In his bestselling book, Decoding Greatness, Ron Friedman challenges the notion that greatness only comes through inner talent and practice.
There is a third story about greatness–one that is not often shared.
Yet, it’s a path to skill acquisition and mastery that’s stunningly common among icons everywhere from artists and writers to chefs and athletes to inventors and entrepreneurs.
It’s called reverse engineering.
Reverse engineering means studying what others are doing with a high level of scrutiny and attention to detail. And then applying what you learned to a related endeavor.
Dr. Friedman demonstrates how the great innovations in technology, business, education, culture, politics, relationships, and most other fields were created through some sort of reverse engineering.
It only makes sense that something this powerful should be applied to recruiting, as well.
We’ll touch back on this topic in some future Insights, but let’s start the process of reverse engineering recruiting by asking a few simple questions:
- Who are the companies, offices, and teams who are recruiting most successfully in your marketplace?
- What are some of the techniques these other entities are using to recruit so successfully?
- Can any of their techniques or methodologies be quickly copied and reused?
- What are other industries doing (outside of real estate) to recruit successfully?
It’s arrogant and misguided to think all the good ideas will be spontaneously generated inside your brain.
The smartest and most successful recruiters look for ideas they can reuse.
