TECH TITANS: How Your Team Can Be Your Greatest Recruiting Tool with Ken Coleman, Career Coach at Ramsey Solutions

(Intro Narrator at 00:00:01) Today, we're bringing you an episode of our newest podcast, Tech Titans. It features our greatest leadership advice distilled into shorter summary episodes. Ken Coleman joins us in this episode to share his best advice on how your team can become your greatest recruiting tool. You're listening to Joel Beasley, Tech Titans.

(Joel Beasley at 00:00:26) Because you have great talks in multiple different areas, but what do you feel like? What's on your heart right now?

(Ken Coleman at 00:00:32) I'm really locked in right now and really fired up about engagement. The great resignation is something that your entire audience is aware of. We just saw the March job numbers. I haven't seen April, but in March, we had another 4,500,000 people leave their jobs. So now we're close to 30,000,000 people have changed jobs since August 2021.

(Ken Coleman at 00:00:54) And people are chasing a paycheck. People are chasing meaning. They're chasing a lot of things. And so the great crisis for American businesses right now is I can't keep people or I'm having a hard time finding people. And so what we've got right now is really a function of a healthy capitalistic economy.

(Ken Coleman at 00:01:18) And that is in a healthy capitalistic economy, you're always going to have more jobs available than you do people who are unemployed. But it gets reported like, oh, the great wage, the great jobs gap. And it's like these morons in the media, they don't know anything. They really don't. They have no idea because they're all socialists.

(Ken Coleman at 00:01:37) And it says, like, if you're a capitalist, you go, wait a second. In a capitalist society, you're always going to have an entrepreneurial spirit, people creating jobs all the time. If you look every year at the amount of businesses that are opened and started, this is the nature of, again, capitalism. So prior to the pandemic, February 2020, I was talking about on my show and we were looking at the numbers and we had historically low unemployment. We're now a little bit below that.

(Ken Coleman at 00:02:13) So we're in a new historic low, and there were more jobs available than there were people that are unemployed due to a variety of factors. So all that said, in an environment like this, you're going to have people that are leveling up for whatever reason. And so engagement as it relates to performance and profit has always been the number one issue for leaders and always will be. What's changed and what's so, why I'm so fired up about this issue now is that now engagement and retention of people, so performance, engagement for performance and profits is still important, but now it's engagement for retention.

(Ken Coleman at 00:02:56) Because people have so many more options now and they will leave you in three months. I mean, there's an article we're going to share on the show next week. I believe it's in the Wall Street Journal. In fact, Fox News wants me to talk about it Friday, and that's where it's coming in. So I'm going on Fox News to talk about this article on Friday.

(Ken Coleman at 00:03:14) They asked me to come on and it's this idea of people are accepting jobs and then they don't show up on their start day. And so Fox wants me to comment on it. Well, so one of the reasons that this is happening is the job market is so hot, people have so many options that they're saying yes to you, CTO, listener, viewer. Okay? And then if their start date is three weeks, thirty days, whatever, forty-five days from now, they've got other options.

(Ken Coleman at 00:03:43) They're either looking for something better, even though they said yes, they took a good offer from you, but they're still roving. They're still looking. They're not ready to get married to you. Or a recruiter has reached out to them. And so they said yes to you, but then come wedding day, we got a runaway bride.

(Ken Coleman at 00:04:03) And so all that is where we sit. And so I've been doing a lot of research on the largest engagement study ever done by Gallup. I've developed a talk that I'm giving in two weeks to 3,000 leaders, and it's called the Six Rules of Engagement. And so what I'm fired up about is that there are three primary needs leaders, that every employee has because they're human. So we first have to understand these three primary needs.

(Ken Coleman at 00:04:35) They are, number one, we desire, we need to see meaning and purpose in our work. So, like, we see that this matters to me. I see a greater purpose beyond just my job and my paycheck. Number two, we need to be recognized for our unique contribution. That is, you know, Sam, Samantha, my amazing publicist right here.

