Lisa Leath, SHRM-SCP
President
Leaders in my network often recommend books to level up in everything from sales to marketing to finances. Some are better than others, but one recently recommended to me stood out: Relentless by Tim Grover. The concept of driving yourself forward when others would quit, like Grover’s famous athletes, Jordan and Bryant, was one that I related with. Not because I’m a killer athlete but because I desire relentlessness in my professional life, both as an HR consultant to world-class entrepreneurs and as an entrepreneur myself. I want to work for leaders who are relentless, with colleagues who are relentless, and I want to be known for being relentless. There is no better time to celebrate unstoppable determination than during Global Entrepreneurship Week.
I was interested in the concept of relentlessness as a child. I craved competition and loved the psychology behind winning at sports. I also enjoyed selling products at local festivals. Each year I would challenge myself to earn incremental profit by creating a new product, offering something already popular at a lower price, or advertising my goods more effectively. My hunger for winning at sports and small business in my youth would fuel my future business ventures, much like how many other entrepreneurs get their start.
Fast forward 25 years after my juvenile entrepreneur days, and I find myself consulting for top-tier CEOs in healthcare, technology, and other industries, with efforts focused on modern people and culture practices. I find myself inspired by Tim Grover’s approach to achieving excellence and dominance in my trade for business leaders that want to dominate in theirs. We do this by focusing on humans and how we treat them as we scale in two main buckets: attracting and retaining.
RELENTLESS IN ATTRACTING TALENT.
It took effort to start your business and it takes a lot of relentless energy to build and scale it. Just like you had to make robust plans to start your business and scale, you need a real plan to recruit great talent. When building your team, put in extra time and attention up front, looking for cultural fit first, then competencies and capabilities. Don’t give in and take someone you feel is a B+ hire; take the extra time and find the A+ person who will represent your company well and bring relentless energy to the team.
Be open to transferable skills from nontraditional candidates. An easy way to set yourself apart from the competition is to hire people who don’t work in your industry to get a fresh perspective. As an HR consultant across industries, I’m telling you that if a top talent person could do marketing in technology, they can do marketing in healthcare. If a smart CPA could do finance in construction, they can do finance in a non-profit. Sure, there will be a learning curve, but if you find someone who espouses your values and needs a little training on lingo and industry, it’s feasible to create a ramp plan that will set them up for success AND bring thought diversity to your team!
Think differently about how to get the best talent and be relentless in your pursuit of the candidates you want. I recently had a client drive 3 hours to meet a candidate in their hometown because the candidate had a busy work schedule. The candidate now works for my client because they did something differently. They didn’t wait for the candidate to come to them; they made it happen and gave him a great experience. They were relentless in getting that guy, and it worked!
Know what sets you apart from the competition, and don’t be afraid to tell people what makes you the best. It’s no shock that attracting great talent to our businesses takes more than faith and winging it (and throwing a job on Indeed). Make a recruiting plan and tout what sets you apart:
- People – is it the quality of those working at the organization and their reputations, camaraderie amongst the team?
- Organization – is it your awards, the caliber of customers, your name brand, ethics, social and environmental responsibility?
- Rewards – do you have the best compensation, benefits, perks?
- Opportunity – do you take pride in your onboarding, employee feedback processes, promotional opportunities, learning and development programs, education assistance, career growth?
- Work – is there an opportunity to make a significant impact on the organization as an individual, are the physical office space and location really great, and how are the hours and travel?
Be relentless in attracting the right people and never settling for anything less than your team deserves. Doing that will only cost you frustration, time, and money.
RELENTLESS IN RETAINING TALENT.
Building a business is iterative with wins and losses. As your business scales, the team will change – some team members will grow with you, and some will leave. Your perspective on who you need and what their profiles look like will likely evolve. Often, scaling businesses focus all of their people energy on recruiting and neglect intentional efforts to keep their competent, trained, loyal team members. This is where it is essential to be relentless in your efforts to retain the good talent you already have.
Never stop checking in with your employees. Over the years as an HR leader, the one piece of advice that I keep dishing out is, “Make time to talk individually to everyone on your team.” Alignment and communication are the cheapest and best tools for employee success. Before they are employees, your folks are humans, so treat them like it and talk to them often about what you expect. Be relentless in your efforts to support professional growth and encourage them to find ways to do their jobs better. Don’t wait for the annual review. Coach your employees through problems they can’t fix on their own and train them to solution on their own next time. Talk to your employees individually and regularly. And if you can’t seem to find the time, get WorkTok.
Work hard but have fun. It’s not all ping pong tables and free beer (although free beer is cool). Some of my most successful clients have the most fun because they have the most trust for their employees. They set aside entire days to have half the team volunteer in the community. Sure, that’s a lot of people out of the office for 8 hours, but somehow the work gets done, and the team comes back refreshed and feeling a “giver’s glow.” Here are a few ideas on how my relentless clients are having fun:
- Invite a high potential team member to an elite business leadership event, then enjoy watching them! They feel important and may pick up on some great networking tactics from leaders they admire.
- Do something goofy. Dress up for Halloween, celebrate a made-up holiday like National Hot Dog Day, go out for drinks on payday, invite Buddy the Elf to your team lunch this Friday.
- Recognize good behavior with something valueless but meaningful, like a department trophy that has a quote from the Office’s Michael Scott.
- Do a team retreat with a senior leader. Attend a workshop or conference as a team and learn industry trends but develop priceless rapport.
Be relentless in running a great business but have some fun. Discovering and playing to what makes your people happy is the secret to getting them to stay.
RELENTLESSNESS IS A MINDSET.
Incessant, perpetual, unstoppable, insistent. These are all words that are synonymous with relentless and should drive your talent strategies. I want incessant focus on good hiring practices, perpetual improvement on candidate experience, unstoppable conversations with employees, insistent camaraderie. When it comes to your business and scaling, put your humans at the center of your relentless behavior. Evaluate what you’re doing to recruit and retain talent and identify what you could be doing better. Then, start working on those opportunities today. Be relentless!