Recruiting Animal

Selling Internally

When I recruit people my client or project manager often wants to know if a candidate has had strong experience selling her ideas within a firm. The importance of selling risk-laden ideas to the major internal stakeholders of an organization is demonstrated in W's need to sell The Surge to the military after the Baker-Hamilton Commission recommended retreat.

The existence of a plausible alternative was not enough. Two tasks remained before him before bucking the consensus. The first was the organizational challenge of persuading the military chiefs the alternative plan was correct -- a sales job. -- The Belmont Club

The military, in Bush's view, has to be treated with special deference and tact. "One of the most important jobs of a commander in chief, and particularly in a time of war, is to be thoughtful and sensitive about the U.S. military," he said. Bush believes in persuading the military to embrace his policies rather than simply imposing them. -- Weekly Standard

It would appear, as well, that the identities of the salesmen were key factors in the success of the sale: the president and Robert Gates.

The Lesson From John McCain

by Recruiting Animal. Hat Tip: Dreams Into Lightning

When Napoleon was asked what quality he most wanted in his generals, he replied "just one--that they be lucky." Presidential candidates are no different.

But the other thing that got McCain this far was hard work. He was out their pressing the flesh in New Hampshire when Rudy and Fred couldn't be bothered. I traveled around with him in New Hampshire for a day--he knew everybody, and he just never stopped plugging away. Like Gary Player, the harder McCain worked, the luckier he got--and there's no doubt, it's better to be lucky than good.

-- Michael Goldfarb, Weekly Standard

Funny

Animal Show NOON EST

Guest: Lee Salz of Salesdodo.com
Topic: How to target and screen sales reps
Call to talk: 646-652-2754
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Immigrants Threaten Gen Y

In many countries, immigrants are at the bottom of the social and meritocratic heap. But, in Canada, the opposite is also true. Children of newcomers are heavily overrepresented among the country's top achievers. For proof, look no further than Toronto or Vancouver newspapers that profile the top high-school graduates each year. Find the ones with Anglo-sounding names. Good luck.

This fall, I served on a Rhodes Scholarship selection committee. .... This year, nine of the 11 Ontario finalists were immigrants or first-generation Canadians..... Many of this year's finalists were Russian or Eastern European, offspring of the great diaspora of human talent that fled the former Soviet bloc during the 1990s.

Here's the immigrant difference. Your kids want to become documentary film producers and live in Vancouver; their kids want to become molecular biologists and live in the lab. Your kids will loby their professors to get their B changed to an A-minus; their kids will be crushed if they don't get an A-plus. Your kids ask not what they can do for their employer, but why their employer won't let them take three months off to backpack through New Zealand.... --- Margaret Wente

Marketing Headhunter Starts Podcasting

Have a happy minute with Harry.

Message # 1: Establish a web presence.
His new podcasting site, Marketing Headhunter Minute

Seth Critiques Hiring Process

The standard hiring process favours a good self-marketer over someone who can do the job. Why else would a clever cover-letter be so important?

We favour candidates who:
- make good presentations
- network well with strangers
- create documents without typos and
- can think on their feet in an interview

But are those the people we really want?

Source. Also, Colin and Marty don't know squat about cover letters.

Recruitingblogs.com Hits 1000 Members

JayDee pleased as punch

Diva Blogger To Scoble: "You're So Vain"

I am really sick of hearing about Robert Scoble.... tech blogging with insanely heavy doses of ego doesn't appeal to me.... the me-me-me blogging style he invokes.... It's hard to read his opinion on things because it seems clouded by self interest. -- Heather Hamilton

Your Face Tells Strangers How Good You Are

by The Recruiting Animal. Source: The Economist

From Psychologists, Tufts U:
When people saw 2-second clips of profs lecturing, they rated them the same way their actual students did.

Next Test: When undergrads saw photos of CEO's faces from of the top and bottom 25 Fortune 1000 firms and graded them as leaders their ratings matched the standings of their companies in terms of profits.

Are you listening? These young ignoramuses who couldn't even recognize Warren Buffett made accurate assessments about companies based on the face of the CEO. The conclusion is obvious: instant judgements are accurate.

Here's another wrinkle in the story. Another group of students was shown the same CEO's faces and asked to rate them on competence, dominance, likeability, facial maturity and trustworthiness. The high ratings matched the success of the firms.

Now get this. Researchers from Yale and Pittsburgh U asked sr mgrs to rate their CEO's for the ability to communicate an exciting vision and model good behaviour. They could not, however, on the basis of these assessments find a link between a firm's performance and the boss's personality.

What does that mean? Well we know from the success of the students' assessments that there is a relationship between the leader's personality and the performance of the group that he leads. Therefore, the ignorant students made more accurate assessments than well-informed managers. The conclusion: knowing someone interferes with the ability to judge him well.