Headhunting work, at first glance, seems to have little technical content. It appears to just involve going through resumes, sorting out those that meet the client's requirements, sending them over, and ultimately letting the client decide whether to hire or not. This makes it seem like headhunters are nothing more than ordinary clerks. However, this is not the case. Without even mentioning the fact that headhunters must use all sorts of methods and overcome numerous difficulties when searching for rare, scarce talents in order to possibly complete their tasks; even when finding candidates that relatively meet the client’s requirements, identifying those who can truly fit into the client’s company, quickly adapt to their roles, and not fail prematurely, is by no means an easy task. But, this is something a dedicated and responsible headhunter consultant must accomplish. Furthermore, since headhunter consultants review large amounts of resumes daily and continuously interview candidates, quickly identifying top talents has become one of our important abilities.
Many people understand this principle, but how exactly does one achieve it? I've asked many young headhunter consultants, and usually, they cannot provide clear answers. This is understandable, as these young headhunter consultants lack experience in their own career development and have insufficient understanding of the intrinsic laws of business management. How then can they deeply comprehend what kind of talent constitutes the excellent talent a company needs? Here, I would like to briefly discuss five distinctions between outstanding and average talents that I have discovered based on my years of work experience, which can also serve as a tool for us to quickly identify top talents:
1. Outstanding talents usually adhere to a professional, honest, and responsible life philosophy, consistently upholding this philosophy in both work and life. Typically, they do not compromise, yield, or blindly follow on issues of principle or major right-and-wrong questions. Such talents usually have strong confidence in their abilities and behaviors, thus behaving with neither arrogance nor humility, being modest and measured in dealing with others.
2. Outstanding talents usually place great emphasis on keeping promises, striving to achieve goals despite any difficulties for the tasks they undertake. Even if objective conditions limit them and prevent goal achievement, such individuals will not seek excuses to absolve themselves, nor will they give up, but rather bravely take on the responsibility to turn defeat into victory or compensate for losses through other means. Such talents typically discuss positively how they set and achieve their performance goals, and how they can improve their work in the future, which is precisely the target-oriented feature we often refer to.
3. Outstanding talents usually have a relatively clear career development plan, and this career design is not primarily based on personal preferences or material gains. Their career planning is based on rational self-awareness of their strengths, specialties, shortcomings, and obstacles, while also conforming to the objective demands of enterprises or society, closely linking their own development with the development of the enterprise. The careers of such talents are less likely to be interrupted, and due to the contributions they make, companies often develop more healthily, naturally valuing such talents more, treating them as key members, and entrusting them with important responsibilities.
4. Outstanding talents are usually rich in team spirit. In conversation, such talents constantly reveal their desire to build a culture of teamwork and their own efforts towards it. These efforts manifest in honesty, trust, mutual benefit, inclusiveness, and initiative, and cannot be expressed as manipulation, exploitation, suspicion, factionalism, or selfishness. Their purpose in building teams is to make greater contributions to the enterprise and even society, achieving common achievements or developments among team members, thus gaining more trust from the enterprise and reliance and respect from team members.
5. Outstanding talents usually love their jobs immensely. This is not because their jobs are more interesting or offer higher income, but because they see the value they create for the company and others in their work, and they feel joy from their work results. From another perspective, the social achievement motivation of such people is usually strong. They do not calculate personal gains and losses but pay more attention to the value they create and how much they contribute to others. Such people often proudly explain the significance and value of their work to you, enjoying the fun of work while also reaping its fruits.
I remember a point in career planning theory: hard skills such as ability and specialty determine the profession suitable for him (or her), while soft skills such as concepts and habits determine the height he (or she) can reach. Hard skills are easy to improve, but enhancing soft skills is much more difficult. Even if change is possible, the process is often very long and requires certain opportunities to align. In this aspect, our clients cannot wait. As headhunter consultants, what we need to do is identify and select those talents with excellent soft skills, recommend them to our clients, so as to better realize the win-win situation for enterprises, talents, and ourselves.
Source: Grassland Talent Network (http://www.job215.com)