In this and the following issue of the Recruiting Tactics & Strategy Report we will discuss the subject of Coaching Skills and how fundamental they are to your recruiting success.  You are a Coach whether you realize it or not.  You coach your employees if you have them, and you also coach your clients and candidates. 

Note: These are not just 'Tips'. I don't do 'Tips'. These are real tactics and strategies that are designed to help you build real recruiting power.

Tactic - Successfully Coaching Others

You may never have thought of it this way, but success in any and all endeavors is, at least in some part, driven by your coaching abilities.  For recruiters, serving both candidates and clients, this is even truer than for most people. 
 
How can you help someone through all the tough decisions involved in winning and then accepting a job offer, as well as quitting their current job, if you can't coach them?  And certainly you must have ace-level coaching skills in order to help a hiring manager through all the tough decisions and commitments necessary to hire the best talent on the field.  Clearly, your coaching skills are fundamental to your recruiting success.
 
But sadly, most recruiters don't realize or focus on this nearly as much as they should.  They really don't know the true fundamentals or tactical basics.  So let's take a small step to correct that right now.
 
Here are the three most important tactical questions for coaching that I've yet found:


The hardest thing to learn about coaching is when NOT to do it.  With all that you know, and your awareness of the critical nature of the help you have to give, it is so hard to hold back.  Silence is a coach's greatest challenge.  But, you must learn to judge your timing by the coachability of your project partners. 
 
The most important thing to establish is that you really are working on an important project together.  There must be a shared objective.  What's more, you must never assume that this objective is clear, obvious or remembered by your partners.  Simply covering this directly is your best tactic.  You can simply state something like, "What we agreed to was..." and then cover the basics of your hoped for outcomes.  Also, you must program yourself with the question, "Has anything changed since we last worked on this?"  Failure to ask that question costs more placements than you might imagine.
 
Objectives tied down, your next best tactic is to ask your partner about his or her confidence in the coming steps and actions.  By leading your partner to discuss readiness, you can judge what strengths need to be emphasized and what weaknesses need to be addressed.  Your principle here is simply that no one wants to be taught what they already know.  After you discover where they are, you can offer encouragement or guidance as needed.
 
The key to accountability is that to follow up conversations, over specific, black and white outcome expectations.  You'll rapidly find that, if you are 100% confident (or able to project confidence, even if you don't yet completely feel it), your partners will appreciate your dedication and professionalism. That's not to say they'll give you no resistance.  It is to say, if they actually share the objectives with you that you've both agreed to, they'd have to be fools or liars to reject your attentive follow up.  This merits just a bit closer look.
 
Yes, by all means, you'll run into many fools and liars on your journey.  One of your great objectives is to discover this sooner rather than later, and MOVE ON!  A small amount of resistance to accountability is natural and to be expected.  But, there is a line.  The bad players absolutely cross that line. You need to be on the look out for them.  On the other hand, the good players, who may naturally resist having their feet held to the fire, will absolutely appreciate your commitment to professional, timely, meaningful follow through.  In the end, this professional attention is one of the great values you bring to the table.
 
In each of these tactics, there is a certain style, grace, personal savoir-faire you must build and project.  It takes a strong person to do so.  But, as you build your tactical arsenal as a coach, you'll find that your candidates and clients turn to you with ever greater confidence and gratitude.  In fact, if there is a single most important set of tactical masteries required on the path to becoming a truly great recruiter, a great case could be made that your coaching skills are precisely that.

Intro to Bob Marshall & a Free Teleseminar for T&S Report Subscribers

How well do you know the recruiting industry?  How well do you know the deep principles that create recruiting success?  Who were your teachers? 
 
Who gave you the keys to the kingdom, opening up the world of recruiting so you could do more than understand it, so you could truly thrive, mastering the fundamentals while climbing to the top of your game? 
 
Few teachers can really claim to provide that kind of deep, foundation-building instruction.  Of those, there can be no question, Bob Marshall absolutely heads up the pack.  And, out of an amazing career of building lessons that build a recruiter's foundation, Bob's two greatest lessons can be fairly readily identified. They are his presentations: Your Desk as a Manufacturing Plant, and The Concept of the Inverted Cones.  In fact, you simply cannot find better tactical instruction that Bob's Manufacturing Plant lessons, and you'll never find more powerful strategic insight than Bob's Concept of the Inverted Cones.
 
In the time I've studied this industry, those two lessons have helped me more, and by far, than any other source materials.  Those two lessons are, for me, basically the can opener I needed so that I could wrap my mind around the very definitions of what recruiters do and how it is done, and done best.
 
I've been studying Bob's instruction since 1995, and I'm confident in telling you that you won't want to miss the free teleseminar next week where Bob will give you a couple of techniques for adding a new industry specialty to your office.  Also, he will be joined on the call by Neil Lebovits who will reveal some internet Marketing Secrets you can use right now to grow your business. Can't be there live? No problem, register and the recording will be sent to you.

 

P.S. Remember, when you register for Tuesday's call you also get INSTANT access to 3 recorded calls that have already taken place. 

 

Listen on your PC or download them to your MP3 player.  Register before this page comes down at http://www.marketerschoice.com/app/?af=1138489