Quick Interview Preparation: Don’t Waste Their Time…Or Yours

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Job interviewer questions are numerous when managers need to hire.  Hopefully there is good HR support to assist, but this is not always the case.  Below we talk about the job interviewer questions that occur prior to the interview.  Specifically, we talk about:

  • Why worry about interview preparation
  • Job Interviewer Questions and human rights in the workplace
  • Job Interviewer Questions about knowing what you’re interviewing for
  • Assessing before the interview
  • Preparing yourself and the candidate

Why Worry About Interview Preparation

  • The most important things happen in advance.  It is not possible to conduct a great interview without great preparation.
  • Managers need to ensure they are compliant with local employment laws, and good preparation minimizes any legal risk.
  • It is a corporate reputation issue.  Organizations are being assessed during an interview, and it is important that all candidates leave with a favorable impression of the organization.
  • You “win it in the draft” — good interview process greatly improves the chances of landing the best possible hire.
  • Turnover is expensive.  The cost of interviewing poorly can be very costly to an organization.

Job Interviewer Questions About Human Rights in the Workplace

Local laws may vary, and it is important to have a basic understanding of local employment law.  However in almost all jurisdictions in Western Europe, North America and Australia/New Zealand, job interviewer questions that pertain to the following would be off limits:

  • Race
  • Religious beliefs
  • Skin Colour
  • Gender
  • Physical/Mental disability
  • Age
  • Ancestry
  • Place of origin
  • Marital status
  • Source of income
  • Family status
  • Sexual Orientation

People generally understand the most obvious implications of this.  The subtleties are sometimes missed, however.  For example, asking someone what year they graduated from High School or University can be construed as probing about age, which is discriminatory.

Job Interviewer Questions About Knowing What You’re Interviewing For:

You need to articulate clearly what skills, competencies and attitudes you are hiring for.  It is not acceptable to interview without having considered these job interviewer questions in advance.

  • Start with an up-to-date job description.  If one doesn’t exist – write it.
  • Who do you want in this position?
    • What skills?
    • What knowledge?
    • What experience?
  • What corporate fit?
    • What attitudes?
    • What outlooks?
  • Do you have realistic expectations?  It is fine to sketch out a description of your perfect candidate as long as you are aware that such a candidate probably does not exist.

Assessing Before the Interview

Typically, you will receive applications or resumes in advance of conducting any interviews.  Interviews are time consuming, so you need to narrow down your field.  Here is how you can do so:

  • Score and rank* all resumes and choose a limited number to telephone interview (no more than 10)
  • Conduct a telephone “mini-interview” to wean the list down further.  Ensure you score and rank* each candidates performance on the phone interview.
  • Remember cultural fit and what makes people in your team successful.
  • Look for the clues to the person’s fit.
    • Job history – does the candidate move every year, or are they more stable?
    • Cover letters – are they written with care, and indicate some knowledge of your business, or do they appear to be automatically generated?
    • Relevant experience – look beyond direct experience, and see if you can spot some other relevant experience that may be useful to you.

*Tools for the scoring and ranking of resumes and interviews are available free to Wily Manager members – Become a Member Today

Prepare the Candidate for the interview

  • Let them know in advance who they are going to see.
  • Let them know in advance what the process will be.
  • Consider providing some or all of the questions to the candidate in advance.
  • Remember that the interview starts from the moment they walk in the door.

Prepare Yourself for the interview

  • Remember you and the company are being assessed in this process as well.
  • Be respectful and professional.
  • Read the resume in advance – preferably immediately before the interview.
  • Come with a list of questions.
  • Turn off your smartphone.
  • Book an appropriate location for the interview.
  • Attempt to keep the interview informal but professional.

3 things to Remember About Job Interviewer Questions:

  1. A great interview is a result of great preparation.
  2. Don’t wing-it.  Prepare in advance, and follow up afterwards.
  3. Interviewing is time consuming – wean your list in advance.

Free Extras for Wily Manager Members – get them here

  • Examples of Interview Questions:
    • Good questions
    • Bad questions
    • Behavioral based questions
    • Situational based questions
  • Common Interview Mistakes and How To Avoid Them
  • Resume and Interview Scoring Tool

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Preparing to Interview (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

Looking for the Full-Length Podcast/Video? …

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How to Hire Your Next Leader

Some kids grow up wanting to be a fire-fighter, a police officer, teacher or doctor.  I wanted to be Mr. Rogers (the children’s entertainer).  No eight-year-old will tell you she wants to be a manager when she grows up (and if she does, get her into therapy top speed).  Yet there are more managers than there are fire-fighters, police officers, teachers and doctors combined by a factor of ten or more.

