The Network Every High-Performing Recruitment Desk Has

Had another week of recruiters messaging me asking if I know anyone who's actually cracked AI, not sharing that they've cracked it themselves.

Sat through demo after demo, still looking for the tool that moves the needle on real inefficiencies. That's the honest state of AI in recruitment right now, not the LinkedIn version where every post claims a workflow that changed everything overnight.

Worth saying it plainly. Don't get lost in the AI rabbit hole. Every hour spent chasing the perfect tool is an hour not spent doing the thing that actually earns you money this week.

If you double-click into any high-performing recruiter's desk, I'd be confident you'd find this strategy sitting as one of their core pillars.

Building a very intentional network of the best senior talent and senior leaders in their space.

Call it what you want. Potential to recruit conversations. Building your golden circle. The principle is the same either way. 

Here's why this deserves to be a pillar, not something you get to when things are quiet.

World-class senior people don't move jobs often. But when they do, they move markets, budgets, and hiring power with them. They have the power to sponsor you into businesses a cold call could never get you into.

The truth is, you may never actually work with these people directly to advance their careers. But because you did such a good job over time, built the relationship properly, and delivered consistent value, you become the person they bring up internally when they land somewhere new. They champion you into rooms you were never in.

Most recruiters build this backwards. They only try to start the relationship the moment they need it, which means they're starting from zero at exactly the moment they can least afford to be.

Here's an easy test. 

If that number is small, that's the gap.

Here's how you close it.

Grow this network deliberately. You should be aiming to speak with the best senior leaders in your market every single week.

If you have a live search at senior leadership level right now, perfect, lead with that. If you don't, or you don't often speak to senior leadership in your market, start now.

You are someone senior leadership wants to be connected with in their market.

Why? 

Because you run searches in their space, you work with businesses they'd recognise, the market's constantly moving, and you have information worth exchanging.

You don't need a fake reason to get a senior person on the phone. You need to be good enough to open the call straight.

Tell them you can find opportunities they wouldn't otherwise come across. Tell them you build some of the best teams in the industry. Tell them the market's been a strange one lately, and why you’re someone well worth connecting with in their industry.

That's it. No manufactured job, no disguise.

If you don't have the self-belief or confidence to open a call that way yet, that's a fair place to be, and it's a whole other newsletter edition. 

For now, know that the confidence comes from doing it, not before it.

The piece that actually makes this work long-term is figuring out how you deliver value to this network. 

Genuine market intelligence. Competitor intelligence. Intentional introductions. Invite-only events where they meet other senior leaders in the space.

If you're not sure what that looks like for your market, ask them directly. That's a legitimate part of the conversation.

But here's how recruiters wreck senior leader relationships before they even start. 

They reach out with a fake job just to get someone on the phone. Senior people will clock this strategy; it’s been overused way too many times, and you don't just lose that call, you lose the right to ever have a real one with them again.

Tell them exactly why you're calling instead. You run searches in their space, you work with businesses they'd recognise, the market's been strange this year, and you'd like to swap notes. Honest, specific, and it will book you meetings if you deliver it well.

The goal is a continuous flow of meetings with senior leaders in your space, where you exchange information, deliver as much value as you can, and they leave every one of them feeling it was a great use of their time. Do that consistently and your list of senior leaders you could call starts growing on its own.

So many great things can happen for your recruitment desk from growing this network intentionally.

They could land a gig at your dream target client. They could sell you in on a senior search. They could refer you to a peer who's just started looking around. Whatever it is, get this right, and these become some of your strongest champions in the industry.

It's not a silver bullet. But it's a strong foundational pillar that sits underneath most high-performing recruitment desks.

If it isn't already part of how you work, that's the point of this edition.

Start now.

If you want a follow-up edition on exactly how the best recruiters run these senior talent calls, reply "yes", and I'll get to work on it.

This week's episode is with Madeline from InterEx, and it's a masterclass in the "build phase" every recruiter has to survive before things click.

She went from £2k weekly GP to £11k, largely off the back of one shift: she never makes a truly cold call. Every conversation goes in loaded with market intel, gathered from candidates, so she already knows the pain before she's even dialled.

It's the same principle as this week's Debrief, information is currency, and the people who gather it properly are the ones who get let in the door.

If your senior leadership network isn't where you want it to be, don't overthink where to start.

Pick up the phone to five of your best candidate relationships this week and ask them one direct question:

"Who are the best, most inspiring leaders you've worked for in this industry? The ones people still talk about."

That's it. You'll get names. Real ones, with context, not a cold LinkedIn search.

Every name you get is a door. You already have a reason to reach out: "So-and-so mentioned you, said you were one of the best leaders they've worked under, I'd love to know a bit more about how you run things."

That's not a fake job. That's a genuine, name-dropped introduction with credibility built in before you've even said hello.

Five calls. Five names, minimum. Start building the list this week, and keep going.

Keep smashing it & honing your craft!

Hishem x

Know a recruiter who needs to hear this? Send it their way.