Whether you’re a first-time billing manager, a business owner or in business support, the chances are that you’ve become confused – even conflicted – about your role.

Expectations from your team may be sky-high in terms of what you will do for them. 

Reported tribunal cases can be baffling.

And now employees are about to get a whole raft of new rights.

But what about business performance?

In this blog, I’d like to help clarify matters for you. It’s based on traps I have seen many recruitment leaders fall into, well-intentioned mistakes they make and misunderstandings. I hope some of it resonates with you. Read on.

1. Understand what your job really is

What reporting is expected? What milestones do you need to meet or exceed? What is “unacceptable” performance? What can you change?  New managers are often hampered by not having any P&L information, plus being expected to work out the job as they go along. That leads to disappointment, strange decisions or – worst of all – no decisions.

2. Great leadership is about planning and implementation

I’ve said it before on this blog, but ideas are cheap in recruitment. If you introduce too many ideas, the team becomes confused, and sometimes your changes may be mutually exclusive or creating barriers. 

An example of this is one business that really needed to cut costs and make better use of their substantial CRM. But Managers were spending a fortune on Indeed and leaving hundreds of potential candidates lying in recruiters’ inboxes.

Real change requires planning. It also needs parameters, metrics, milestones and training. And the team need to make extra time to do things differently, so progress may be slow at first. Celebrate indicators of success before the actual success hits the P&L. And keep checking.

3. “Micro-management” is not always a bad thing

Sure, to feel engaged, we know our people need (varying) amounts of Relatedness, Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose.

4. Give clear instructions, especially to beginners

Don’t expect an inexperienced hire to work things out for themselves. And don’t expect them to come to you if they have a problem. They probably don’t know they have one. So do listen in to calls, sit at their desk and ask to see what they are doing, not just talk about it. And do make your expected processes clear- everything from what must go in the CRM to what information to get about a role. Asking someone with no experience what they think about these tasks makes it look like your “processes” are just suggestions.

5.  Explain the “why” – not just the what

One example of genuinely bad micro-management is leaders dictating every step of every process without explaining the “why” behind it. If they understand the “why”, you might be surprised how some team members have even better suggestions. 

The “Why” cannot be simply to make you wealthier. Consultants need to see how success in this means that their fill-rates will improve, or their fees grow, or their promotion prospects improve. Otherwise, your growth aims just sound a lot like “work even harder”. 

6. Don’t delay when performance drops

If someone is falling below acceptable performance, don’t wait until they’ve blanked for 2 months before taking action. Too many leaders- out of misplaced kindness- avoid addressing the issues in the hope that a fee will land and they won’t have to have that awkward conversation. But the problem hasn’t been solved. Inconsistent results are largely down to poor inputs- not enough BD and too much time working and re-working the jobs they have. Look at the quality and quantity of their efforts and don’t be shy about insisting on account development and BD inputs.

7. Focus on actions, not excuses

Too often, sympathetic managers spend their 121 reviews with a poor performer discussing “what went wrong”. They don’t want to bring the consultant down, so they allow them to dwell on their excuses. 

“That client changed to brief at the last minute”. 

“They didn’t tell me there were internal candidates in the mix”.

“The market’s really tough”.

All of these allow the consultant to absolve themselves from responsibility. These were “exceptional circumstances”, or they were just “really unlucky”.

I’m much more interested in discussing what they are going to do about it, with SMART details in the plan. We can’t control everything in our environment, but we can control how we react. 

A little while back, I listened to a consultant telling their manager that their biggest client had put a temporary freeze on recruitment, so he was just waiting until it was lifted. But the conversation should have been about what other services we could offer that client, and where the recruiter was going to get other business right now.

8. Endless flexibility

I get regular calls from business leaders who are genuinely confused about what they have to do for their teams. For example, one thought she was obliged to allow any team member to go part-time, with no reduction in salary.  

I explained that (although the rules will probably be changing) that is not required under the right to request flexible working. Look at the business case and decide if the consultant’s contribution is such that you want to accommodate this and it won’t damage the business.

Another “faulty flexibility” issue is making up rules as you go along. Richard had a long-serving member of his team in a senior position. When this guy was involved in (and admitted) a serious and dangerous crime, he wanted to have an “investigation” and stall to see if the matter died down. Later, another member of the team was involved in a comparable crime, and he expected the same treatment. When he didn’t get it, he made a tribunal claim.

Think carefully about what the future implications of your decisions are on other team members, rather than just dealing with what’s in front of you.

9. Look for what’s missing – not just what’s in front of you

Talking of dealing with what is in front of you, I note that lots of managers in recruitment are great at job meetings. They look at what jobs are open, prioritise them, estimate the likelihood of a good outcome and advise in detail on next steps.

What they tend to be less good at is seeing what’s not there. Are we working jobs from the same old clients all the time? Is a client’s process routinely frustrating our efforts? Should we be emphasising candidate marketing rather than job-led activity? 

Keep an eye on all the vital signs in your business. That includes average fees (trend), jobs registered (trends), time to fill, repeat and new business, just for starters.

Alison Humphries is an award-winning Board advisor and Executive Coach in the recruitment industry. She also offers an intensive course for Managers (4 x ½ days) covering all the above and more – “Leadership for Billing Managers”, and 2 board-level stand-alone courses- “Leadership for Growth” and “Leadership for Change”. Read more here or contact Alison@recruitmentleadership.co.uk