Hire on Motivation 🙂

This article was originally posted on LinkedIn.

I first started recruiting back in the late 90’s working for Michael Page International in Sydney, Australia. To be honest I really started connecting people and jobs when I first moved to London at 19 years of age in 1994 when I worked at Swiss Bank Corporation. The office building housed 1000 employees.  I was soon sort out by Department Heads who would ask if I had any friends looking for work. I always made a great match and the word spread fast.  Back then I thought it was the fact they loved Aussie Accents, we were known to have a good laugh, life of the party and always up for after work drinks at the local pub.  On reflection it was that I referred people like myself, they say like attracts like and we were all highly motivated.  To save up and step outside your comfort zone and to move to another country takes a lot of motivation!

When I first started recruiting I thought I was often lucky matching candidates to new employers – Recruitment was always easy for me.  It was actually my subconscious choosing motivated people like myself. As I learnt my craft, I could teach others on what to look out for and the right questions to ask.

I recently was given a book by my Sales Coordinator Mary as a Christmas Present – Good Leaders Ask Great Questions by John Maxwell. (I’m a big believer in surrounding yourself with people that have better skills than yourself and help motivate you.  Mary is a great example of this. Thanks Mary!)

I read the follow passage, that resonates well with my own experience on hiring. I have included interview question tips for you in italics for those new to interviewing to get you started:

Hire Motivated People:

How can you identify motivated people? They usually have several following traits:

1.     They exhibit a positive attitude.  Ask the reason they left each of their previous employers (start from their very first work experience).  Ask them what each of their manager’s styles was like?  When you speak to a motivated person you won’t hear any negative comments about previous employers or companies.

2.     They can articulate specific goals for their life.  Ask what are your personal and professional goals for the next year? What goal did you set for yourself last year that you achieved?

3.     They are initiators.  Tell me about a project that you initiated at work previously? What worked out well? What didn’t? What did you learn from it? What is your greatest process improvement?  

4.     They have a proven track record of success. They have a work history with longevity with each employer. Motivated people take responsibility for their own actions and don’t blame others and jump from job to job. Ask about their greatest achievements, start at High School and work your way through each job.

Look for these traits when looking for new team members.

Good Luck on recruiting, interviewing and growing your own team.  As a Leader keep motivated and set the bar high for everyone to follow.

How I keep myself motivated:

I start my day with a morning ritual with a 4 am start.

30 Minutes Learning – Robin Sharma – Your Absolute Best Year Ever! Listening to Robin is like exercise for my mind 🙂

30 Minutes Fitness – Using the couch to 5 km app to get back into Running. Lucky I have a dog that barks if I don’t leave the house for his morning walk. He is a great fitness motivator as I don’t want to wake the rest of the house 🙂

30 Minutes Journal & Planning – Set the 5 most important tasks to help grow our business.  Re write my goals (that BHAG one) and what I’m grateful for.

To your success!

Fiona Kesby is the CEO of GoTeam an Australian owned and operated Managed Operations specialist in hiring Virtual Assistants and building offshore teams in an office located in Cebu, Philippines.   Fiona currently lives in Cebu and has experience offshoring tasks since 2008.  She has 18 years’ experience in Recruitment.  She is passionate about sourcing the best talent in the market, developing leaders without titles and providing a culture built on the love of learning, execution, care, finding a way and drive. You can contact her on fiona.kesby@go.team

About GoTeam (formerly Go Virtual Assistants)

GoTeam, formerly GO Virtual Assistants (GO-VA) Inc. is a registered Australian-Filipino owned company growing in the heart of Cebu City, as well as a growing number of key cities in the Philippines.

Our HQ is situated in an IT complex with modern facilities, although since March 2020, more than 70% of our team members have been working from home.

Our enhanced operations and streamlined services provide scalable opportunities that spell sustainability, growth, and success for any business venture. As your global team members, GoTeam’s goal is to create winnable games and strategies across all the work that we do, knowing that your success is our long-term fulfillment.

We help Australian, NZ, US, and UK businesses increase revenue, reduce costs, and scale through outsourced offshoring. This also creates for us the opportunity to be a catalyst for people to exceed.

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Website: https://go.team
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Email: sales@go.team
Email: careers@go.team