Lead yourself well before you can lead others

At APSCo’s ELEVATE, recruitment leaders came together to explore what great leadership looks like in today’s fast-changing market. Sophie Robertson shared her top tips, offering practical insights on building stronger teams, navigating change, and leading with confidence. Here’s a look at the key lessons she presented to inspire and guide leaders. 

Without clarity on what you stand for, it is impossible for people to decide if they want to follow you.

What are your values?

These are the things you hold dear and use to live your life by e.g. if honesty is a value, is this an expectation you have set for your team? Will they tell the candidate if the job is not the right one for them or will they make the placement regardless and hope for the best?

What are your beliefs?

I call them mantras or signposts that will operate as a guiding light when your team are uncertain what to do. Mine is “Service, service, service and money will follow”. If unsure of what to do, think of it as what is the best service for both candidate and client? If your team operate with this in mind, they will build a great reputation and business.

What are your non-negotiables?

E.g. putting information onto the CRM. This is a clear non-negotiable for many reasons i.e. better service, better data and for risk mitigation. Yet so many companies let this slide! The standard you walk past, is the standard you accept. Your job as a leader is to elevate your team member’s performance and success. If you are not holding them to the non-negotiables, they will not excel.

Don’t have favourites.

Whilst leadership can be a lonely endeavour, it is not fair to the team that you anoint a “favourite” who you share frustrations with about other team members. You may think, you are building trust with your favourite, but in fact what you are doing, is clearly demonstrating that you can and will talk behind people’s backs. This makes people think, you will do the same to them.

Loose lips (sink ships)

Speaking inappropriately e.g with the favourite, but also in groups e.g. a team member might do something you don’t like and you let slip: “well what else can you expect from Bob”. This is public humiliation, which again signals that anyone can be a target for you. Or if you disagree with one of your peers, do not voice this in front of the team. It is healthy to disagree and have robust discussions amongst the leadership team, but if done in front of the team, you only weaken the leadership team. Now they know they can play you off against each other. Just like mum and dad.