So how does this happen?

If management were a profession like others, someone would go to school to study the vocation of management, apprentice for some period of time, and then be deemed fully capable of executing as a manager.  MBA schools have failed to do this effectively, and the vast majority of companies develop their managers in a haphazard fashion.

Most people end up as managers by going into to some line of work for which they show some aptitude, and then are promoted to oversee others doing similar work.  Somewhere along the line, they might take a course or two, and some companies may even send their high potential new managers to business school.

Most organizations make the critical mistake of assuming that because someone is a proficient practitioner of a certain trade that she will be a good manager.  Organizations need to change their focus away from the technical aspects of a particular function (or group of functions), and instead focus on what skills a manager will need to be successful in that environment.

If more than half that list of competencies is focused on technical aspects of the industry or job, then it has been done wrong.

Don’t get me wrong:  I’m not a big fan of pulling people with no industry experience, and placing them in key management positions.  I don’t think this approach has worked very often.  If organizations are serious about having great management, then they need to select people for management positions with the core competencies required to manage in that environment, and then continually develop them.

Either that, or select tall guys with brown hair, who wear blue shirts.  That works too.

 

Preparing To Interview

There’s so much to talk about for interviews that Jed & Bob split it up into this week’s podcast on Preparing to Interview and next week’s on Conducting the Interview.  There are a whole bunch of things you can do in advance of the interview that will ensure you get the best information, and land the right candidate.  Join Jed & Bob to learn more.

Watch the ‘Preparing to Interview’ Video (15 mins 00 sec):


Download the ‘Preparing to Interview’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

Receiving Feedback: I Used to Be Conceited But Now I’m Perfect

Those that learn to accept the feedback of others improve their own performance and do better in organizations.  Join Jed and Bob as they talk about how to seek out and properly receive good feedback, and great ideas on how to get promoted.

Watch the ‘Receiving Feedback’ Video (15 mins 30 sec):


Download the ‘Receiving Feedback’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

How to Receive Feedback if You Want to Be Promoted

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How to Receive Feedback is an important skill that is not talked about nearly as much as how to give feedback.  Below, we talk about:

  • Why you would bother to care about How to Receive Feedback
  • How you go about gathering feedback.
  • How To Receive Feedback if you want to get fired.
  • How to Receive Feedback if you want to get promoted.

Why you should care about How to Receive Feedback

How to Receive Feedback is a critical career skill.

  • By learning How to Receive Feedback, you will have discovered one of the most powerful ways to develop and change your behavior.
  • Your powers of self-perception only go so far. People around you notice things, both good and bad.  Remember — “What you think about your leadership is not as important as what others think about your leadership.”
  • The critical factor in making the feedback effective for your personal development is how you deal with and respond to the information you receive.

How to Get Feedback

The first necessary step in learning How to Receive Feedback, is to get feedback.  Here are some ideas:

  • Ask – there is nothing wrong with asking people specific questions about your leadership or your performance.
  • 360 Feedback – some organizations have infrastructure in place for formal feedback such as a 360 assessment.  In the absence of such instruments, you can still solicit feedback in a more formal way.
  • Skip Level Meetings – The skip level meeting is an excellent way to solicit feedback.  There is some risk in having your boss interview your direct reports, but the feedback can be very valuable.
  • Listen For It – Every day, people will offer clues to you about your leadership and your performance.  If you can pay attention to these clues, it can be very helpful.

How to Receive Feedback if You Want to Get Fired:

  • Get emotional – if you become angry or emotional when receiving feedback, it sends a very clear signal about your maturity to others.
  • Be defensive – if you consistently rationalize the feedback, and fail to take responsibility, you will likely get fired.
  • Deny — if you fail to consider others’ points of view about your performance, it will compromise your career.
  • Explain and Make Excuses – there are lots of ways to explain away poor performance.
  • Sulk – if you fail to see feedback as a gift to improve, but rather feel injured as a result of having someone telling you something you didn’t want to hear, you are risking your employment.

