Risk & Business Magazine McFarlan Rowlands Spring 2016 | Page 22

Big Mistakes Interviewers Make
Learn How to Avoid Them

AN INTERVIEW OF DR. BRAD SMART, AUTHOR AND PRESIDENT AND CEO OF TOPGRADING, INC.

A

fter interviewing candidates for
hire, do you have an agonizing
feeling in your gut that candidates gave
you such vague answers you didn’t really
get to know them? Do more than half
of the people you hire turn out to be
disappointments?
If so, you are in good company. Dr.
Brad Smart has conducted more
than 6,500 hiring interviews and
has taught thousands of managers
how to avoid costly mis-hires. At
TopgradingCaseStudies.com you can
read dozens of case studies in which
companies large and small improved
from hiring 26% high performers to
85% HIGH performers.

Q: Brad, what is the #1 mistake
interviewers make?

Brad: Interviewers simply don’t ask
good follow up questions when they get
vague answers to questions, particularly
questions about mistakes, failures, or
weaker points.

Q: For example …
Brad: Suppose you are talking to your
candidate about a job 5 years ago and
ask, “What would your manager in that
job, Susan Smith, say you should improve
at?” Suppose your candidate responds,
“She said I should communicate better.”
This could mean a lot of things … maybe
the candidate is slow to return calls, or
uses bad grammar, or speaks too softly,
or is uncooperative with peers, or is not
a good public speaker, or is cold in most
communications, or breaks confidences,
or fails to speak up when there is a
problem, or 20 other things. Maybe
“communications” is not a weaker point
… or a fatal flaw. You just don’t know.
You could assume that “everyone
could communicate better” and go on
to the next question. But you haven’t
learned if the candidate has a serious
communications problem. That’s how a

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SPRING 2016

lot of mis-hires occur. You should have
asked follow-up questions, probes that
pin down exactly if the candidate has a
serious communications problem.

Q: Give us an example of generalities
and of how to fix them.
Brad: OK.
C(andidate): My manager, Susan Smith,
criticized my communications skills.
Y(ou): How exactly did she want you
to communicate better? (Rephrase the
question.)
C: It was my communications with my
peers.
Y: In what specific ways did your manager
want you to communicate better with
peers? (Ask for specifics.)
C: I guess I asked them to support my
initiatives but did not communicate
enough to really get them on board and
supportive.

Y: Give me an example? (Ask again for
specifics.)
C: Ok, as a sales manager I asked my
peers to support big promotions, but
at times I wouldn’t be clear about
exactly what operations or marketing
managers should do.
Y: How would Susan rate your peer
relations overall? (Nail down how
serious it is)
C: Susan rated me Good my first year,
but challenged me to rise to Very Good
by the second year, and I did. It wasn’t
rocket science – I just needed to be
more thorough initially and be more
available to answer questions. On a
team survey my peers rated me a 6.5 in
Peer Relationships the first year but 7.5
– 8 after that year. (Good for you. You
probed enough to get a clear picture of
the problem AND how serious it is. It’s
apparently not very serious. )