Love the Recession?

Since we are in the middle of discussing our BHAG I thought I would take a break from speaking about that and talk about how we should be with our employees and clients during a recession.
There are some things we will have to to keep in mind; there is PLENTY of opportunity in a down economy but our competition is going to be fierce. It is important that we all be superior and do so consistently. Our way of interacting with our employees and clients is critical.
If things get depressing out there you have the opportunity to be a source of joy for your clients and it will be important that they will WANT to speak to you. Creating engaging relationships is critical. Do you really know your clients? How intimate is your relationship? Are you leading the conversations and sharing about your own life? What questions are you asking to learn about our clients? Remember people do business with who they like.
Most importantly we it is important that we be excellent in our delivery of our service – we need to send resumes faster and they must all be extraordinary. The days of sending a candidate who is good enough are over. Everything our clients see from Wall Street Services have got to be excellent and we need our clients to expect that from us. Look for the WOW factor in the candidates you send and make sure it is abundantly apparent to our clients.
Be fearless in dealing with complaints and problems. Problems are a part of running a service business and cannot be avoided. It is how we respond that is important. Deal with problems head on and if you sense there are issues ask questions to make sure you are clear on the problem. Listen without defending yourself and don’t stop at merely apologizing but make sure you address the root of the problem. If this takes a meeting with your manager, tell the client or employee that you will do so and make a commitment to get back to them. Keep your word.
The most important issue is leading by example – allow yourself to get passionate about what you are doing and let it show. Remember – most people come to work like zombies. Excitement allows you to stand out.
Have fun!
Peter Laughter

I love winning…

I f--kin’ love winning. You know what I am saying? It’s like better than loosing

-Tim Robins as Ebby Calvin ‘Nuke’ LaLoosh in Bull Durham


Just a quick mid week post – yesterday we had a major accomplishment with a client. I do not want to go into the details in such a public forum. But there is a lesson in the achievement that I wanted to share.

With this particular client our status improved which will result in a dramatic increase in sales. It has taken years to get to this point and it was not the great candidates and the speed in which we provided them which made the difference. Although Jacqueline has been amazing (Thank you Jacqueline) in getting great resumes quickly we have been using that same tactic for the past 5 years to no avail. We were only getting a small fraction of the positions and the hardest ones at that. It was a difficult game to win.

We needed to change the rules and what put us over the edge is our relationship with the client.

There is an important lesion in this – Without our relationships with our clients our best efforts are insufficient to get us to the promise land.

How are you relating to our clients? What is the next step in the development of your relationships? Who do you need to be to create these long lasting relationships?

Just a quick thought.

Peter Laughter

Loving your job – our journey

Ok – Last week I described the concept of the BHAG. Our BHAG is for everyone in America to love their job. Now I would like to discuss what we as individual team members will need to do to accomplish this goal.

Before we start – take a moment to picture the completion of our BHAG – What would your neighborhood be like if everyone loved their job? Currently less than %15 of Americans love their job. What would your Monday morning commute be like traveling in a subway car of people who couldn’t wait to get to work? What would people’s families be like? I hope this lights you up. I find this to be a world worth fighting for.

So how do we get there? Well to start let’s look at who we need to be as individuals in order to create the type of company that is a force in bringing this BHAG into reality.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about why I love my job and Amanda sent me a response detailing why she loves her job. Thank you for that Amanda. One of the things that she said is that she loves the opportunity to take on things that she has no idea how to accomplish. If you know Amanda – this is something she regularly does. But she does more than take big things on – she accomplishes them and always looks at what is next and makes sure she is challenged.

This is one of the things I love about Amanda – rather than do an about face when stepping out of her comfort zone she dives right in and tackles issue head on.

