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Bafflegab-Resume@Verbiage.com

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"Efficiently communicated project changes".
"Successfully completed project."

Verbiage: The use of many words without necessity; a superabundance of words; wordiness. Resume: A small space in which you have to write your life story.

"I efficiently did this and I successfully did that". Sure it sounds good. But is it necessary? No. In the above examples, the words "efficiently" and "successfully" are mere verbiage.

If you put something in your resume, I assume it was successful and efficient. And no matter what, I'm going to ask you for some objective measurements anyway. So don't fill up precious space with this braggadacio. It's not successful or efficient. It's excessive.

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If It Happens, Shame On You !

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1. Your candidate accepts an offer with another company. And you're totally surprised.

2. Your candidate accepts a counter-offer from his current employer.

3. You client makes a good offer and your candidate says she needs to think about it.

If these things happen, you didn't ask the right questions in advance.

via Jason at Recruiting.com

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Comment: I don't know how you stop a candidate from accepting a counter-offer. Or from deciding to sleep on an offer even if she's told you she's ready take anything that meets her alleged requirements. She might not even tell you that she is interviewing with another company (tho they usually do if you ask).

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But How Does It Look On A Resume?

Some people have the coolest jobs

Confetti Maker
Vince Munoz, Flutter Fetti Fun Factory, New Orleans

I was born in Guatemala. I moved to D.C. 13 years ago, and I started working here in 1993. A good friend of mine—Jim Watkins—founded the company. I never thought I'd be doing something like this, but I love to entertain people. Every time we do confetti, we always have the "wow" effect on people.

We usually spend several days making confetti for the political conventions. Then we spend a day or two setting up. They used the rectangle-shaped confetti at the Democratic Convention this year. We are also doing the Republican Convention. We're still working on the order. We do a lot of other big events: We've provided confetti for Britney Spears, Shania Twain, and Paul McCartney concerts; we do the Macy's Thanksgiving parades; and this year we're also doing the Olympics. We don't get to go to Athens, but I was at the 2000 Republican Convention in Philadelphia and at George Bush's inaugural ball in D.C.

The company moved to New Orleans after Jim died in 2002. It's a good place to be—the Jazz Fest, Tomato Parades, and Mardi Gras: This city is like a party every day.

Source: Fortune.com

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My Moronic Diary

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We've started getting hits from people using the new "Next Blog" random selection feature on Blogger. I checked out some of the blogs our new visitors come from. Here's a sampling.

Bored
Boredom follows me... Creeping at every corner, it lingers... I must discover something new to do/get...The world is wierd. And unfair. Almost neither of which are in my favor.

Name: Jon Choi, Location: I live on Earth. What more do you want from me?

my sanctuary

i'm lonely..i think i always will be. lonely in the sense that i feel i'm all alone in this world where the population is about 4 billion. but as they say.. "nakakasanayan din ang pagiging malungkot". ang bitter ng statement no? pero parang tama nga yun. pakiramdam ko rin kasi nasasanay na 'ko. "nakakasanayan nga ang pagiging malungkot."

Name: cursed, Location: Antipolo City, Philippines

Happy Birthday Joe!
Is it me, or does it seem that the older we get, the faster time spins away from us?... One more thing-I banged my elbow the other day. I know, I know- it HURTS!... This made me think, "I would rather get my armpit tattooed than bang my elbow."
Name: madartist, Location: Warren, Michigan, United States

Think they'll be back?

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RECRUITING.COM'S GIRL FRIDAY

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Lisa Parker has grabbed Fridays on Recruiting.com. Mondays and Wednesdays are still open. I know, you don't think you're a good writer and that may be true but why not let us decide. Contact Jason now!

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HOW TO BE A GREAT RECRUITER

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1. Turn your modem off at 9am. According to Larry Woods, job boards suck big time. Bad recruiters malinger on them because they've got a social phobia that prevents them from picking up the phone.

2. No charity on the job. Recruiters are paid to find great candidates for client companies not client companies for hapless candidates. No one's paying you to be a social worker and you'll go broke if you try to be one.

3. Plan your head off. Spend 1 hour noting 80 calls to make 2moro.

via Recruiting.com

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TROUBLE IN PARADISE

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Bill Gates: Heather, who's that fat blob in Sector 19?
Heather: It's Homer Simpson, sir. A friend of the Bush family.
Gates: Excellent! Bring him to me.

Read more

What We Said

An Ottawa recruiter has published a book advising job-hunters to stop networking and start marketing themselves.