(Ken Coleman at 00:05:02) Like, Samantha and I and you needs to hear, hey, Samantha. Like, your enthusiasm and how you come up with an idea and how you pitch it and you're pushing me to do stuff, I gotta get to tell you, it's really valuable and it's making me better. Like, she needs to hear that. It's not, Sam, you're doing a good job. She needs to hear there's something unique about her and her contribution.

(Ken Coleman at 00:05:26) So that's a human need. The third human need is we need a relationship with our leader. And it's usually in that coach or mentor. You could, you know, you could kind of parse, parcel that out if you want. But it's either that coach or mentor type relationship.

(Ken Coleman at 00:05:42) People desire that. So this is from the largest research study Gallup's ever done on engagement. And so I looked at the study and those were the three primary needs. And so I'm not going to unpack all this now, but I've developed the Six Rules of Engagement. I'm going to debut it in two weeks.

(Ken Coleman at 00:05:59) And these are rules that leaders have to have in place if they want to have high levels of engagement and high levels of retention. And here's the big takeaway that I'm going to give leaders. I'll give this part away and we can dive into this. Leaders, listen to me. If you take care of the people you have now, you understand and meet those three primary needs that I just listed out.

(Ken Coleman at 00:06:27) If you take care of the people you have, you'll never have to worry about getting the people you need. Now I'm going to say that again because that is, that's a mouthful. If you take care of the people you have, you won't have to worry about getting the people you need. They will become your greatest recruiting tool. They will stay with you longer.

(Ken Coleman at 00:06:48) They will drive greater results. Leaders, you need to understand this. In taking care of those needs, you are giving them through the job you have given them. You are giving them a path to a better life. So no worker's going to come to you and say, I want a better life, but they want better jobs.

(Ken Coleman at 00:07:11) Well, what they really want is a better life. And when we as leaders can understand those three primary needs and go, wait a second. If I just help a person find a seat on my bus that gives them meaning and purpose, if I recognize them on a regular basis for their unique contribution, if I have a relationship with them, like real relationship to where they trust me, not as their boss, but as a coach that's helping them win and grow in their personal and professional life. You're telling me that I won't have to worry about finding and getting and keeping good people? That's what I'm telling you.

(Ken Coleman at 00:07:53) So that's what I'm fired up about.

(Joel Beasley at 00:07:55) You know, I find some of the best leadership qualities, they're sort of hard to train. Right? Like, I tell people, you know, become a better person. Right? Like, if you need a management book, just do everything Jesus did.

(Joel Beasley at 00:08:09) You're not going to have to worry about anything. No bias, nothing like that. Have you seen in practice people attempt to systemize these three things, or is it just more of a some leaders do it better than others? How do you see it actually play out?

(Ken Coleman at 00:08:25) You know, I've talked to over 5,000 callers on the Ken Coleman show, and it's a mix of people leaving leaders and a mix of people wanting to join leaders. So I have a really unique vantage point. I know what people, I know why people are leaving, and I know what people are looking for. And from that standpoint, I don't see a lot of leaders doing those three things well. I don't see them meeting needs.

(Ken Coleman at 00:08:46) I think there certainly are a lot of great organizations who meet those three primary human needs. I think there are leaders who are very conscious of those needs and are very intentional to meet those needs. I certainly believe that's there. But by and large, I mean, you just, you just got to look at the data. You know, over 50% of workers start looking for a new job within three months.

(Ken Coleman at 00:09:09) You know, it's been said, I don't know who said it first, but it's true. People don't leave companies. They leave leaders. And keep in mind, leaders, don't get defensive on what I just said. Because many times they leave you not because of what you did to them, but what you didn't do for them.

(Ken Coleman at 00:09:31) Let me say that again because that's a very distinct difference. When people leave you, it's not always because something you did to them like something bad or something you allowed to happen to them that's bad. It's many times what you didn't do for them. And again, back to those three primary needs. You didn't help them get in a seat on the bus that is meaningful and purposeful to them.