If we are going to be the type of individuals who participate in this level of transformation of our company and the world we will have to be willing to transform ourselves. We do so by identifying what we are good at and becoming better and knowing where we fall short and aggressively becoming adept. Our BHAG and our current economic situation call us to consistently grow and step out of our comfort zone. We will need to be much better at finding new opportunities and new methods of getting results. We will need to have a commitment to grow as individuals so that we see more opportunities and capitalize on them faster.

This will be hard work but it is incredibly satisfying. Also – It might take decades to have everyone love their job but is important to remember that this is something we can provide for people every day and it makes a difference.

I look forward to discussing this at the all hands meeting.

Peter Laughter

Loving our BHAG and what we need to do get there

Last week some of you asked what a BHAG was and I thought we should discuss. BHAG stands for Big Harry Audacious Goal. It is a concept a guy named Jim Collins, a renowned business author, coined when looking at what the greatest companies in the world did to be so great. Collins found that these “Greats” had a really big goal that inspired everyone the company to see a future that is greater than the one that is right in front of them.

When Collins was working with Starbucks they came to him with the BHAG of opening thousands of stores in 10 years. Collins pointed out that this was just a big goal that would be more of what they are doing. The Starbucks management team went back to the drawing board and came up with “to become the worlds best recognized brand name.” Now this radically changed the results at Starbucks. If opening more stores was their goal Starbucks would never sell drinks, coffee and ice cream in grocery stores, not be served in planes, would not be in the entertainment business.

It was their BHAG which called Starbucks to be bigger than 6,000 stores and evolve in to a company who almost everyone knows.

Wall Street Services’ BHAG is for everyone in America to love their job.

This calls me to be something bigger than I am and I hope it does for you. In taking this commitment I hope to fundamentally alter the way we interact with our employees and prospects. Out of this commitment I hope we see opportunities to grow in ways we currently can not imagine.

I am very excited to be on this journey with you all.

Peter Laughter

FOR NEXT WEEK – I will explore what we (as a company and as individuals) need to do to get to our BHAG.

I love my job...

It is good to be back from vacation – I really missed being with you all. The great thing about a vacation is that you have the opportunity to get away from the every day bustle and spend much needed time thinking about the bigger picture. I became very aware of the things that I value most about Wall Street Services and considering our BHAG to have everyone in America love their job I thought I should share my musings with you all.

First of all – I am very pleased with the work you all did to take care of the new clients that had requests while I was away and I am always grateful of when we pull together to do good work for our clients. I love it when we are able to impress clients – this is a crowded industry - the clients we work with are very demanding and work with a small community of services. When we do something impressive we are essentially standing above the best in our industry. For me this is like getting a medal and I love the feeling of knowing I am participating in an organization that is the best in class.

I am most appreciative of our good work we do to take care of our applicants. I remember registering with staffing services and feeling like one in a heard of cattle. The fact that people readily comment on how we are different and how we take care of people leaves me deeply fulfilled. Those who consume without contributing to society develop a profound sense of emptiness. I know the work we do makes a difference with people looking for work (and therefore the world) and I appreciate the opportunity.

What makes this all possible is you all – and I am very appreciative to work along side you all. I so appreciate that we are able to pull together when something is not working and quickly put in a fix. When something is not working we all have the opportunity to be creative and find the solution. This is perhaps the biggest reason I love my job.

Thank you all.

Peter Laughter

Recognizing Opportunities to Love

So we have this goal – to live our core purpose of “identifying what people need so we can provide them with what they want” and to champion the cause of “everyone in America loving their job.” Great – so now what do we do?

This is not going to happen by itself and truth be told my direction alone is insufficient to get us there. Even if I gave you specific instructions it still would not be enough. This is a goal that we all need to take on as our own and actively engage with. Opportunities to find out what our employees and clients need are all around us. There are so many occasions to give our employees and clients what they want. The problem is that we pass by these occasions all the time – not because we are lazy or disinterested it is just that we do not recognize them as opportunities and overlook them.

