Getting Hyper Focused Can Help You Recruit and Build Teams Quickly. Here Are 3 Strategies to Help.

It is Richard Milligan and I'm back. About to cut another podcast. And it's always fun and easy to cut these podcasts. And the reason why is because the title of the podcast is Recruiting Conversations. And so the topics that we discuss in the week to week is the topics that come up in my coaching. So, you know, I coach anywhere from 30 to sometimes as many as 45 hours in a week. And in those conversations, I'm dealing with the day to day, the day to day of what most recruiting leaders are dealing with. And so I'm excited today to actually come to you and talk about some of my recent conversations. So I'm excited, we're about to go live here. And if you haven't watched the videos before, one of the things that you know is that we, um, we are a little bit ahead here doing what we're doing, recording this. The podcast comes next, so you get to see us live. And I try to bring an extra nugget or two to the actual— to the actual end of the video. So if you'll stay to the very end, It'll be well worth your time. I'll give you one extra nugget that will help you as it relates to the conversation that's coming up today. It is about distractions. It's about being focused and the importance of— we'll talk about some verbiage that I use. It's called hyper-focused. And how do we stay hyper-focused in our environment, especially as a recruiting leader where the distractions are all around you? So it is a difficult thing to do, but it keeps It can be done, and I'm here to help you figure out how to do it. So we're going live with our podcast in 3, in 2, in 1. Hey everybody, welcome back to Recruiting Conversations. I'm your host, Richard Milligan, and if you've listened to us before, you know what we're all about. If you have not listened to us before, let me tell you what we're all about because you may be new to the podcast. And so I don't want to ever assume that someone shows up to this podcast Not fully knowing what we're trying to accomplish. So here it is. Our main intention with this podcast is to reach what I call the recruiting leader. So the recruiting leader is someone that actually leads a team, but then is also responsible for actually building that team, recruiting to that team. So if you sit in some type of regional manager role, area manager role, branch manager role, a lot of times in a sales manager role, those roles are responsible for the day-to-day of managing the team and ensuring that you all are delivering in whatever area of business you deliver. But then you are also responsible for recruiting top people to your team. And, and the difficulties are unique with this particular position. The difficulties are unique in that you wear maybe as many as 15 different hats in a given day. You might actually have as many as 15 job responsibilities that fall underneath that leadership hat that you wear, where you just simply manage the team. But if you don't focus on the recruiting aspect of your role, of your business, eventually you'll probably find yourself without a job. And I'm not here to bring you bad news, but what I am here to say is this. We are— our mission here is to help educate and grow the recruiting leader. We're here to help that individual maximize their skill set, maximize their giftings, find their purpose. All of those things are inside the line of what we want to accomplish within this podcast. With that said, we're going to jump into a recent conversation that I have, and thus the title of this podcast, Recruiting Conversations. A recent conversation that I had was a conversation around the environment that a recruiting leader was in that dealt with a lot of distractions. So if you are in this role, you can relate because if you are wearing those 15 hats and now you're trying to make recruiting a primary responsibility or a primary objective in the day-to-day, it A lot of times can be a problem that you have to solve in that you just don't have the margin. You just don't have the time left over. And a lot of times it may not even be that you don't have the margin or the time left over. It may be that you— it seems as though that is the problem when a lot of times the problem boils down to we're just not able to pull ourselves out of the distractions. So, I love a short story that I came across that involved Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Bill Gates' father. Now, I've seen this story in a couple of formats, but the meat of the story is the same. So, the story goes like this: Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, and Bill Gates' father were actually at an event together, and this was some sort of a fundraising event. And the people that were the donors that showed up for the event all had a chance to ask questions. And so, the 3 were sitting on a panel of some sort, and someone from the audience asked the question to them of what they thought the key was to success. And in this environment, all 3 of these people— Buffett, Gates, and Gates— responded immediately With one word, and that one word was focus. So I can only imagine the 3 of those actually looking at each other with a bit of a sly grin, given the fact that they had just answered this question with the exact same answer. But the fact that it was spontaneous and completely unplanned tells you a lot about the real response that they gave and the reason why they gave it, knowing what they knew. As individuals who had been extremely successful in their career. And it's that focus is not just important, but focus is imperative if you're going to be a successful recruiting leader. So let me give you some ideas around how I coach people in this area and around this area. The struggle is this, is that the recruiting leader is typically extremely ambitious individual. A lot of times we end up in this role as a recruiting leader, recruiter slash leader, because of all the wins and the successes that we've had in our career. So if we look at the profile of this individual, they're extremely reliable, they are extremely ambitious. The intangibles are on overflow and overload. And so this individual a lot of times creates an enormous workload. But here's the one thing I learned at a young age, that when you show yourself responsible, you actually get more responsibility. And that's a true statement. Yes or yes? If you've ever One day come to work and realize you've got a new project on your plate, or you've got somebody underneath your