The book helps technology professionals look for work using target marketing methods, the same strategies used by headhunters. Basically, target marketing means approaching the senior executives who make hiring decisions, instead of networking.

"Typically, most people now network and, if everyone is unemployed or everybody is looking, it is difficult to network in that kind of environment. I'm teaching you how to be your own recruiter," says the jovial Mr. Perry, who runs his own executive search firm, Perry-Martel International Inc.

"It's all about closing the deal. If you can't close, it's just another coffee."


Mike and I have been telling candidates this for years. If you want to get hired you should really be marketing yourself directly to the hiring authority. Of course that is easier said than done because what you are doing is essentially selling yourself and not everyone is a born salesman. But think about it this way: A sales person has to close a deal everyday and once he closes a deal he has to go out and do it again. All you have to do as a job hunter is close one deal and then you are finished. Not everyone can sell but everyone can close at least one deal.


Read the rest of the article here.

EUGENE LEVY, CHAIRMAN OF NORTEL?

Sorry, wrong comedian. That's Joe Piscopo running for governor of New Jersey.

He played a number of notables -- David Letterman, Frank Sinatra -- on "Saturday Night Live", but Joe Piscopo is now thinking of a completely different kind of role: governor. The actor and comedian has been asked by some people to consider a run in his home state, New Jersey.

Like, how come this never happens in business?

CREATING LOYAL EMPLOYEES

Loyal employees:
- tell others what a great company they work for
- recruit good people to fill open jobs
- buy the company's products or services
- stay longer and work harder

Satisfaction is a measure of what people think about a situation, not what they would do. 60% to 80% of consumers who change brands were satisfied with the brand they left.

Loyalty comes from continuously exceeding expectations of your employees. And that's a science. It requires constant feedback from your employees to force continuous improvement in how you manage them.

Finding out what employees expect isn't difficult. Surveys exist to measure the gap between expectation and engagement - not satisfaction.

Source: John Sullivan

Mistakes, I've Made a Few...

Korn Ferry has published a survey outlining the most common mistakes that senior executives make in their first 100 days.

They are as follows:

Failing to establish strategic priorities - 23.5%
Committing cultural gaffes and/or political suicide - 16.4%
Waiting too long to implement change - 15.8%
Not spending enough face time with subordinates - 14.2%
Getting sidetracked by “fire drills” -- having a short-term focus - 10.9%
Hesitating to make tough personnel decisions - 9.8%
Failing to find out what predecessors did and didn’t do right - 9.3%


Full survey here.

When It Comes To Dreams We're All Little Kids

When a little kid is determined to go after something he can't have, like a glass vase, you can't argue with him about it. He's too young to understand. You have to divert his attention to something attractive that he can have, like a stuffed animal.

Likewise, when it comes to job offers, candidates are idealists. They want their dreams to come true and when they don't they get cranky. But don't try to invalidate their dreams. Dreams die hard and you won't win.

Instead, keep them focused on what they are getting and what that will lead to. Help them see that they should not miss a good opportunity even if it's not exactly what they had in mind.

Comment: This makes sense if the recruiter is a true specialist in the field and can give you a good idea of your market value (like one of the consultants on The Antique Roadshow). But the candidate has no way of knowing if this is really so.

And, then there is the problem of bias. The recruiter gets paid when the candidate decides to take the job so when it comes to being an advisor, the recruiter has a real conflict of interest.

Therefore, if a recruiter is going to persuade a candidate to adopt her perspective, she has to give solid evidence to back up her claims.

Source: Jason on Recruiting.com

What's Hot in the Job Market?

How do you spot the next trend in the job market? Easy just read the business news or better yet just scan the headlines. Like this one:

Nortel fires seven beancounters

So what? Well every publicly traded company is now scrambling to make sure that their books are squeaky clean. CEO's don't want to go to jail so they are focusing on internal accounting procedures like never before.

The result? A big spike in the demand for Auditors. That's right good old boring internal auditors are needed like never before and compensation is already starting to climb as demand increases. How long do these trends typically last? Until the education system starts kicking out enough skilled people to saturate the market.

A good example is networking technology. In the early 90's if you had expertise in Local Area Networking and better yet if you were Microsoft or Novell certified you were a rare bird and could command a high salary and your pick of jobs. Now these types of people are a dime a dozen. Why? Schools recognized the demand and started giving more courses. People heard that there were plenty of jobs in this field and flocked to get certified. Pretty soon there was more supply than demand.

The good news on the audit front is that it takes a while to get a designation so there should be a good 3 year window (or more ) before the supply starts to catch up with demand.

