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Should we ask candidates what their greatest weaknesses are?
It is from a listing of the (admittedly often subjective) assessments
of applicants' strengths and weaknesses that interviewers (probably
intuitively) rank their candidates.
Knowing the relevant strengths and weaknesses is essential to this
process. But interviewees have an implied obligation to treat their
candidates kindly. This forum tells how good candidates withdraw their
applications if you don't.
And, especially under harsh pressure - but even without it,
interviewees will lie.
"Does this horse have any bad habits?"
"Well, he shies at orchid flowers."
"At orchid flowers? But they don't grow round here."
"No, it was when I took him to a show, one year, but you are only using
him for local work, so I guess that's not a problem."
...
"That horse you sold me, it threw me and broke m'leg. There weren't no
orchids around. No flowers at all, 'cept a wild rose in the hedge-row."
"Oh, damn, I forgot about the roses!"
As interviewer it is your job to elicit the problems. There are two
main schools of radio/TV interviewing. The in-your-face "Admit you are a
right shit!" and the subtle "and how did that project work out?", with the
interviewer picking up on small clues and leaving the interviewee
apparently feeling very good about themselves while the watching audience
around the world says to themselves "what a right shit!"
Interviewing is most decidedly not the same as cross-examination. The
candidate is not under oath, for one thing.
When you are trying to find out what sorts of work to avoid allocating
the candidate, just ask that, as a kindly question:
"We have a wide range of projects here." [You might give some
examples - describing the job is part of orienting the candidate, after
all]. "Given the choice, which would you prefer to concentrate on, and
which, if any, would you prefer were allocated to other staff." [Let's not
be prejorative in our wording (for it is less likely to get you the
truth) - so we don't screw the poor candidates to the wall by asking what
they would AVOID].
If you want to avoid those who would fold under heavy pressure, you can
ask:
"In your previous jobs, have you ever been in a team [ie NOT YOU
personally - keep off the personal prejorative] that has had to work
round-the clock to meet a heavy deadline? Uh-huh, and were you aware that
sometimes happens here - how do you feel about that?" ["DO you feel", NOT
the subjunctive "'would' you feel" - we are probing for the gut reaction
here and if the candidate is any good with language (which you should long
since have established), one will get you the visceral response, the other
a more intellectual reading. Read Bandler and Grindler for more about
this].
In short, design your interviews to show yourselves as the intelligent,
sensitive, subtle, tolerant, good people-managers that you really are.
P
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Peter Collins, VIVID Management Pty Ltd,
26 Bradleys Head Road, MOSMAN NSW 2088, Australia
+61 2 9968 3308, fax +61 2 9968 3026, mobile +61 (0)18 419 571
Management Consultants and Technical Writers
email: peter -dot- collins -at- bigfoot -dot- com ICQ#: 10981283
Short stories and CV: http://www.angelfire.com/pe/pcollins/
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