wing that you're going to need to coach now. Or I'll give you a perfect example in my own life. As I began to have success on the recruiting side, the organization that I was with actually began to fly other leaders into my market to sit with me for 3 to 5 days because they wanted people that were struggling in a similar role as me to be able to understand what I was doing so they could take it back and apply it to their own business. So by simply being successful, I got more responsibility, and that responsibility entailed me actually taking people under my wing and to some degree mentoring them. So because I know what that looks like and I know where you're at, a lot of times these larger ambitions to build a bigger team can actually be counterproductive to actually accomplishing those ambitions because our plates are already full. So I like to use this term, what I call hyperfocus. Okay, now the term hyperfocus, if you want to actually go and look at the definition of what the word hyper means, the word hyper means Doing things excessively or above normal. Okay? So, I think of the word focus, and then when I think of, I've got to be focused, excessively focused, or I have to be so focused that it's beyond normal focus, then you can understand what it's going to take for you to actually be successful in a recruiting leader role. Hyperfocus. Now, With this said, there's other variables in play. Okay, the other variables are this, and let's just go back through some of these variables that we've already lined up. You're someone who probably has a lot on your plate because you've shown yourself responsible, and so you've got more responsibility. You're leading and managing a team. You're ambitious, and so in that ambition, you've got some really big goals and things that you want to accomplish that also increases the amount of work that you're doing. Okay, so all of this is in play. And so you have this overflow, no doubt, of things that you're doing, but you're also doing it today in a unique environment. So let's just talk about that environment, because we're talking about a different world than we lived in maybe 10 years ago. Okay. When I look— when I realize, like, I'm in the middle of this podcast, I'm doing this podcast in a studio where I've got a laptop open If you noticed early on in the podcast, you heard dinging. The reason why you heard dinging is because I can't get away from my digital notifications, just like you can't get away from your digital notifications. Right? I have things dinging. I don't even know what's dinging, but it's like my calendar, it's my iPhone, it's my email, it's my LinkedIn, it's my Facebook. It's my Voxer where people have access to me. It's my calendar on my iPhone versus my calendar on my desktop. It's on and on and on and on. The things that are distracting you in terms of these digital notifications that we didn't have to deal with 10 years ago. You had— I remember getting into business in the mid-'90s and the number one training program that the organization I went to work for the first thing they put you through was Franklin Covey planner training. And those of you that are probably in your mid-40s or older, this will be one of those moments you're like, oh yeah, I forgot about Franklin Covey planner training. Our calendars used to be 100% paper. And then along comes Outlook, and then along comes smartphones. And today, just simply the digital notifications that follow us everywhere we go. Are excessive, and those are distractions in themselves. Then you add these other cool pieces of technology like social media, like YouTube, these other places where there are portals where we can actually get lost that are distractions as well. Not just that, but I've got multiple apps on my phone that I actually do need that are distractions as well. As we begin to get into some of these pieces, There's probably never been a more crucial time in the history of the world for leaders to be ridiculously focused in order to accomplish their goals. Okay, to be this excessively focused, this hyperfocus. So I'm going to give you 3 ideas that are going to help you move towards being hyperfocused. Okay, these are very simplistic, they're very practical, and these work for me all the time. Number one, you gotta reduce the noise. And you're thinking to yourself, well, that seems pretty obvious, Milligan, right? Because you just described all these things. But how do we reduce the noise? So I have a play in my recruiting leader playbook that ultimately changed the trajectory of my career. So one of the things that I would do is I would leave my office and I would leave my work. Now, when I would say I would leave my office, leave my work, I would get away from my phone. I would get away from my voicemail, my text messages. My Outlook, my iPhone. I would get away from these things for several days at a time so that I could move through some of the larger projects that I identified as being critical to my business. Now, I call these sprints. These are short windows of time, maybe 2 to 3 days, where I go off the grid and I move through a project that I've identified as being critical to my business. So the question is this: do you have Are you willing to disappear momentarily if necessary? Okay, and then if you are, what do you need to do in order to do that? That can be part of this reducing the noise. Yes, turning your notifications off, that can help. Yes, only responding to email in certain windows of time can help. But a lot of times, if you're going to move the needle on your business dramatically, you're going to have to even just get outside the noise and turn off the noise. Number 1, we're going to reduce the noise. And inside of that first piece there, we understand that at points in our year, we're going to completely disappear in order to move the needle in our business. That's number 1. The second part is this: we're going to prioritize what is most important. I know this is obvious, but most people approach their day with a to-do list in hand that simply has the easiest tasks on the list that need to be done. These are the most obvious things. These are working in the business, not working on the business. These are things like returning phone calls, responding to email, addressing whatever squeaky wheel it is that you have in your business. These are a lot of simplistic tasks, but these are the first tasks that we spend the majority of our day in. This really becomes our daily plan. Like, you know this, most