That means if you are an auditor you should be scoping the market to find out what you really are worth. It could be more than you think.

JOB SEARCH TOOLBAR

Free download. Portal to all the main job boards in the US. Keep your resume online for shipping. Find it here via Heather, the popular Marketing Recruiter at Microsoft.

PS: When you put your cursor on the "buttons" the site plays the C note on the piano. This allows you to play one-note versions your favourite songs, like God Save The Queen or Yankee Doodle. If you don't believe me, try it yourself.

JOB FUNCTION BIGOTS

Don't ya just hate people who think their field is the key one in the whole company? And that your's is second rate? A person like that can't run a company because she alienates everyone except her one pet department.

People are so sick of job function bigotry that you can get them to like you simply by showing some interest in what they do.

Org design can help stop the problem. Decentralized business/P&L responsibility prevents the development of large, monolithic functional empires which are JFB's primary breeding ground.

Cross-functional teams are also good.

As always, diversity consciousness is the key to success.

via Photon Courier

Hmmm....

I have often wondered whether this was a practical idea but now it seems someone is trying to make it work.

Jeff Hyman a former headhunter is now trying to build a business as an "agent" for Silicon Valley executives much in the same vein as an agent for a sports or movie star.

Executives need to be responsible for managing their careers, but most don't have the connections, the know-how, or the time," Hyman says. Using headhunters isn't a great solution, he contends. "Recruiters work in the interests of the corporations that pay them. But no one was working in the sole best interests of the talent."

So Hyman has stepped into the void, acting as part executive recruiter, part career coach, and part compensation attorney. He helps his clients define what they want to do and where they want to work; scours the marketplace for openings; and prepares them for interviews and salary negotiations. Unlike a typical search executive, Hyman isn't looking to fill a particular opening but to develop a career. He helps his clients with just about every move they make: negotiating raises at their current jobs, making a strong impression on bosses and colleagues, finding speaking engagements and other opportunities to build visibility. He meets with clients monthly to discuss their goals--often at a nearby Starbucks rather than at clients' offices--and conducts weekly performance audits by phone.

In exchange for those services, Hyman's firm charges 3% of clients' gross salary as an annual retainer, and another 5% of whatever dollar-generating items he gets them--whether a speaking engagement, a raise, or a new job

If this idea takes hold the recruiting industry could change dramatically. On the one hand it could hurt executive search firms. If agents are scouring the market and presenting candidates to clients then companies wont feel they have to rely on us to find people. On the other hand it could make our job easier if everyone has an agent then all we would have to do is call all the agents with an opportunity and let them send us candidates.

The full story appears on the Fortune website (see link below) but you need to be a subscriber to read it. But don't worry the gist of it is above.

I would be interested in readers thoughts on the whole agent thing and if an agent would be someone you would be willing to hire.

Fortune.com - Ideas & Innovations

HEY, MICROSOFT, CAN YOU HIRE THIS GUY ALREADY!

This has been going on way too long. (He'll be 25 before he gets an interview). It reminds me of those supposed Zen gurus who made prospective students beg for nine years to show their commitment before they would accept them for training. And, apparently, one guy didn't get 'hired' until he cut off his arm.

NEW WRITER ON RECRUITING.COM

Steve Harris has become a contributor to Recruiting.com. Here's a link to his first contribution. And here's one to his site: Job Stuff, A Blog for Your Career. Still looking for more contributors. Adopt a day and recycle your old favourites. Send a message to jason@recruiting.com

HOW TO MANAGE DECISION-MAKING

Decision-making is stressful. And, excessive decision-making will lead you to a state of chronic confusion. So, powerful decision-makers limit their choices with guidelines like these.

1: Don't Research Everything Equally
Perfectionists are only satisfied with the best. Good-Enoughers are happy with something that is good enough. They don't care that somewhere out in the world there may be better alternatives.

Some decisions are so important that it makes sense to consider every option available. But nobody can maximize on every decision. We don't have the time.

2. Good Enough Is Better Than Perfection
Jason Timberlake is getting married to Cameron Diaz. She's pretty nice isn't she? Of course, she is. But the bets are on that he'll be tired of her in a year.

It's all because of the Hedonic Treadmill. That's the tendency to adapt to any change, good or bad, in a fairly short time. You get a raise, you're happy. Then you get used to it - and it isn't so special anymore.

That's right; perfection has a short shelf life. So when you're making a decision, why not go for Good-Enough rather than driving yourself nuts trying to discover a momentary ideal.