(Ken Coleman at 00:09:58) You didn't recognize them enough or ever for their unique contribution. And you didn't really develop a coach mentor relationship with them. If those needs aren't met, guess what? They're looking. We humans are needy people.

(Ken Coleman at 00:10:16) And so, you know, that's the deal. So, yeah, I'm sure there's organizations that have systemized that. But, but have you seen it firsthand or? Yeah, I mean, certainly we do it at Ramsey Solutions on some level. I think we need to be better at it.

(Ken Coleman at 00:10:37) I think we need to be better at it. I've seen great companies. Chick-fil-A does it well. I'm sure Chick-fil-A could be better at it. But no, I've not, because this is new content and I'm kind of diving into this research and I've, you know, come at this.

(Ken Coleman at 00:10:52) I mean, I'm not, I haven't been looking for it to be able to where I could say to you, this company, I give an A-plus on this, this, and this. You know, I mean, there are a lot of companies that do it well. And by the way, a lot of companies that do it instinctively because you could take those three primary needs and you could just go, you know, look, if you're a servant leader, there's a good chance you're going to meet those needs. But a lot of servant leaders don't know how to get people in the right seat of the bus. They just know something's off.

(Ken Coleman at 00:11:22) And so I'm going to recognize them and be good to them, pay them well, develop a coach relationship with them. But if you get two out of those three right, you're still susceptible to losing somebody. So you know what I teach, talent, passion, mission, when they're in alignment, the inner threads are allowing that person to experience meaning and purpose because they go, I was born for this. Do you understand what I'm saying?

(Joel Beasley at 00:11:51) I do. And what's running through my head right now is my roster of my company and how much of those three. It's like their gradients. Right? About how much I do with each person of those three.

(Joel Beasley at 00:12:03) And some, I know way more about one thing, and I'm not doing the other two. And some, I'm kind of doing all of them halfway. So it's really, it'd be an interesting exercise for me to sit down and do a one to ten on each one of them.

(Ken Coleman at 00:12:16) Yeah.

(Joel Beasley at 00:12:16) And then also see how it bakes into our culture. Like, I'm just curious to take a sample from my two of my executives and ask them, you know, like, what do you think your scale is for the team and what you're providing across these three areas. I think that'd be interesting. I've also seen a lot of one-on-one and team management softwares, things like that. I was like, that would probably be a good place where you could, you know, integrate some of this for companies that have that type of workflow.

(Ken Coleman at 00:12:46) Yeah. You know, I would say in technology companies, it's almost more important to really understand that third and final need in that list. And that's that coach mentor relationship. Because the nature of technology work and then the workers that do technology work, these are very smart women and men. I mean, like crazy smart.

(Ken Coleman at 00:13:06) And this is no secret. I mean, this bears out much data and I've talked to people that are in technology training, Bethel Tech. I endorse Bethel Tech. You know, I mean, they're teaching soft skills like crazy to a lot of these tech people because tech people, a lot of them, not all of them, tend to be a little bit weak in the area of soft skills and people skills. The good news is you can develop those.

(Ken Coleman at 00:13:28) And I just think it's really important that there is a, and again, this is to your direct report. So I wouldn't expect you as the CEO to have this with everybody in your company. I would expect you to meet those three needs of your direct reports. And then your direct reports need to meet those three needs of their direct reports. And so, but I will say because of the nature of the isolation and the quiet work or the deep focused work that happens in a lot of technology companies and technology work, even if a person is an extreme introvert and just wants to watch Star Wars during their lunch break, you got to reach out to them and you got to find a connection to them, and develop some type of coaching mentor relationship with them to where they feel like my leader really wants me to win.

(Ken Coleman at 00:14:27) It's not about his wins or her wins. It's not about the company wins. They want me to win because they realize when I win the rest of it takes care of itself.