Tag: interviews

I realize the topic is quite broad. I’m going to focus on one behavior leaders can practice to identify hidden talents.

Hidden talents are exactly that, and skilled leaders know that spotting and capitalizing hidden talent likely leaders to better returns. The reason is that most leaders aren’t skilled at spotting.

Principle: Human behavior is paradoxical except when it comes to interview prep. Therefore, as the interviewer, be the paradox.

To find what’s hidden leaders must listen. Deceptively simple because listening in this context requires you to:

1. Deploy massive amounts of empathy.
2. Be an active listener.
3. Be genuinely curious.

Empathy is required to place yourself in the shoes of the candidate. What’s their worldview like? What’s life been like for them? What stories might the tell of personal challenges they’ve overcome? You get to this spot by asking questions.

1. What are you reading/watching/listening to these days? Tell me more. Why? What is it about this topic that interests you? If you could rewrite/deploy a new content strategy, what would you do?
2. What factors contributed to your successes to date? Who do you credit as an influential teacher? What did you learn from them? If you met a student that was inspired by your story and wanted to be like you, what advice would you give them?

Unconventional, these questions open the door to learn more about the candidate. Most candidates aren’t prepared for you to be interested in what they’re interested about, and many will jump at the chance to share their interests. You’ll learn the capabilities of the person and you may be shocked that the candidate hasn’t gotten employed sooner. You could argue that it’s telling on a negative and positive side — why can’t it be both?

You can develop these skills by listening to skilled interviewers. Lex Fridman, Tyler Cowen, and Shane Parrish are all skilled interviewers. As you listen, listen to the phrasing of questions and how the interviewer engages the interviewee — Cowen is especially good at that.

Principle: Organizations want to hire the best talent at the best practice with hopes for the best returns.

If that principle is true, then I recommend focusing on the processes related to spotting talent — interviews. And better still, maximize for identifying talent that is likely undervalued by the market. You can expect better returns from labor outputs and enhance your future recruitment effectiveness because you found the gem that everyone passed over.

Skilled leaders teach their leads how to interview. They invite them to shadow interviews, they mock, and they learn how to ask questions that reveal a candidates hidden talents. Here’s my method.

1. Teach how to visualize talent capital. I use a recipe metaphor. What ingredients do we have more than enough? What do we need?
2. Use the visualization to write a job description and recruitment req.
3. Find models of candidates with ideal skills and traits.
4. Shadow interviews. Ask the leads to summarize what they learned and teach back.
5. Mock interview. Invite leads to mock interview each other and myself. I intentionally create scenarios where the lead will need to decline the candidate to their face.
6. Lead an interview with me shadowing.
7. Manage their own interviews.

I believe in the process because getting good at spotting and assessing talent ties to better returns. And, helping leaders get better at this skill makes them more valuable to the market.

Key Metrics

1. % Involuntary/Voluntary attrition at 3 months, 6 months, and 1 year.
2. % Business outcomes achieved on target.
3. # of candidate referrals from existing employees