Recently, my wife was away for a weekend, and I found myself at home with some time on my hands. I had finished the weekend sports run with my sons and was a little restless, so I decided to do some spring cleaning. I started in my office; a place that should be renamed a hoarder’s paradise! As I was ratting through pages of bank statements and useless random pieces of paper, I came across a training document that was given to me about three months into my recruitment career and it is fair to say it gave me a laugh, embarrassed me and led me to reflect on what I was doing way back then.
I had started my recruitment journey and was about three months in. It took me a little while to find my feet in the job; I was nervous and little unsure of what the actual job entailed. I had never really heard of recruitment as a profession, and it is fair to say that I fell into the industry by accident. However, I found my feet and my rhythm in month three. I billed over $35,000 (quite a bit in those days) and was riding the crest of a wave. I had started to get headhunted by competitors and was pretty keen to tell all and sundry about it and my confidence was sky high.
It was about this time that our Managing Director from Sydney turned up to Brisbane for a six-monthly visit. John was an introverted type of guy who didn’t speak too much but when he did, you listened. On his first night in Brisbane, he arranged a few drinks with the office. It was a most enjoyable night and the group that we were working with in Brisbane at the time were very sociable to say the least. I felt as though I hit it off with John; he was a country boy and I told him all about my life and my recent successes. We had about eight or nine beers and the night was great.
I came into work the next day with a confident strut. I was a little shocked to see John already in the office and he shook my hand and asked if he could meet me mid-morning for a training session. I re-arranged my diary and John took me into the small windowless training room we had at the time, and he handed me a sheet of tips for what it took to be successful in his business. His tips were:
Always respect your customers and where the business relationship came from
In hindsight, I know exactly what he was referring to with this point. I had spoken a great deal the night before about the customers I was working with, and I had complained a little (or quite a bit). I had shown scant regard for the work my manager had done over the past three years to win this customer, to get their trust in order to work with us. From my perspective, they were dealing with me but in actual fact, I was an unknown commodity to them and was lucky to be working with them.
Never be shallow with your customers
Once again, with the value of hindsight, it was pretty obvious to see where he was coming from here too. The previous night John had asked me a question about a client I was working with. I said that they were a leading retailer and he asked me where they sought their product from. I had no idea. The truth of the matter was that they were a manufacturing company with a retail arm (the fact that they wanted manufacturing experience when they recruited should have told me this) but I had not taken the time to properly research them and find out about them.
Be humble
It wasn’t too difficult to work out what John was referring to here. Before Kendrick Lamar made the phrase famous, John was instructing me to take stock of my behaviour. Upon reflection, who was I to brag to the Managing Director about how competitors were headhunting me? I hadn’t really achieved anything of note. I hadn’t really acquired any consulting or negotiation skills. I didn’t really know my market. Yes, I was on an ego driven high and decided to tell my Managing Director how valuable I was.
Be punctual, and never carry a coffee in for a meeting you are already late to
This one still stumps me because I am big on punctuality and at that stage of my life I was not a coffee drinker! I can only assume that someone else had done this and it had really upset him. I do like the lesson though. John had a saying that I still use today – “by being late you are disrespecting my time.” He also emphasised the need to be prepared for meetings and to not look rushed.
Dress professionally
This one was squarely aimed at me. The first time I met John I wore a purple business shirt (our rules at the time were that we were only able to wear white and light blue business shirts with our suits and ties) and I had a slight black eye from a cricket injury. He didn’t say anything directly to me (my General Manager did, however. It was mentioned in my performance reviews for about two years) but this message did get through. I am glad that time has seen us dress more for purpose as opposed to conservative suit and ties on every day. However, the message that we had to dress appropriately still stands true today.
Don’t buy top shelf drinks on the company tab and offer to shout every now and then
I laughed long and hard when I read this. I think that John must have been shaking his head at his new recruit this night. I took the card after about four drinks and made the decision to change from beer to top shelf bourbon. I kept buying drinks on the card even when he was quietly trying to wrap the night up. His card was my card, and I didn’t have to pay for it!! I didn’t offer to buy him a drink and I kept charging on. I shake my head when I think about this and wonder how I didn’t get fired that very night. I was bullish, ungenerous and rude and what was worse, I was oblivious to it all.
At the time of receiving this “training,” I didn’t think anything of it. I assumed that everyone who had been with the company for three months had a similar session with the Managing Director. The fact that the notes were handwritten should have been a hint to me that this was not a training session. It was a session with the Managing Director who was telling me to grow up and keep my ego in check. It made me laugh to read this note and I chose not to throw it out because the lessons have held true. I am very fortunate that John chose to intervene and counsel me at the time and hopefully I have heeded his advice to the full.
I think it is sage counsel for anybody starting their careers to consider these lessons. Don’t be a fool like I was many years ago!
BRAD MCMAHON
Managing Director
Brad is the Owner and Director of Optimum Consulting Group. Founding the company in 2003 he has seen it grow to over 30 staff across Australia, Indonesia and the Philippines. Brad is responsible for all operational and strategic functions for the group and he still actively recruits executive assignments for a select group of clients.
