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How to attract the best people - Mountaineers need mountains!

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Stephen Brown

In uncertain times you might think that you could be forgiven for having ‘realistic’ goals and settling for survival, but even to remain as you are, requires you to have more ambition than your competition.

If you don’t believe me then next time you are interviewing someone, tell them in your blandest voice that your business has remained static for the past 3 years and that you expect a steady decline for the next 3.

Watch your best talent run for the door and whatever you do, DO NOT hire the people who are left, they will get you there quicker than you expected!

Despite economic uncertainty, the acute skills shortage means that it is a candidates market, so when it comes to recruitment, the businesses with the loftiest goals will attract the loftiest talent. As I often like to put it “Mountaineers need mountains.” Show a professional mountaineer a boring hill and they are unlikely to be rushing to join your climbing team, but provide them with the opportunity to be challenged by something exciting and to achieve something great and the best, most confident and talented people will seek you out.

Have what Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, Great by Choice and How the Mighty Fall likes to call them ‘BHAGS’ – ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goals’. At a recent presentation in London, Jim admitted that most business ‘BHAGS’ are unrealistic but by simply having them in place attracted the best people with the best talent.

Don’t wait to be asked what your BHAG or super-vision is either, lead the conversation by passionately painting a picture of the future and the part your interviewee could play in it. Share the vision of what it will look and feel like. Don’t just sell your vision – live it!

If you are still in any doubt about why you should take the time to create and communicate a compelling vision for your business, department or team, our research demonstrated that your person of choice will be three times more likely to choose your job over a comparable or even potentially more favourable position if they are inspired by your vision.

If you would like to know more about turning your business into a talent magnet, I put aside 5 x 30 minute slots each month, where you can book a free call to ask anything you like about your people and recruitment, in fact, pick my brains on anything! 

If you’d like one of these at any time,  fill out the form below or drop me an email: customers@europrojects.co.uk.

These time slots come on a first come, first served basis.