This Week, In Recruiting - Issue 17

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Open Kitchen: Performance Cages

One of the best books I've ever read was 'Sven-G?ran Eriksson: On Football'.

A few years ago, I found a copy as an unwanted freebie in a local charity bin. After leafing through the first few pages I was hooked and couldn't put it down until I had read the entire thing, cover to cover. It was so good, I actually put the book back into that charity bin, as it felt immoral for me to monopolise the value I got from it - other people should know this! I remember thinking. I then went out and ordered a copy to keep for myself.

Why was this book so good?

Nothing to do with the writing of Sven-G?ran I assure you ??.

But it was everything to do with the ideas of his co-writer, the sports psychologist Willi Railo. Railo's career was to study elite sports performance, to try to understand why some competitors always seem to win at the key moments, whilst others always seem to fall short, even when the measurable differences between the two were often negligible, or even sometimes in the favour of the consistently losing competitor. The psychological model he came up with to explain the difference was the 'performance cage'

1. Performance what?

The Performance Cage describes the psychological state where you fully accept your performance - where your internal monologue says 'I am capable of this, I belong in this space'. In the illustrations provided, the performance cage is the space in between the dashed lines.

2. The Comfort Zone

Performance cages are bounded, by upper and lower levels of performance. Operating below a certain threshold of performance - a level which is incongruent with your self perception of your ability - is a stressful place to be. It is high anxiety, which encourages you to seeks to escape from it, usually by abandoning the effort. Your internal monologue starts saying 'you're not good enough, you don't belong here, give up'

There is also an upper boundary of performance, which is also incongruent with your self perception of your ability. Again it is high stress place to be, a high anxiety state. This is when your internal monologue starts saying 'you're not this cool' or surely this run can't last'. Again you seek to escape the anxiety, this time subconsciously sabotaging your own extraordinary performance, in order to descend back down to a low anxiety state - a performance level more congruent with your self perception - a.k.a. your 'comfort zone'.

3. Raise the Bar, Raise the Performance?

Now here's the genius part.

Willi Railo's clients - elite sports performers who wanted to further increase their performance, routinely asked for the same coaching outcomes - how do I raise my performance bar coach? Or in the framework Railo is using, 'how do I push the upper boundary of the performance cage? It turns out that whilst you could indeed do this, it did not produce better outcomes because the upper and lower boundaries of the cage move together. Raising the bar on upper performance, also raised the bar on lower performance, at the same rate. You may indeed move the performance cage upwards, but you have also simultaneously - and much more importantly - expanded the potential of falling into high anxiety states. And this was the main difference between consistent winners and consistent also rans in elite competition - both can compete at high performance levels, but the consistent winners were more consistently operating in low anxiety states.

4. Expand the Performance Cage

Railo's coaching recommended something counterintuitive - the task was to lower the lower boundary of performance, rather than to raise the upper boundary of performance. Practice failing by taking more risks. aAnd practice the experience of the anxiety that comes with failure - don't seek to escape it. By experiencing more anxiety induced by failure, the impact of every instance of anxiety becomes minimised and so the lower boundary goes down. With repetition, it means that it will take an extraordinarily bad performance for those feelings of anxiety to arise again or have the same impact as they did before. You have expanded the range of performance where you can operate in a low anxiety state.

Now here's the killer idea: by being able to operate more often in low anxiety state, you increase the chances of hitting high performance. You are simply more relaxed, more motivated, more willing to go again. And the more high performances you consistently reach, the more congruent your self perception becomes of being able to hit those performances, so the entire performance cage expands - as the lower boundary goes down, so the upper boundary goes up.

Great sports athletes - the consistent winners - don't freeze at the critical moment; they make less mistakes but more importantly don't go to pieces when they do make mistakes, and recover more quickly back to high performance irrespective of those mistakes. All of which incrementally increase the odds of winning it all when it counts most.

Interestingly, one of the players that Sven-Goren Eriksson managed at Sampdoria mentioned was Roberto Mancini - who, as a player, would be able to play with a 'short memory' - to take risks, make the odd mistake, but not have those mistakes impact his performance or decision making. In Railo's framework, Mancini had a large performance cage.

In light of the sporting achievements and disappointments of the past month, not least England's agonising defeat on penalties against Mancini's Italy in yesterday's Euro2020 final, it might be useful for us to reflect on performance cages. We are going to make mistakes, experience defeats - that is the nature of sports, business and life. What we have to do is not seek to escape the anxiety that comes from it, but experience it fully, recognise that it we are not destroyed by it, and come at it again with short memories and a low anxiety state.

Well done to all the lads yesterday, especially to Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka for taking the risk and taking the shot.

Enough of the kitchen, on to the lounge ??

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What's in the News?

Sir Richard Branson becomes the first 'billionaire in space' yesterday when his Virgin Galactic VSS Unity made it to zero g.

