It’s a fact of life when you are a recruitment business owner that there will be many ups and downs; it’s all part of running a business.
The challenge is, how do you handle everything that is thrown at you and still move forward?
Does this scenario a client shared with me this week, ring any bells?
They had experienced a run of bad luck recently, two significant placements that were due to start dropped out, and because he had spent so much time focusing on those placements his eye was off the ball when it came to BD, and now there wasn’t a pipeline to dip back into!
He then went onto say: ”I feel down at the moment and I’m struggling to pick myself up again. What can I do to get myself re-motivated and back on track?”
Familiar to you too? I suspect the answer is yes.
This is one of the biggest challenges that Katy and I hear when we work with recruitment business owners, people doing the same job as you. They find it difficult to bounce back quickly from ups and downs like this.
If you’ve had a bad call, for example, a client or a candidate letting you down at the last minute, it can sometimes throw you off form for the whole day.
This can then lead to inconsistent results; classic Yo-Yo billings as your demotivation infects the whole team.
Setbacks and Psychological Loops
One of the reasons so many recruitment business owners don’t realise their real potential is because they’re not able to deal with setbacks that sometimes happen on what feels like a daily basis!
Many people are destroyed by setbacks in their life, not necessarily by the huge ones, but by those little ones.
Fact: The thing to realise here is that these problems are not the real problem. The problem lies within you and the way you think. Let me explain how this all works.
Remember when you first started in recruitment as that fresh-faced consultant – you had your ‘desk’, and all was right with the world, and then the ‘proverbial’ hit the fan!
Candidates didn’t show for interviews; a client gave you hell; you tried a different sales technique, and nothing worked.
Well, those were setbacks that had to be dealt with before you could move on.
The truth is most setbacks can be handled, but here’s the issue. When we hit setbacks and problems, it can impact our state of mind.
You’re moving along and doing okay, and then something happens, and you feel lousy.
When you go into that lousy state of mind, isn’t that the least likely state of mind to produce a response that’s going to get you out of the problem? Well, yes, it is.
The thing is when things like this happen, people go into something called a psychological loop.
Something happens, and you feel bad and then you don’t take the action that you need to; you end up feeling even worse, and then you end up on this never-ending psychological loop.
Now, the opposite of that is that when something happens in your life and you know it’s a setback, but you’re able to control and influence your own state of mind.
This is something that you can control. Great recruiting pros are pretty good at influence, and they’re pretty good at influencing other people, customers, candidates, and also the other people in the business too.
Influence Is Powerful Especially Self-Influence
We tend to be good at influencing people, but you know what the core skill is; being able to influence yourself?
Because when you influence yourself effectively so that when things happen, you can still stay in control of your own state of mind, that is very, very powerful.
By realising that we can choose how we react to situations, it means that we can choose a response that’s more helpful for us.
By choosing a more resourceful response that works better for us, we, in turn, create a better result. For example, if a candidate drops out of a job, you could choose to take the situation as a learning experience and ask yourself, “What feedback has this experience given me that will make it better next time around?”.
Now, sometimes it may take a little more effort to change your state of mind. However, when you consciously ask yourself, “What would be a better choice of response for me?”, your mind will then give you the answers.
The key with this is that your thoughts and your feelings determine how you act, and your actions will ultimately determine the results that you get. Here’s a short story that may help you with this. It’s taken from Jack Canfield, a multimillionaire businessman and New York Times bestselling author.
“In 1969, only one year out of graduate school, I had the good fortune to work for W. Clement Stone. At the time, he was a self-made millionaire worth $600 million. He was also America’s premier success guru. He was the publisher of Success magazine, the author of The Success System That Never Fails, and also co-author with Napoleon Hill of Success Through Positive Mental Attitude.
When I was completing my first week’s orientation, Mr Stone asked me if I took a hundred per cent responsibility for my life. “I think so,” I responded. He said, “This is a yes or no question, young man. You either do, or you don’t.” “Well, I guess I’m not sure then.” “Well, have you ever blamed anyone for any circumstance in your life? Have you ever complained about anything?” “Yes, I guess I have.” “Don’t guess, think.” “Well, yes, I have.”
“Okay, then. That means that you don’t take a 100% responsibility for your life. Taking a hundred percent responsibility means that you acknowledge that you create everything that happens to you. It means that you understand that you are the cause of all of your experiences. If you genuinely want to be successful, and I know that you do, then you will have to give up blaming and complaining and take total responsibility for your life. That means all of your results, all of your successes, and all of your failures.
This is a prerequisite for creating a life of success you see, Jack. If you realise that you’ve created your current conditions, then you can un-create them and recreate them at will. Do you understand that? Are you willing to take a hundred percent responsibility for your life?” “Yes, sir,” he said, and he did.
Jack then went onto be one of the most successful authors in the personal development field in America over the last thirty years.
Finally
Next time something happens, don’t go into that loop that most of society’s stuck in, which is that the event and people outside of your control are responsible for how you feel.
They aren’t. Your response is down to you: Remember to be ‘at cause’.
It’s what’s going on in your head that influences your results, and you can control your mind and therefore your results. It’s up to you to choose a different response if you want a different result.
Warm regards,
Nicky and Katy
P.S. If you want to know more about working with your mind to create the results you want then apply for a Profit Accelerator Call with one of our team here. We will work with you to uncover what is stopping you and then help you develop a plan to move forward. Apply here.
