At a CEO round table I facilitate, I asked each leader to rate their organizations on how well they are leveraging recruitment (a critical topic these days) to drive their most important numbers. Most rated themselves fairly high. A few (the minority) were more pessimistic in their ratings.

After the ratings were complete,  I had an expert in recruitment describe what the very best companies are doing to find and hire the best talent. After about an hour of discussion, almost all the leaders felt there was a LOT more they can be doing and rated themselves lower than the first assessment. BUT they were excited to start and try new strategies to improve.

Every area of an organization probably has room for improvement. That’s not a bad thing. It means we have lots of opportunity to create more value.

The main job of leaders is to be on the hunt for these new opportunities. They need to ensure that their organization is exposed to new ideas and new levels of success.

Don’t let your organization to get complacent. Keep looking for new ways to improve. Look at what successes (and failures) are out there from which you can learn.

One of my clients is sending out members of her senior leadership team to learn from businesses that are similar to hers, but that operate in other non-competing geographies.

Another CEO belongs to an association of similar businesses that are far enough to not compete, but similar enough to share best practices.

 I run CEO peer groups specifically to get leaders learning from the shared experience of other successful leaders.

It’s easy to get busy and just dealing with the day to day demands of the business. Take time to find out what other leaders are doing. You will get some great tips and also get some inspiration as well.