‘Eye of the Tiger’ and other ways to manage your state for high impact

Matt Church is one of Australia's leading public speakers as well as a mentor to many Thought Leaders in Australia.

I re-read a recent blog of Matt’s that was all about how he manages his preparation for speaking so that he is in the maximum, positive state of mind when he steps onto the stage to deliver his keynote.

As I read his newsletter, I thought about the parallels for recruiters. Every time we are on the phone to a customer, interviewing a candidate or meeting with a client, we are also ‘on stage' and the effectiveness of our interaction at that time (whether it be for 45 seconds or 45 minutes), depends significantly on how effectively we have managed our state in a positive way.

The faster we need to create a positive impact (marketing calls being an obvious example for most recruiters) the more important the effective management of our state.

Here are the various ways I, and others I have observed, have maximised our respective states to be ‘up' when the telephone is answered, we walk into a client's reception or we greet a candidate.

1. Stand up

Whether you are waiting in reception for a client, making marketing calls or negotiating with a candidate over the telephone, standing up gives you a greater sense of power and control as well as making it easier for your voice to come out more strongly.

2. Listen to music

Survivor's Eye of the Tiger (theme from Rocky III) has been used for the past 30 years as a song to pump participants up in a sporting context. Why? Because it works! What song takes you from ‘clock watcher' to ‘lean mean fighting machine' in under 4 minutes?

3. Move to another desk

As a recruiter I found getting into a marketing ‘state' was much easier if I was making calls from a desk other than my own (preferably in another room where I could not be distracted).

4. Use a physical prop

One of the recruiters I used to work with would stick a flag on the top of her computer whenever she wanted to signal to herself (and to others around her) that she was now in outbound calling mode. Another recruiter used to put on his ‘lucky marketing cap'. Whatever spurs you on and works for you, I say.

5. Freshen up

One of Matt Church's regular state management techniques is to brush his teeth just before he is about to give a keynote presentation. Variations of this for a recruiter could include; doing your makeup, fixing your hair, retying your shoelaces or putting on your jacket.

6. Set short-term goals

In a ‘jobs short' environment such as now, the setting of small goals is an important part of keeping you ‘up'. When I was last working in this sort of market, I would reward myself during a marketing morning with a coffee after I had three quality conversations and arranged one visit.

7. Reframe your activity 1 (visualise what success means)

One of my previous team members used to stick up a picture of her dream house when she started her BD calls. This ensured her frame of reference went from ‘another session of calling' to 'another opportunity to bring ownership of my dream house closer'. This was hugely successful in creating a positive state for her calls.

8. Reframe your activity 2 (what am I really doing now?)

When I was a temp recruiter in Sydney, late last century, one of my biggest accounts was Ansett Air Freight. That account started with a reference check call from me to the GM of Finance. That call lead to a visit. That visit lead to 2 jobs. Those 2 jobs lead to more jobs and ultimately an account generating around $150k per annum in net margin. After that experience, my frame of reference for prospecting changed from ‘oh no, more calls' to ‘I am about to go hunting for my next $100k plus per annum key client - the next call could be it'. Talk about change my state!

9. Buddy up

The whole personal training industry has thrived on this concept. Almost everyone knows what they need to do to lose weight and gain fitness (ie do 30 minutes of exercise per day, eat more fruit and vegetables and consume less processed foods and alcohol) yet people pay others for the privilege of telling them what to do and rousing on them when they don't do it. Working with a buddy when you go on visits or make marketing calls can build a positive state faster and keep it going longer.

State management is a very personal thing - what may work for some may not work for others. The most important thing is to find what works for you and ensure that you use that technique all the time.

If you are leading others, then it is critical that you share with them what works for you, find out what works for them and then have them formulate, trial and implement a strategy for positive state management.

As a recruiter I encourage you to think like a performer who is about to go on stage. The more positively you manage your state, the more likely you are to deliver powerfully whenever you are on that stage. If you do this consistently then the larger your audience will grow.

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Looking Good: Global employment growth in the next decade

Macquarie Bank Private Wealth division recently released a report Forward Thinking: Global job growth for the next decade which is a fascinating piece of research on job growth around the world. Below is my edited summary of the most relevant aspects of the 21 page report.

 

The three most significant historical points from the research are: 

• Over the last 5 years, the global economy has created 100 million jobs.  This is close to the highest level over any 5-year period since 1998.  The growth is driven by emerging markets.
• Strong emerging market job growth is structural in nature.  The key drivers are their stronger population growth, rising urbanisation and greater potential for technology ‘catch-up’
• China is the world’s largest job creator, as urbanisation shifts inland.

 

In summary:

The world economy is not as unhealthy as the high unemployment rates in the developed world suggest.

 

Despite weaker growth, the research shows global job growth increased in the last 5 years, with nearly 100 million new jobs being created. This is actually close to the highest level over any five year period since 1998. Once again, this highlights that global employment growth has been relatively strong at a time when many would likely expect slower growth given weaker global economic growth since 2007. Losses in the G7 countries were more than offset by large gains in emerging markets.