How to Receive Feedback if you want to get promoted:

  • Listen — Attempt to listen without judging what the person is saying. Listen without expressing your opinion or responding.
  • Clarify — Ask probing questions to make sure you understand what is being said. Ask questions to clarify. Ask for examples and stories that illustrate the feedback.
  • Thank — Thank them for the feedback even when you don’t agree with all of it, there will be some good ideas – accept them. This shows respect for the other person’s perspective.
  • Think — Consider and reflect upon others perceptions of your leadership behavior. Work on developing your understanding of how others perceive your behavior and its impact – the intended and the unintended consequences on that person, other employees, and the work environment.
  • Change — Work to improve.  Devote your energy to finding improvement rather than disputing observations. People can and do change. Choose one or two behaviors to focus on in developing your action plan. Identify concrete, observable actions to do differently.  Get help. Monitor how well you are doing by keeping track of what you committed to change.
  • Follow Up — This step is the most critical one. Follow-up demonstrates that you are truly committed to changing your behavior. “You know that I am working on being a better listener. How am I doing? If you had any suggestions for me, what would they be?”

Three Things to Remember about How to Receive Feedback:

  1. You do want to encourage feedback – it is a key career and survival tool
  2. You can decide what to do with the feedback.
  3. Don’t forget to follow up.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about How to Receive Feedback (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Get Instant Access to 200+ Cheat Sheets, Videos, and Other Immediately Usable Tools for Busy Managers – Try Out a Wily Manager Membership Today!

Receiving Feedback

Feedback is the breakfast of champions.  Unfortunately, many people don’t seek it out, or choose to ignore others’ feedback.  Join the Wily Manager guys this week, as they discuss how to receive feedback, and how you can use others’ feedback to advance your career.

Monday’s Tip:   Listen without judging.  It may be difficult, but you need to listen when people offer feedback without immediately judging their feedback, or formulating responses or thinking of reasons they could be wrong.  Just listen.

Tuesday’s Tip:   Ask probing questions.  When someone offers feedback, don’t be afraid to ask for more information on what you’ve been told.  Ensure you are asking your clarifying questions in such a way that does not judge the feedback you’ve been given.

Wednesday’s Tip:   Reflect on what you’ve been told.  Even if you think the feedback you’ve been given is completely unfair, you need to contemplate what you’ve been told, and determine if there’s any part of it that might help you.

Thursday’s Tip:   Thank people for offering feedback.  Even if it is something you don’t want to hear, always thank the giver of the feedback.  In some cases, it may have been very difficult for them to speak up.

Friday’s Tip:   Commit to doing something differently.  Once you’ve considered the feedback, you need to decide what you are going to do about it.  To merely listen to feedback, and then not act those things you deem to be valid, completely diminishes the value of the feedback.

Your Call is Important to Us — and Other Lies

I was passing through airport security a while ago, and two of the people that are responsible for my safety in the air were having quite a conversation about how drunk they got on the weekend.  I was completely invisible, and given that I was running a bit late for my plane, I made a critically poor decision.

I opted to offer these folks some feedback that they should probably be a little more focused on what we were paying them to do, and a little less on debriefing their leisure time.  Much to no one’s surprise, I was selected for “random” additional security screening.

I can only claim temporary insanity at forgetting the very first (and only mandatory) rule of offering feedback:  The recipient has to be willing to hear you.

Of course, everybody says they want your feedback, but in reality, they’re often not all that interested.  How many times have you heard:

“Your Call is Important to Us”

“Tell us what you think”

“Your opinions are important”

Yes, we are constantly bombarded with messages that people want our feedback.  In reality, people are really keen to receive feedback that tells them they have done well, or that reinforces their view of the world.  Any other types of feedback will only begrudgingly be accepted.

Probably the most dangerous thing someone can do, is respond when their boss says, “I’d like your feedback”.  That is the professional equivalent of a person’s wife asking, “Do I look fat in this?”  In the history of humankind, no one has ever advanced their own cause by attempting to answer such questions.

The last time I was asked such a question, I ran away so fast, there was a Bob-shaped hole in the exit door.  It’s like the “room-mate switch” – it has never been done, and we must never speak of it again. (Seinfeld reference – look it up on YouTube)

So the next time your boss asks you for feedback on his presentation, you need to answer as follows:

“I really thought you nailed the messaging, and came across in a powerful way.”  If he pushes you for some constructive feedback, you might want to offer something like, “I probably would have opted for the arial font – I don’t think the cambria is as easy to read.”

