Recruitment is, hands down, one of the most stressful sales jobs around (and can be one of the most rewarding ones too!). Having just had full two weeks off work I had the opportunity to unplug from the daily grind and to see things from a fresh perspective. I’m not massive on New Year Resolutions but I want to share a way of thinking that I believe, with the right application, has the opportunity to eliminate stress and bring peace to your recruitment job as well as life in general.
Why Recruitment Is Super-Stressful
Recruitment is a sales job, first and foremost. Effective Recruiters are constantly promoting their brand, knocking on doors of new businesses and establishing new industry connections. Unlike many other sales jobs, the product that we deal with is not a physical good or service. A successful deal hinges on many human factors and unforeseen circumstances. Most of these are beyond the Recruiter’s control, and trying to control something that’s not controllable can be, well, extremely stressful!
A Positive Predisposition
The concept that I’ve come up with for myself, let’s call it a ‘positive predisposition’. What I mean is tuning your perception towards every event and outcome, every single day, to greet it with a positive attitude. When you can’t control something, why let it stress you out? I’m not suggesting to do nothing about it! I’m suggesting to take action but with a calm and collected mindset, rather than a frustrated one.
You Are In Control
Since the only thing that you can reliably control is how you choose to react to external events, as a Recruiter you should use this to your advantage. This mean adopting a perspective that will help you maintain your cool and find an effective, rational plan of action. Feelings of frustration, anger, betrayal, envy, helplessness are all counter-productive and are only going to fatigue you in the long term. This, in my opinion, is what causes the ‘burnout’ for many Recruiters.
The Art of Acceptance
‘Completely give up the idea that things should be in any other way than they are’, a Buddhism teaching goes. In business, it is crucial to analyse your actions and their consequences after every deal and major event. This is crucial in Recruitment to improve your processes. There is still no good reason to let negative feelings drive your perception and cloud your judgement. Accepting the outcome does not mean endorsing it, instead it allows you to take action with a peaceful mind. Now, how liberating is that?
Approach every day, event, colleague and meeting with a ‘positive predisposition’, and accept failures unequivocally. You’ll be a much happier human and effective Recruiter! I’d be very interested in hearing your philosophies on reducing stress level during the daily grind. Please comment below!
