FistfulOfTalent

I feel like I should dedicate this post to PFP, a local gym my youngest daughter attends. I’m using it on the daily at my job because one of the best parts of what I do is getting to be a sounding board. That’s often an easy one for the people I’m chatting with, as I supply temps to our company. The toxic boss she worked with left her organization, and management realized the uncomfortable conversations she was willing to have were a definitive sign of her growth and readiness to lead.

Right now, your hiring managers and your candidates do not believe you are only recruiting Monday-Friday from 8 am to 5 pm. Your hiring managers on Friday afternoon believe when they arrive Monday morning, you will have ‘fresh’ candidates for them. We don’t have a flashing sign on our careers site that says “Closed from 5 pm Friday to 8 am Monday–come back and apply then! So it made perfect sense to ask Canvas to be an annual sponsor at FOT, where they’ll sponsor posts like this one, allowing FOT contributors to write, without restriction, on all things related to using new and innovative ideas in recruiting, like using text messaging to interview candidates.

That isn’t necessarily a problem, and I support the thought process to build teams with the best talent possible that maximize individual strengths and abilities. However, I will often push leaders to look at themselves and evaluate whether they’re setting the right example for their team members when it comes to their own growth areas. Knowing that not everyone has a Dr. John to lean on for direction, here are a few ways for you to begin the process of building your own situational awareness: Drive the mindset of awareness, build upon yourself and enjoy the growth process.

I read a quote last week that I would surely butcher if I tried to recall word-for-word, but the overall theme of the quote was this: People are not required to be constantly available to you, or you to them. By 7 PM, I had received a hundred work emails, 50 GroupMe notifications, 10 instant messages, dozens of texts, and a handful of phone calls to my cell (with another handful going to my work phone). Here is what I think you need: Cell phone, text messaging, instant messenger, and email. If we want our employees to work hard for us, we need to make sure we are giving them the proper tools.