Curated Reading and Listening Material
THIS WEEK’S BLOG -> Elite Recruiters Excel At This
READ -> Knowing what is a good fit for your program is step one… then avoiding bad fits is step two. Dan Tudor breaks it down.
LISTEN -> Part 1 & Part 2 of a podcast that talks about making better hires. Not exactly like recruiting but there are some similarities.
VERSE -> Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
VIDEO-> Recruiting Tip
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There is a mental model called inversion. This is when you, instead of thinking what you need, you think in terms of what you don’t need or need to avoid.
This applies in all fields
Investors: The inverse of making money is not losing it.
Diet: The inverse of eating healthy is avoiding eating crappy.
Productivity: The inverse of coming up with a super productive schedule is to avoid doing the four unproductive activities in your current schedule.
Inversion won’t always help solve a problem but it can help you avoid them. Inversion is a great mental model to use in helping make better decisions.
HOW DOES THIS APPLY TO RECRUITING
Recruiting is as much about avoiding the wrong fit as it is getting the right fit.
Most coaches do a good job of avoiding the wrong fit athletically and many schools weed out the student-athletes who don’t fit academically.
It is the culture fit or character fit that can be so hard to weed out. But it is super important.
As I look at the landscape of college recruiters, those who are ‘next level’ type recruiters excel is avoiding the wrong fit.
(*Some schools don’t worry about avoiding the wrong fit… they just pull the scholarship if a student-athlete doesn’t fit. That is why, when thinking about elite recruiters, we don’t just look at the recruiting coordinators at big schools and crown them.)
I think one bad seed can do more negative damage to a program than can one really good seed add positive value to a program.
If you agree with that, you will be over-the-top diligent on avoiding bad fits.
Here are some ideas on how to sniff out bad fits
- Don’t rush to commit or sign someone you don’t know well.
- Ask them to do ‘little assignments’ for you. If the student-athlete doesn’t respond promptly and get stuff done… that is a bad sign.
- Ask his/her high school, AAU or club coach specific questions about character, teachability, and what kind of teammate they are.
- Don’t ignore the red flags. Often coaches will see something that is bothersome but because of the gifts of the athlete, they have a tendency to ignore those red flags.
- Ask open-ended, non-leading questions. Don’t ask yes or no questions. And for sure avoid the “You’re a pretty hard worker aren’t you?” When we have a bias for an athlete we will lead them to the answer we hope they will give. Avoid doing this.
- Make sure a non-biased staff member asked you questions about the athlete and have multiple people interact when the student-athlete is on campus.
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