When you are in a managerial role you can seldom say that you don\u2019t have enough to do: analyzing various areas, developing business plans, setting goals, monitoring performance, solving conflicts, making decisions, coaching subordinates etc.<\/p>\n
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No wonder your schedule is so busy and the pressure you feel becomes an addiction. Of course, there is always something to do when it comes to managing people or projects and it\u2019s perfect as long as you love it. But choosing the right person for your team is often a task that managers aren\u2019t that interested in, perform it ineffectively or delegate it. A skill that\u2019s essential when it comes to helping others reach their goals or reaching goals with the help of your team has become less important and often ignored.<\/span><\/p>\n Here are 8 topics that I would recommend you, as manager, consider before starting an interview with a potential candidate. It\u2019s not about posting an advert, it\u2019s not about job descriptions nor about internal processes or HR reports. It\u2019s about simplicity… this helps you in picking the right resource for a project, a team or a potential successor. (Yap successor! Don\u2019t be afraid to consider it! Your business maturity and managerial experience will be completed when you consider this as well. But before you think about who you will leave behind you must first start with the first step: Recruitment!)So, what would be the main questions to ask yourself before starting an interview?<\/span><\/p>\n Because you are a professional! People will buy or not buy you as a person in a few seconds and that is only because of the way you present yourself: your smile, your voice, your attitude and your vision. Too often managers who conduct interviews lack energy, are full of prejudices or vanity and are more willing to impress or to make a point \u2013 the only effect being that they will scare candidates. Interviews are not about who you are or how great, quick or knowledgeable you are as a manager. Interviews are about your candidates.<\/p>\n It depends on their behavioral patterns. Only a few of them will speak freely, even fewer will recognize they if they were wrong or failed in their previous jobs. Therefore you need to ask relevant questions using the funnel technique up to the moment they will express a behavior. One of the principles in recruitment says that \u201cThe key to finding out how someone will perform in a job is to collect and analize examples of how he\/she has performed in similar situations in the past\u201d \u2013 in other words, to look at examples of the candidate\u2019s past behavior.<\/p>\n Few of them might. Because of experience, interview frequency, selling skills or imagination. Therefore for this unusual case you need to go to the next level. Up to this moment you have assessed the past, now it\u2019s time to assess the present and the future through simulations or work assignments.<\/p>\n It is either a sign they didn\u2019t buy what you were selling in the first place, so they are not comfortable with you. Or they might be introverts. Make sure you explain your role, the context of the interview and the purpose of the questions you are about to ask. It is better to avoid selling a job when you meet this type of people when finishing the interview, just launch key messages and ask for feedback. This might have a bigger impact.<\/p>\n Those questions that will show how mature your business is. Investigating their carrier plans (\u201cwhere do you see yourself 5 years from now?\u201d). If these questions have the impact they are supposed to have then the candidate will genuinely think about the question. If not you might consider that they are interested in only a short stint in your company or they might just be the sort of person that doesn\u2019t necessarily like this sort of corporate type of questions.<\/p>\n When addressing strengths and weaknesses. People tend to exaggerate their qualities and minimize weaknesses. Sometimes they will present an idealistic image and not how they really are. I recommend changing perspectives and putting candidates in someone else\u2019s shoes. For example: \u201cWhat is your best friend\u2019s name? Alex. And what would Alex say when he is joking with others about you?\u201d<\/p>\n When addressing closed questions (which require yes or no answers) you will make your candidates feel as if they are interrogated and they might be fake.<\/p>\n You should also consider your attitude towards the candidate. Make sure you are not exhibiting an air of superiority or you aren’t being ironic in any way during the interview.And last but not least only talk about the salary at the very end of the interview.<\/p>\n Selection is a decision making process. Therefore any emotional decision will have tremendous impact on your business, team, goals and image. Selecting people is an asset when measuring competences. Each competency is to be expressed in behaviors. Some behaviors are more effective than others. You need to choose the candidate who proves to have the best behaviors and not focus on their future tasks or how they might interact with people. Taking the time to answer these questions before starting any recruitment process will increase the odds of choosing the right candidate for a project or team. It will also help you avoid losing time and energy on employees that don\u2019t fit or on the inevitable second batch of interviews when you are forced to let them go.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When you are in a managerial role you can seldom say that you don\u2019t have enough to do: analyzing various areas, developing business plans, setting goals, monitoring performance, solving conflicts, making decisions, coaching subordinates etc.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interview","category-recruitment","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n
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