Robert Merrill

When I seek to manage my TIME, things get checked off. When I seek to manage and focus my ENERGY, obstacles are removed, VISION is sharpened, meaning is made, problems are solved, and people are lifted, enobled & enabled. Productivity has always been the self-focused, short-sighted cousin to vision. The old proverb remains true: “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” What is your vision? Where is your energy? All other results flow from these deep, everlasting wells of life.

Contract training is an excellent way to learn how to overcome your fears, connect with an audience quickly, and build rapport. It’s also an excellent way to kick off or add to a consulting business or get your name out into a community of people or potential clients.

The greatest communication skill a recruiter (or person) will learn is how to be authentically curious, connect to your candidates as people not “resources” to fill a req and ask them thoughtful, relevant questions Learn how to help them show you their authentic self and ideal career path Learn how to weave the role you are hiring for to see if that intersects with where they are on the journey. This requires skillful mastery of the role you’re representing Become expert at telling people the good/bad/ugly parts of a job in a professional, engaging way. ALWAYS BE HONEST If they’re not right for the job, say so. You’ll get a lot more distance from your interviews if you mentally and emotionally put yourself in that persons “shoes”.

You probably won't learn anything new by doing things the same old way. Try new things. Watch others who do the same things as you. Embrace new ways of adapting to things. Consider this: For every hour you spend on repetitive tasks that could be automated, could be an hour spent on working better with candidates or hiring teams, connecting with colleagues or mentors, learning new skills and trying new things, or even just taking a walk. Instead of waiting for a tool to be "installed" into your workflow, start busting up your work processes. The SECOND time you do a task that is "mind numbing" start asking if there is a better way. Relentlessly eliminate mind-numbing repetition from your weeks & watch your productivity soar.

Teams and people know when deadlines will be missed. Unrealistic expectations & unclear project scopes are likely indicative of deeper issues. I would start to question how timelines were developed and how feedback on the timeline from the "front lines" was both gathered and responded to. Toyota's Lean methodology changed the world, but by their own admission, this is not because the "timelines" are more "realistic", but because of the very culture of the team: "For Toyota, quality is not just about rigorous processes or statistical tools. It's about culture. The Six Sigma approach, at its heart, champions a culture where every employee is empowered, defects are not tolerated, and the pursuit of excellence is relentless."

Don't confuse a "postive and collaborative" culture with people who talk together all the time and are always smiling. Those are not the same things. A team who is struggling needs clear objectives and goals, yes, but even the clearest objectives will fall short if there's not acceptance for what the team is doing well, not doing well, and the gaps required to perform better. A manager's clear role is to outline performance indicators and then COACH people toward the outcomes needed. Both pointing at the goal without personally itemizing shortfalls and looking the other way when members of the team are given a pass undermines the teams ability to collaborate and work positively on the goals. A leader fights the battle from the front