Having significant influence may be best played as a team sport. Many of the /component/page,shop.browse/category_id,6/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,62/vmcchk,1/”>cialis usa people profiled to date have alter egos who make their contributions possible. Still others lead teams that are the source of lasting difference.

Cecelia and Joe Gonzalez are partners in a search firm that specializes in the HR executive market. Like Darren Romano and Valerie Frederickson, their net impact stems from the people they place around the industry. In HR, these agents are a vital key in the development of long and sucessful careers.

When I first called Cecelia, I was surprised that she wanted to do the interview with her partner and husband, Joe. I had premonitions of an unbearably long hour of the little woman fawning over her mate. I agreed to interview the two of them together very reluctantly.

It was an eye opener. What Joe and Cecelia forced me to understand was another limit in my view of influence and how it works. By sticking to their guns and forcing me to see them as a working unit, they helped me to see a bigger piece of the puzzle.

In this case (and many others around the industry), 1 + 1 = 4

As fond as I am of the self-made entrepreneur and all of its romantic accessories, the truth is that sometimes the industry is shaped by people who work together. There are pairs and teams who have powerful influence.

Just as a reminder, influence involves causing things to be done without controlling the underlying resources. Influencers work through others to get large things done. Or, influencers create ideas and or tools that change the lives of the people who use them. Or, influencers make things possible today that were impossible yesterday. Or, influencers make the ability to do things accessible to large groups.

There are tons of ways to generate and use influence.

BCA Executive Search, the Gonzalez’ firm, has specialized in HR Executive placements for almost 15 years. Over that time, the positive feedback loop (virtuous circle) the evolved from the work leads them to deeper and deeper insight into the role of HR. Successful clients create more success.

“Great HR is all about leverage. It’s not just the right talent, it’s not just the right time, it’s not just the right team. It’s that extra something that comes from a perfect fit. If you demonstrate it in the placement of the executive and then the company begins to understand how to expect it.”

Scale is one of the nagging problems in all of HR. How you take a great process that works in a small firm and give it enough ooomph to operate in larger contexts is a great mystery. The Gonzalez clan is attempting to solve the problem using varieties of social media.

HeadHunter Radio, their latest project is designed to create a library of material for clients and candidates alike. By cultivating the best of the best into an audio format. The team hopes to reduce face to face time with useful material.

The project is a surprising success. With several hundred regular weekly listeners, Headhunter Radio seems to have more traction than a number of shows that compete in the same area.

The Gonzalezes believe that HR should have all of its focus on talent. Like Neil McCormick and Mike Foster (among others), they believe that the only strategic merit available to HR involves people. Administrivia simply distracts from the mission.

Like many great influencers, the Gonzalez have great questions and like to listen. As we learn to rethink talent, they’re /component/page,shop.browse/category_id,6/option,com_virtuemart/Itemid,62/vmcchk,1/”>cialis usa a case in point. As we increase our focus on what makes great talent leverage, we need to remember the importance of duos and small teams.

“The snickering begins when they ask to be your business partner. With little business acumen and even less understanding, they demand a seat at the table when anyone knows that what you want is a seat in the golf cart.”

So says Rusty Rueff as he ponders the future of HR. “We’re looking at an era where work becomes molecular. Project teams band together for the project and reconfigure for the next. Transparent workplaces where people come to dock and never to stay are the coming thing.”

Rueff’s career in HR was a skyrocket. From management trainee at Pratt-Whitney to Pepsico to Electronic Arts to Venture Backed startup as a CEO, Rueff’s career is a model that people point to. He worked all of the HR functions, published a book on talent management saw each phase of the corporate lifecycle and ran and sold a venture backed firm.

Rusty’s core developmental experience came in his decade at Pepsi. /component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.product_details/flypage,flypage.tpl/product_id,45/Itemid,44/”>generic cialis 10mg There are several academy companies in HR, the ones whose alumni run an enormous percentage of the other HR departments. Pepsi is one of the prime sources of HR Executives throughout America.

Some forms of influence come from the networks that you form over the years. The Pepsi alumni are a fraternity whose reach extends into boardrooms and training programs. Rusty’s colleagues throughout the course of his career are central to the level of influence he wields.