After I gradated from college I had a job interview from hell – but I was given a great opportunity and I blew it. It was in my social work days and it was in a halfway house for non-violent criminals. I did not prepare for the interview. If I was really serious I would have spent time imagining what would be important to them. Alas, I was young…

When I arrived I was asked to fill out an application in the inmate TV room. 60 harden criminals in there flip-flops (no shoes keep them from escaping) and me in my interview suit. If I was not nervous enough it was a group interview and I was by far the most junior person in the interview. The hiring manager had us go around the room speaking about why we thought we were qualified. Everyone spoke of their previous prison experience and graduate work. I just graduated from college with a brief concealing internship. When it was my turn the moderator asked “What the hell are you doing here? This is a place for criminals – not preschoolers!” I was incensed. After all they saw my resume and called me in for an interview. I didn’t need to take time off work to be insulted. But rather than express my self, I gave some polite and meek answer about trying my best.

Later I realized I blew a golden opportunity. Had I taken the time to prepare and try to figure out what they would be looking for I would not have made the blunder. The moderator was giving me an opening to be bold and show him that I could stand up to him and any of the residents in the halfway house. It never occurred to as an opportunity – just a waste of time. My loss.

This is the purpose of this blog – to ground you and this commitment “to identify what our employees and clients need so we can give them what they want.” If we are all involved in this dialogue overtime we will internalize it. We will see opportunities to find out more about our clients where we previously did not. We will see paths to place people based on their preference and desire to be part of a company as apposed to just what is on their resume. This will bring a sense of ease and satisfaction to your job.

This grounding in Wall Street Services commitments will come after you have taken time to ponder what owning this commitment will look like, what it will take to live it.

So I invite you to reed this blog with a real hunger to learn. In doing so discuss the concepts behind the blog and make them part of you. You will be amazed at the opportunities to connect to our clients and employees that will emerge from this understanding.

Have fun.

Peter Laughter

Love is a two way street!

Last week I spoke of how much easier it is when we operate out of our core purpose (To find out what our employees and clients need so we can provide what they want) life is much easier. Our clients grow faster and we get more referrals. But what happens when our client does not love us?

Last week a manager one of our large clients wanted to give our staffer a raise. They did not have the budget to give him the raise he asked for and asked us to reduce our markup to accommodate. This would put us in a loss position. What is more this client has negotiated very low markups with the understanding that they have long term assignments where we can regain our profit.

When we declined the client was livid and threatened to have our staffer work through another service in violation of our contract. It hit me – This client either does not know what we do, does not value what we do or both. I was livid.

Then I realized that I was not being responsible for what was occurring. If our client does not think we are any better than the next service then we have fallen short in managing the client’s perception: the care we take in recruiting, selecting and managing our employees. If the work we do to ensure that we are making exceptional matches is transparent of course our clients would view us as superfluous.

Having close contact with our client is the only antidote.

It is our responsibility to educate our client about what we bring to the table. Our calls to clients are critical. Checking in on performance must lead to creating relationship. Our calls follow up on resumes need to result in a deeper understanding of what they are looking for and more precise results. It is our job to know what concerns our clients have and make those concerns our own by proactively looking for solutions to what keeps our clients awake at night.

What else can we do on our regular client calls to remind each and every firm we work with of the care we take in recruiting, selecting and managing our employees? Please give some thought to this in your quest to "create a hunger to learn and exceed", lets begin to share innovative ways we let our clients know what sets us a part...that is a quality of a great team. I look forward to reading your ideas. A special prize to the first two people who post comments.

Why ask why?

A couple of weeks ago I was having dinner with my friend Jonathan. The conversation turned to work and I told him about my experience meeting Simon Sinik, the consultant who pioneered the idea that companies who operate from the “Why” they are in business are more successful than companies that focus on “What” they do. For example Apple’s why is to change the status quo and they bring that goal to every product and market they enter. Dell makes computers to order. This is why Apple’s products inherently change the way we think and live while Dell gives us pink laptops.