As much as the 'space billionaire' race has been characterised as indulgent PR stunt when there might be more pressing concerns going on on Planet Earth, there is no denying that private sector resources invested into space travel is not only better than inflating assets bubbles on earth but also bolsters new and exciting industries - which are going to need people to work in them. I know some of you already work and recruit for space tech businesses - would love to know about the hiring challenges there. Growth industries for sure, so smart positioning if are a recruiter looking for a new space.

President Biden issues Executive Order to restrict the use of non-compete clauses in worker's employment contracts. Apparently up to 60 million US workers have these clauses in their contracts, adding to significant hidden friction to labour liquidity.

It's got to be a good thing that these clauses get restricted - how many times have we encountered scenarios where candidates are unable to enter a process because of the existence of these clauses? I'd be interested to know what the degree of non-competes exist in non-US territories - I think far less common and perhaps mostly restricted to senior exec or jobs where current knowledge imparts competitive advantage (i.e trading desks). Actually, fairly common for recruiters, yes?

TikTok enter the people business with the announcement of TikTok Resumes.

I mentioned this in Recruiting Brainfood newsletter yesterday but want to highlight it again here today. The use of the resume itself is going to be less impactful than the EB value of brands being on there and able to accept them. Key line in the graphic above is 'discover brands accepting TikTok Resumes' - seems to me that if you want to build equity with the post Facebook generation, having a corporate recruiting account on TikTok is something you need to be doing.

San Francisco based Instawork raise $60 million Series C round.

Investment money is flooding into recruiting tech, especially if you are providing solutions for the new shape of organisations. Instawork, as the name suggests, focused on hourly workers, on demand, especially in hospitality and retail sectors. Report here

If you are a recruitment service provider or technology business and have any news to share,?comment below,?this is your application to get into next week's addition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it

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What's On Offer? (New Segment)

The legendary Darren Westall is making an unprecedented offer to all recruitment business owners:

FREE LinkedIn profile review for you and your team. If you didn't know already that LinkedIn is by far your No1 channel for inbound marketing, then you are leaving money on the table my friend. Up your LinkedIn game - tap into the knowledge of Darren and his excellent team at Paiger - for free. Book your review directly here

If you are a recruitment service provider or recruitment technology vendor have any?exclusive?offer for the community,?comment below?with your offer in order to be included in next week's edition of This Week, In Recruiting. Make sure to @ mention me so that I see it.

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What's Going On?

Ascent - The Virtual Conference About The Future of Work, 14-15 July, 7.30am - 12pm PST

Great guest line up in this future focused two day conference by our buddies Oyster. Speakers from 'remote first / remote only' businesses - Automattic, Gitlab, Firstbase (yes, it is Chris Herd) on what the future of work is going to look like. Worth tuning in folks - register here

RecFest 2021, 16 July, 9.00am to 8.30pm BST

This is probably the first party I've been too in over 18 months. And, seeing as this marvellous, progressive and inspirational England team have indeed brought it home in spirit and performance throughout the amazing Euro2020 tournament, I suspect it will be sort of celebration which I really want to be part of. Get vaxxed up folks, and join the party - register here

Brainfood Live On Air - Ep117 - Starting & Scaling A Successful Recruitment Business, 16 July, 3.00pm, BST

I'm going to doing Brainfood Live whilst onsite at RecFest. We're going to talking about to how start and scale a successful recruitment business, because if this isn't a market to do so, I don't know what is. With Katrina Hutchinson-O'Neill, CEO, JOIN Talent, Alex van Klaveren, MD, KANDIDATE and James Osborne, Founder, The Recruitment Network. Must attend to for anyone with a entrepreneurial bone in their body - register here

If you have an event, webinar or podcast going on next week and want it featured on next week's newsletter,?comment below?with the link and event details. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Available?

Once again, no takers. Time to retire this segment. Hope its been useful!

If you are on the market or available for extra work,?comment below?with the ideal type of job you are looking for (job title, type of company, contract type, location). Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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Who's Hiring?

Sales Recruiter, Stripe, Dublin (Ireland) or London (UK)

Senior Recruiter, Leapsome, Berlin, Germany

Junior Recruiter, Leapsome, Berlin, Germany

Talent Acquisition/Recruiting Internship, Leapsome, Berlin, Germany

People + Culture Partner, Unleashed Group, London or Remote UK

Head of Recruiting (m/f/d), HomeToGo, Berlin, Germany

(Senior) Talent Acquisition Manager - Product (m/f/d), HomeToGo, Berlin, Germany

Senior Talent Acquisition Manager - Tech (m/f/d), HomeToGo, Berlin, Germany

Senior / Lead Talent Acquisition Specialist EMEA, HERE Technologies, Berlin, Germany

GTM / Commercial Recruiter (In-House), JOIN Talent, Remote (GMT or ET)

GTM / Commercial Recruiter (In-House), JOIN Talent, Remote or South Africa

International People & Talent Lead, JOIN Talent, Remote or South Africa

Senior/Lead TA Partner (Tech), JOIN Talent, Remote (must have UK tax residency)