In decision-making less is more. And if you believe that, don't click on these links. That's right, it's a test: here and here.

BRAND PROBLEMS? LATTE-SIPPING LEFTY?

Bruce Springsteen, in his Forum article, "The Pola palooza Tour," proves that he, like so many other entertainers, is a limousine liberal hypocrite. If he believes there is so much economic injustice in this country, then he should give most of his millions back to the government, or at least to charities to the point where he could be considered "middle class." I would not expect him to live like Mother Teresa, but to complain about economic justice when you are a multimillionaire is a joke.

Michael V. Coseriu, Hinckley, OH (Friday, 8/13/2004, Cleveland Plain Dealer)http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/lettertoeditor.ssf
Re: Entertainers in the political arena's spotlight

Bruce Buys Lunch For NJ Housewives
The Boss was shopping at Barneys yesterday when he ran into a group of very excited New Jersey housewives. "Bruce took them all to lunch at Fred's," says our spy. "They were just sitting there in the middle of the restaurant, having a great time and downing tequila shots." Jersey native Springsteen chatted with his starstuck admirers before paying the fat tab and leaving.

(from Live Daily – Saturday, August 15, 1004)

Thursday, April 14 1955
Elvis leaves Breckenridge in the morning behind the wheel of his pink-and-white Cadillac, sporting pink slacks and an orchid-colored shirt.

Elvis Day By Day

The Next Real Recession.

Despite the talk about the economic problems the United States has been having over the past four years there really hasn’t been a recession. Sure growth has slowed but it still has been chugging along at 2-4%, which is fairly healthy considering the tech wreck, war, terrorism and everything else.

Why are modern economies so stable?

Geoffrey Colvin at Fortune magazine believes it is due to our increasing mastery of the supply chain:

“Services and information account for most of the developed world's economy by far, and capacity has become a concept we scarcely think about. No one ever fretted that Microsoft couldn't turn out copies of Windows NT fast enough. Of course we still need physical goods, but infotech has revolutionized that sector of the economy too, turning supply chains into smoothly flowing rivers that almost never flood or dry up, eternally delivering exactly what's needed, exactly where it's needed, exactly when it's needed.

In a friction-free economy like that, where everybody knows everything, it's tough to make money. But the good news is, that kind of economy spins like a top, rarely tripped up by the old-fashioned excesses and shortages that used to trigger boom-and-bust cycles. It takes a lot of hubris to claim that we've conquered the business cycle, but we can safely say we've come close. In the past 22 years we've had just two recessions, and even those were pathetically weak exemplars of their breed. It is legitimately a new era.”

However there is a problem. China that new factor in all things economic is looming large on the horizon.

"...what happens when a Third World nation develops First World demand? Here's a country that's nowhere near an info-based economy, where supply chains get managed by phone and by fax if they get managed at all, where GDP per capita is just $4,700 (vs. $34,000 in the U.S.). It's still a baby among the world's economies—only one-seventh of global GDP—yet it has the appetite of a 19-year-old defensive tackle. Last year China consumed half of the world's cement output, one-third of the steel, one-fourth of the copper, one-fifth of the aluminum.
Result: The price of steel rocketed earlier this year, and some suppliers put customers on allocation. Ditto for copper and aluminum. Some contractors in Florida can't get cement at all. Nothing like that has happened in ages.

The ramifications are multi-tiered. For example, despite China's huge consumption of cement, the world actually seems to have enough of it. The problem is that there aren't enough ships to bring it to the U.S. Reason: Many of them are tied up bringing raw materials such as iron ore to China, then waiting weeks to unload at congested Chinese ports. One solution is to build more ships. But ships are made of steel, which the shipbuilders can't get because of Chinese demand.

A critical trait of old-economy goods like metals, cement, and oil is that ramping up capacity takes years, not months. In response to record-high prices, that new capacity is getting built right now. But at the same time China is braking its hypergrowth—which means that two years from now, when all that new commodity capacity starts churning out stuff, China may not want it anymore. So with China running on a primitive info infrastructure, large parts of the interconnected world economy could be back to boom-and-bust cycles and inventory recessions every three years—headaches we thought we'd left far behind."

Having lived through the recessions of 81 and 90 I don’t find that particularly comforting.

ARE YOU TOO OLD?

By 1930, Churchill was without influence in Britain and it was generally believed that his career was over. One of his great bete noires was Nancy Astor. She had become the first woman member of parliament and she hated Churchill and was constantly deriding him.

