An HR Leader recently reached out to me, absolutely sure that she needed to hire me to help her edit her resume. As we spoke on our introductory call, and we dug deeper on her current scenario, it became clear the resume wasn’t the ‘challenge’ she needed help solving. She actually needed help determining her ideal next move, her future goals; self-admittedly, her career was lacking focus or direction. Curiously, we talked about why she assumed her biggest challenge was her resume. It came down to an assumption.
An assumption that the first stop of every job-search was investing in a resume. Seems logical, but that’s not always the case! Every job-seeker has their own unique challenges to solve. This is not a ‘one size fits all’ problem-solving scenario. In her case, the challenge with her search was: She didn’t know her end goal. So, she shouldn’t invest her time, money and energy in getting help with something that wouldn’t end up fixing her challenge. A beautiful resume wouldn’t solve her main challenge: defining her ideal next move. She was putting the cart before the horse. We realized she may not even need a resume, as she may be launching her own business soon! She was relieved and grateful that I helped her define and articulate the support she really needed based on the challenge she was facing.
HR pros want to spend their time, money, and energy wisely.
The assumptions she made were steering her towards solutions that would have been a misuse of her time, money and energy. So, let’s peel back the layers of the onion and make sure we’re really clear on the challenge before we propose a solution.
Clarity. Assumptions.
Clarity is often the missing piece.
And, clarity is nearly impossible to define when we’re making assumptions.
When it comes to hiring, the same challenge occurs…
A Global Head of TA called me last week that they (assumed) they needed help with a challenging HR search. They figured a headhunter was the right solution because they (assumed) needed to see more resumes. Assumption: resume flow was the challenge they needed to solve. As we continued digging deeply together on this consultative call, it was clear that talent attraction, quality and quantity of resumes wasn’t the issue at all! They had already reviewed over 20 strong resumes, met 15 candidates, had the role open 3 months… so what was the challenge? (Well, Hiring Manager Training, Providing TA data, Job Description re-write, Candidate Experience training to name just a few…)
Spending their time, money, energy on ‘finding more resumes’ would not have been wise. It wouldn’t have solved their challenges. By identifying their real challenges, we were able to find the right solution (in this case, engaging with me as a Consultant to teach them how to hire better and overcome the above-mentioned challenges!).
We’re often choosing the wrong solution because we aren’t defining the right problem.
We’re doing this because we lack clarity and are making assumptions.
As a business owner, 8 years into owning my firm, I’ve never had to be as innovative as now, this pivotal time in 2021—a transformative time when the HR community is hungry for unique solutions to solve their unique challenges.
Most HR departments want to transform, evolve, modernize! Their TA pros need to be upskilled. Their interviewers need help. They need seamless hiring journeys. Some need their TA teams to be coached, not to engage with external search firms. Some HR pros need their LinkedIn profile to be updated, not their resume. Others need interviewing coaching, not personal branding training.
We’ve got to peel back the layers of the onion to really see what we’re solving! In doing this, we can see (with clarity) the challenge that needs solving ….very often it is not what we initially assumed we would need; then, we have the clarity needed to get creative and customize a solution.
We need to get curious, so we don’t start solving the wrong problems. We need to challenge our assumptions.
I’m sure you’d prefer to spend your time, money and energy on solving the actual challenges you’re facing!
Otherwise, you’re spinning and spinning in circles…and will find yourself jumping off the carousel months later, having gone nowhere at all.
Are you challenging your assumptions? This is an important and humbling process in a market like this one. It is based on this challenge assumptions and dig deep to get clarity thinking that led me to offer coaching, consulting, training services to meet your needs. We have to think differently to transform HR.
Be prepared that things aren’t always as you expect them to be!
Explore problem-solving in a different way.
Let’s challenge the assumptions that we know the perfect solution to a challenge that doesn’t even exist.