Interviews: 2 questions you need

Zachary Aldwin Milkshake in the boardroom
You nervously pace the corridor fiddling with your fingernails. Sweaty palms and slight palpitations indicate a mild level of distress. Full panic, characterised by running away screaming, is kept at bay only by the thought of how badly you need this interview to go well.
As the head of HR it falls on your shoulders to conduct recruitment interviews, if you pick the wrong person then it is you who get blamed when they fail to perform to expectations.

In a minute a potential candidate, equally as sweaty as you, will walk in before you and your panel and be assessed for suitability.

You get to ask them questions and based on their answers you will hire them or send them off with a pleasant handshake. The problem sending your intestines into turmoil is this: what questions do you ask?

Well, this is where it gets really easy. There are only two questions you need to ask (after their name and all pleasantries are out of the way).

Forget NASA derived spatial orientation tests, forget Microsoft designed creativity exercises, throw out the dance routines you want them to perform, two questions is all you need.

I learnt these from a relative who honed them down after over 20 years in the corporate world. They revolutionised my life and took all the stress out of interviews.

The first is “How would you rate your performance in life out of 10 at the moment?” A simple self appraisal question.

Most interviewees will probably answer “seven”. It is a safe bet; not too low to make you think less of them, not too high to make you think they are too cocky.

If anyone answers with a “10” then they better be Mary Poppins (who in case you missed the film growing up is “practically perfect in ever way”) or be shown the door.

The second question is “So what do you think is holding you back and would need to change in order to improve your score?”

Answers will probably fall into two main categories. Category one is filled with “if I had more money”, “if the economy improved”, “if my mother was less demanding of my time”, “if I had a faster and better computer”, “my mother-in-law hates me”.

The second type of answer is “well I guess I am a bit lazy, I could wake up a bit earlier”, “I get distracted by my phone, I can remove the Facebook app from it”, “I tend to be a little insecure, I could work on that”, “I don’t really budget well, I could reduce my spending”.

Do you see the difference yet?

Category one is filled with external forces that are limiting your candidate, they are all outside his control.

The second batch of answers are all internal, the candidate realises that he is responsible for them and has the power to change them.

That attitude to life can be termed your “locus of control”. The locus of control simply where you think the forces controlling your life lie.

If you think that a number of outside factors are limiting you then your locus of control is external.

If you realise that you have the power and ability to change the internal limitations then it is internal to you.

People with an internal locus of control have the ability to shape their environment because they do not see it as a limit.

They are very powerful movers and shakers in any organisation.

They do not make excuses based on circumstances, they come up with solutions.

Those are the people you want to hire (or at least put through to the next round of interviews).

It is possible for a person to change their locus of control, to have a realisation and shift of attitude.

It is just unlikely that, as an employer, that you will have the time and effort to bring about such a change.

That sort shift needs to be personally motivated. You do not have time to waste by hiring externally controlled people.

They will never function well and your life will be filled with the corporate equivalent of ‘the dog ate my homework.’

There is no accountability for their actions as it is never their fault.

There will always be environmental, external factors at play in life. The difference is that internal control people do not let them dominate them.

They realise that, in many cases, they cannot change them but they can change themselves.

Back to the interview process. Of course the people you may end up interviewing are possibly reading this article as well.

They may know the ‘correct’ answer. There a dozens of blogs, books and seminars on conning your way through a job interview. That is why we have probation periods. No-one can hide their locus of control for any length of time.

Get them to shadow the job for a week, put them under pressure. Sooner or later their true colours will show and, well, the door is always there to send them through.