Recruiting Animal! This year’s honoree for (the increasingly inaccurately named) ‘Tim Sackett Day’

You might think that all bloggers know each other. That’s not true.

We just act like we do.

Part of that is because we recognize that this world that we live in – particularly the HR blogosphere (yeah, I hate that word, too) – is a unique thing. We have a lot to say about a lot of different topics, yet ultimately, we acknowledge that all of these voices have a role to play and we love it when one of our own has a chance to be exalted by the masses.

And that’s where the annual Tim Sackett Day comes in.

Started in 2011-ish, Tim Sackett Day came about because Tim Sackett was (and is) a blogger and HR guy who couldn’t seem to get any love from the makers of lists. So the blogger community got together and recognized one of their own. This has grown into an annual tradition of giving a communal “shout out” to those who have greatness in their hearts, in their heads, and in their blogs.

This year, we recognize Recruiting Animal.

Obviously, the name alone is enough to get him on pretty much any list. I mean…seriously. That, and the hat.

But ultimately, we recognize Recruiting Animal because he is a true pioneer of social HR. Don’t believe me? Check out the timeline:

2004: Animal creates his very first blog.
April 2006: The Recruiting Animal Blog is born. The format is pretty much the same today as it was back then. Substance over style, baby!
March 2007: Not content with the written interaction afforded by the blog, Animal founded the Recruiting Animal Show – the VERY FIRST online call-in show about recruiting. It’s outrageous, funny, thought provoking, in your face, and damn good. It was at this time that Recruiting Animal joined Twitter. No one really knew what it meant, but Animal was appropriately wary of the belief that Twitter was the promised land for recruiters.
2009: Manifesto video created. Okay, not really a manifesto, but a witty, smart, realistic look at why social media doesn’t pay but still fricking matters. (The whole thing is worth a watch, but head to the 7:40 minute mark for the meat of it.)
The present: The legend continues…

If you are at all interested in HR blogs, then you probably know of Laurie Ruettimann (and if you don’t, you should!). Laurie had this to say about Recruiting Animal:

Animal blazed a trail on social media that allowed people like me (and you) to get on the internet without a lot of risks. And Animal provides you with coverage, whether you know this or not. He’s so outrageous in his big Canadian hat that he makes the things we say and do seem like no big deal…. His heart is as big as Toronto.

I don’t personally know Recruiting Animal. But I know of him. And I know people who think the world of him…and that says a helluva lot.

So (big furry Canadian) hats off to this year’s Tim Sackett Day honoree, Recruiting Animal! Keep doing what you do – we’ll all “get it” one of these days.

If you want to find Recruiting Animal online, you’ve got lots of choices:

Who is your feedback for…really?

Last night, I sang in a holiday concert with my local community chorus. I love singing, especially Christmas music, and especially with other people who love it, too. We’re not professional or anything, but we have a great time and typically, that’s all that matters.

After the concert, one of the audience members came up to tell me he thought we did great and he liked my solos (I had solos. I’ve got a music background, but that’s not super relevant to this post). I thanked him and said I hope he enjoyed the concert. He then proceeded to tell me that I should really pin my hair back because it’s distracting. And then walked off.

Um…thanks?

This incident wasn’t horrible – I think the guy thought he was giving helpful advice. And he really did enjoy the concert. It just sounded too much like other “feedback” I’ve gotten in my career, especially as a speaker. I’ve yet to speak anywhere (at a conference, as a facilitator internally, etc.) where appearance wasn’t brought up in the feedback. That could be shoes, clothes, whatever. And then there are the comments of “I didn’t learn anything new.”

I bring this up not to rant, nor do I begrudge those folks their right to share their thoughts. After all, I ask for that feedback, right? I bring it up because leaders and employees talk about feedback all the time but I don’t think it’s working.

Employees say they want feedback, then get surly when they get the truth.

Leaders say they give feedback, yet so often it’s either too vague or too “nice” to make a difference.

Feedback doesn’t work when it’s done with the wrong intentions. Employees who ask for feedback only if it’s positive are just looking for an ego stroke. Leaders who give vague feedback are just trying to check a box without having to have the difficult conversations. Even worse are the leaders who give only negative (please don’t try to call it “constructive” all the time) feedback because they feel threatened by a strong employee.

