know these, (fill ratios, target interviews etc)
Finance
-***Cashflow (MOST IMPORTANT***)
– Revenue and Gross Margin. Gross margin is important when you are growing to ensure your business is operating efficiently.
– Debtors
– Budget
– Business Dev
– Where is your business coming from (Channel)
– Customer Retention
– Cost of Client/Candidate acquisition so you can fine tune your marketing and BD
– Operations Productivity

You will have our own version of these that make sense to you but you should be looking at these often and changes in the dials here will act as an early warning signal and also let you know what is working well.

Metrics aren’t a one size fits all. Depending on your business, and how your agency is structured these may change. If you don’t believe or understand why your metrics are appropriate for your business seek to understand and/or suggest new ones. They could be outdated. As business development in recruitment is becoming more marketing led, agencies are introducing smart new metrics to help consultants build talent communities that address their future pipeline. These can be around areas such as blog posts, building a Twitter following etc. and should be goal led. i.e. what purpose is a Twitter following going to serve? Don’t ever do social media for social media’s sake; it must serve you.

TIP # 2 Stop doing things that are wasting time.

What channels did your successfully placed candidates come from over the past 12 months? Stop using channels that don’t work just because everybody else is.

Do you have clients wasting your time? It might be time for a cull. Hard to do when your confidence is rocked, but it can actually give you renewed confidence. 5 Tips to Motivate Clients to Recruit the Way You Know is Best

Stop losing your focus in those social media rabbit warrens that suck your day away – you know the ones I mean!

Save yourself hours by realising email is a tool for confirmation and quick bites of information. If you are spending more than 5 minutes writing an email and wondering what the client will think – I can tell you. If it’s me, it won’t get anything more than a cursory scan unless it’s of critical importance. Also, check your email no more than 3 times a day, if it’s urgent you will get a phone call. Let people know you are busy working on your business and you only check your emails 3X day so they get to expect it and you take control of your day.

Be Accountable for Your Results and Get on with the Job

Misery loves company. You will have no shortage of people ready to agree with you when you tell them how tough it is, “I’m having a bad patch”, “my market is dead”. Why – because it makes them feel better about their own position! This will waste your time and only serve to make things even worse.

Tip # 1 Do not look for reinforcement about how bad things are for you. Seek out like-minded agency owners to collaborate with and learn from them. Ask them if you can buy them a beer and share a few tips. Successful entrepreneurs seek out other like minded people too and will happily contribute to people who appreciate their advice and put it into play. Be open to new ways to doing things.

Your business results are down to you – nobody else.

TIP # 2 If you are feeling a bit defeated ask a trusted industry colleague to be your “buddy” and offer the following in return. The idea is to help keep each other accountable in doing what you say. Often as a business owner, you have nobody holding you accountable and it’s surprising how having someone on your side “keeping you honest” helps keep you both motivated.

Managing Your Confidence

There is a centre in our brain called the Reticular Activating System and part of its function is to identify evidence to support our thoughts. For example, have you ever noticed if you are looking to buy something new; a red mini perhaps, all of a sudden there seems to be a lot more red minis on the road. This is your RAS in full swing. The same happens when you start to notice what is wrong in your business. For example, if you can’t find candidates and you start telling yourself there are “no candidates”, guess what your RAS will gather evidence to support your theory and kill off any inspiration that will lead to finding new candidates.

TIP # 1 Be responsible for what you say to yourself. Notice your self-talk, your RAS can bring you down fast. When you notice that negative voice inside your head, have some positive thoughts ready to take its place. A good thing to do is stick them up in front of you ready. You can’t be thinking two thoughts at once, so choose the one that supports you.

TIP # 2 Make decisions from the powerful you. Ask yourself what decision you would make when you are on fire and go with that one.

TIP # 3 Notice the opportunities, not the challenges. Look for better ways to do things, what are your competitors doing well? What are your clients wanting that you can give them? What problems can you solve for them? It’s easy to shut down ideas when you have lost your confidence, so make an effort to give things a go.

If There Still Needs to be a Pity Party – Make it Short

Give yourself a time limit when you have a crappy moment or 3, just don’t wallow! Remember, we all have bad days, they weren’t created just for you.

Be kind to yourself and take a moment to appreciate all the great things in your life. If you come from a place of abundance and possibility you will find your mojo in that moment.

Good luck

Thanks for reading

Belinda Kerr
Recruitment Garage