Social Excellence In Recruitment

No matter how your organization attracts, selects, and secures its newest members, fraternities that effectively put the right amount of the right people into their chapters understand that there is a fine art of organizational growth.

When Phired Up first started, we only taught about the “science” of growing Greek Life. We talked about the systems, the processes, the measurables, and the tactics. But soon we learned that it was just as important to teach the finer points… the social skills, the mindset, the philosophy, the belief system, and the intention. This is how Social Excellence was born…

Social Excellence [n]: A state of perpetual generosity, curiosity, positivity, and openness to limitless possibility.

A desire to intentionally connect with others. The ability to engage in deep, meaningful conversation.  

Acting in a responsible and respectable manner, with high expectations of others. Being authentic and living everyday with integrity as the best version of oneself.

Being confident and vulnerable. Being fun and compassionate. Being open, kind and bold. 

The deepest level of societal participation and contribution.

Fraternities are in the relationship business. We deal in human connection. This thing we call “Brotherhood” is a code word for meaningful, love-filled, purpose-driven, sincere, human connection. Organizations that are great at growing their membership understand that their number one goal should be to build a system of authentic relationships. Organizations that are great at growth start by giving away the feeling of “Brotherhood”  generously to potential members.

Social Excellence challenges fraternity members to engage prospective members with intention – always seeking real human connection. Social Excellence reminds fraternity members that every person we encounter is full of a lifetime of stories and lessons that we can connect with if we choose to be curious. Social Excellence pushes fraternity members to be real, authentic, not-fake, sincere in all our interactions with potential members (because then they’ll be that way with us). Social Excellence gently encourages fraternity members to choose to be vulnerable in our interactions with prospective members because they aren’t seeking a club to join, or a t-shirt to wear, or a house to live in – they’re seeking belonging and purpose, and those things can only be shared with a healthy dose of vulnerability.

Every moment is a choice. We can choose to engage with the people around us or not. We can choose to care about every person and every conversation or not. We can choose to open ourselves up to others or not. We can choose to be average or not (but our founders didn’t create our organizations so that we could be average together). You’re a member of a social fraternity or sorority (or at least that’s part of what your organization is about). Don’t be socially average. Be Socially Excellent and watch how that transforms the way you grow.

Getting your members to make the choice to engage, the choice to be curious, the choice to be generous, the choice to be authentic and vulnerable will make all the difference in recruitment. Social Excellence is the core operating philosophy of great recruiting chapters. Phired Up teaches a lot about what to do in recruitment… and Social Excellence provides guidance on how to be in recruitment.

Social Excellence teaches members to make recruitment experiences comfortable for the prospect, overflowing with kindness and thoughtful touches, celebratory of the uniqueness of each individual, and respectful of the insecurities and hidden realities of each human in the process. We are all just humans recruiting other humans to an organization that tries to make us better humans after all. Don’t take the humanity out of it.

The goal of fraternity recruitment events, interactions, processes, one-on-one meetings, text messages, DMs, informational sessions, or “rounds,” should always be one thing: meaningful, authentic, real human connection. Remember, we’re in the relationship business. We’re most successful when instead of trying to impress others, we try to connect with others.