Great Interviewing Tip (Never hire nice ineffective people ever again.) This simple interviewing strategy (and free script) will save you time and stress as you grow your business.
‘He has to go,’ I caught myself thinking about one of my salespeople. Let’s call him Ricky. Ricky was nice.
I liked him. But Ricky was ineffective. Maybe he would improve? Perhaps things could get better? Surely a bit more mentorship and training would do the trick. Six months later Ricky was still nice, and yet ineffective. And I had to fire him. It wasn’t his fault though; it was mine. I shouldn’t have hired him in the first place and wouldn’t have had I known what I am about to share with you.
Hiring nice, ineffective people is one of the most frustrating, stressful, and expensive mistakes a business owner can make.
Hiring nice, ineffective, people is expensive because of all the costs associated with hiring, interviewing, training, and, of course, paying them. The longer they work for you, the more expensive it becomes — and the more stressful. I remember the first moment I questioned Ricky’s place in the company, but I banished it quickly and decided that I could turn things around. I did that for months, which means that: a) I paid him for months of ineffective work. b) I spent countless hours and money trying to make him effective.
c) I lived with pervasive and growing stress as it became clearer that I didn’t have a choice. And so, I did one of my least favorite things: I fired him. After that, I got thinking about the interviewing process and decided to make some changes, which would save me thousands (tens or even hundreds of thousands by now) of dollars. At first glance, what I am about to share with you may appear so simple that it hides how powerful it can be. Please bear with me and give it a try; it really works.
To be clear, we are talking about an interviewing strategy that can filter out all of the nice, ineffective people and really help you to get the people you both want and need. Generally, interviewing consists of a background check (anything from detailed to cursory) and then one or more face-to-face meetings (or interviews) that help us learn what we could not from the resume and background checks. Mostly, we are trying to figure out if we like the candidate. This is often a mistake because, frankly, whether or not you like someone may not be incredibly relevant to whether or not they are a fit for the role you have in mind. For example, if you are a creative and dynamic entrepreneur you might need a detailed and methodical person to handle project
management; by nature, you might not outright ‘like’ a person with traits so different from your own.
People like people that they are like. Hiring more people like you is not the way to grow a successful organization; it takes all kinds of people. Let’s talk about dating for a moment. One of the problems with dating is that people put ‘their best foot forward’ on a date; they don’t show up as they really are.
This makes the first few dates somewhat challenging: Two people try to learn as much as they can about each other while those same two people are on ‘best behavior’. This makes it really difficult to actually get to know on another. Interviewing is very much the same. When a prospective employee arrives at your place of business for an interview, they are generally under some degree of stress. This means that you are going to interview the ‘stressed’ version of them and, as a result, youare not really going to get to know them at all. This brings us to step one in the Business Freedom hiring strategy:
Step One: Relax the Candidate. To really get to know the candidate, it is crucial that you help them to relax. Make sure that they are welcomed warmly, offered a nice drink, and reassured about your excitement about having them in for the interview. When the interview starts, assure them that you are excited about interviewing them and that you have been looking forward to getting to know them. The more relaxed they are, the more opportunity you will have to really get to know them.
Step Two: Ask Gentle, Atypical Questions These days, when a person goes for an interview, they turn to Google for advice. They ask Google what to wear — and what to say. And, of course, they ask Google what you are going to ask and how they should answer.
This means that they are ready and prepared for your questions. So, when you ask them ‘why they quit their last job,’ they are going to give you a canned and well-rehearsed response that will sound (because they practiced it) solid but may or may not be true. Instead, I suggest asking them gentle probing questions that will help you gain insight into who they really are. For instance, you might want to ask where they love to go on vacation. One candidate might answer that they love to go camping with their family and enjoy being in the outdoors while another may regale you with stories about his last trip to Las Vegas that was so much fun that he woke up in Bangkok.
Personal questions of this nature will help you gain an insight into the candidate and, because they are not expecting these questions, you are more likely to (a) get honest answers and (b) meet their real personality.
Step Three: Ask Probing Questions Having helped them to relax, and learned a bit about them, it is time to move toward more probing questions.