She was, on the other hand, a great admirer of the Soviet Union and on a visit to Stalin, that "great man" asked her "Who are the coming leaders in Britain?". She told him that, "Neville Chamberlain is the coming man". Stalin said, "What about Churchill?". "Churchill is finished." she answered. Hitler agreed and when he had an opportunity to meet Churchill, in 1932, refused.

And, in 1930, Churchill also thought he was through. He was well into middle-age and wrote a book called, "My early life" which is the memoir of a man looking back over a life that was in many ways complete. If fact, Churchill says in the book that a man who loses his position in his 30s and 40s will never get it back. He may get another position in his 50s or 60s but the height that he reached in those early years he can never reclaim. He was, of course, talking about himself. He was fifty-six and looked older. Five foot six, stoop-shouldered, 215 pounds. He was once sitting in the barber's chair and the barber asked "What kind of hairstyle would you like?" And Churchill said "A man of my limited resources cannot afford a hairstyle, just cut".

EVIL BOSSES OPPRESS FEMALE WORKERS

Julia Stiles, who has A-cup breasts, is fed up with film producers who keep leaving fake boobs in her dressing room in a bid to get her to increase her chest size.

The 23-year-old is becoming exasperated with Hollywood’s obsession with big breasts and boob jobs.

"I’ve walked into my dressing room, and had a desk full of fake boobs that the producers have put there because they want me to have bigger breasts. That’s pretty blatant. I’m not stupid. I know what it means." says Stiles.

Source

Situation Normal......

Two days ago I contacted someone (via email) regarding a position I am working on. The person expressed an interest in the opportunity and offered to send a resume.

Minutes later the resume arrived and after reading it I called the person to discuss in more detail.

The candidate picked up the phone and I identified myself. There was a pause and then this:

"Where did you get this number?!"
"It was on your resume... you know the one that you just sent me."
"Oh..... ok"


The mind boggles.

THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN

Remember I told you about RECRUITING.COM?
It's a joint web log for recruiters.

Here's the initial strategy.
1. Get 7 bloggers.
2. Each one adopts one day of the week.
3. On that day you post the week's best entry from your blog on www.recruiting.com

What's in it for you?
1. Exposure. Each of the 7 will draw readers from their own blogs who will get to see you.

2. Recycle your best work. Do you ever regret spending a lot of time on an entry only to see it fade into the archives after a just a few days? Here's a chance to feature it again.

3. If you're blogging but not about work, here's the chance to do so once a week.

4. If you're not blogging, it's an opportunity to expound.

Think about it. And contact me or Jason at jason@recruiting.com.
Hat tip to Anthony for "Magnificent Seven"

PRIMARY RESEARCH

Confessions of a corporate James Bond via By Ghosh the price is right!
Note: This is a highly edited version of the original.

1. Force the client to define the mission in narrow terms.
Mr Client, what are the top three things you need in a candidate? And why does he have to have those qualifications? With this knowledge you can target the right people.

2. When you call a company for info, be nice to everyone.
Even when they’re useless. People feel compelled to reciprocate.
Thank them for their time and ask who else would be able to help you.

3. Butter 'em up
Flattery is a great way to get her to open up. Tell her you saw her name in an article about her industry. They always go for that.

If you get the name from another source, say, “Bobby Jo told me you're the expert here on...so I was hoping you could tell me....”

You can play a little dumb, but not too dumb. If you ask good questions, they'll find the conversation worthwhile.

4. Be a Nudge
Never give up. Sometimes you have to wear people down. Eventually, they'll get tired of your messages or curious about why you want to talk to them so badly and they'll respond - though it might not be very pretty when they do.

(If the company has branches all over the country, call the rural offices.
Those hicks shore are friendly).

5. Don’t take it poisonal.
Do you want to be a loser? Then get upset when you're rejected. Because, my friend, to be successful in life, you've got to develop a thick skin.

You see, even if you do everything right, there's gonna be many times when the person you’re after won’t give you the time of day.

Either she's busy, there’s a corporate culture of paranoia, she’s suspicious of your motives, or she just doesn’t want to talk to you when there's nothing in it for her. And, hey, maybe you're ugly. If she says no, just thank her for her time and say goodbye.

I'd like to say that there are a lot more fish in the sea but when your client has a fetish for highly specialized skills that isn't always true.

6. Write A Script
Plan your approach. You need to know who you are and why you're asking for this information. And then adjust the script for each person or category of person you speak to. For instance, sometimes, you're friendly, sometimes flirtatious, sometimes all business, sometimes knowledgeable and sometimes naive.

