Promotion Announcement - Jerry Albright joins Thought Leadership ranks

I'll be the fist to admit this: I have not always been a trend setter. For many years I was in fact what we call simply a "contributor". Always contributing to the teams I was a part of - whether it was my role in managing a group of senior recruiters, training the new hopeful staffers or doing my own thing when my client was counting on me - and me alone - for results. I've helped build multi-million dollar organizations as well as establishing my own firm with satisfied clients throughout the country.

So "Thought Leadership" was a calling that just didn't ring true with my career plan. I was too busy joining the "Big Biller" ranks for my own interest.

But something happened last fall. Can't quite put my finger on it. But it happened. A light bulb went off for me. I'm supposing this is how "Thought Leadership" is thrust upon others who have joined these coveted ranks. Something just dawns on them - and there you have it. Take action on that "thought" and there you are. Thought Leader. Quite possibly this is the same feeling those in ministry or social services gets. A calling - if you will.

So I answered the call.

What am I talking about? (If anyone is reading this at all.....but that's another topic!) I'm talking about a quantum leap in how my agency and a growing number of other firms are providing service to their clients!

While many (all?) of our competitors are scrambling to make sure they have access to the very SAME candidate pool their competitors do - and then doing absolutley NOTHING to set that "product" apart from the masses - we have literally altered the landscape for our customers. No longer do they expect the same old resume shuffle when they are served by us. Nosiree!

Our clients are given an entirely new service. Are you ready for this? Not only do they open the resume when receiving an introduction from us - they then click the PLAY BUTTON on top of that resume and LISTEN to the candidate IN THEIR OWN WORDS describe their specific background for the job my client is recruiting for!

While the staffing world has been consumed with an all-out focus on the candidate side of our industry - CLIENTS have not seen any changes in the service they receive. To them it's been a nonstop stream of Word resumes since the first email was sent in the 90's with a resume attached.

So here I am. Thought leader. Changing the way agencies provide service to their clients. In fact - this is so new - I can't even come up with the right Google search words to use - because it's a brand new category! Recruiting/Staffing Presentation Management Software. Do you think anyone's punching those words into Google? If this was an ATS (which it does do....) then we would have more traffic than we could handle. But it's not. It's MORE than just a way to source and track the worlds resume database. It's about DOING SOMETHING with those candidates!

If you'd like to see what I'm talking about - just send me a note! Or take a look: Verbal Summary

Your clients will absolutely LOVE IT!

Comment by David Manaster on September 2, 2008 at 2:23pm: Did the promotion come with a salary increase?

Comment by Jerry Albright on September 2, 2008 at 2:37pm: Well you would think a raise is in order but so far I feel changing the landscape has been more missionary work that anything. Funny - people talk about "leading edge" stuff and pass out awards to each other but I've seen nothing actually "new" come out for quite a while. When something like Verbal Summary comes along which actually is a paradigm shift it takes a while to educate the community.

One step at a time though. Thanks for reading my post Dave!

Comment by David Manaster on September 2, 2008 at 2:39pm: I always do :)

Comment by Jon on September 2, 2008 at 3:09pm: Jerry, thank you for sharing your personal (or is that personnel) epiphany with the remainder of the world at large. You are one step ahead of the most recent Democratic National Convention in that at least your rock star image has some substance behind it.

I am sure when people realize what a valuable tool "Verbal Summary" is, they will begin flocking to your web site in mass.

Comment by Tom Gugger on September 2, 2008 at 3:16pm: After further examination, this product is hot, I will be a user and give further up-dates.

Comment by Slouch on September 2, 2008 at 3:20pm: and he can sing

Comment by Jerry Albright on September 2, 2008 at 3:35pm: It's not easy being me. I've got to get the recruiting world to actually start thinking about what they DO (as in - taking action - IRL) with these candidates they've sourced, tracked, pinged, IM'ed, blogged,etc.

When it comes to your customers experience - what are you doing differently? My guess is not much. Maybe we've all forgotten about "customers" in the literal sense - since so much effort is put on treating the candidates as customers.

I'm talking about the person that is going to pay for your time out here in the recruitosphere.......what are you doing FOR THEM?

Comment by Slouch on April 17, 2009 at 10:37am: what gets you more respect. Is it being a thought leader or a guru. Is it getting in the way of your #whatiatefordinnertonight movement?

Comment by Jerry Albright on April 17, 2009 at 10:41am: I decided to quit the guru stuff. It was conflicting my TL work. It's a pretty tricky combination to pull off and I just couldn't do it. So for now I'm just a Thought Leader.

The dinner movement is going pretty well. Every once in a while a vegetarian gets a little riled up with me - but it seems to be picking up some steam!

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