Courtesy Lighthouse Advisors LLC
By Michael Cruz
Hiring the right people for your organization is critically important, right? And, interviewing people is the way we determine if they are the people you want. Typical questions often include – Where do you see yourself in 3 years? How do you handle conflict? What are your strengths (or weaknesses)? These are terrible questions. Don’t ask them!
I often work with clients on hiring issues. We work on ways to ensure new hires are a 90% fit to their company. Good interviews take preparation. Few people take the time to prepare to ask purposeful questions. Before we figure out what to ask, we need to understand why you should not ask the questions above.
Where do you see yourself in three years? What do you want them to say? How does their answer tell you much about them? If I meet you somewhere, could you answer that question? Don’t ask it. Focus your questions on what you want them to do in the next three years.
How do you handle conflict? This one is a little different. We all need to handle conflict at work. The phrasing of this question is hypothetical. People will answer based on what they think you want to hear. Whoever told you that they scream at people? Or that they will pout? Instead, ask them to Give me an example of a time that you had a conflict with a coworker? Tell me the situation and describe how you handled it. This change in phrasing allows you see what they do in that situation. It is no longer hypothetical. It is behavioral. It describes their actual behavior in that situation.
What are your strengths (or weaknesses)? Again, this is not specific. You get answers like – “I have been known to work too hard.” Or, “People say, I take my work too seriously.” Focus instead on learning their strengths by asking situational questions. Give me an example of a time you had competing deadlines and not enough time to complete all your tasks. Describe the tasks and tell me what you did in that situation.
Don’t ask questions that do not make the candidate talk about actual examples of their work history. We all do what we have always done. Find out what your candidate has always done, and Hire the People You Want.