Can you make the transition from being a top billing consultant to a successful manager? It depends upon whether you can adapt your mindset from looking after number one to looking after the interests of others equally, if not above, your own.

Whilst many say “the best billers do not make the best managers”, they are always better than average performers that want to move into management to get away from the pressure of billing.

The nature of the contingency recruitment agency requires everyone to be focused on winning new business, delivering high levels of service and multiple placements every month.  In most cases, these are the things that top billers are used to doing month in, month out.

Why have the world’s best tennis players engaged Stefan Edberg( Federer), Boris Becker (Djokovic), Amelie Mauresmo (Murray), as coaches?   Well, their stated reason is that they need insights from people that have been where they aspire to be.   It is no different in recruitment.  If you want to grow your billings to 200k, 400k or 600k it is important that your managers/coaches have experience of working at that level of performance.

Some will use the analogy of Alex Ferguson as an example a world class manager who was not a world class player, however many forget that he was a decent player scoring 167 goals over 327 matches.

Moreover the role of the recruitment leader is more like a player-coach or captain, as more often than not they also have a billing target.
So what are some of the questions top billing leaders have to ask themselves to help them succeed?

  • Others vs Self – How can I ensure my sales activities support my team’s performance rather than detract from it?
  • Time – How can I make time (mental & physical) to support the team without impacting my own performance?
  • Speed & urgency – How can you instil the same level of urgency you have every day to your team?
  • Prioritization – How can you ensure that your team only work on things that they are likely to get paid for?
  • Self-Sufficiency – How can I develop my team to be self-sufficient in delivering high performance just like me?

What other questions do you think leaders need to ask of themselves to make the transition from a top biller to top manager?

If you like this scenario, check out our new leadership programme where we will be discussing and learning how to build “Motivating High Performing Teams”.