In action, Rusty’s HR department was a competitive weapon, recruiting as an offensive strategy, managing perks and compensation to retain the core assets of the business, offering strong counsel on non-HR business issues. The combination of a deep network of like-minded execs plus innovative performance gave Rusty a platform for influence.

In the career model of influence, that’s how you do. Stage 1, you learn the craft in rich detail. /component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.product_details/flypage,flypage.tpl/product_id,45/Itemid,44/”>generic cialis 10mg In Stage 2, you learn the politics of executing the craft appropriately. The third stage involves demonstrating these skills on problems outside the craft. This is important, you don’t get permission to be a business partner, you earn the privilege.

Stage four is where the network comes in. By having a peer group to turn to for new tactics and techniques, you ensure your ability to continue to innovate in your role, ever increasing the benefit to the organization. Stage four is where you build the platform for influence. The fifth and final stage involves using and increasing the influence you’ve developed.

Rusty Rueff is a fifth stage influencer. When he left HR, he took a two and a half year tour as the CEO of a VC backed SnoCap, a digital rights management company. By navigating the company to a sale, Rueff completed his tour of the business lifecycle, buying him even more credibility. Credibility, you see, is the substrate of influence. No credibility, no influence. Lots of it and influence is possible.

Today, Rueff plies his trade as a philanthropist, board member and consultant. Early on, he had a mentor who encouraged him to do the things he loved by reading him Ayn Rand. It looks like Rusty followed his advice.

The role of academics and well heeled technologists seems to be to disrupt. These riot instigators persist with uncomfortable questions like ‘why isn’t your profession adding to the bottom line’ or ‘tell me the ROI of your Recruiting operation’. Rotten tomatoes, disruptive technologies and really innovative ways of doing things seem like trouble to old experienced hands. These folks like being that sort of trouble.

Like the sand that produces the pearl in the oyster, these professional irritants interrupt smooth function to produce a new beauty. By making people think, ask questions and doubt their fundamental assumptions, they pry open the world of possibilities. It’s a thankless job and the really great ones expect little in the way of thanks.

Causing people to question their assumptions means upsetting the apple cart, challenging /component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.pdf_output/showpage,shop.browse/pop,1/output,pdf/product_id,0/category_id,6/vmcchk,1/Itemid,1/”>cheapest generic cialis the status quo. In order to really rankle the players, one has to be free to maneuver effectively. Two things make the posture possible: venture financing or a secure position in academia.

Dr John Sullivan has been at it for a long time. Born in New Jersey (there was lots of gambling, it just hadn’t been legalized yet), Sullivan went to school in Florida where he got his doctorate. His friends told him he belonged in California so he moved. Today, he lives on a cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just south of San Francisco.

There are few people who make a stronger case for the importance of recruiting. Sullivan asks, rhetorically, “How long does it take to make a short person tall? Let’s say you could do it in 10 years. The trouble is that your business changed course 10 minutes ago.”

He has little time for the idea of internal development. “If you could hire Tiger Woods for your golf team, how could you say no. Great talent is what draws other great talent. Cost is completely irrelevant if you want to make a competitive difference.”

It’s strong medicine from the good doctor.

I was fascinated to discover that Sullivan and his eponymous firm do not take consulting dollars. They don’t do the things typically associated with consulting firms. Sullivan confided “When you take money from someone, you have to tell them what they want to hear. I’m just not any good at doing that.”

Instead, they tackle a single issue each year and travel widely to investigate the question. The street estimate is that Sullivan makes about 50 speeches a year and visits key companies and constituents as a part of the heavy speaking schedule. Over the years, Sullivan has used this method to cover a spectrum of recruiting issues. “The question is always, ‘What does it take to cause world class performance in this arena.”

Like a great evangelist, Sullivan repeats the same themes over and over again. “It’s about the money. Recruiting is a business decision. Cost doesn’t matter if you produce bottom line results. We should be supply chain heroes. Speed. Speed. Speed. You only matter if you give a competitive advantage.” He’s absolutely tireless And, it’s really refreshing to soak up the energy as he rails against the staus quo.

