I'm all in...

I’m all in… 

Yep in that poker player way I’m all in.  

No plan B, just Plan A.

This might be obvious to all of you but for a long time I have been promoting my business immersive. promoting what we do but not actually leading it.  You see, at the back of my mind every time I see a new opportunity come into the inbox I have been thinking about whether I am a good fit for the role.  

As you will hopefully know up until the pandemic I had been a current and relevant practitioner, leading projects, doing some hiring.  In-house.

For a long time I thought that this was important, that my skills and experience as a Talent Acquisition leader were at the forefront of what we did.  That leading teams of recruiters in-house across Europe and beyond would somehow give me the edge over those crappy agencies and less crappy embedded organisations that have leaders that have never got their sleeves rolled up and actually hired.  

I still pick up the phone and hire myself for me and clients.  But I’m starting to realize that a lot of this stuff counts for less than I hoped.  My employed peers have all moved on and are now VP of this Head of that, badges of corporate success that I no longer take part in.  Bits of me miss it… the regularity of salary, the holidays, the ability to call upon resources and get people to do stuff…  but that’s not why you start a business.

For a while I used to do a lot of public speaking, on the same basis.  As I explained to someone yesterday I love being on a stage for that moment… you know the one where it all makes sense, the audience looks at you... and nod… that moment… It’s when you know you’ve have said something good and there’s more to come… that pesky pandemic has put pay to a lot of that.

I am still out there, as a practitioner, unlike so many ‘thought leaders’ and ‘gurus’ etc. who talk a really good talk about how organisations should hire, a really good talk about how the latest bit of technology should help your organisation ‘optimize your talent acquisition’ using AI or cultural based matching and yet the things they talk about are based on theory, not their own actual experience.  I have flown in an aeroplane but it doesn’t make me a pilot.

Yet does that matter?

Well in an aeroplane, yes.  In recruitment… less so.

And it is this somewhat minor revelation that has made me change what I do.  Or more specifically change how I look at the business I run. 

Whilst I will still pick up the phone to hire for us and whilst I will still provide advice, guidance and the occasional project to look at how organisations actually hire, I am going to stop being that practitioner, stop looking at every role thinking “I can do that” and focus on doing the stuff that I know is needed for the business.  

To actually lead, grow and develop immersive. as a significant player in the EMEA in-house/embedded market.

I’ll do this whilst making sure we provide an interesting business for all of our employees and contractors, a business that truly lives by our values, to be nimble, to dive right in and customer focus.

Over the next few months we will continue to expand the team and look for investment to accelerate that process. If either of those two things appeal, then let’s get a call.

In the meantime…

I’m all in...