All those with extensive experience in hiring know that the most difficult candidate to guard against is the articulate incompetent. When I identify someone with great intuitive skills in my organization, I always make sure that he or she spends considerable time with a candidate even if their skill areas seem to be unrelated. I’m working with two such people now, a man and a woman, who have exceptional intuition, honed by experience, and their insights have prevented countless bad hiring decisions.
The other thing that weeds out those who can talk but not do, and also reveals those who do far better than they talk, is to have the candidate complete an exercise that should showcase key strengths and skills necessary to do the job well. For example, in business I have given candidates writing tests and had them read a case study and then prepare an oral report with recommendations to solve the problem in the case study. The woman who started as a receptionist and became a partner did a brilliant job of responding to an interviewer who was role playing as an angry customer.
In education every teaching candidate has to teach two separate classes: any bad teacher can have one good class and any good teacher can have a bad one. Over two classes, the truth will probably assert itself.
I’ve learned to keep a notebook with great interviews questions I’ve “borrowed” from others. Here’s one: Tell me about a mistake you’ve made, what made you realize the error, what steps you took to fix the problem, and how the experience changed your behavior in the future. Every outstanding person I’ve ever seen became outstanding by taking responsibility for mistakes and by learning from them, and some of the best and most revealing stories I’ve ever heard have come in response to this question.
The literal and figurative cost of making good hires is extensive, exceeded only by the cost of making bad hires.
Joe Puggelli is Head of School, Seattle Academy