The Power Dynamics of Recruitment Processes
I found myself, a couple of months ago, in two application processes.
For different things: one a speaking opportunity, another a voluntary role with an organisation I admire.
I have done A LOT of job applications in my time (or at least so it feels), and both processes were – as far as I can remember about application processes – pretty typical.
But I’ve changed.
I don’t find myself in situations like that any more. And they felt weird.
Even though the interview process was with three really nice people, something felt odd to me.
It took me a little while to work out what it was…
And it was this: there was a power dynamic at play.
And more: such a powerful dynamic that even for a voluntary role, I found myself having my own centre of gravity shifted by it, finding myself pulled into an attempt to justify my place there.
It’s important to be aware of how we can be effected by these dynamics.
The field of Transactional Analysis teaches us powerful things about this. And whilst many people out there (and some of you) will forget far more about TA than I know, we can give a simple example to demonstrate this in the form of the triad of the roles of Parent, Child and Adult.
In a very simplistic example that you will now notice in your life, if someone behaves to you roughly like a parent, you may find yourself acting rather more like a child than you would normally expect.
Similarly, if you find someone you are with acting like a child, you may find yourself parenting them. Even if they are, say, a fully grown adult and a colleague of yours at work. Or your significant other.
This happened to me when I was running a workshop for a team of over 100 people. The rather childish behaviour of some of the participants pulled me so far away from centre that I found myself trying to parent them into behaving. It didn’t go well.
The dynamics are strong.
In (my simplistic understanding of) Transactional Analysis, the more integrated response is to shift into the Adult role. And just as when someone treats you like a child the dynamics pull you into behaving like a child, so when they behave like an adult and treat you like one… it’s hard not to respond, becoming far more the grounded, healthy adult you would expect to be.
These dynamics are powerful, and when I found myself being judged by three (well-meaning, probably lovely) people from a UK charity, I found myself slipping into the role of The Judged One, trying to win their approval.
The power impact of this in me was small, but gave me much concern as I considered the real pain of people I have known who have had to go through many recruitment processes in the desperate search for a job. The consistent, reinforcing power dynamics.
The application process for the speaking opportunity was identical to the pre-interview process of many jobs – lots of work from me, impersonal rejection with no feedback from them). Dehumanising; lacking in connection; containing only the result of their judgment of my proposal and nothing more.
The reason these things stood out from me is that I have almost eliminated them from my life. In my business, I create my sales calls so that they aren’t me being judged by the client or the client being judged by me.
They are a joint process, where we look together at the question: is now the time for us to do some work together? Are we the perfect fit for this work, now?
There is still rejection on some level for me in this process: sometimes the answer to that question seems to be Yes, but even so we don’t do work together.
But across the process, the power is shared.
That, often, is the last thing I say to friends and clients before they go into an interview: remember that you are deciding on them as well as them deciding on you.
I might as well say, remember you are a powerful human and you can step out of the power dynamic their process may force on you. You don’t have to play their game.
But imagine – imagine if every company actually tried to make it a mutual process. Not a game where you (even well-meaningly) make people jump through hoops so you can decide between essentially equally-qualified candidates… but a genuine collaboration to find the perfect person to work with you, right now.
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PS My best coaching work often happens with leaders dealing with the complexities of a team and ambitions to create change. You can read more about what is at the core of much of that work in my latest long-read article: Leading With Honour.
This is the latest in a series of articles written using the 12-Minute Method: write for twelve minutes, proof read once with tiny edits and then post online.
Buy the 12-Minute Method series of books, written 12 minutes a week over three years, here.