Performance Report: 9 Months of Jeff at Textio

When I felt I was ready to find my next opportunity, I followed my own advice. I emailed all my best contacts in the Recruiting world. The message, at its core, was always the same. “You know me, my strengths and weakness, my passions and what drives me. I want a place where I can use my (humble) talents. I want a place where I can find joy in my job”

Everyone I emailed was someone whose work I valued and respected. Each had a niche of expertise that I would draw on when I had a question in their zone. Steve Levy, who we should be glad is a recruiter and not a spy, as there is no one he cannot find and nothing he cannot source out. Martin Burns, my go-to for navigating the intricacies of corporate life. Rebecca Fouts, who always knows a way to get my mind to look and explore something I have only seen from one view.

And, of course, Jackye Clayton. DEIB is essential to who I am and learning how to recruit in a specific and thoughtful way is something I have been working to improve upon for many years. Jackye was always (and still is) my go-to when I had a question in that zone. When Jackye responded she may have something on her team, I didn’t ask what company or what role. I said “Yes, please”.

When I found out it was Textio, it was a double win. I knew the product, of course, but hadn’t dug deeper into the organization. Everything I read spoke to things that were important to me. Values that I hold and passages I like travelling.

3 days before I started, I had a Facebook “remember when?” It was me thanking Jackye for guidance she had shared with me 10 years ago. What the advice was, who knows? Was the Goddess sending me a sign I had made a good choice? Oh my, yes.

One of the reasons for Textio expanding its TA team was our new Performance Management Product. Our web-based app for helping job ads use language that is inclusive and non-biased is cool--- and we were getting ready to apply what we learned from that. New research and deep data studies led the way. Ideas and thoughts coalesced into our next offering. A platform that will take your performance review and help it do what it was intended for: Helping you grow and become better at your job.

When I prepare potential new Textios for their interviews I never talk about specifics. We all know technical questions don’t change, nor do the interpersonal questions. It is not what is asked on an interview but how we answer them that is the key. My guidance is always the same. Read our core principles. Then read them a second time. Have an answer for the questions you know you will hear that reflect how you exhibited those core values.

If you’ve read other things I’ve written (or heard me preach on it), I despise the traditional recruiter metric of butts in seats. With that as a goal, as the key critical metric, to many important things get thrown away. DEIB, Candidate Experience, non-traditional applicants… they are irrelevant if your KPI is a skill set in a seat.

Well, I said to myself, how would you want Jackye to do your performance review? No one buys a BMW if the salesperson shows up in a Mercedes. I want my performance review to be about how my work reflected our principles. All the work I did and all the hires I made, did I do what I asked my candidates to reflect upon? Did I exhibit our core values in my day to day? If I didn’t, what could I do to improve?

So, here’s what I wrote up. I know writing it already set me to making myself even better. I hope you can find inspiration, as well.

Lead with Curiosity

I am very comfortable in stating I hit this button. I never hesitate to ask questions and to continue to explore areas I’m unfamiliar with. If you are not busy being born you’re busy dying. The thing that I would share on that is something I am still getting my head around. I always (and still do!) try to extend the benefit of doubt. That all people are good and have the best intentions. That all “bad” acts have a “but” or a “because”? When they don’t, the person is ill and again, not bad, but mentally ill. Mental Illness is no different than cancer. For everything we understand, there are 100 things we don’t. We rarely can cure it, we don’t always know the why’s and sometimes, well, there is nothing you can do to cure it.

Then Jackye stated this “Because, I could get killed thinking the best in people. Think about that.”

That helped me recognize a privilege, a luxury, I never even thought about. I can afford to extend the benefit of doubt because I am receiving it too. In a marginalized group, our biases may prevent us from that reciprocity.

I still believe that people are by nature, good. But I recognize how unfair it is for me to ask that of others because, well, people can get killed over it.

If marginalized peeps always assumed best intent they'd be continually putting themselves in potentially negative and/or harmful situations.

Leave No One Behind

Here’s another I felt I achieved. My philosophy has always been “Interview with the intention you will hire this human. Do not look for reasons to knock them out.” I’ve felt less pressure for a Potemkin Pipeline. I didn’t (and it took a while to feel its truth) feel a need to show how many people I’ve screened. The whole human, their skills and what they can add to our culture was more important than saying “Oh my, I screened 100 people and submitted 2”. I started doing deeper and more intentional resume reviews. My interviews started going longer as I asked better questions.

Looking at my pipeline and the roles I’ve filled, the numbers of diversity candidates is something I am very proud of. To recruit with the idea of DEIB in your mind, you must be intentional. When you’re intentional, the chance of leaving someone behind shrinks even if it never goes away 100%.

I also shared knowledge with my team and Textio as a company. How our team functions and works together is integral to my success as an individual. I’d even venture if I had an amazing year but the team didn’t do well--- then my individual successes grow less rosy.

Learn by Making

Oooh, another one I feel good about! I can think of a few specific examples where I exemplified this.

I was doing quasi-personalized mass mail/drip campaigns. I am not the biggest fan and I try to make them as personal as I could, but, they all are still kind of spammy. I am a gigantic fan of Seekout. We love it at Textio, from the way it makes recruiting for diversity to its drip campaign capability.

I am still trying to figure out the specific whys of why my drips weren’t working as they had in the past. In previous roles, I had been very proud of having an over 80% open rate and over a 50% response rate. I ran multiple campaigns this year and my open rates/response were so low, I am ashamed to share them. I wasn’t sure why but I knew I needed to change it up.