I told Jonathan about hearing Simon speak and realizing that the core purpose was a critical ingredient to success that I had been neglecting. I spoke about the process of working with Simon to identify Wall Street Services’ core purpose of “Finding out what our employees and clients need so we can give them what they want.” After it was all said and done Jonathan looked at me and said “Yeah but isn’t that a load of BS that you tell people so that you can make more money?”

This skepticism is completely understandable as there are few companies that walk their own talk. It is not that they are trying to pull the wool over our eyes – I believe that when corporations take on righteous aspirations to take on a bigger goal they are generally sincere. It is just that making a shift to a purpose driven model is very difficult and at every turn you are slapped with the reality of struggling with the day to day problems that make shooting for the stars difficult. What’s more corporations are responsible to the bottom line and must answer to share holders that expect a return on their investment.

To those skeptics my answer is clear and simple – operating out of a purpose that calls you to be bigger than you are is ultimately easier, much more profitable and infinitely more satisfying.

Here is a great example – Last week one of our staffers, Vincent came into the office to give us bagels and cream cheese as a thank you for helping him attain his dream job. Vincent in being in his dream job is more likely to do great work that will come to the attention to our client. The client will be grateful for the job well done will give us more business. Vincent will be inclined to tell his friends and colleagues about Wall Street Services for referrals.

As a result of living our core purpose we solidified our relationship with our clients and positioned ourselves to get referrals from an excellent source. All of this makes our job easier in the long run.

More importantly it is more satisfying. Not just for the bagels. Providing someone with a job they love has a profound impact on their life. When you have done it a couple of times it makes dealing with the hard parts of this job much more pleasurable.

We have a long road ahead to have our core purpose present in all we do. Ultimately it will make us all richer.

Unrequited Love

Our theme for the quarter – “Love the Client” calls us to do just that. So how do we do it? I mean you might have some people who work at our clients that you like but love? I know that seems like a tall order, and it is. If we are to transform the relationship that this country has with labor (where only 14% report loving their jobs) the everyday actions we take toward our clients are going to have to shift radically.

As with dating – the first step to loving our clients is getting to know them. So for the next few weeks when you speak to clients keep your focus on getting to know them. Ask questions that reveal their true needs and go beyond individual preference. You want to find out what type of person who will thrive in their office. We need to be crystal clear. So clear that when we meet the right person you will know exactly where to send them.

To arrive at that understanding you will need to be intimate with clients. Questions are a great place to start so always have a couple in mind before you call. Don’t be daunted if they seem annoyed. What has Anne-Henley be successful is that she keeps going regardless of how the client is, either friendly or hostile. Ann-Henley just continues to be herself. Remember – like you our clients are busy. Although you are committed to making a difference for them and their organization you call may occur as an interruption. Don’t be daunted or react to hostility. Be your pleasant self and speak from your commitment.

If someone sounds hostile I usually start off with “I know how busy you are – I just wanted to find out a bit about your organization – can I keep you for 60 seconds for a question?” If they give you permission be conscious of keeping to the time you set.

I also position my question to let the client know why I am asking. For example “I want to know more about the people who are most successful here – can you tell me …?” Let your client know that you will use the information to further your needs. When they answer ask them to elaborate until you feel you would recognize this person when you see them. If this is taking too long break the question over several calls so you can keep to your pledge of not taking too much of their time.

Below are some areas to explore when speaking to clients –

• Candidate type – Who is successful? What did they do to become successful? What type of person were they?
• The needs of our contact – what would serve our contact the best? How should we communicate with them phone or email? What do they expect of us?
• Culture of the organization – What does our contact like most about working at the company? What struck our contact when they joined the organization? What one word description for their corporate culture would our contact give?

Remember – keep it light and look for the essence of what makes this particular client who they are. We can not do a precise job without knowing our clients

Enjoy your conversations

Peter Laughter