Familiarize yourself with the industry and its buzzwords - and then imagine you're Meryl Streep. Here are some Oscar-winning lines:

“I’m hoping you can spare me a few minutes, to give me some information I need for a research project I’m working on.”

“I hope you can help me. I’m not sure if I’m calling the right person. Maybe you can direct me to the right person".

They'll ask what you want. Tell them as much as you can.

This Call Was Different?

As headhunters we are sometimes puzzled and frustrated when we call tons of potential candidates on a particular opportunity but get no takers.

Is it something we are saying? Not saying? I've always felt that a good opportunity sells itself and if you aren't getting any nibbles then the opportunity just isn't exciting enough.

Want proof? I offer Stell Patsiokas, XM's (the satellite radio company) executive vice president of technology and engineering.

The 51-year-old product designer and electrical engineering Ph.D. spent nearly two decades at Boca Raton-based Motorola, creating the company's first cellphones and two-way pagers. An XM corporate headhunter called him in 1998.

Patsiokas had many invitations to leave the telecommunications giant, but this call was different.

Here was a chance to lead the brightest industrial designers and engineers as they develop radio receivers. And, more intriguing, to configure a way to get two massive satellites -- one called Rock, the other Roll -- to beam scores of CD-quality radio channels to customers' cars and homes.

Note the reporter's use of the phrase "the call was different" not quite. The opportunity was different. I bet any idiot could have recruited him for this job. It sounds like his dream job.

If you are a hiring manager and having trouble attracting candidates consider the way your job is being marketed. Does your target market see your position as a "dream job" and if not, why not? Ask yourself what would attract me to this job?

Most companies think they should get someone who is doing the exact same thing right now. But why would someone make a lateral move. What are you offering that would make them disrupt their current situation to do the same thing elsewhere?

ARE YOU AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE Part 2

- Recruiters list you in top 10 employers
in your region or industry 50% of the time.
- Appearance on more than one industry or regional best places list.
- Firms benchmark you at least once a year.
- Listed first in 25% of companies in conference brochures
- There is a published book about your firm or CEO in the last 5 years.
- Professionals in your industry recognize your CEO's name 75% of the time.
- You have an Employer of Choice Manager in your HR dept.
Or an employment branding manager.
- Your HR and people practices are cited at least 5 times a yr in top 3
publications in your field.
- CEO notes specific HR practices by name in 25%
of external and 50% of internal speeches.

Source

REACH OUT IN THE DARKNESS

There's something dramatic about reaching out. You reach out for help when you're drowning or when you're troubled by some grave difficulty or when you're undertaking a major endeavour.

You don't reach out when you're looking for help on a mundane project at work. But some corporate jargoners can't tell the difference.

I know a guy who's always "reaching out". He never phones you, he reaches out. In fact, he reached out to me on Friday.

In a mean sort of way, I kind of like the idea of telling someone "I'm reaching out to you". It's such an odd choice of words that it confuses the victim and while he's trying to figure out what you mean, you have time to say a lot things without interruption.

Will it catch on and have mass appeal? I don't think so. But it's already gained a fair bit of ground. Look at the dramatic pictures on this company uses to illustrate it's call centre software. They make "customer relation management" look like Adam reaching out to God.(Oddly enough, both hands look like they belong to babies).

And here's a great article: Reach Out and Touch More Business With Corporate Calling. Uh-oh, I wonder where that's heading? I can see it now: 'Reach Out' Boss Faces Harrassment Charge.

IS ARROGANCE A LEADERSHIP TRAIT?

From a letter to AndrewSullivan.com

I just wanted to comment on your assessment of Kerry and Bush. I knew both of them slightly at Yale: Bush and I were in the same class ('68) and I knew Kerry through the political union. I would sum up the similarities and differences this way:

1) Both are incredibly arrogant, even for Yalies. Each was incredibly arrogant before he was tapped for skull and bones, and only became more so after he was tapped. Bush hides his arrogance a little better, but it's there in his eyes when you meet him in person, as I did fairly recently.

2) Kerry believes in his destiny -- because he's tall and smart and sophisticated, and mostly because his initials are JFK. (At Yale he used those initials on everything.) He's a preppie, wealthy Catholic from Massachusetts who was born in the west wing of the hospital -- so his destiny must be to be President.

He thinks that being President will be a burden, but it's a burden he's obliged to take up for the good of the country (and to fulfill his destiny).

And yes, he's distantly related on his mother's side to the Major Forbes who founded the City of Pittsburgh, so naturally he also had a destiny to marry Teresa Heinz. By marriage, at least, she's a Pittsburgh aristocrat.

