Welcome back to a #ThoughtFULLThursday. My name is Casey. I am an Executive Recruiter, Director of Recruiting with VIP (focusing on Accounting, Finance, Audit, and Tax hiring needs) and all around #hiringguru.
I have a really fun question for you today. Who are the five people closest to you? Do they encourage you? Do they lift you up? Do they help you grow and become a better person? Or in contrast, do they constantly criticize? Do they complain all the time so they are no fun to be around? Or do they just bring drama into your world? If they are the latter, GET RID OF THEM! You do not need those people in your life! Regardless of what you think, their emotions and thoughts, which lead them to action, will influence how you feel about yourself and potentially your level of success. You cannot help become negative if constantly bombarded by negativity.
How does this relate to building a better team, which is our focus for our #ThoughtFULLThursdays? It all starts with the hiring process and continues through the lifetime of the employment relationship, and sometimes beyond. I will share with you one of the reasons why I am here today started with my interview. I was looking for a leadership who would encourage me; who would let me build out my vision. When I interviewed with the partners at VIP, instead of saying, this is what we want you to do, they asked me a question: WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO? That one question really told me this was going to be an environment that would build me up; one who would support my dreams and vision for building a better recruiting team.
Fast forward: As I am hiring, I am now looking for those same people who can continue our philosophy of building up each team member. As I bring on new people who may not be at that level yet, (remember we talked about the pay it forward method), we look to our current team to help uplevel the new person. That is what we are looking for in our tribe. We want people who are going to lift us up.
Another example of how recently I have helped my team up level their circle of influence is I introduced one of my team members to a new organization in our area called the Young Executives. This organization was birthed out of a 30-year-old organization called Success North Dallas. Success North Dallas is composed of experienced professionals and they recognized if they are going to continue another 30 years, they must involve young professionals. With this in mind, they have established the Young Executive program and are reaching out to some of our top young professionals. I felt this would be a good opportunity for my team member to have the opportunity to be mentored and at the same time, start working with those other young professionals who are coming up and mentor them (again paying it forward).
I listened to a video earlier this week along these same lines. Although I felt it focused on getting rid of the toxic people a little bit more than focusing on including those who will stretch you to be better. I wanted to share one phrase I really liked. “Just because someone is in your circle, does not mean they are in your corner.” – Trent Shelton. So I want to challenge all of you all today: Uplevel your tribe! Make sure everyone in your circle is in your corner. That does not mean they do not speak truth to you, but it does mean they must speak it with love and compassion. Be sure they are not the toxic people who will kick you when you are down. Instead, make sure they are the ones extending a helping hand.
I will leave you with one final quote from Jim Rohn. “You are the average of the five people closest to you.”
My last question to you is how many of those five people do you work with? Please share with me what you discover by going HERE. I’ll see you again next Thursday for another #ThoughtFULLThursday.
