Recruiting Animal

Billy Kolbrener's Secrets of Success

Psychology, Religion and Personal Strength

Twitter

Linkedin

Website

Billy K is not our regular fare on The Recruiting Animal Show.

He's an English prof who wrote a book about religious stuff.

But it's the middle of summer and time for something off the beaten track.

Billy has a key idea that is pure common sense: people forfeit success by opting for a simulation of success. Primarily, they try to hide or deny their failings.

They pretend to be certain of what they know in order to banish doubt. But this makes them narrow-minded and leads them to automatically discount people who don't agree with them.

They pretend to be a finished product and in that way and lose the benefits of experimentation, discovery and play.

They blame other people for their mistakes.

They put their faith in the trappings of success - wealth, title, respected contacts - when these are all unstable.

People are therefore, able to become stronger when these props fail them because then they are forced to become creative and find a better way.

What is the better way? Billy only hints at the answers. He says:

The world we live in is a place of action not completions. The wise man never fully knows. Performing wisdom - pretending to know - is a sign of its abandonment. Those who have no forebearance for stumbling close off the energies within

Trying to deny your taboo ideas is a waste of energy, as well. We shouldn't be  scandalized by our desires. We are allowed to be whole people even if we are not allowed to act everything out.

And, also, don't be too negative. You have more than one shot at success

Bill also has a lot to say about communication as a vehicle for the discovery of an ever-expanding realm of knowledge. Here's my summary.

1. What other people see has value.

Billy is adamant about this. He believes that every person will see something different in the same situation.

Your idea might not be the one I follow even if it's true because it might be trumped by another that has more value but that doesn't mean that it isn't worth considering.

For instance, there is always an ongoing discussion about whether it is best to be a specialist or a generalist. Each view has its own virtues and each point in its favour is worth considering even if, in the end, one seems better for you.

2. If you refuse to pretend that you know everything, then you are going to be a better listener.

3. You have to have some social smarts to make connections. Moses, for instance, might have been buddy-buddy with God, but when the Tent of Meeting was completed, he didn't just barge in. He waited until he was invited.

4. Attempts to create a false intimacy deny the more refined closeness that comes through acceptance of distance.

On a cold call, some recruiters like to launch right into a discussion of last night's game as if they're your old pal. This fake friendship can be a real turnoff when it is seen as mere bait on a hook.

Billy contributes to The Washington Post.
His academic specialty is John Milton.

Below are recordings of his guest turn on The Recruiting Animal Show

PLAY - Billy Kolbrener - Full Show

PLAY - How I met Billy

PLAY - Big Risk

PLAY - How I got religion

PLAY - JobSpeek

PLAY - Kindle 4 PC

PLAY - Strength, Psychoanalysis, Religion

PLAY - Defensive Satisfaction

PLAY - Defensive Certainty

PLAY - Masks Channel Authenticity

PLAY - Public Image vs Success

PLAY - Religion and Tolerance

PLAY - Holiness

PLAY - Bad Religion

PLAY - Projection

PLAY - The Integrated Personality

PLAY - Suffering

PLAY - What I get from religion

PLAY - It's a long season

PLAY - Teachers

PLAY - Leaders

 

 

 

 

 

 

Matalone on Leadership

Source: Mary Ellen Slayter (edited)

Leadership is getting results from others.

You must communicate clear expectations

Know how to hire top talent

Be inspirational = motivate based on individual needs of your people.

Show them you care about them not just as employees

Constantly develop them to be the best they can be.

Why you start business?

I’m a bad employee and got fired a lot! 

Like most entrepreneurs, I am very independent, self motivated, pro-active and results-oriented. That means I am very impatient, controlling and aggressive. 

I have learned to manage my behavior to the situation.

Describe your approach to hiring?

Have a clearly defined strategy of where UR going (3-year business objectives). 

Define the roles required to achieve your objectives. 

We developed a Performance Profile™ to assess existing staff and identify  the best candidates and their strengths and weakness. 

You must include retention strategies which are all about effective leadership. 

Our process and tools can hire you the best people in the world for any role. 

I can’t guarantee they will stay if you have lousy managers.  People quit managers, not jobs.

What’s the most important trait you look for when you’re hiring?

The most important is the ability to create results in a timely manner. 

Otherwise it depends on the role.  Each has its own set of traits. 

 

Hide Linkedin Recommendations

How To Hide Linkedin Recommendations You Write For Others

I've sometimes wondered if Linkedin endorsements make you vulnerable to an online attack by someone who dislikes you.

Let's say you are having a dispute with your garage mechanic.

She looks at your Linkedin profile and sees the people you have endorsed and those who have endorsed you. These are presumably people you respect and whose respect you desire.

All she has to do to cause you problems is contact all of them and tell them how you cheated her.

You might not want to hide the people who endorse you but you can probably afford to hide those you endorse.