But we still want to stay away from the typical questions that they have readied themselves for. I suggest asking them pointed questions that ask for specific examples rather than, say, asking how they might handle a given hypothetical situation. For instance, I would ask them for specific examples of particular events. It is easy to ask: “How would you handle things if you had a disagreement with a member of staff or your manager?”
A question like this gives them a huge amount of leeway to speak in hypothetical terms or to use made up answers, therefore preventing you from learning the truth. Instead, we say: “Tell me about a time when you had a disagreement with your previous manager.”
This conversation forces them to think of an actual time with plain facts and makes it much harder for them to fictionalize their answer. Now you will find out who they really are.
Step Four: Test Them If, by the end of Step 3, you already know that they are not a match then you can simply thank them and send them on their way. On the other hand, if you believe that they might be a match, Step Four will make all the difference in the world to your hiring processes.
This is the step that will really make sure that you never, ever, again hire nice, ineffective people. Having arrived at a stage in the interview where you think they are a match and that you might want to offer them the job, it is vital that you give them an opportunity to prove themselves. Where, until now, we have been aiming to help them relax, we now want to give them some pointed rejection that forces them to think, respond and defend (read →sell) themselves. For instance, if you are interviewing for a salesperson, one of the traits you are probably looking for is the ability to sell. You may also want to know how they handle rejection.
At this stage, you say to the candidate, something along these lines: “I have really enjoyed our time together and I do feel as though you might fit in well here, but I am concerned about one thing.” At this stage, they will probably experience some stress as they wait to find out what the ‘one thing’ is. “Our company is highly competitive, and our sales people are even more so. While I have enjoyed our interview, I am just not getting that really driven, competitive feeling from you and this is really important to us.” This strategy may seem overly aggressive to you and, frankly, it may well be somewhat uncomfortable the first few times you do it, but I guarantee you this: It is a lot less uncomfortable than wondering when to fire a nice, ineffective employee or, for that matter, actually firing them. When you say this to the candidate it is essential that you then hold the space; wait for their reply. (If you are hiring outside the United States or for a non-sales role you might want to add: “How do you feel about that?” to permit them to respond. Some cultures are less willing to sell themselves without specific permission.) At this stage, you should receive one of three types of answers: Type One: They Give Up. If they respond by saying that you might be right, then you are right, and they have just saved you the stress and expense of hiring a nice but ineffective salesperson. After all, if they can’t sell
themselves, how are they going to sell your product or services effectively? Type Two: They Freak Out. If the candidate freaks out at this stage, raising their voice and becoming indignant, you can send me a thank you note because you have just saved yourself thousands of dollars in lost salary and, frankly, a potential legal nightmare. Type Three: They Convince You. The point of this step is to test them, and so, they should now try to convince you that they have the skills that you have questioned. They should, gently, offer an explanation and then attempt to persuade you (elegantly) that you are wrong about them and that they do have the trait or traits that you are questioning.
Don’t let them off easily; offer some pushback and give yourself a chance to really see how they respond under pressure and how congruent they are about possessing the skills and traits you desire. This final step can be used for any position and for any traits that you believe to be important to your company. For instance, when hiring an accountant, you might say: “Our accounting department is really important to us. It is imperative that we don’t make mistakes and that we always file on time and while I have enjoyed our interview, I am just not
getting you are as obsessively detail oriented as we might really be looking for. How do you feel about that? If interviewing for a help desk operator, you might say: “I have really enjoyed our interview and I do think you could fit in well here, but I am concerned. On our helpdesk we are really looking for highly conscientious people with a real desire to help others and I am just not getting that from you here in this interview. How do you feel about that? If you are looking for a personal assistant, you might say: “It has been a real pleasure meeting you today and I do think we might work well together. I am concerned though; I know I need someone who will take a real curiosity in me and my productivity; someone who will be even more focused on my productivity than I am, and I am just not sure I am picking that up from you.
As I wrote earlier, this last step can be somewhat uncomfortable the first few times you do it, but it can save you so much time, stress and money that it is absolutely worth doing. If you would like a copy of the interviewing script that we provide our clients, you can get a copy here.