The Most Placeable Candidate or The Sincerest Form of Flattery

Any recruiter “worth their salt” (a Roman term from which salary derives), routinely surfaces and markets most placeable candidates (MPC’s) to their client and prospect companies. A most placeable candidate represents the total package, a “rock star” if you will, capable of immediately adding differentiating quality to your company. These champions don’t typically post their resumes on a job board, they don’t scour their network for a next logical step on their career ladder. They’re equally hardest to find and most skeptical of their representation.

The MPC is broadly categorized as a passive job seeker. More times than not they are ferreted out by seasoned and respected recruiters, or are the direct result of a referral chain of events. As the old adage goes, great people know great people. Unsurprisingly, there is a significant correlation between a well practiced recruiter and the number of MPC candidates that they generate. Great and lasting benefits always accrue to those that perform their job duties reliably and consistently, with great ethics, over time.

Outliers, a recent book by Malcolm Gladwell, reasons that it essentially takes 10,000 hours of practice to become expert or proficient at just about anything. That’s five years, 40 hours a week. Why would recruiting be any different? Accentuate Staffing, since its inception some thirteen years ago, has focused upon providing an environment that attracts, motivates and retains the best of professional recruiters. In the coming months, we will celebrate two 10 year anniversaries, and a 5 year anniversary, of our recruiters. They will not be our first such celebrations, and likely not our last.

The dramatic increases in unemployment levels over the past year provide perhaps the last opportunity (if one is a believer in the demographics) to more readily locate, and lock up, differentiating talent for your company. Through no fault of their own, many MPC’s have been forced to look up from their work only to realize that their jobs and their companies are no more. Even if you don’t outsource some or all of your sourcing and recruiting activities to an external agency, we encourage you to use this unique market opportunity to internally generate MPC’s and upgrade your personnel.

The next time a recruiter, especially one that you’ve trusted for many years and even more transactions, offers you the first opportunity to interview one of their “rock stars”, give them some love and consideration. They’re saying to you that they are willing to place their reputation on the line. In the midst of their routine, which they perform with great discipline and great skill over and over, they’ve identified an outlier, worthy of your immediate attention. And as we all know, great companies are always hiring.

TSHRM Article Reprint: Leadership The (Really) Hard Way

Accentuate Staffing’s daily affirmation is “to be passionate and enthusiastic about delivering ‘The Power of Positive’ at every touch point of the customer service experience”.  So, we will graciously use this monthly forum to provide information, ideas, and resources that you may find helpful and inspirational toward passionately achieving your own personal and professional goals.  While we have trademarked our tag line, we’d be delighted for you to obediently follow its calling.

 I just finished reading the book ‘Joker One’, by Donovan Campbell, who holds degrees from Princeton and Harvard, and the #1 ranking in his officer training school class.  While his credentials may not be entirely unique (although certainly impressive), his choice to fiercely lead men into battle in Iraq, rather than on a random walk down Wall Street, makes his choice of careers rare and noteworthy. 

 The chronicle is a nasty and vivid one.  Ill prepared and less equipped, Campbell’s platoon of seemingly “rag tag” recruits heads into the city of Ramadi (population 350,000) with little expectation of violence.  What ensues is battle after battle against increasingly aggressive insurgents willing to employ the most barbaric of tactics.  Surrounding an RPG “launcher” with dozens of children as cover, or inventorying weaponry in house after house (on the threat of death to its occupants) or mosque after mosque (with the support of its religious leaders), are emblematic of their ruthless intent.

 Campbell’s “servant” leadership style includes performing the same physical rigors as his men, while putting his life on the line with equal frequency.  He is careful to first observe and then put those leaders into place that immediately gain the respect and command of their troops.  He takes steps backwards as his men come forward, allowing them operating space to flourish.  He reacts quickly and definitively, in the face of incredible risk and stress.  He maintains a respectful distance from his men, yet gains an enduring feeling of intimacy.  

 While Campbell is committed to telling the story of his brave men, it is just as much a tale of leadership lessons learned under the harshest of conditions.  The burden that Donovan carries throughout, to return all of his men to their families safely, is one that would likely overwhelm many of us (while at the same time corrupting our good leadership intentions).  While many of us strain to keep our footing in today’s economic environment, few are distracted by AK-47 bullets whizzing by our heads!

 A long time ago, I bought into the concept that leadership begins with credibility.  If your people don’t faithfully believe you, or what you’re telling them, then the mission is lost.  My reading of ‘Joker One’ reinforced the concept that even in the face of the longest odds ordinary people can accomplish great things, given the proper leadership, great teamwork, and a singular purpose.  If you don’t believe me, then honor the “Jokers” and their selfless leader by picking up a copy of their story.

Joker One by Donovan Campbell

After reading Lieutenant Campbell’s account of his time leading a platoon in Iraq, I couldn’t figure out if I was happy that I had been lucky enough to avoid military / service and conlfict or sad and unlucky enough not to be part of a group of special men that share an experience and bond unkown to most.  What I am sure of, however, is that our country and others place an unbelievable burden upon the 18 to 25 year old men that fight for our freedoms and opportunties.  The amount of pressure, self inflicted and otherwise, that a young man feels in leading a group of similarly aged men into battle, is well, overwhelming.

Campbell doesn’t sugarcoat the experience nor does he prop himself up as the hero.  In matter of fact fashion, he tells of the rushed training of his troops, the harsh conditions that they were thrust into, the limited supply of good weaponry, the battles that they fought, and the esprit-de-coeurs and outright heroism of his assigned men.  You get a feel for the tightrope that everyone walked between honoring their mission and “losing it” in the face of resentment, battle, and the loss of friends to death or horrible disfigurement. 

Campbell, a Princeton and Harvard b-school graduate with a #1 showing in Officer training school to boot, shoulders the burden of command and miraculously lives to tell about it.  I think that for those of us that didn’t serve, it is almost a moral obligation to honor his wish that his men be remembered for their abilities and their dedication.

It’s a great testament to teamwork , too, in the face of the utmost of ”stressers”; a tad more difficult than the current economic “crisis” that often seems to paralyze most of us as we face our daily leadership chores.  A true, selfless leader can get much out of his people regardless of the times, or circumstance! 

While defining the characters takes a back seat to the action, it’s still easy to separate the heroes from the villains, and the good guys from the bad.  I’d liked to have seen him embellish some of the main protagonists, however, I’m guessing much more time was spent trying to stay alive, as opposed to building friendships.  And despite any deep development of the “Ox” I have a pretty good visual on a guy that’s great to hate.

So, take the time required to commit a couple of days to Campbell and his mens story.  Remember, they spent more than 6 months in relative “hell” to make sure that you could.