Here are some things to keep in mind when you’re thinking about asking for and/or giving feedback:

Be specific about what you’re looking for: a blanket request for feedback results in all manner of crazy responses. Instead, give the responders some context. “I’m trying to improve my eye contact in meetings. How did I do?” Or “In my last project, I felt like I struggled a bit with organization. How might I get better at that?”
Make the feedback actionable by the recipient: When you’re giving feedback to someone, make sure it’s something they can control. Telling someone the lights were bad in the ballroom doesn’t help. They don’t do the lighting. Nor is it helpful to give feedback about the way the finance department handled the hand-off to them in their project. Unless they run the finance department, they can’t really do anything about that. Instead, you can give them suggestions on how to better prepare the materials so that finance is ready to accept the handoff.
Find the trends in the feedback: We’re human beings – we like to think we’re AMAZING. And perfect. And special unicorns. So when we get feedback that stings, we look for reasons to reject it. We think that person doesn’t like us, or they don’t know us, or they don’t know what they’re talking about. But when 5 people tell you similar things about your performance or behavior, you might want to take it to heart a bit. Look for the repeated themes and take the feedback with an open mind.
Check yo-self: Why do you want to give someone feedback? Is their behavior a career-limiting issue? Or are they just doing something differently from how YOU would do it? Really think about the intent of your feedback. It should be about helping the other person reach their full potential – not to make you look and/or feel better.

When you can ask for and receive feedback without ulterior motive, and with a pure heart, you will have reach feedback nirvana. Until then, just keep an eye on your motivation.

You may be surprised by how well the feedback works.

Measuring What Matters (the missing piece)

Leaders:

If you know what a KPI is, give yourself a pat on the back. If you have a balanced scorecard, a visual management system, a dashboard, or some other way to track said KPIs, even better. With all this talk of Big Data and ROI and other data-loving phrases, you probably feel like a big damn deal. Bully for you.

Now – what if I were to go to your team and ask, what are your KPIs? Would they be able to answer?

Could they point to the balanced scorecard and confidently explain what it means? Can they describe how the data is trending? Tie their day-to-day work to the metrics?

If the answer to those questions is NO, then you are failing to measure what truly matters.

Business has fallen in love with metrics and scorecards and trends and graphs. Analysts are the new rock stars, the secret weapon of a strategic plan. Throw in the ability to build a visual tool, and that analyst becomes The One (like Neo, or Eddie Murphy in that awful movie with the bald kid). Executives want to see pictures, a snapshot, a cross-section of what’s going on in the business. It needs to look cool, to look smart. [Think I’m exaggerating? Look at how much infographics have exploded recently. You can argue chicken or egg – but leaders want them.]

Unfortunately, these metrics often fail to make a meaningful connection to the people who actually do the work. They report numbers because they have to in order to make the pretty graphs, but then they turn back to their “real work” and don’t think about what the data is telling them. They are just trying to keep the work moving and ensure they meet their deadlines.

That’s where the leader comes in.

If the metrics truly matter, you will talk about them. Every day. Every team meeting. Every project launch. Every project wrap up.

If the numbers tell you a story about the business, share that story with your employees. Why the numbers are important. What they tell us about our impact on the business, the customers, the employees.

We leaders pretend like it’s the employees fault they don’t know what the metrics are. For goodness’ sake, we posted them on the shared drive! What more do those darn employees want?!

Employees want – nay, need – context. And employees want – nay, need – their leaders to be the primary voice to provide that context. Supposedly leaders know what their employees do and the day-to-day reality of their world. Who better to be able to provide that line of sight from the work to the metric? Who better to explain why these metrics are helping the business improve? Who better to motivate employees to reach the target state?

At some point, you will notice that the metrics are not moving, or are moving in the wrong direction, or don’t seem to tell the right story. So what happens then?

That’s where the employees come in.

Your employees can help you understand whether your metrics are telling you what you really need to know about the business. They will share whether they think the KPIs make sense, and whether the targets are realistic…or even important. Your employees are the conduit through which the metrics come to life.

So the next time you start pontificating on the importance of your scorecard, think about the last time you looked at it with your team. If it’s been too long, stop pontificating and start communicating.

THAT’S what matters.

Metrics are for doing, not for staring. Never measure just because you can. Measure to learn. Measure to fix.

– Stijn Debrouwere

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