A lot is written about leadership. And those who write good stuff about it clearly know more than me. At its highest level, leadership is a science. Studied at Harvard with countless books written on the subject. These books are then devoured and understood by some, and misinterpreted my many. The outcome? A cascade of sound leadership studies filtered through “thought leader” after “thought leader”, then mangled by ChatGPT, only to be picked up by the next leadership coach to filter though the system once again. Forgive me for being cynical, but the leadership titbits published by most of the gobsh*tes on LinkedIn have as much connection to science as my horsemanship does to Genghis Khan.
So we’ve established that I don’t know much about leadership, but I know as much as many who profess to know a lot. Good. This blog is therefore an observation on what I see happening at a leadership level across (successful) recruitment agencies.
Once upon a time, leading a recruitment company was comparatively simple. Actually, scratch that, nothing is simple in this industry. Let’s say “straightforward”. Typically, you were once a high-billing Consultant. As a rule, you liked the sound of your own voice more than most. You liked it so much in fact that through sheer force of personality and conviction, you were able to convince people you were right and they were wrong. This served you well on your desk. It also served you well for your promotions in less enlightened times. This mix of high-performance and natural charisma/sociopathy was once the winning cocktail to move through the ranks like heat-seeking missile. If you got to the very top, your leadership style was defined by the above. Firstly, you set a very high standard in terms of billing. After all, you did it, why can’t they? This makes you popular with your bosses who demand results. Secondly, you have a dictatorial approach to management. Afterall, you’re the best right and all they need to do is do as you say to repeat your success? You’re also charismatic, so you probably sleep with a few employees along the way. Your bosses turn a blind eye because, well, see above.
Up until somewhere between 10 and 5 years ago (depending on country) this worked pretty well. Unfortunately for you, and fortunately for the naïve young women (I’d say people, but lets face it, older women were never shagging the interns), the world changed. I’m sure those who write about leadership would love to claim it’s due to their book (self-published, available as an e-book, $1.99 on Amazon), but I don’t think that’s correct. Instead, it was change from the ground up that caused a new breed of leaders to emerge. Incredible as it may seem, I’m actually 44 years of age. When I entered the workforce, my expectations on what a company and boss (they weren’t leaders back then) could offer me was quite different from what people expect today. My ability to bring my “authentic self” to work was quite different as well. I had medium length hair and was asked to cut it extremely short before I received a job offer. Beards? Not allowed in my first job. In this environment, you can see how the old school leader highlighted above would thrive.
Now I don’t know if it was the interweb, Pogs, the death of Nelson Mandela, or Biggy smokin’ 2Pac, but somewhere in-between me cutting my hair and today, something changed in those entering the workforce. They refused to shave their beards, men put on makeup, they started thinking about their own mental wellbeing, and stopped being impressed by people like me telling them how much I used to bill. In fact, they started finding us a bit of a joke. Our charisma and desire to take the team out to get p*ssed was no longer something that galvanised them against the competition. Instead, we were stopping them from going to Pilates, zapping goblins online, or just doing something other than drinking the Kool-aid.
This made space for a new breed of recruitment leaders. If I look at the firms who have performed best in this market, they have a few similar traits. For brevity, let’s bullet point them shall we?
They don’t:
- exclusively hire people just like themselves (or with capacity to be so)
- think they have all the answers
- say “I billed this in 2006, so…”
- sleep with the team
They do:
- Accept that younger people expect a bit more out of life
- Set high-standards, but not exclusively on billings
- Get their hands dirty (be it taking references or phone screening) whenever required
- Focus on the team getting the glory, not themselves
Quite different from what used to work to be frank. They say that past performance is an indicator of future success. When it comes to the rapidly changing world of recruitment, I don’t think this is true at all. We see former massive billers who, when government stops hiring or they’re no longer on the Westpac PSA, become decidedly average. It’s even more pronounced for leaders. Good leaders don’t turn bad, they just never were “leaders” in the first place.
Bit serious today. Next week is December and I pledge to drink port every morning to lighten these things up.
^SW