It takes stroing heretics to make a health profession. While I agree with Sullivan that industry hasn’t begun to behave professionally, that /component/option,com_virtuemart/page,shop.pdf_output/showpage,shop.browse/pop,1/output,pdf/product_id,0/category_id,6/vmcchk,1/Itemid,1/”>cheapest generic cialis there is room for his brand of fire and brimstone as a good sign.

The people who make their way by stretching the boundaries of the profession don’t do it to win friends and accolades. Sullivan is internally motivated and wants to see the profession made whole and useful.

You can follow John Sullivan on his website or in his writings at ERE.

John Sumser is the founder and CEO of TwoColorHat, a company specializing in market strategy for HR – Recruiting Vendors. You can keep up with his other stuff at johnsumser.com. Follow the rest of the Top 100 Influencers project.

I am really surprised by what I’m learning as /component/option,com_jcalpro/Itemid,28/extmode,cal/”>cialis 5 mg daily I tackle the Top 100 Influencers in HR-Recruiting project. Each day, I am surprised by the way that people see the industry. There are entire aspects of the picture that are invisible to some and plain as day to others.

The 10% mark seems like a good point for a status report. Here are the high points:

• Influence and power are not the same thing. Influence is the ability to shape opinion and increase the probability that something will happen.
• Very few people seem to understand that Third Party Recruiting is what a successful outsourcing ecosystem looks like. After two generations, there is an informal, eBay style marketplace. Fees are typically reflective of value in spite of the complaints associated with the fees. Generally, the health of the outsourced recruiting ecosystem can be measured by the complete lack of complaints about quality.
• It’s becoming clear that there are few people who actually have a comprehensive view of the HR-Recruiting Industry. This is caused by a couple of key factors.
  • The past decade has seen a shift in the HR career path. Where generalists used to be the ones getting promoted, today’s HR leaders come from either the Recruiting or the Training (Development) function.
  • When HR leaders change jobs, the six or seven vendors who were a part of the last leader’s regime are changed for a new crop.
  • The emphasis on HR as a Strategic function has come at the expense of good operational thinking.
  • The shift in the HR career path means that many stereotypes about HR flexibility are outdated.
• There are a number of overlapping /component/option,com_jcalpro/Itemid,28/extmode,cal/”>cialis 5 mg daily silos. While information and ideas percolate around the industry, the various silos are somewhat ignorant of each other.
  • Enterprise organizations do different things and solve different problems than small to medium sized organizations.
  • The industry’s professional associations are generally myopic.
  • The broad temptation to generalize about HR-Recruiting flies in the face of reality. HR-Recruiting is different by industry and region. What works one place doesn’t work in another.
  • There are very few ultimate principles in the HR-Recruiting world. Retention, Development, Organization, Recruiting Strategy and Recruiting Tactics are not in the group.
• Influence doesn’t have to be flashy to succeed. Good ideas and the ability to execute them are really important.
• The market for ‘benchmarking’ is really a quest for peers solving similar problems. It’s an underserved market because the desire for professional exchange gets distracted by market influences. There’s no real clearinghouse for the unadulterated exchange of success stories and learnings from failure.
• Not all smart people are influential. But, most people who are influential are smart. It’s easy to confuse microcelebrity with influence. The difference is usually that influential people don’t set out to be influential.
• Innovation and influence are different things. Innovation follows a predictable path into the industry. Innovation virtually always enters through the third party recruiting world where speed is the essential differentiate. It moves into small and medium sized business. From there, it goes to other operational parts of HR (learning, talent management) and finally hits the generalist group. This is the reason that legacy HR systems from huge software vendors retain their install base.

I am particularly impressed by the degree to which I am routinely learning something in this process. People who I was certain fit one category end up in another every day. This first 10% has been a good time to learn the ropes.

If you’re following along and have questions or suggestions, I am all ears. I am calling everyone who gets suggested and attempting to figure out the depths of their influence. More suggestions are a good thing. The list isn’t complete yet.

John Sumser is the founder and CEO of TwoColorHat, a company specializing in market strategy for HR – Recruiting Vendors. You can keep up with his other stuff at johnsumser.com. Follow the rest of the Top 100 Influencers project.