Dawn Wright, one of our engineering leaders, had a role that my campaigns were failing to help fill. I asked Dawn if she would be comfy helping me refine my search and my reachouts.

“Dawn,” I said. “Please help me write an email that would get you reading. A subject line that would make you say YES!!! I need to open that.”

The 2 of us sat and tried making something new. We worked together, with Dawn sharing her insights and time to craft a wordy work of winsome welcomes, something that would help us get more people.

It helped… but not enough.

So, I scratched the whole drip campaign and started writing one offs. Very specific and very targeted to the human I wanted to dialogue with. It’s improved but now the volume is way down. It takes a lot of time to craft those emails.

We’re still seeing how that’s going to work, I don’t have enough data yet to say. What I do know, is you need to keep trying, keep making, if you want to improve

Lean into the Details

This has always been my bane. One of, if not my greatest, weakness. Before performance reviews we had report cards. When my parents moved after retiring they gave me a cabinet of curiosities. From clay ashtrays made in pre-school (How's that for how the world has moved on?) to every report card from Kindergarten to 12th grade. It was also the first year I had ever had a formal work review. When I was agency side, the only “review” that mattered was if your revenue stream was positive. Making money for the MAN? Good, the rest of it is irrelevant.

As I absorbed this review (which had a lot more about my personality than it did about the work I completed) a line stuck out at me. “Jeff is so bright if he could only focus better”. It hit me hard. Word for word it also what was on my second grade report card. No kidding, exactly the same sentence.

Being diagnosed with MS in my 20s helped answer some of the “Whys?”. Being diagnosed with ADHD in my late 30s added further pieces to the puzzle. It didn’t give me any ways to cope with it. There were no tips and tricks to make it better. Someone with mobility issues can use a cane or a wheelchair. There is no wheelchair for ADHD. Sure, the Adderall helps. For me, it helps when I combine it with other things. If I have a huge multi-step project to complete, breaking it up into smaller parts helps. It still didn’t help me with fine details.

My MS has made my fine motor skills very poor. Don’t ask me to fix your eyeglasses or help thread a needle. Does it affect “fine details” of the mind? I think so-—but it doesn’t mean I can let it all slide. My work, my life, well, those fine details need taking care of even if it is challenging.

At a meeting with all my hiring managers, well, it was clear I hadn’t been sharing all the information they needed. They had no idea of what work went in to my pipeline or how I divided my time to cover all the different roles. They didn’t know who was submitted where, if something was road blocking me or, to be honest, any of the finer details they needed to know.

I left the meeting, well, angry. I felt ashamed. Then, I thought about it. I used to be able to pull all these details out of my head, like Issac from The Orville. When that stopped working, I started keeping copious notes. However, they were the Voinovich Manuscript. Even I sometimes had no idea what they meant.

I was angry at me, not my HMs. I have trouble accepting my mind isn’t the same as it was in my 20s. So, I went back to my basics. To the world of excel spreadsheets, links and notes that are clear and concise. I shared with the team and do my best to keep it up to date. I changed and adapted.

But before I figured my head out, I got defensive and angry.

That leads me our final core Principle and one I also need to keep working at.

Listen to the Loop

My dad told me a story about my Great Grandpa Philip. During the Great Depression, Philip shoveled snow all over the Bronx for the city. He’d come home, eat dinner, and then go back out. They un-shoveled all the snow they had shoveled earlier. Then, they’d get paid to shovel it a second time. Even with the hazy ethics of it, what you had to do, the way you should work was clear. Do it, do it again and do it again. I have similar stories about Philip, Grandpa Irving and, Howard, my Dad. 3 generations of Newman men before me. Men who never asked for help from anyone, who did what they had to do, no matter what. (Forgive my gender biases. Trust me, Grandma Goldie was one of the toughest most resilient women I have ever had the privilege of knowing--- but they weren’t who were used to hammer these “lessons” home.)

I thought (and sometimes still think) that is the only way to behave.

I have stories of times I have let work take away from the things that truly important. More than I’d care to share and many of which I am still ashamed. I’d like to tell you I am cured of it but, well, I can’t. 2 years ago I was diagnosed with Testicular cancer. I was back to work in less than a week following my orchiectomy. I had one round of chemo. I was back to work 3 days later with a puke bucket next to my desk.

I know how unhealthy behaviors like that are. It is so hard to fight against it. When I notice it, I try to make healthier choices. In my mind though, it is not always a choice. It is simply what you do. There is no “should I or shouldn’t I?” The behavior is so ingrained it doesn’t even present itself as a choice.

Listening to the loop doesn’t just mean hearing your peers viewpoints and coming to a consensus. It also means accepting help when it is offered. One of the thought tunnels I struggle with is asking for and accepting help. I still see it as a weakness. As something to be ashamed of.

Listening to the Loop is also about asking the loop. Asking for help when needed and accepting it when offered.

I’ll spare you the hard lessons that made me learn this at Textio, as well as in my past. I do know I will continue to work at it.

In the end though, everything comes back to the first principle Learn by Making. We are all verbs not nouns. We need to keep growing and keep learning because we should never be our best self. Being the best means there’s no place left to go. I want to always be the “okay-est”. That means I’m still working at. I am still growing, moving and changing. I am Making.