Here’s how to turn the display off -- via @AvidCareerist

1. Go to your LinkedIn profile.
2. Click on the “Profile” drop down menu.
3. Click on “Recommendations.”
4. Click on “Sent Recommendations.”
5. Set “Display on My Profile to:” to “No One.

Social Media Tools - Giving K

 

 

PLAY AUDIO - How To Give K

It's an obvious fact that everyone on social media is there to promote themselves. They want people to notice them and respect them and buy from them.

But, unfortunately, it's hard to get people to notice you let alone respect you. You can write articles but even if they're good you might not be immediately recognized as the thought leader you really are.

So here's what you have to do. You get people to notice you by helping them them get noticed. You pick some targets and you RT them regularly. And if someone RTs you you thank her publicly.       

That's what I call my social media suckup philosophy. And I added powerful new tool to the suck up arsenal this week. It's called giving K.

As you all know, Klout.com is a website that claims to measure of your influence online.  I don't put much store by automated social media grades
but this has nothing to do with that.

You got to Klout.com. You enter the twitter name of your target. You go to her profile and you see a list of the things for which she is supposedly influential.

You press one and that's called giving K. You are testifying that she has influence in that area.

After you give K Klout asks you if you want to tweet the fact that you gave K and that's exactly what you want to do. So you press OK and then a little twitter box appears. It contains a formal announcement that says I just gave +K to so and so for her social media expertise (or whatever).

You can send it just like that or you can edit the message and say "I just gave K to Betty Jones because she's so wonderful". Just lay it on thick and send it out there so everyone can see.

You can give K to lots of different people every day but you can give it to some special targets once a week just to show them that you're there.

They'll notice. Yes they will.

AmyBeth Hale

Editor at ERE Media -- The Fordyce Letter and SourceCon.com

Wed July 20, 2011 - NOON ET - Listen Here
Follow the Twitter Chat - Call: 646-652-2754

Every once in a while someone does something that is so smart it just slaps you in the face.

Here's what I mean. If you find someone who loves doing something for free and then you hire her to do it for you for money that person is bound to be dedicated.

And that what Dave Manaster did when he hired Amybeth Hale and Lance Haun at ERE.

They know something about recruiting and they love social media so he hired them to run his websites while he handles the conference business.

To be honest, I don't know how they divide up the duties but that's what it looks like to me. And, Dave, I salute you.

I knew that Lance was valuable the moment he appeared, when he was still calling himself TheHRGuy because he was afraid to use his own name. I invited him to contribute to my blog and I had him on my show about two years ago.

The door was open to Amy, too, but for some reason, she proved resistant. I personally think that she's very proud and she didn't want to subject herself to the alleged indignities that we supposedly hand out on the Recruiting Animal Show.

But that's totally wrong. We don't hand out punishment. People slay themselves. They call up on phones you can't hear and what we are supposed to do, kiss them? Or they sound like they were drinking before they come on -- and what are we supposed to do, be happy? No way, we're not.

But Amy's not one of those people. She's not going to do that. Even though she doesn't have a landline and a landline makes for the best sound.

The other thing we hate is when people show up with nothing to say but I spoke to Amybeth on the phone the other day and she's got plenty to say. In fact, I had to cut her off. "Save it for the show," I said. "This is long distance."

Which means that yes she is coming on the show, finally. I don't know why but she offered. That's right, she offered. I don't grovel - remember that.  I don't need to grovel to get people to come on my show. They're banging down my doors.

But we're especially happy to have Amy join us, I guess because she's played so hard to get. That doesn't mean the show is going to be spectacular. Just because someone refused to come on for three or four years doesn't mean that we're going to have fireworks when they finally show up. You've read her blog. She's just human. All we can do is hope that we have a little fun (at her expense).

So, join us on the Recruiting Animal Show with Amybeth Hale, Wednesday July 20, 2011 at Noon Eastern Time. Right here

Amy on Twitter - Linkedin - Amy's Blog

 

Diversity vs Affirmative Action

My new good pal @NewmaEd claims that Affirmative Action has been transformed into Diversity Recruiting.

Diversity Recruiting values minority thinking rather than racial or ethnic background or gender.

He explains his thinking on his blog, The Accidental Entrepreneur.

And here he is discussing it on The Animal Show.

PLAY - Diversity vs Affirmative Action

Shawcross on the USA

From: William Shawcross, Allies: The U.S., Britain, Europe, and the War in Iraq

Hatred of America is a powerful and a very destructive force in the world today. Some of that hatred is caused by America's mistakes, though that is not true of the rage of the Islamic nihilists, a minority that nothing can assuage.

I believe that the bottom line is this: For all its faults, American commitment and American sacrifice are essential to the world.

As in the 20th century, so in the 21st, only America has the power and the optimism to defend the international community against what really are the forces of darkness.