 

While global employment growth has been strong over the last 5 years, the gains have not been evenly spread. Most of the growth has come from emerging markets, particularly China, but also India, Brazil and Indonesia. In contrast, many developed markets have seen declines in employment since 2007 including the USA, Japan and Spain.

 

Reasons for strong Emerging Markets job growth:

1. Population growth is the key driver of job gains. More people equals more spending. In turn, this creates profits and income that funds the demand for labour. Countries with strong working age population growth not only have faster job growth, but this growth is more resistant to the ebb and flow of the business cycle. In general, emerging markets are the ones with faster population growth.
2. Urbanisation is another job creation tailwind for emerging markets, as the movement of potential workers from rural to urban areas boosts productivity, and creates a larger accessible pool of local workers and consumers.
3. Technology catch-up or ‘cross-country convergence’. This is where countries with lower income per capita have the advantage of being able to apply the already created technologies used in high income countries. This catch-up effect boosts productivity, GDP growth and employment.

Off-shoring: not all it seems 

Off-shoring was a key driver of the strong employment growth in emerging markets between 2002 and 2012, as developed world companies sought to reduce production costs.

 

Off-shoring was most likely a key driver of the employment losses in US manufacturing over the same period. That said, after years of one way traffic, there is increasing evidence of ‘re-shoring’ or ‘in-sourcing’. This is where factories that would likely have been built in China or elsewhere if constructed in the last decade are now being opened in the USA.

 

Wal-Mart’s plan to in-source US$50b of US-made products over the next 10 years is a key data point. The company is the largest US importer of containerised goods, accounting for 5% of container imports in 2011. Wal-Mart is not alone.  There’s a long list of companies that have indicated plans to build a new US factory, including Apple, Airbus, Dow Chemical, General Electric. This is supported by a recent survey of US companies by MIT that found that 33.6% of US companies were considering re-shoring.

 

Changes in relative labour costs are a key driver of the re-shoring trend. China’s labour costs in manufacturing rose 20% a year for much of the past decade, while costs in the US rose 2% a year. Labour is still cheaper in China, but China’s cost advantage has shrunk.

 

 Assessing the competitiveness of ASEAN countries relative to China, the Philippines is well positioned to capture some of the production that moves from China's higher cost coastal areas. That said, a key conclusion was that the US is gaining competitiveness relative to both China and ASEAN countries due to its lower inflation and the weak US dollar. This highlights the potential for re-shoring to the USA.

 

A global labour market 

The world’s labour markets have become increasingly integrated and globalised over the last 20 years. This trend is expected to continue as smart phones and tablets make it even easier to keep a global workforce connected using new technologies such as social media and video conferencing.

 

These technologies make it easier to split tasks and production between areas and perform work from remote locations. An NBER paper recently found that the characteristics of services jobs that are most conducive to being performed remotely are those that are (i) internet enabled; (ii) have high information contact; (iii) have no face to face customer contact. This means service jobs such as business and financial operations, computer and mathematical occupations, office and admin support, and architecture and engineering could become more global markets.

 

A key driver of this trend in the years ahead will be the information and communication technologies that allow tasks to be performed remotely and reduce the benefits of co-locating activities. As these technologies develop and practical applications become more widespread, it will allow for tasks and jobs to be siphoned off to the country that can perform the work at the lowest cost and most efficiently and only increase the pace at which the world moves towards a more globalised labour market.

 

Rising tertiary education levels in emerging markets - particularly China and India - relative to many developed economies should support the move to a more global labour market. This trend will create an abundant supply of highly skilled workers to compete for work and supply needed services in these economies and around the world. Importantly, it also means that the flow of workers available for low-skilled (or production) work could slow, and with less available supply this could put upward pressure on wages in low-skill occupations.

 

Looking towards 2022 

Looking forward, the researchers have made some very specific predictions.

 

The global economy is forecast to create 22m jobs a year over the next decade. Emerging markets with strong annual job growth forecasts are India (2.5%), Indonesia (2.2%), Turkey (2.2%) and China (1.9%). In the developed world, the markets with high forecast job growth are Australia (1.5%), USA (1.4%)and Canada (1.1%).

 

The researchers believe the differences in long term employment growth across countries are driven by three factors: 

1. technology catch up by low income countries,
2. demographics, and
3. the increase in urbanisation.

The research shows a strong link between employment growth and the pace of urbanisation (correlation 55%). Importantly, 4 of the 5 countries where urbanisation has been the most rapid, have experienced the fastest employment growth.

 

Looking forward, the countries with the largest expected increase in urbanisation over the next decade are China, Vietnam, Thailand and Indonesia.

 

The countries which are expected to see acceleration in their shift to an urban economy are the Philippines, Thailand, Egypt, Hungary and India.

 

In summary, China has enough surplus labour in inland areas to support ongoing high rates of employment growth, and with technology catch-up, also GDP growth. That said, the pace of growth will be slower than that seen over the last decade.