Recruiter (Fluent Germany speaking), JOIN Talent, Remote

Resourcing Partner (Tech), JOIN Talent, Remote or UK

Sourcing Specialist (Tech), JOIN Talent, Remote or UK

TA Partner (Tech), JOIN Talent, Remote (must have UK tax residency)

TA Partner (Tech), JOIN Talent, Remote or South Africa

Director of People & Talent, Superscript, London, UK

Recruitment Lead, ParkBee, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Recruiting Partner (f/m/d), Gorillas, Berlin, Germany

Talent Sourcer - Non-Tech (f/m/d), Gorillas, Berlin, Germany

Senior Candidate Experience Specialist, Gorillas, Berlin, Germany

Recruiter - Experienced Professionals, McKinsey&Co, London, Lisbon, Madrid, Cologne or Munich

HR and Talent Acquisition Manager (m/f/d), OpenProject, Berlin, Germany or Remote Europe

Talent Acquisition Team Lead (Corporate), Trustpilot, London, UK

Talent Acquisition Team Lead (Commercial), Trustpilot, Copenhagen, Denmark

Talent Acquisition Specialist (Tech & Product), Trustpilot, Copenhagen, Denmark

Talent Acquisition Specialist (Commercial), Trustpilot, London, UK

Talent Sourcer, Trustpilot, Copenhagen, Denmark

Talent Sourcer, Trustpilot, London, UK

Tech Talent Acquisition Senior Lead, BackMarket, Paris, France

Tech Talent Acquisition Specialist, BackMarket, Paris, France

Tech Talent Acquisition Senior Lead, BackMarket, Barcelona, Spain

Technical Recruiter, Collectiv Food, London, UK

Talent Acquisition Specialist: Tech and Product, Castor, Remote Anywhere

If you want your job freely promoted in this newsletter next week,?comment below?with the link to the job. No third party jobs or links to third party sites. Don't forget to @ mention me so that I see it

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Who's Moving?

Jerome Leclerque, joins GoCardless as VP of Talent Acquisition after 8 years at LinkedIn in a various roles including Product Marketing and Head of Enterprise Recruiting.

Anastasia Pshegodskaya, joins Remote.com as Senior Recruiting Manager, after 3 years with Gitlab. We're seeing a circulation of recruiting professionals developing remote only recruiting expertise; premium skill set.

Jane Watson gets a promotion to Vice President of Klick. One of the smartest folks in our business - follow Jane if you want to get smart takes on workplace culture

Andy Kao joins JOIN Talent as Chief People Officer, after 2 years as Senior People Partner at Talentful. Super hot recruiting market means aggressive growth for the new RPO players in tech scale up. Fascinating space

If you have made a senior exec appointment to your business,?and feel the wider community needs to know about it,?comment below?with the details and see it featured in next weeks issue.?Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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What Are You Doing?

Kelly Vickery, Head of Employer Branding at Talentful is conducting survey on what topics you want to see most in their 'Meet The Experts' series of webinars. Your chance to get the content you want to learn more about. ￡100 Amazon gift voucher a non-trivial incentive. 60 second survey - do it here

Ravin Shah, CEO of Showfloor, is looking for 10 recruiters to beta test his speed interview platform. Pilot the tool for free, in exchange for feedback. Ideal for situations where you may have a high volume of qualified applicants and need to process them at speed. Apply here

Chris Martin, Sales Director EMEA at Oyster, introduces 'Distributed Bootcamp Coach'. This is a 'train the trainer' course for People Ops professionals to learn how to coach / train their businesses on how to communication and collaborate in the era of remote. Limited space so you can apply for a place here

Linda Hugod has launched a new project aimed at professional and personal development. 5 step plan to build your own Personal Value Proposition. Linda has got outstanding experience in the corporate EVP space - take a look at the Work Book here

Vicky Vitkay, GM at Work In Startups, is looking for contributors for a hiring for startups guide. I should imagine a fair few of the readers here might be able to contribute. Decent marketing opportunity for solopreneurs or RPO types. Get in touch with Vicky here.

Grant Heinrich has a new book out - Master Expert, on the importance of of expertise in organisations. On Kickstarter, so get notified when the book launches here.

If you are doing something new,?comment below?with what it is and share a link to where you want people to go. Don't forget to @ mention me in it so that I see it

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End Notes

Ok that's it for another week.

Hope you enjoyed this issue. I'm going to talk more about failure - not to revel in it, but to experience it more fully and de-catastrophise it. In a competitive world it is impossible to win all the time - we increase our chances of winning most of the time by not fearing the defeats that inevitably come.

Next essay about Manny Pacquiao? ??

Cheers

Hung

Hung Lee is the curator of?Recruiting Brainfood, and now This Week In Recruiting. Subscribe to both if you are into recruiting or HR or just interested in world of work.