3) Bush believes in his birthright. He thinks he has the right to be President because he's George Bush.

Running things isn't a burden for him; it's what he does when he feels like it. Right now he feels like it, so anyone who tries to stop him has to be blackballed from the club. (And anyone who tried to kill his daddy had to really be blackballed from the club.)

4) Kerry will think twice and three times before doing nearly anything; Bush has never thought twice about anything in his life. Thinking twice about things is, in his opinion, for losers.

Of the two, I prefer Kerry because he can see America from the outside. Bush can't. Kerry isn't likely to explain that outside perspective during the campaign because the American people don't want to deal right now with the degree to which we're disliked and even despised around the world. But if he's elected it will (I hope) help him make wiser decisions.

Is there anything in these descriptions, true or not, that would mark these men as leaders? Is arrogance a sign of the urge to dominance?

Déjà vu all over again…

I know that I have said this before at some point on this blog but based on an experience I had yesterday I will throw a few more punches at what I already assumed was a dead horse.

Yesterday I was driving into downtown Toronto for some meetings when my cell phone rang. It was a candidate of mine. Specifically one who had been scheduled to be starting an interview with a client right about that time.

My first thought was that he was canceling the interview. Candidates have a funny habit of calling you when they are not going to show for an interview instead of calling the person they are supposed to be meeting.

The problem however was more mundane. It appears the client didn’t have a copy of his resume. This was odd since we had sent one over. In fact after reading the resume the client agreed to see the candidate.

Of course the second part of the problem was that Mr. Candidate had for some reason decided NOT to bring a copy of his resume. He wanted me to e-mail a copy to the client immediately. This however wasn’t possible since I was sitting in total gridlock on the QEW. When I informed Mr. Candidate of this he helpfully offered to go out to his car and retrieve his laptop – which had a copy of his resume on it. Grrrrrr.

Later on that day I was debriefing with the client. He too mentions the fact that we didn’t send him a resume. When I gently reminded him that my colleague had sent one about a week ago he looked at his email inbox and sure enough there it was! Grrrr..

Moral of the story? For all you candidates out there. NEVER go into an interview without a copy of your resume, even if you have sent it to the interviewer directly. When I was consulting for a Fortune 500 company I used to have stacks and stacks of resumes on my desk. Sometimes I legitimately would not be able to find a resume when I needed it. Typically it was when the candidate didn’t bring a resume.

Remember the first impression is very important. Some studies have suggested that employers make their decision on you within the first ten seconds. I don’t know if that is true or not but why make the first ten seconds of your interview an awkward situation where you look unprepared for not bringing a resume and you make the interviewer look unorganized by not being able to find it?

RECRUITER BLOG CENTRAL

From Jason at Recruiting.101:

I am interested in creating a networking group for recruiters and people interested in the recruiting industry.

I think having inhouse recruiters discuss issues with third party recruiters would be very interesting and effective.

There could be advantages in having people who develop recruiting software to be included.

If you are interested in joining, please email me at jason@recruiting.com

I actually met with a Jason a few days ago. He seems to be a creative business mind and a very nice guy.

As I understand it, Jason wants to create a group blog to which all blogging recruiters could contribute by cross-posting the most interesting entries from their own blogs. I know that the some Canadian political bloggers do this now on The Shotgun.

I intend to contribute postings to this central clearinghouse of the recruiting blogosphere. And I encourage you to do so too. If you're not a blogger but would like to contribute occasional postings, that's fine too.

AMERICAN HEADHUNTER

Here

ARE YOU AN EMPLOYER OF CHOICE? Part 1

Here are the signs.

- 75% of the people in your talent group know your name
- 35% of the people in your talent group know one of your key selling points.
- You're one of 3 places 50% of qualified pros would like to work someday.
- 10% of your applicants come from top 5 profitable firms in your industry or region.
- Employee referrals make up 50% of all hires.
- 50% of your candidates get offers from one of the top 10 firms in your industry
- Your firm hires more people from your top 5 competitors than they hire from you
- Managers at direct competitors speak well about your practices 25% of the time.
- You have a 10% return rate of past employees
- 50% of your past employees would consider returning
- When employees talk about why the firm is a great place they include your top selling point.
- Turnover rate of top 25% employees is below 5%.
- Your sign ups at college info events exceed the avg by 50%.
- Your lines at job fairs are 25% longer than your top direct talent competitor.
- Your jobs page gets 50% more web hits than the industry average.

Note: you need surveys and metrics to prove you're an EOC.

