How The Power of Your Mind Will Make You A Top Biller
What separates the top billers from the rest in recruitment comes down to one simple thing: the power of your mind. Whether you’re a great recruiter or not isn’t about the way you look, what school you went to, or how much money you have: it is about selling– and the truly great sellers display strong emotional intelligence, good resilience and great mental habits.
It’s true that some people were born with a greater natural stock of resilience, self-motivation, or emotional intelligence, but it’s just as true that all of these powerful mental traits and tricks can be learnt.
The secret to your success lies in the power of your mind. So we’ve put together a little list of the most powerful mental attributes that you can learn in order to become a top biller.
1. Emotional Intelligence. High emotional Intelligence (EI) has been proven to link more closely to success in life than high IQ. Emotional Intelligence is a very broad concept, primarily based on you being aware of your own and others’ emotions in order to navigate situations to your advantage. 90% of top performers have high EI, and they earn more money. For a recruiter, Good EI translates as knowing when to listen, when to try to close the deal, and when you should back off. Displaying Emotional Intelligence will also mark you out in the office as someone tipped for success- bringing in lucrative leads and promotions.
2. This is the buzzword of the moment, and as a recruiter your ability to be resilient in the face of stress and setbacks is vital. Resilience as a theory was initially researched when psychologists wondered why it is that some children growing up in terrible circumstances go on to achieve greatness, while most do not. They isolated this idea of resilience- an ability to bounce back and remain strong in the face of adversity. The good news is that you can build your resilience!
3. Growth Mindset. This extraordinary research by Dr Carol Dweck shows that people fall largely into one of two mindsets: Growth Mindset, or Fixed Mindset (although most of us are a mix of both.) A Fixed Mindset personality will believe that their talents and aptitudes are fixed at birth, meaning that we are only given a certain amount of ability and cannot surpass this. The fixed mindset personality will often fear the talents of others and struggle to deal with criticism, as they feel their level of talent is innate and can’t be improved upon.
A growth mindset, on the other hand, believes that they can constantly learn and grow, and that our levels of talent and ability are very fluid. The growth mindset personality doesn’t perceive criticism or other people’s talent as a powerful threat, as they believe in their own potential to improve. Which category do you fall into more? If you’re a fixed mindset, never fear- the simple act of accepting that you can grow your skills puts you well on the way to becoming a ‘growth mindset’ person and leaving behind that fear of not being good enough!
4. Great mental habits. Those who succeed tend to display some common habits, such as:
a. Not avoiding difficult tasks or conversations. Successful people will normally want to get the tough things out of the way early, so that they can feel like they’ve achieved and can move on with a clear head.
b. Not procrastinating and leaving things until the last minute. Procrastination is often just fear of failure dressed up in a fancy outfit- so assess what is driving your procrastination and leave it behind.
c. Planning well. Many top performers will plan out their day the night before, and they schedule their week effectively, factoring in time for unforeseen events.
d. Being able to self-motivate and focus.
e. Not allowing perfectionism to get in the way of performance. Successful people understand that while standards need to be high, that they shouldn’t waste time on tiny details if they don’t ultimately matter to the end result.
These four major mindsets for success are heavily interlinked, and you’ll find that as you develop your emotional intelligence your mental habits will improve, as will your resilience. Yet all of your improvements must be underpinned by one crucial thing: a growth mindset…for if you don’t believe that you can improve and learn new skills, you never will!
Until next time,
Cheryl