The Four Actions You Should Take During Every Interview

By Michael J Griffin

Over the past 30 years, I have interviewed thousands of candidates for positions in leadership, sales and service. From this long experience of “success and failure,” I have gleaned four actions you should always employ during any interview. The four actions support the solid interviewing skills of preparation, conducting and evaluating the interview.

Here are the four:

1. Ask for Proof. We interview candidates for knowledge, skill, attitude and culture fit. During the interview, make sure you ask for proof of these hiring parameters. The proof may be a certification or award, but more often than not the answer to your questions will be verbal. After the candidate says they have this attribute, you might ask “Give me an example where you……” or “Tell me how you accomplished……” or “Give me a situation where you used this skill,” or, “What did you do to overcome this….?” or “How did you solve or achieve this…..?” You will gain deeper insight of the candidate’s skill level and motivation by asking for proof.

2. The Peter Drucker Question. The question you should ask yourself during or after the interview is “Would I want this candidate to be my daughter or son’s manager or leader?” In my case it is not my daughters but now my granddaughter! This question relies on your experience, intuition and gut feeling about the candidate. Kit may also provide the answer to whether or not the candidate is teachable and has a good fit with your corporate culture.

3. The Competition Question. Dee Hock, the founder of Visa International, was a mentor to Verne Harnish. He shared in his blog one of Dee’s best hiring questions – one you ask yourself as you consider hiring someone “What if this person worked for our biggest competitor?” If you don’t care, then maybe not the right person for you. But if you do, then hire them if they meet the following criteria: 

   Hire and promote first on the basis of integrity; second, motivation; third, capacity; fourth, understanding; fifth, knowledge; and last and least, experience. 
   

   Without integrity, motivation is dangerous. 
   Without motivation, capacity is impotent. 
   Without capacity, understanding is limited. 
   Without understanding, knowledge is meaningless. 
   Without knowledge, experience is blind.

   This formula uncovers whether the candidate aligns with your company mission, values, drive for results criteria but integrity must come first!!

4. Employ Accurate and Robust Profiles. All candidates come to job interviews wearing a “mask.” They want to make a good first impression to get the job. It may be especially difficult to “unmask the mask” in cross cultural situations and where status and diversity may be an issue. Building trust is the door opener here. What is the “key” to open the door? Employ good behavioral and motivational profiles that you both you and the candidate insight into their strengths and areas of improvement. Why? All candidates are keen to learn more about themselves and walking through their profile allows you to walk through the information found in the profile and build trust to ask questions about the candidate’s skill, behaviors and motivations. It also gives you an angle to evaluate whether the candidate will fit into your company. Some stingy managers complain that profiles are expensive. What a mistake! Investing $200 to $500 in a profile for an employee whose compensation may be 100- 500 times the profile cost is a wise investment.

ELAvate uses TTISI Behavioral and Driving Forces Profiles to assess candidates. You may download and example of my profile here. If you read my profile, you will see that I am really in the right job at ELAvate!

Master these four crucial actions to become a better interviewer that leads to hiring people who fit your culture and are more likely to be loyal and enjoy working in your organization. Contact me if you want to gain more insight on becoming a better interviewer or how to use profiles for screening job candidates. michael.griffin@elavateglobal.com

Have a productive end of year searching and hiring candidates for a better 2023!

Michael J Griffin
CEO and Founder of ELAvate