Source

A COUPLE OF JOKES

A woman gives birth to twins and names them Juan and Amal and then gives them up for adoption to different families in different parts of the world. Twenty years later she gets a letter from Juan with his picture. "What a handsome young man!" the woman says. "I just wish I had a picture of my other son," she continued tearfully. "It wouldn't matter," says her husband "because if you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal."

A hotel manager sees two people playing chess on one of those couches by the elevator that no one is supposed to sit on. He walks up to the pair and asks what they're doing. "We're just playing chess dammit, and we're playing it very well!" says one of them. He notices that the other has a crazy look in his eyes. He walks away in a huff. One of maids, after seeing the whole thing asks "Why are you so angry?" He says "I just can't stand chess nuts boasting in an open foyer!"

via Scripting News

LEADERSHIP AND INTELLIGENCE

John F. Kennedy had an IQ of 119, which is on the high end of normal. Richard Nixon scored 143. According to Dean Simonton, a psychologist, "Many empirical studies confirm...that an IQ near 119 is the prescription for leader success".

Above that level a person's thought and language become too complex to settle persuasively on a position for action. What suits the scientist doesn't suit the woman of action.

John Kerry gathers an abundance of detail and weighs facts with great intellectual deliberation. His advocates say this explains his willingness to change his mind. The Bushies say he's a Hamlet who can't make up his mind.

"If you disagree with the senator on most any issue," Bush needled him, "you may just have caught him on the wrong day."

Leadership requires consistent direction and clarity of vision. Eisenhower's opponents painted him a dunce who spoke in simple, sometimes mangled language, but voters chose him twice over Adlai Stevenson, the sophisticated intellectual. The public thought he was wishy-washy.

Advertisers and propagandists know the rule: to impress the public, repeat a simple notion a thousand times. And that might be a source of internal strength as well.

Source

FUNKY SOUL BROTHER, CHECK HIM OUT!

Jeremy at Ensight.org has launched his new format.

REAL LEADERS TALK TOUGH

Neil Cavuto on Teresa Kerry (edited):

The problem in society today is that too many of us lock up our emotions. To a degree, this behavior is admirable. We don't want to fly off the handle at every slight indiscretion, but sometimes we need to give people a sense of our minds, our hearts and the limits of our tolerance.

The greatest problem for those who are fired from their jobs is that they never saw it coming. That's because their bosses never gave them a clue. We could all benefit from a boss who lets us know when we're screwing up in no uncertain terms so we'd know where he stands and where we stand.

I like people who let other people have it, and let the world know why they're letting those people have it. The polite among us demand that the rude among us apologize for being rude. The rude should say "shove it," then throw in an expletive to finish the point . . . not because it's the nice thing to do, or even the right thing to do . . . but, in this age of scripted, predictable behavior, because it's the one thing you don't count on anyone in a position of authority doing in the first place. Being themselves. Being nasty. Being human. Being real.

Kathleen Parker has a different point of view (edited):

Mrs. Kerry's speechwriters came up with a clever way to mute the controversy. Mrs. Kerry isn't arrogant or abrasive. She's a woman of deeply held conviction and a champion of free speech.

She burnished the raw image of a bullying rich woman with brush strokes of gilded rhetoric: "My right to speak my mind, to have a voice, to be what some have called 'opinionated,' is a right I deeply and profoundly cherish," she said, "and my only hope is that one day soon, women, who have all earned the right to their opinions, instead of being called opinionated will be called smart and well-informed - just like men."

Teresa is a wealthy woman who isn't used to playing by the usual rules of civility toward lesser mortals. The rich really are different than the rest of us, but the smart and well-informed ones let the little guys believe otherwise.

HOW TO HANDLE DEFEAT

From Defeat Into Victory by General Fat Bill Slim
via Photon Courier (edited)

The only test of generalship is success, and I had succeeded in nothing that I had attempted.

The commander will go over in his mind the events of the campaign. 'Here,' he will think, 'I went wrong; here I took counsel of my fears when I should have been bold; there I should have waited to gather strength, not struck piecemeal; at such a moment I failed to grasp opportunity when it was presented to me.'

He will recall the look in the eyes of men who trusted him. 'I have failed them,' he will say to himself. He will turn on himself and question the very foundations of his manhood.

And then he must stop! For, if he is ever to command in battle again, he must shake off these regrets and stamp on them, as they claw at his will and his self-confidence.

He must beat off these attacks he delivers against himself, and cast out the doubts born of failure. Forget them, and remember only the lessons to be learnt from defeat--they are more than from victory.