One of the most important roles and responsibilities a leader has, is to build a strong leadership team. As important as recruiting is to the success of an organization, it is frequently the lowest on their list of skills. Recently I read an article that indicated the success rate for quality hires is about 48%…not great. Lets dig in and see what we can do together!
In previous articles we have communicated that the leader typically bases his/her selections on priorities that don’t produce the best results. As a quick review, we shared Energy was the number one predictor of a successful hire, followed by culture, and core values. Knowledge, Skill, and Ability held the lowest priority which is surprising, but energy, culture and core values come with the applicant won’t be easily changed.
To be fair, being concerned with the applicant’s desirable KSAs, is still important. We want to spend the remainder of this article focused on them.
We have found over the years that questions regarding KSAs fail to get results because the leader often asks some variant of the following question: “What would you do to [complete/perform] a given [task(s)]?” Such questions get stock styled answers and when finished, the leader doesn’t know if the person can actually do the job.
The best results come from, “What have you done,” kind of questions. We’ve prepared some below:
- What are some specific responsibilities?
- Exactly how does your supervisor evaluate your work?
- How do you evaluate your work?
- What aspects of your work have been the most challenging?
- Exactly how does your performance make a difference to your organization?
- What are you learning about your profession that makes you a more valuable employee?
- What’s a work situation in which you had to try a new solution in order to solve a work related problem?
Make sure you insert some questions like:
- Can you elaborate more please?
- Would you please be more specific?
Now, there’s some good interviewing! Executive Advantage is holding a FREE mini workshop on recruiting June 28th, 2021 from 4-5 pm on Zoom! Call us for details or simply sign up below.
For more assistance be sure to contact Doris Scribner or Bob Scribner to schedule a coffee meeting. Coffee is on us!