By Peter Weddle, CEO of TAtech
Like its kissing cousin clickbait, mindbait is an alluring idea made under false pretenses. Among those in job board and talent technology businesses (and all of tech for that matter), it’s the notion of the heroic company builder who single-handedly takes their enterprise from the garage to an IPO all by themselves. Picture Paul Bunyan in a turtleneck. The vision is entrancing, but as we all know, that mythical giant was just that: a myth. And, so is the solitary unicorn-building entrepreneur.
Now, don’t get me wrong. Many entrepreneurs are great leaders and by dint of their vision and grit, they do achieve great things with their companies. But, they don’t do it alone. By definition, leadership is a plural experience. It involves the addition of assets and then their alignment and direction for the accomplishment of a valued purpose.
It’s the definition of the word “asset’ that separates the most successful leaders from the also-rans. Effective leaders have an expansive view of the term. Not only do they assemble great internal teams, they also forge effective external partnerships and alliances. They know that the secret sauce of success is an ecosystem of strategic business relationships that extends the reach and capability of a company beyond what it can achieve on its own.
Said another way, the most successful job board and talent technology company leaders don’t succumb to the ego-stroking premise of the solitary unicorn-building entrepreneur. They seek out prospective partners and allies, they carefully evaluate both the advantages and potential downsides they offer, they select those that can best support their company’s advancement, and they invest the time and effort to optimize the relationship.
Each month, TAtech convenes a RoundTable webcast with some of the smartest people in talent acquisition. The show is just 30-minutes long, but it tackles the issues and ideas that are shaping the world of work, the talent market and the role of recruiters. April’s TAtech RoundTable will explore, “Are today’s job seekers really all that different from those in the past?” Register here to watch the show!
So, the first question an effective job board or talent technology company leader has to answer is exactly the one that HR and TA leaders must answer for their organizations. “Where can I find a critical mass of prospective partners that will enable me to research and evaluate the alternatives effectively?”
That’s what drives the HR/TA audience at HR and Recruiting conferences. And of course, that’s why job boards and talent technology companies attend as well. We may call them customers or clients, but in the most successful of those relationships, they are our partners.
Similarly, job boards and talent technology companies need a venue for researching and evaluating prospective business partners. And, that’s not HR and Recruiting conferences. Doing sales is a full-time task, so there’s no space left in the day for making the connections required to build that ecosystem of strategic B2B relationships.
Shameless plug alert.
That’s exactly what the Deal Center at TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum is all about. It’s a unique venue specifically designed to facilitate meetings where TA solution providers can explore partnerships and alliances, product integrations, and even mergers and acquisitions.
The conference will be held on May 22-24 in Austin, Texas, and its purpose is unlike that of every HR, HR Tech and Recruiting conference. Those events are designed to serve the employer, and that’s fine, but job boards and talent technology companies also need a conference that serves them. A conference that has a single, unwavering goal: to help advance their bottom-line success. That’s TAtech North America & The World Job Board Forum, the antidote to mindbait.
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Peter
Peter Weddle is the author or editor of over two dozen books and a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal. He is also the founder and CEO of TAtech: The Association for Talent Acquisition Solutions. You can download his latest book – The Neonaissance – FOR FREE at OneStoryforAll.com. And, if you don't have time to read the entire book, just download a short excerpt of his inspirational message.