Quotable: Samuel Johnson

Curiosity is one of the most permanent and certain
characteristics of a vigorous intellect.

- Samuel Johnson

Why do we Romance the Stone, but not the Candidate?

It is our job as recruiting professionals to romance the candidate. We need to ensure the candidate is receiving the message we intend to send. As in every relationship, communication is the key to success. When communication fails, so will the relationship.

The Three Top Ingredients in a Successful Candidate Relationship:

1). Communication: We have to talk and ask questions about each other. We need to better understand who each of us really are. Send emails, leave voicemails and keep the interactions warm. Communication is verbal and nonverbal, be sure your words match your body language. Send any information you can without compromising your business confidential information.

2). In order to build relationships you need to invest time in both personal and professional interactions. Contact is essential and necessary, contact in person is better than contact electronically (virtual).

3). Relationships need time. Do not rush the candidate. Time is critical, but time to decide is an important step to allow ample determination of a good fit. Remember, we are not putting posteriors in a chair we are putting key personnel in strategic positions. Think of it like trying on a nice pair shoes. Get the right fit the first time.

Now ask yourself: How can I Uniquely Romance the Candidate?

• Invite the candidate and their direct family for a site visit and city tour if living out of town. Allow single candidates to bring a friend. Singles like company too. If the company will pay for a family of four or five, why not allow a single candidate the companionship of a friend. Stories are full of intangible value and word of mouth is the best marketing strategy. A good friend to share a new experience will enhance the trip.

• Pick up the candidate and family/guest at the airport. This is especially important if the candidate is international. Often times we don’t think about the individual and the stress of being somewhere new. Many people from around the world only have a Hollywood interpretation of the United States. Check out the hotel to ensure it is up to par and then stock their fridge with a few free snacks and drinks. Go the extra mile and it will make a huge difference.

• Take the candidate and guest/s to dinner. Select a restaurant that is appropriate for conversation and yet fun. Be sure to ask the candidate is there are any diet restrictions (religious, cultural, and food allergies) and the easiest way is to accomplish this, is to ask the candidate what type of food they prefer.

• Make the visit memorable and fun. Show off your company, town and entertainment available. Fun is always good.

• Give the candidate the + and – of the area. Never sugar-coat the negative. Let the candidate know the pros and cons of the area up front.

• Send a cool thank you to the candidate. A few examples include food! Huge cookies with a message, fruit with cool recruiting gadgets, meal voucher in their home town when they get back and so much more.

Oh the things we can do if we only make the effort. Intangible benefits are worth calculating. The proof is in the pudding: Whatever that means to your candidate.

Someday your Prince really will come: Too Close for Comfort (Part 2)

The Prince was walking toward me, so I exited the bus. Have you ever experienced an invasion of your privacy or private (personal) space? In the U.S., we like to speak at arms distance, unless we invite someone into our more intimate space. The Prince came toward me and stopped when we were toe-to-toe. I was totally out of my comfort zone. Firstly, I had no idea how to even address a Prince. Secondly, the Prince was inside my personal space and I was very cognizant of the fact. As we stood toe-to-toe the Prince looked me over. After some silence, silence wasn’t golden in this instance. The Prince finally asked me, “What took place?” “What Happened?” “How long did it take?” To make me even more self conscious, the Prince’s nose was extremely close to my mouth, as if smelling my breath. All I could think about was “What did I have for lunch,” and “Is my breath offensive.” I was feeling a little intimidated and afraid to speak, let alone breathe on the Prince, but somehow I managed to explain the situation.

After explaining, the Prince stood there for what seemed an eternity. My breath and my stare were totally exposed. After what seemed like an eternity, the Prince finally extended an invitation to come back to the plane and sit with him, when I got off work. I accepted the invitation, thinking to myself, “Oh crap, what do I do now?”

(To be continued in part 3)

Someday your Prince really will come: Will you be ready? (Part 1)

In 1992, I was working public relations for the International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford England when a Jordanian Prince came into my life. Royalty from all over the world attended the air show. I volunteered to drive a bus around the airfield picking up pilots and aircrew and driving them back and forth across the airfield to eat at the aircrew dining facility. One of His Majesty King Hussein of Jordan’s sons, Prince Hussein, stopped me to ask where his flight crew could get some food. The Prince required his aircrew to return within 45 minutes. With an air show taking place, timing is essential.

