Did you know that over 40% of new executive hires do not survive their first year on the job?
How do you interview to make sure yours stays and performs?
Most people interview candidates poorly –which is not entirely their own fault. People usually make a decision about candidates in the first 5 seconds of a meeting without ever really interviewing the candidates’ strengths, weaknesses, motivators, values, communication style, work ethic, management ability, and how they manage in different situations.
It puts you at a significant disadvantage to like a candidate immediately. When this happens, the tendency is for people to find reasons to move forward with a candidate and go into “sell” mode versus really digging in to find out who is sitting across the table from you.
This is not to say “do not hire people you like” –what I’m suggesting is to make likeability important, but not the sole attribute to make a hiring decision. You need to really find out who it is that you are interviewing and ask the kinds of questions that help you identify the person’s strengths.
Questions to ask everyone:
1. Tell me about a difficult person you had to work with; how did you manage it; what did you do, and what were the results?
2. Describe how you organize and motivate people who work for you.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to come up with a creative solution to solve big issues.
4. Do you feel lucky?
The point is simple, don’t hire someone just because you like them –that is a great attribute. Also, be sure that this person has similar values, can create a vision and drive results and find out how they work with other people.
Our firm vetted candidates to find their strengths and calibrates their ability to perform. We spend a significant portion of time upfront with our clients understanding not only their business objectives but also their culture and the types of people who thrive in their environment –creating a position description with what we filter candidates against.