of you can spend an entire day in your email simply answering, responding, and solving problems inside your email inbox. And while there is an element of that that needs to be done, that's the playbook for the ineffective leader. So if you're doing that right now, you are ineffective at what you do in terms of moving the needle towards the larger pieces that are going to make you a successful recruiting leader. Okay, if you're going to accomplish big things, you're going to have to focus on what moves your business the most, and it's not Outlook. It's not email. I don't care if you're using Gmail or whatever you're using. It's not your email inbox that's going to move your needle the most in your business. Okay, so that's the second part. The third part is this: you're going to have to get really good at saying no, and this is really hard. Because a lot of recruiting leaders are extremely relational. That's why you get to where you are. You're great at developing relationships. A lot of times, this is someone who's extremely influential, someone that's an extrovert. And that individual, that profile as a whole, has difficulty saying no because to some degree, it's a bit affirming to be actually asked to do something where you could say yes, right? There's this element to it where it actually makes us feel good to be a part of that committee or to be responsible for this particular project or to take the lead on something, right? Those things are affirming. But if you're going to get the most important tasks done and get them done quickly, then you're going to find yourself saying no a lot. Look, if you're resourceful, others are going to constantly be looking for your help. And while that's a compliment to who we are and to our strengths, it can actually be a death knell into you accomplishing your most critical, most important tasks that are going to move your business the farthest, the quickest. So if you're willing to do these 3 things, Then you will find that you can get hyper-focused on a daily basis. So let's go back through that again. Number 1, we're going to reduce the noise. Number 2, we're going to prioritize what is of most importance on a daily basis. And then we're going to say no a lot. We're going to repeat this process every day. And here's what I know. Before you know it, There will be a string of days, of consecutive days where you're hyper-focused again and again and again, and you will feel the momentum of this inside your business. It will be incredible for you to see how far you can move your business in a short window of time if you will do this. Are you ready? Let's get set and let's go. If this has brought value to you today, I'd love to have you share this with somebody. That needs this. If it's someone that's in a leadership role that also recruits, everybody needs this. And depending on what season of their business they're in. And so I'd be honored if I bring value to you in the day-to-day of these podcasts, share it with somebody. Let's continue to pass this on and to help people that are in this specific recruiting leader role continue to grow and continue to accomplish the things that they want to accomplish inside their career. And inside their business. And until I see you again, you can't see me unless you're watching the video, but until you hear from me again, all the best to you. And don't forget, you should have fun recruiting. Okay? This should not be something that's arduous, something that's hard for you to do. Like if you're representing the authentic version of you and you're simply building relationships, And building relationships are fun. A lot of people look at recruiting as though it's a sales pitch or trying to convince somebody to do something. You are not. You are trying to bring value through the most authentic version of you, and that comes through relationship building. That— I oversimplified it, right? Ready? Get set, go. Have a great week, everybody. We'll talk to you next time here on Recruiting Conversations. Thank you. I was having a hard time finding the buttons! You ever do that? Like, where are the buttons, everybody? I was having a hard time finding the buttons over here! I found the buttons and now I'm back! Okay? So very practical advice for you to follow those 3 steps! I like to call that getting off the grid idea, I like to call that idea Sprint! Sprint! Okay, so a lot of times business is going to be filled with what I call seasons. Those who move the needle in their business the most, the quickest, typically follow a sprint mindset. The sprint mindset says this, is that if I get away from all these distractions and I focus on this one thing, whatever the largest problem is inside your business, if I focus on this one thing, then I can move the needle and get incrementally better. And if you are constantly getting incrementally better, then you get to a place where you can build an incredible book of business, an incredible team, an incredible culture in a relatively short window of time. I know this, we are typically the ceiling to our own success. I think Stephen Covey had that in the 21 Irrefutable Laws of Success. I think one of those laws might have been the Law of the Lid, which is that we are the lid to our own wins, to our own success as leaders. If you will only think of this in terms of incremental improvement, incremental improvement, and you're constantly looking to improve your systems, to improve your leadership, to develop new strategies, to innovate, to think like a marketer. All of these things are things that great leaders do because they understand those are hats that they have to wear. If you will always look at these as sprints of going and getting better in these particular areas, then you can become a dominant recruiting leader in your market no matter what industry you're in. I believe that. Thanks for joining me. I appreciate it. I look forward to joining you again next time on one of these videos here. And hit me up on LinkedIn, hit me up on Instagram, hit me on Facebook. If you want to enter my— I got a closed Facebook group where I invite people in and I provide some specific things of value there that I don't send anywhere else. Would love to have you join. That's called Recruiting Conversations Mastermind Group. And so you can join us there on Facebook as well. Would love to have you. And until I see you again— I can't see you— until you see me again, all the best to you, and we look forward to seeing you next time. Thanks so much, everybody.