Either that, or just run away so fast, you put a {insert your name here}-shaped hole in the exit door.

 

Born to Lead?

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To quote Somerset Maugham:

“There are three rules for creating good leaders. Unfortunately, no one knows what they are.”

Why Should You Care About Developing Leadership Qualities?

  • Promoting the wrong people is costly.
  • Pursuing a career that is not in alignment with how you’re hardwired is exhausting and will eventually lead to failure.
  • Self-awareness of your own leadership skills offers an opportunity to manage behavior.

Essential Leadership Qualities

Both nature and nurture are a consideration in developing leadership skills.  If you know what skills you don’t possess naturally, it can be instructional as to what leadership skills you need to learn.  Here are what we believe are the most important leadership skills to be learned:

  • A Predisposition to Lead.  Leadership is a calling for the best leaders.  Others end up in leadership positions because they were good technicians of the work.  The very best leaders know that good managers are hard to find, and that leadership is the most important job on the planet.
  • Receptivity to Feedback.  All great leaders listen carefully to what others are telling them.  They may not always agree, but they do consider what others have to say, and incorporate their feedback when appropriate.
  • Self Awareness.  The best leaders are finely tuned to their own strengths and weaknesses, and know when they’ve made a mistake.  Poor leaders don’t ever think their wrong, and rationalize or make excuses when things go wrong.
  • Other Centered.  Great leaders promote others rather than being self-centered.  They champion others work, and give away as much credit as they can.  This shows maturity and confidence.  “Grabbing Glory” and stealing credit shows weakness and insecurity.
  • Trusting.  Control freaks do not make good leaders.  Great leaders trust their people, and allow them to make mistakes.
  • Calm under stress.  People look to their leaders for cues in times of crisis.  The leader who remains poised and calm is the one who inspires others to do the same to resolve the situation.
  • Superior Interpersonal Skills.  The great leader is highly emotionally intelligent and aware of others’ feelings and motivations.  The ability to inspire and change behavior in others, is the hallmark of a great leader.
  • Decisive.  Great leaders need to take risks and execute decisions with imperfect information
  • Balance of Values and Results.  A leader must insist on results, but also be very aware of how those results were achieved.  If you violate organizational values, or negatively impact people unnecessarily, you will fail as a leader.

3 Things to Remember about Developing Leadership Qualities

  1. You can test for these personality traits.  Be careful when doing so, but you test people for their predisposition to the qualities above.
  2. You’ll never find or achieve anyone who has all of the above leadership skills in abundance.  Hence the need to know how to teach leadership skills.
  3. Self awareness of one’s own abilities in the above attributes can guide leadership development, but should not serve as an excuse because one or more predispositions are missing.

Watch the ‘3-Minute Crash Course’ about Developing Leadership Qualities (CLICK THE ARROW TO START THE VIDEO):

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Building Leadership Qualities

Some people fall into leadership positions, and others work hard to get there.  Once you’re leading others, is your success as a leader more a result of nature or nurture?  Join the Wily Manager guys this week as they talk through how to figure out if you can learn to display the attributes that great leaders possess.

Monday’s Tip:  Be receptive to feedback.  You need to listen carefully to those around you to be an effective leader.  When you hear things you don’t want to hear, if your immediate reaction is to dismiss that feedback – you’re doing it wrong.

Tuesday’s Tip:  Shift focus away from yourself.  Great leaders make others successful.  The credit to leaders comes through the success they bring out in others.  If you’re a glory-hound, you probably won’t make it as a leader.

Wednesday’s Tip:  Be calm under stress.  People look to leaders in times of stress for their cues.  If the leader is reacting overly –emotionally, or irrationally, people will follow that cue.

Thursday’s Tip:  Make decisions promptly.  The wrong decision today is better than the correct decision 3 months from now because it allows you to correct course, and move on.  Leaders must make take risks and make decisions in a timely manner.

Friday’s Tip:  Balance values and results.  Results achieved the wrong way, undermine the organization in the longer term.  Great leaders insist on great results, but place equal importance on how those results are achieved.

Born to Lead: Hardwired for Leadership

Join Jed and Bob as they discuss the natural traits of born leaders.  Also learn how you can display these qualities in yourself, and determine whether they are present in others.

Watch the ‘Born to Lead’ Video (16 mins 00 sec):


Download the ‘Born to Lead’ Cheat Sheet, Video, Audio, and Slides

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