What is it you want to find?
I was having a conversation recently with a client who was asking my advice on interviewing for a key position on her staff.
She asked me how to know during an interview whether you can truly trust a person to deliver what you need in the role.
What I often find is that interviewers will ask a series of questions about all kinds of things to get at skills, behaviors, problem solving, attitude, motivation, but they fail to ask the one most important question.
What is “THE” question?
First you have to think about what it is you really want to know.
In this case it was how do you know if you can trust a creative person to deliver if they are not accustomed to tight project management on their work?
This came up because I mentioned that sometimes you need to manage people differently to get the best motivation and results from them, and that judging a creative person on how effectively they manage projects might not get you the most creative person!
Any in this case, the one key question is to ask the thing you really care about directly.
“Give me an example about how you worked on a large project and describe your preferred way of managing your work and finishing on time? Why does that work for you?”
This is exactly what you want to know about, so why not just have a conversation about this most important thing?
Unstructured Conversation
This got me thinking about this idea I always talk about, which is how unstructured conversation, while it might feel messy and uncontrolled in the moment, is where all the magic is.
It’s how you find out what people really think.
So many business leaders avoid unstructured conversation because they find it threatening to hear what people really think. They might disagree with you or doubt the things you think are important.
But in particularly in an interview. Wouldn’t you rather know?!!
Make the interview a good conversation
Many times interviews are very structured conversations. You get a bunch of information, but little insight about how the person really thinks or works, or what they truly care about.
But if you are willing to have a real, authentic, unstructured conversation with a person, you will get to know what you can expect from them on a much more useful level for making a hiring decision.
-Here are some more examples of how to open up an unstructured conversation in an interview.
-Here is our current strategy, what do you think? And why?
-When you had your most challenging job, what was hard about it? And why?
-When you think of a success you had, what was it that made you most proud? And why?
-When you are having a bad hair day and feeling unmotivated, what do you think about? What do you do? And why? Can you give me an example?
-When you determine that there is risk in a project you are working on, what do you think about? What do you do? and why? Can you give me an example?
Don’t miss out on the best information thinking that an interview needs to be a rigid process. Think about what you truly want to know from this person and then be willing to just talk about it!
What do you think?
Join the conversation about this on my Facebook page Patty Azzarello Practical Business Advice for Humans.
