Recruiters: Is your Day Managing You?

Nov 1, 2013 | Being the Leader In Your Firm, Day to Day Management | 0 comments

6a010536babee3970c0133f2f34bd5970b “…But Mike, I don’t have enough time”, says the anonymous struggling owner with about $400k in office revenue as we discuss strategies he agrees he needs to implement to grow his recruiting business.  This is a common lament of many recruiting firm owners that I coach, mentor and am associated with.

Let’s face it.  As recruiters we are salespeople.  If you own your own firm you are an entrepreneur.  Is there no more perfect recipe for short attention spans, lack of planning and focused effort?

Here’s the big problem.  Most of us (me included when NOT planned) REACT to incoming calls, issues with our employees, incoming emails (this one is huge), the shortage of staples in our office, etc in the MOMENT instead of having a system of handling these issues.  When we react we diffuse our attention.  When we react we are by default unable to be PRO-active.

Here are some ideas on how to fix that!

Before you leave the office Friday night or if you prefer on Sunday night, invest 30 to 45 minutes and answer the following questions:

    1. What do I need to accomplish next/this week?
    2. What is the best use of my time this week?
    3. What will I start to do on Monday and what time?
  1. What is the payoff of the above to complete the above activities?
    1. What can be delegated?  (Tip- if you are managing your database, your computers, ordering office supplies or doing data entry delegate these tasks to an assistant or hire someone part time to do them.)
    2. Train someone to do those tasks like research that take up much of your time.

When asking the above questions you need to answer them in the context of the vision for your company and your annual business plan.   Are the answers to the above questions moving you closer to your annual goals or not?  If not, why are you doing them?  You would be surprised how many times I ask that question and get the “deer in the headlights” look and response of “I don’t know!”

This is what being proactive requires.  It REQUIRES you to look at your annual plan (some of you may need to write one first!) and chip away at the objectives one week and one day at a time.

But where do you find the time when your recruiters are asking questions, candidates are calling and you need to order staples to keep the office running?

My next post will have 6 Simple Steps to Help you here.  To learn how to avoid other mistakes most recruiting firm owners make, enroll in my free audio course “The 7 Deadly Sins Recruiting Firm Owners Make and How to Avoid Them.” by visiting www.TheRecruiterU.com.