The BIGG Successs Show
Interviewing Tips For The First-Time Manager
How to get the information you need to make a good hiring decision. Read the show summary at biggsuccess.com.
Welcome to The Big Success Show. Today, we'll offer some interviewing tips to a first-time manager. "The Big Success Show" with George and Mary Lynn. You know, Mary Lynn, I think that a lot of people would say that when you go to a job interview, it can be kind of nerve wracking. But I think what a lot of people don't realize is that especially for novice managers, sitting on the other side of the desk can be even more anxiety-ridden. That's true. And in fact, we've got an email here from Adam, who has a big challenge. He just got promoted to his first management job. Hey, congratulations, Adam. A big congrats with 2G's. He needs to fill a position, and so he's going to be doing some interviewing. He'd like some tips so that he can make a good hiring decision. Sounds great. Well, today we'll offer Adam four tips for his upcoming interviews, and we'll also do a quick role play to demonstrate the process. Yeah, and you're in luck here, Adam, because, George, I mean, you have years of experience when it comes to interviewing people. Yeah, and I remember actually my very first interviews. I was in my early 20s, and most of the people I was interviewing were in their mid-40s. Wow. And that was a little bit of a challenge. I've been intimidating, right? Mm-hmm. All right, well, our first tip for you, Adam, is set the tone. Create an environment that will put your candidate at ease. And you want to start the interview, something like this, Adam. We're here to just talk today, you know, just let's just get to know each other a little better. I have some questions for you, obviously, but I also want to make sure that I answer any and all questions that you have so that you're able to find out if this is the right job for you. I'm already comfortable. That's the goal. That's the point. That's the point. Our second tip for you, remain neutral throughout the interview. And novice is often make this mistake. Yeah, and the easiest way to illustrate this, Marilyn, may actually be with an example. We'll make it a little bit extreme just to have some fun, but say the candidate tells you that he left his previous job because he didn't want to have to be to work at aid every day. Oh, boo-hoo. Believe it or not, I've actually heard that one. Here's the way you should not respond. Well, now that's not a very good reason for leaving a job, is it? Boy, let's see that'd be tough because I'd want to say that. But what you're saying here, George, is by doing that, you've tipped your hand because now you are unlikely to really understand the candidate because he's going to remember what you said and edit his answers to fit the perception of what you want to hear. Exactly right, Mary-Lan. Another thing that you often see novice managers doing is they sell the candidate on the job upfront without really knowing that they want to offer them the job. And I think they do it just because they're nervous. They think it's their job to sell the job. But when you do that, you lose the objectivity and you don't really find out about the candidate. So make sure that throughout the interview process, for the most part, you're not selling your explaining. In our third tip for you, Adam, focus on learning what the candidate did do rather than what the candidate would do because it's very easy to give hypothetical answers to hypothetical questions. But that's the difference between good intentions and good actions. For example, it's easy to make New Year's resolutions, but it's harder to keep them. So find out what your candidate has done rather than what they intend to do. And the fourth thing is simply this, follow up, follow up, follow up. Ask a question, listen attentively to their answer, but then follow up on it to drill deeper down. And you may find you're drilling down three, four, five levels, keeping the candidate talking, but that's where you'll actually get the answer and start to really learn something about the candidate. See, this is a really good point. And coming up, George and I are going to role play to illustrate that technique and some of the others. They were offering interviewing tips to Adam, who's a first time manager. And Marylin, we talked about doing a role play. Do you want to be the interviewer or the interviewee? I'll be the interviewee. All right. Well, let's say that we're past that introductory stage where we're kind of sat in the tone. Okay. And I've just asked you to describe your duties on a particular job. All right. Bring it on, George. I'm ready. All right. Marylin, why are you thinking about leaving your current job? Well, I'm looking for a more positive environment. A more positive environment. Yeah. Where people want to work together and help each other be more productive. And that doesn't happen where you're working right now? No, it doesn't really feel like a team because there's too much office politics. Could you give me an example to help me understand that? Well, my boss has a few favorite people and they get all the cushy assignments and the rest of us get the leftovers. And so what have you done to try to resolve that? All right. Let's end the role play right here. Although. You didn't have an answer to that question. Did you, Marylin? Yeah. I got to think for a few minutes on that, but that's really good, George, because what you did throughout the few questions we did there, you kept it neutral. You kept me talking and you were really drilling down. And we struggled. Well, if you notice, I don't know how many levels we ended up going. It's three, four levels down, probably, but we're finally now going to learn something about the candidate. And we don't know what the answer would be. It could be that you learn that they don't like any supervisor. Well, that's good information because the next supervisor they won't like if you hire them is you. So you want to know that or it could be that this supervisor actually is a bad supervisor. You want to know that and not hold it against the candidate. But I think one other thing that you get out of that answer is, is this candidate a go-getter? Does this candidate try and find his or her own solutions? Absolutely right. And that's why you're looking at the behavior, not what they would do. All right. Well, thanks again, Adam, for emailing us your big challenge. Good luck with your interviews and we hope that our tips help you out. And if you have a big challenge, you'd like us to help you out with, email us through our website at big success.com. That's also where we have a written summary of today's show. And George, let's get our big quote for the day. Our quote today is by Anan, not Anan, and Anan said, "If you think hiring professionals is expensive, try hiring amateurs." Oh, that's a good one. So take the time to hire right so you don't waste time on the wrong hire. And next time, we'll discuss some simple tips to get rid of clutter and save an hour a day. How's that, Maryland? I think we need to listen to our own advice. Until then, here's to your big success. The Big Success Show at B-I-G-G Success.com. [MUSIC]