Magnetic Companies Series

Magnetic Companies series

Mag Comp ser

Articles for High-Performing CEOs

By Jeremy de Constantin

Winter 2019 edition

Magnetic Companies Attract Top Talent The Vision Quest

Introduction A compelling Vision is the key to attracting top talent for your Company. Many Companies are suffering from the lack of Vision, or from an outdated one. Some leaders stick with the Vision created at their Company’s inception without adapting to today’s recruiting challenges. Others have simply never articulated their Vision.

The best candidates are seeking Companies that can showcase their talent. A Company that is interested in hiring top talent should strive to present a Vision that is compelling, challenging and concrete. This is what attracts high-performing talent.

Consider the following quote based on responses from 800 CEOs and 600 senior executives, “Hiring talent remains the number one concern of CEOs [according to] a 2019 survey by the leadership think tank, the Conference Board; CEOs cited finding qualified workers as the largest obstacle to hiring.”

“PwC’s 2017 CEO survey reports that chief executives view the unavailability of talent and skills as the biggest threat to their business.”

“Your Approach to Hiring is All Wrong.”

—Peter Cappelli, Harvard Business Review 2019

01 Magnetic Companies: The vision Quest

What Really Matters to Top Talent?

How influential are salary and benefits? If you pay more will you appeal to high performing talent?

Although money is important, it doesn’t buy love or loyalty with the better candidates. I believe the main attraction is whether or not they are inspired by your Vision.

Today’s generation of high-performing workers are selective about where they will invest their time and effort. We’re experiencing a candidate-driven market and the competition is fierce. You’re competing with smaller start-ups where a culture community is intertwined in their Vision. This working environment is attractive, particularly for young talent.

My position is that high performers will sign-up for a Vision that inspires and excites them. A Vision that invests in them. Over the next 6-12 months, I will prove the value of this proposition with an approach I have developed called The Vision Quest. I was inspired to create The Vision Quest 12-months ago, and it has already proven its effectiveness in 2 very different Companies.

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The Vision Quest Applied

I was recently interim CEO for a manufacturing Company in Western Sydney. The business was in financial distress and in just 6 months, with the help of some wonderful people on my team and a select group of employees within the Company, we managed to turn the Company around. Vision was central to this turnaround.

Let me explain in the form of a boating analogy.

My priority was to right the boat. Then, toss overboard the drillers. And finally, try to convert the passengers to rowers, and recruit more rowers along the way.

A driller is a harmful individual who, at every opportunity, will white-ant and talk down the turnaround. The goal is to find them fast and toss them out. A harsh approach, perhaps, but worthy in the long-run. Otherwise, the turnaround will not happen, and the Company could sacrifice many good workers who rely on their jobs to provide for their families.

A passenger is the sort of person who takes no initiative.

They will criticise any change, while doing nothing themselves to fix problems. I had 90 days to convert or excise the passengers.

A rower is, well…you know who they are. They behave more like owners than workers. They rarely complain, and if they do, you had better listen. They seek out problems and find solutions themselves. They go the extra mile.

In the first 90 days, I had to look beyond the Company to recruit rowers for the factory, the sales team and the product design team. I realised that the business had no Vision to attract the calibre of people I needed. It was totally bereft of direction. Arguably, this was one of the main reasons it was in trouble.

My job was to persuade the rowers I interviewed to join in the turnaround. It was during these interviews that I developed a Vision for the Company. I needed a selling point immediately.

I started with, “Together we will make this Company great again.” This evolved into something more concrete and measurable. “Together we will get this Company back to being #1 in Australia.” Incidentally, the Company enjoyed this position for decades before local competitors and Chinese imports pushed it off the perch.

I witnessed this Vision working during the interviews with the new caretaker/cleaner, metal press workers, welders, factory manager, and the stand-out product designer who joined us from a competitor. All were sold on the Vision.

And not-by-chance, I was able to reel them all in. They all signed up to my back-of-envelope Vision!

This Company, once in financial distress, now had direction and the beginnings of a high-performing team.

03 Magnetic Companies: The vision Quest

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Evolving the vision quest This turnaround inspired me to mull over these questions: Would other Companies struggling to attract and retain top talent benefit from having a compelling and concrete Vision? Will it attract and retain the high performers?

How could I better prepare and develop a Company Vision? A process that was superior to my spontaneous effort with the turnaround Company. How could I produce a Vision Process that was intrinsically motivating and magnetic for the rowers?

Over the next 12 months I plan to introduce and apply The Vision Quest in at least 4 Companies that have the potential to be extraordinary. And prove conclusively the magnetic effect of a good Vision.

Considerations for a Great Vision The Vision Process will need to answer these 6 questions: 1. What are the 5-6 core values of the Company—the glue that binds?

2. What is the passion or purpose of the founder? What is the Company’s niche?

3. What is the ONE big goal for the Company that will galvanise everyone into action—everyone from the board room to the factory floor?

4. What is the high-level marketing strategy? What makes the Company unique? Who is the target market? What is the customer engagement process, from go to whoa?

5. What does the future look like for the Company, including revenues & earnings targets—3 years/1 year/90 days?

6. What are the obstacles and opportunities anticipated while reaching these targets?

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Indicators of Success Indicators of success will need to be established from the start, to prove the magnetic effect of a good Vision. I predict there will be improvements in each Company, on these metrics: Absenteeism Employee engagement Net Promoter Score (are customers loyal and referring others to the Company?)

Product quality and defect rates Profit per employee Retention of high performers (rowers) Sick leave Talent pipeline Terminations of under-performers (the drillers and stubborn passengers) If you’re ready for the challenge, there is no doubt that a good Vision for your Company will attract and keep great talent and create extraordinary outcomes.

I chose this apt quote to end on because Patrick Lencioni, like me, loves his boating analogies:

“

If you could get all the people in an organization rowing in the same direction, you could dominate any industry, in any market, against any competition, at any time.”

—Patrick Lencioni, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable

05 Magnetic Companies: The vision quest

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“

The value in engaging Jeremy to help develop and launch our Vision in Australia and the USA has proven immeasurable.

The project has been an outstanding success and foundational to our recent growth.”

—Markus Preston, Group Managing Director, Preston Hire Group

Biography Jeremy de Constantin is an advisor to CEO’s and Boards in the Asia-Pacific region. He is focused on those Companies keen to grow revenues, earnings and returns on equity.

He helps Companies achieve sustainable financial growth turning ordinary Companies into extraordinary ones.

He has created original programs helping Companies with their Performance Improvement and the implementation and monitoring of Professional Advisory Boards.

Jeremy has worn many hats in the past as an investor, CEO, Chairman and top-tier Management Consultant. This experience coupled with an intelligent, direct and no-nonsense approach, works well with certain CEOs and Directors.

88 Kirribilli Avenue, Sydney, NSW, Australia +61 2 99547499 jdc@deconstantin.com.au

88 Kirribilli Avenue, Sydney, NSW, Australia +61 2 99547499 jdc@deconstantin.com.au