Jan 6 2014 Chicago Temp

The New Year is here and so is the deep freeze! I’m writing from Chicago (or Chiberia as we are calling it today) where it is 14 below zero with a wind chill of a “freeze your face off in no time” 37 below. Seriously, we are colder today than Antarctica and Siberia. There is something very wrong about that.

My goal for the last few days was to get some “big stuff” done for work – write some articles, plan a presentation, and build out a couple new tools. It was all going to be done by the weekend, but Mother Nature had other ideas. A massive winter storm moved in and dumped a couple feet of snow and today brought these crazy sub-zero temperatures. So I (and the rest of Chicago) ran errands, got supplies, shoveled snow repeatedly, and got ready to batten down the proverbial hatches. Needless to say these distractions added up and made it difficult to get the big stuff done as I had planned.

Why mention this? Because I hear the same thing from talent acquisition leaders every day. There’s a big initiative that is critical, but small tasks and fires come up and make it impossible to get the big stuff done. I get it. It happens to all of us at one time or another. Sometimes, we just have to get creative on how we resource our needs.

Since leaving corporate recruiting leadership and joining Recruiting Toolbox last year, one of my favorite parts of consulting is partnering with talent acquisition leaders to get important things done. We help with customized strategies, process improvements, trainings, and tools. You know, the projects that business leaders actually pay attention to, appreciate, and reward.

I'm lucky. As a consultant I get to work with awesome clients. And these awesome clients tell us that they hire us for some combination of these three reasons:

1. They need our expertise. These leaders may not know how to do a training or project or they may want perspectives that are broader than their own.

2. They need our experience. These leaders have a good idea about a training or project, but need someone who has experience actually doing it to help guide them and ensure that it gets done really well the first time.

3. They need our execution. These leaders don’t have the time or resources needed to do the training or project in-house. We help them get it done with high quality deliverables that their business leaders and users love.

For any of you struggling to get the big, important stuff done, we’re here to help. As former corporate recruiting leaders, we’ve seen it, done it, and we bring that experience to you. We’re privileged to partner with amazing clients who are serious about delivering high quality talent acquisition in their companies and elevating the skills of their teams. If you're looking for ways to up your recruiting game or to get some critical stuff done, please keep us in mind.

Happy New Year everyone and remember one important thing. We can’t succeed if we get stuck (or frozen) on the distractions, so stay focused and let's do some big stuff in 2014!

Matt