 

Australia: population growth 

Strong population growth has been a significant factor in Australia’s recent economic performance exceeding the performance of its developed world peers. This expected average annual population growth rate (1.5%) in the decade ahead will continue to be an important driver of economic prosperity.

 

Related articles:

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New Zealand migration: Across the Tasman they still come

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How do you remember what you learn?

Professional development should be viewed as process, not an event. Anybody who thinks that by simply going to the occasional professional development event (eg workshop, conference, etc.) that they will develop their capability to any significant extent, is kidding themselves.

 

Maximising professional development is all about what you do with what you have learned. Knowledge, just sitting inside your head, very quickly dissipates, as the research proves.

The research on retention of learning goes back to the nineteenth century with Hermann Ebbinghaus, a German psychologist (1850-1909), who created a way to assess the rate at which people forget.

 

Ebbinghaus found the rate to be highly predictable, and completely dependent upon repetition and reinforcement. Psychologists now call this the ‘forgetting" curve’.

 

Ebbinghaus discovered that when we acquire a new idea, much of our forgetting occurs right away. A significant amount of information is forgotten within twenty minutes of learning it; over half the material learned is forgotten within 60 minutes. Almost two thirds of what we learn within a day is forgotten.

 

In other words, if information is retained for a day, you have given yourself a good opportunity of retaining that knowledge in the long term. Even better is when you revisit the material for consecutive days to reinforce the learning. This maximises your chances of retaining that knowledge long term (as represented by the graph, below).

CLICK THE GRAPH TO ENLARGE

Jim Rohn, one of the acknowledged pioneers of the personal development industry, more eloquently stated the issue like this:

 

We intend to take action when the idea strikes us. We intend to do something when the emotion is high. But if we don't translate that intention into action fairly soon, the urgency starts to diminish. A month from now the passion is cold. A year from now it can't be found.

 

So take action. Set up a discipline when the emotions are high and the idea is strong, clear, and powerful. If somebody talks about good health and you're motivated by it, you need to get a book on nutrition. Get the book before the idea passes, before the emotion gets cold. Begin the process. Fall on the floor and do some push-ups. You've got to take action; otherwise the wisdom is wasted. The emotion soon passes unless you apply it to a disciplined activity. Discipline enables you to capture the emotion and the wisdom and translate them into action.

 

Sounds simple but it’s not necessarily easy.

 

I have worked with over 100 individuals undertaking personal coaching programs with me. The overall success of each coaching program in generating improved performance is easy for me to predict; the clients that take immediate action after a coaching session, based on their insights and commitments from that session, are those that gain maximum benefit from the coaching program.

 

Those who attend each session but have taken little or no action between the sessions, gain only a fraction of what is possible had they taken consistent action each week.

 

The major discipline I have in place to maximise my own learning is a simple one – to write it down. My weekly production of InSight is, of course, about keeping my personal brand front-of mind with existing and potential clients but it is also a strong and powerful habit that forces me to review my learning for the week and capture it in a way that is useful, for both myself and you, the reader.

 

You may have noticed that after attending any conference, I write an article  about that conference based on a specific theme or what a speaker has shared (recent examples being The Number 1 Trust Builder: Being Present, Gut feeling, evidence and the Moneyball effect: Lessons from ATC 2012 and Social Media: The future's so bright, you gotta wear shades).

 

If I read a book then I write about the insights I gained from that book (recent examples being Lessons from Linkedin's Reid Hoffman: The future's in network literacy and Thin-slicing: How Malcolm Gladwell demystified one of my skills)

 

If I read a piece of research or an interesting report then I articulate how that research or report might be relevant to my readership (recent examples being  Australian swimming review: How an unchecked ‘star' culture destroys a team and The grass is not greener: Why star recruits rarely shine).

 

When I work with my clients I often find myself working with them on an issue that has broader relevance beyond their own business. This prompts me to write about that issue (recent examples being Are you overworking your jobs? and Should they stay or should they go?).

 

If I have a personal experience that I think contains some lessons for other people then I will share my emotion/insights/lessons from that experience to help others to whom it is relevant (recent examples being How not to use LinkedIn: Lessons for recruiters (and other self-promoters)

and Email marketing: Are you annoying people and trashing your brand?).

 

Here are my suggestions as to how you can reinforce your own learnings: 

• Keep a professional development journal (hand written or soft copy)
• Write a regular blog
• Share with your colleagues (informally at a meeting or formally by running a training session)
• Record your learnings (voice memos or video on smart phones is an easy way to do this)
• Have a regular time scheduled in your week to ‘have a coffee with yourself’ to review training, conference notes and other learnings

 

Some managers and owners have shared with me how they use the weekly structure of my InSight newsletters as a prompt for their team’s weekly professional development. Simply put, each team member is required to attend a weekly team meeting having read InSight and with a view as to what (if any) action should or could be taken by themselves (or the team as a whole) to improve their own performance or the overall team performance.

 

What should you do?

 

It all boils down to one thing; to repeat the wisdom of Jim Rohn:

 

So take action. Set up a discipline when the emotions are high and the idea is strong, clear, and powerful

 

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