Learning from inspiring leaders and snooping on candidates in this week's Three To See.
My first pick is Simon Sinek's talk for TED: How great leaders inspire action. This is an awesome presentation on the process of engaging and motivating individuals [The sound quality is a little poor to begin with but improves after a few minutes].
Sinek proposes the "Golden Circle" (pictured above) model of messaging that has the "why" at the centre, "how" in the middle and "what" on the periphery and puts forward the idea that whilst many communicate from the outside to the inside of the circle, great leaders do the opposite.
It is an interesting post that asks what large mainstream organisations can learn from their smaller mission driven counter parts. Russo identified two that really stood out:
"...mission-driven companies act as a type of early warning system for consumer expectations"
And:
"...while traditional businesses may deride it as "kumbaya," the moral reflection in which these companies engage galvanizes commitment to their purpose and encodes enlightened values into their moral DNA. Rather than dismiss these companies, their mainstream counterparts should view them as a source of strategic insight."
I think that these observations are important - not just to what organisations do, but how they operate and the way they approach talent.
My final pick comes from the Lifehacker blog. Kevin Purdy posted What Sites Future Employers Are Checking When Looking At You which draws on a Microsoft commissioned study in which 1,200 hiring and recruitment managers were asked about the sites that they would consider using to research applicants.
Three To See this week features posts on measuring performance, advice on posting jobs to Twitter and how to count the monetary cost of poor candidate experience.
How do you measure performance properly? That is the question wryly raised in Top Performer, from the Dilbert series by Scott Adams.
"Organizations like the Ritz-Carlton and Wal-Mart have elevated monitoring guest satisfaction to a science and know the exact dollar cost of obtaining a customer, upsetting a customer, and losing a lifelong customer. While such evaluation is common in sales and customer support functions, it is nearly unheard of in HR functions, which often interact with a significant volume of potential customers in any given year. The impact of a poor “candidate experience” is uncalculated, unreported, and not discussed, making it quite possibly one of the largest “hidden costs” facing modern organizations."
He goes on to say:
"Remember that being treated poorly during the hiring process which often ends up in being rejected will not result in a mild disappointment, but rather unhappiness bordering on anger. Individuals who once championed your organization will likely become activists against your organization for at least two years and maybe a lifetime."
Dr Sullivan then highlights 20 potential impacts of poor candidate experience and estimates the associated monetary risk:
