Ask good questions. Have a clear road map of impressing and provocative questions that deal with what gets them up and their purpose and their passion.
One of the key questions I love to ask people, ‘What gets you up in the morning? What is it that you do, and why is it that you do it? What are you passionate about? What is it that gets you really excited and motivated and engaged?’ If you understand those two things, you get a really clear picture of who that person is.
Create a series of questions that get to understanding what a person sees — what it is they want to do in their lives. What gets them out of bed? What really motivates them? What do they see as their life’s work? Who or what really excites them every day? Is there a person either currently or in history that inspires them and why?
Look at framing questions that have polar opposites — what do you love; what do you hate? What are you inspired by, frustrated by? What are you motivated by, and what are you thoroughly bored by? You can understand how they view the world.
Don’t overlook red flags. The group of people that actually form and make the decisions, we’ve worked together long enough that we trust that if one person has a red flag and they can articulate it clearly, we definitely listen to it.
Then we may bring that person back and deal with the subject that the person has an issue with and delve deeper into that subject. When you’re interviewing for a job, depending on what position it is, sometimes people have a great day and they wake up on the right side of the bed and the drive to work is fantastic. Or the reverse of that is something happened in the day — they got a phone call, somebody cut them off on the way to the interview, they got a flat tire, they may have dealt with something that put them on a different level.
Encourage candidates to ask questions. Make sure that it’s a dialogue and it’s a conversation and [that] it’s not each person talking at each other. We view it as it’s a reciprocal interviewing process. We want the person we’re interviewing to ask as many questions that they may have of us that we may have of them. That’s always telling.
If they’re coming to be interviewed rather than they’re coming to interview you, it indicates where their passion and level of understanding for your business, for your company and for your category is. Highly curious, passionate, purpose-driven people, if they really want to work for your organization and it’s not just a job, they’re going to bring a level of passionate curiosity and understanding. They’re going to ask, and they’re going to be able to look at your Web site and be able to understand the business you’re in, and that comes through for both people.
Our business is people-centered … and when you’re interviewing people, to have them illustrate that they’re as fascinated by people, it’s a nice little indicator for us, as well.
How to reach: Bulldog Drummond Inc., (619) 528-8404 or www.bulldogdrummond.com