Crossing an active runway during an air show isn’t the easiest task to complete. After a long journey across the active runway and many planes taking off and landing, I finally got the aircrew to the dining facility so they could eat. They departed the bus. Thinking nothing of it, I was thanked by the Jordanian crew and I drove away to my next adventure.

Later that day, I see a distraught Jordanian pilot running toward my bus waving his hands and yelling for me to stop. I immediately noticed the pilot had a torn flight suit with no patches. As I slowed the bus, the Jordanian slapped both hands up on the front of my bus in an effort to ensure I stopped, as if that would stop a bus. When I opened the doors I heard an Arabic accent requesting I speak with the Prince. “Please tell the Prince the story, please tell him what happened,” the pilot exclaimed. Peering down at his flight suit I could only imagine the pain this man and the other individuals must be experiencing, so I agreed. I knew how long it took to get across the air field and could only imagine how late they must have been.

(To be continued in part 2)

Quotable: Thoreau

Do not hire an individual who does your work for money, but an individual who does it for the love of it.

- Henry David Thoreau

Quotable: Chesterton

A stiff apology is a second insult... The injured party does not want to be compensated because he has been wronged; he wants to be healed because he has been hurt.

- Gilbert K. Chesterton

Diversity Cinema: Arab & Jew: Return to the Promised Land

In 1988, documentary filmmaker Robert Gardner visited the Middle East to personally explore one of the most contentious political rivalries of all time, and the result was the acclaimed PBS report Arab and Jew: Wounded Spirits in a Promised Land. Over a decade later, Gardner returned to Israel and the West Bank and once again lets both Israelis and Palestinians speak for themselves as they discuss the issues that separate them (such as Jewish settlements in the West Bank, the right to return, and possession of Jerusalem), how their views have changed in the wake of the Oslo peace negotiations, and how much still remains the same.

In a well balanced, unbiased presentation, neither anti-Jew nor anti-Arab, Robert Gardner unfolds reasons, reality, and passion on both sides of the issue of ownership and preservation. This preservation of existence disseminates a lack of compassion on all sides, the uncontrollable tensions, and the ultimate feud.

The film describes a land given by God to the Jewish people (the Promised Land) versus a land occupied by Arab people, since the 7th century (thousands of years). With ten years past since the original documentary, not a lot of change has occurred. A strong connection still exists with the land on both sides. Is the land Zion or Palestine? One individual from Palestine expressed, "Return to our land by Palestine is not a fantasy, but a solemn promise." On the other hand, the Jewish people suffering from the mass destruction memory of the holocaust, occupy and protect their promise and stake in the land.

Below is a short bulleted list of a few issues from the documentary film with a potential correlation to the heated disagreement between Arabs and Jews:

• At one time, the three sons, Jewish, Muslim, and Christian lived peacefully together. Has there really ever been peace in the Middle East? Did the European Jews moving back to the Holy Land after the holocast experience, break the harmony of the land? Are the three cultures too different to co-exist or did fear drive the separation.
  

• Ziad Abbas says, "Why is someone coming to take my land?" Palestinians were forced out of their family homes and Jewish settlers took over their land and homes, a land previously owned by the Jews. However, imagine a land with generations of your family buried in it, being taken over and you now have no access to it.
  

• One individual expressed, "Equality equals throwing no one into the sea!"

• Occupation and control of everything is the number one issue according to an interviewed Arab. Arab hopes are broken. This brokenness causes desperation and desperate people are very dangerous.
  

• Humiliation is a grinding point that enrages Arabs. The young and old alike are all treated as terrorists. This racial profiling drives people crazy. Most Arabs and Jews, even neighbors, do not speak. Talking is very important in understanding others!
  

• Segregation exists, "Apartment for sale, Jews only." The unspoken rule is live together, but in your own place. Some Arabs ask, "Are we a cancer in your midst?" What is a major and a minor citizen?
  

• One Israeli Mother said, "Once you succumb to bullet proof vests and helmets, you have lost your freedom."
  

• In the Arab and Jew relationship everything is black and white, there is no room for shades of grey.

• Arab and Jews are imprisoned by history. Both sides are blinded to injustice today, but have 20/20 vision to 3 thousand years ago.

• Lastly, one individual described the relationship of Arab and Jew to a divorce. It is all over, but the body count. Unfortunately, this is an expression of, "It will never change."