Turn Your Recruiting Fail into a Success

We often estimate the power of failure. Resilience is perhaps one of the most important qualities successful recruiters and organizations can have, and often times, it is earned through failure. Learning to be flexible, not dwelling on mistakes and quickly moving into solution mode are key skills for any recruiter. Here are some of our tips for turning a recruiting fail into a success.

Embrace the Value of Failure

Working hard for something and not having it work out, well, sucks. Often when we fail at something, we feel like failures ourselves. This is something that has been conditioned into us since school days. If we didn’t pass a test or get good grades, we received an “F,” or failing grade. What would happen if we stopped looking at a fail as something bad, but rather, an opportunity to learn and grow? When we build resilience, we spend less time in a failure mindset.

Tips for Building Resilience

When we lose out on a client or haven’t hit our sales quota for the past three months in a row, it can be easy to get discouraged. It’s what you do during those down times; however, that sets you up for long-term success. Here are some tips for building resilience to turn a fail into a success.

Expect, and Embrace Failure

We’ve all heard the expression, “If you’re not failing, you’re not trying hard enough.” When you try something new, or push outside of your comfort zone, you’re not going to be perfect right away. Toddlers crawl and fall repeatedly, before learning to walk, but they don’t give up. Think of yourself as a toddler trying out something new, and picture yourself going from crawling to walking to running. Expect failure. Embrace the important life lessons that come along with it. And always focus on the end goal, because that’s what’s going to keep you going.

Have a Strong Network

When things aren’t going your way, having a strong, supportive network is important for staying positive. If you surround yourself by other extremely motivated people who don’t get caught up in failure, you’ll be less likely to as well.

You are an average of the five people that you spend the most time with. How do the five closest people in your life handle failure? What are some ways in which they could become more resilient? When you’re aware of your typical reaction in the face of failure, it’s easier to change your mindset toward positivity. Flex your resilience muscle, and it becomes stronger over time.

Get Motivated

Sometimes failure is an indication that you weren’t ready, or need to learn and grow. It’s no secret that Michael Jordan was cut from his high school basketball team, but he didn’t give up. If he had, we would have missed out on one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

Michael Jordan had resilience. Each and every epic fail is an opportunity to get better. Read books, listen to podcasts or watch YouTube videos. We live in a world where people are constantly putting out great free content, so take advantage of it. You can learn it on your own through experience, or you cut the learning curb and learn from the failures of others.

Failure Builds Strength

In the end, there’s no sugarcoating it: failure isn’t a pleasant experience. You’re going to have days where a client moves on or a candidate doesn’t call you back. In those moments, embrace the learning opportunity, and remember that failure and defeat are necessary elements of building resilience and strength.

If you’re interested in learning more about recruiting, or how to become a more effective hiring manager, we’d love to talk! Contact us for more information.