TED Talks to Inspire Your Hiring Strategy

March 5, 2014 at 6:00 AM by Kathleen de Lara

hiring strategy inspirationForget (almost) everything you think you know about whatever it is you do. 

Whether you’re a recruiter, sourcer, hiring manager, or anyone in between, these videos will add a little fire to make you change the way you do things...for the better.

Because we said so.

This is part one in a two-part series covering top TED talks to spark your recruitment, hiring, and management strategy.

Amy Cuddy — Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are

Amy discusses the key components of tweaking one’s body language to not only improve interactions with others, but to communicate confidence, trustworthiness, and poise.

“When we think of nonverbals, we think of how we judge others, how they judge us and what the outcomes are. We tend to forget the other audience that’s influenced by our nonverbals, and that’s ourselves. We are also influenced by our nonverbals, our thoughts and our feelings and our physiology...our bodies change our minds and our minds can change our behavior, and our behavior can change our outcomes.”

What recruiters can do: During the hiring process, take the reigns of the interview by leading the conversation to guide where you want the candidate to go depending on the answers that you’re searching for. Mirroring a candidate’s pose, for example, is a good way to make them feel comfortable about opening up to you. Alternatively, sitting at an angle also helps reduce tension from the confrontational nature of the face-to-face interview. 

Angela Lee Duckworth — The Key to Success? Grit



After leaving her 
management consulting gig, Angela became seventh-grade math teacher in a New York public school. One of the biggest lessons she learned was that conventional measures of success, like IQ scores, GPAs, and test results, weren’t authentic means for determining individuals’ tenacity to fulfill their ambitions.  

“Grit is passion and perseverance for very long-term goals. Grit is having stamina. Grit is sticking with your future day in and day out, not just for the week, not just for the month, but for years, and working really hard to make that future a reality. Grit is living life like it’s a marathon — not a sprint.”

What recruiters can do: Searching for the perfect candidate does more harm than good to a company. Not only does it prolong the hunt for ideal talent, but it also shortchanges candidates who are probably great fits for the position and are able to be trained to meet and exceed your team’s needs. Hire for the candidate, not the position.

Feenin’ for more ammo for your ambitions? Stay tuned for part two of this series, and in the meantime, check out our latest free eBook on key tactics for successful candidate outreach.

Download our free eBook!

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