BUSINESS TIPS
Search Like a Connector What do you do in your spare time when you’re not working? What is your favorite hobby or activity? My husband Steve always responds with, “I collect people” and he means it! And for him, it is a wonderful outlook. For me, though, making those connections doesn’t come as easily. For some of us, we may not be strong in this area, but after living with someone where socializing is required to survive, I have learned how to improve myself in such “people-facing” situations. You can too. It takes practice but the more you do it, the better you become at it.
LEARN FROM A WOO
T H E S E A R C H F O R R I G H T C A N D I D AT E S
In Gallup’s CliftonStrengths Assessment, a person’s talents
It is also how we reach out and connect to find the right candidate to fit our open positions.
can help describe them as a “Woo.” These are people who love the challenge of meeting new people and winning them over. They derive satisfaction from breaking the ice and making a connection with another person. As CliftonStrengths explains, we all have certain natural talents. They come to us easily. However, this does not necessarily mean those habits are our strengths (yet). We have to work on, focus on, and practice our talents to turn them into a strength. And who knows, you may have a talent or talents you aren’t aware of yet. Author, Marcus Buckingham, calls this a “Connector” in his StandOut assessment. Connectors look at people and automatically ask themselves who they can connect them with to make everyone more effective, as well as what idea can I give them to help them do something they didn’t imagine themselves. This talent is the source from which you get your power, trust, fear, intelligence, etc. It goes back to one of your strengths. Connecting people is what motivates you to act. This is where you get energy from to move forward, set goals, and follow through.
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The Digest
HOUSING FIRST MINNESOTA | OCTOBER–DECEMBER 2021
Our companies, departments, and teams all need Woos and Connectors. It’s how we reach out to others and build relationships. None of us knows when we might need the assistance of someone outside our close family and friends zone. This hit home to many of us when the pandemic began and everything was chaos. With so much disruption and unknowns as to whether or not our companies could survive, we were all reaching out and connecting to others (not necessarily close to us) just to figure out options and gain insight. It may have been out of our comfort zones, but it can be an empowering experience that improved relationship-building abilities. The same goes for finding candidates. Are you truly exploring all your options to fill that next job opening? If not, start with the personal. It’s about reaching out to your connections and relationships. If you rely solely on an online recruiting platform, you might be disappointed. The feedback we’ve gotten from employers and employees is that there may be candidates applying, but many aren’t the right fit and there’s a high incident of ghosting. All of this wastes valuable time.
