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Motivating people is impossible. Motivation isn’t something you ‘do’ to someone, it’s something that they can generate in themselves. Your job as a leader is to do two things:
- Find the right people who are motivated to excel in the environment you create, and
- Create the right environment for them to motivate themselves to excel in!
If you need help creating an environment for people to innovate in, check out these articles on leadership and work culture.
Here we are looking at 10 questions every recruiter should ask to find out if the person sat in front of you is creative, passionate and has what it takes to motivate themselves to achieve!
So, let’s get the best fit for your team, shall we?
1) Tell me something that I don’t already know about [a specific element of the role you are recruiting to]
This question is designed to cover two angles of approach. Firstly, it’s a depth of knowledge question, where you are looking for them to show you what they consider to be the real meat of the content you specialise in. It will tell you how passionate they are about really knowing the area of work they are in. Here is the interesting part, it will also tell you what they consider to be something specialised enough that it is unlikely you will know it…
This second element gives you a window into them thinking on their feet. It’s a low-level personality tester. An early way to determine if someone is a humble candidate, a tactful candidate or just an all-out know it all. Be careful here though, an all-out know it all may just be exactly what you need!
2) Describe how you would handle [something fairly standard in the role you are recruiting to]
We are not trying to assess their technical knowledge or skills here, we are looking for something else entirely. When choosing the subject matter, pick something that is important to you, something you would always want done well.
In their answer, you want them to walk you through a process, firstly theoretically, as a ‘for instance’. Then, crucially, you want them to give you a real-world example of when they have either done that exact thing, or something using the same transferable skills.
Pay attention to the structure of their answer, see how they logically lay out the elements of the task. A well-structured answer here will likely show how they would approach the task itself, and whether it is something they are so familiar with, it just trips off the tongue.
Finally, give credit for unusual angles of approach on this one. The next time you are looking for better, smarter or more effective ways of tackling the seemingly mundane… the candidate that weighed in with something unusual in this high-pressure situation, might just be the creative innovator you need!
3) Tell me about the most recent [industry related] information / article / blog post / journal you read and what you learned from it.
This is where we are identifying those candidates who are serious about what they do. Passion manifests itself in being motivated to read around their area of expertise. Is this just a job to them? Or is it where they find their ‘flow’, where they find their inspiration and therefore where they invest their mental energy?
People who are serious about being great at what they do, mastering their role, look to grow. Growth requires nutrition, and that nutrition should be current and relevant.
Dig a little deeper here and see if they can describe how they have applied the learnings to their work for an insight into how they can apply information in the real world.
4) Tell me about your greatest professional achievement
This one is obvious, because we are learning what they consider someone with their level of responsibility and experience can achieve by stretching themselves. Later, if this candidate is in your team, you’re going to be asking them to help you identify stretch goals for their role. You know, goals that push them to achieve their absolute best in each area of work. Here you are getting an insight in to what they consider to be remarkable. Do you consider it to be remarkable?
A word of caution here. Not everyone works for inspirational and forward-thinking leaders like you and me! If what they are giving you seems a little underwhelming, probe around the reporting relationship in their last role. Try and determine if their underwhelming achievements are because of lack of freedom to innovate or excel, or if they are just plain old under achievers.
5) Tell me about your favourite parts of your current role, and what parts will you be glad to leave behind?
This is a team and organisational fit question and a ‘what motivates you’ question. On the surface, we are learning what our candidate feels are good elements of a role they would enjoy and those they dislike. Underneath though, we are learning which type of team or structure this candidate feels comfortable in, and what environment they feel they can excel in.
It also gives indications on positivity / negativity of our candidate along with willingness to accept responsibility for their performance and happiness.
A red flag here is a candidate that launches into a tirade of how they don’t see eye to eye with their current manager or discuss petty grievances as motivators to leave. Whilst these are obviously real concerns, creative and inspirational people are looking for opportunities to excel and should be focussing their answers around that.
6) Recall for me a time your work has been criticised, where you received negative feedback or where you felt you had delivered and were met with a negative review – describe how you handled the situation
When someone takes ownership of poor results and recognises that improvements were possible, they are showing emotional intelligence. This is a metric by which future performance can be predicted. Look to see if they recognise that ultimately the person the outcome was intended for is in effect their client, which means that person needed to be happy with the result. Explore whether they are defensive over the result, as being proud of your achievements is a good thing, but failing to recognise that improvements are needed, is not.
Dig in to how they actually felt about the feedback, and then exactly what they did about it for that piece of work, and then future similar ones. Successful, creative candidates see feedback as opportunities for growth.
7) What is your management style? Or how would you task people in a project management capacity (If not a management position)
How someone approaches leadership is vital to understand in terms of team fit. Any leader worth hiring will be able to describe his or her leadership style, even if they don’t know the formal language for it. Dig deep here, as micromanagement tendencies are easy to miss, and will destroy any flourishing team culture you already have in a heartbeat.
Of particular value if the role requires it, is learning how someone would project lead, where they have no formal ‘authority’ over members of the project team. Collaborative working practices and encouraging delivery against deadlines without stick waving is a painfully absent skillset. If you can gain some insight into the candidate’s strategy for this, you’ll also be learning how they will approach their relationship with who they report to as well.
8) Describe for me your biggest (work) mistake
The purpose of this question is to determine the candidate’s capacity for self-reflection and honesty. Now obviously, any candidate who has any sense is unlikely to really tell you their absolute worst mistake, but that doesn’t matter. By asking this question of all your candidates, you are simply providing yourself with a ‘believability’ metric which can be directly compared between candidates.
How do you know if someone is being relatively honest with you? In 2006 M Kernis et al developed a theory on the measurement of authenticity, and in a very broad brush sense, asking someone to criticise themselves, then reflect on the outcomes of the event they are describing gives you a reasonable feeling for their level of authenticity. This is a fascinating subject which I highly recommend you read around, but in the meantime, comparing candidate answers to this question will give you a feel for their authenticity.
9) For each of your last jobs, what were you hired to do? then follow up with… and what did you actually do?
This again gives you two insights. You are looking for their attitude to taking on tasks outside of their initial job description. Have they the capacity for growth, and do they see shifting role tasks as an opportunity for growth?
Did their roles shift in each case? Have they developed the job roles they were in to allow them to excel at some additional side task? Can they provide extra value? Were they a mentor to less experienced team members?
In any team you want people who can develop themselves and their roles to fill each day with what the team needs most, not stick doggedly to their role description out of principle. Identify the people who can give actual examples of when they have done this, and importantly, see it as a positive thing…
10) Have you anything you’d like to ask me?
This isn’t just a ‘bring the interview to a close’ question, so don’t use it as such. This is an awesome question and is incredibly informative, for both you, and the candidate.
Firstly, they are considering giving you hours and hours of their precious lifespan, time they can never get back… so surely, they’ll want to know more about how they’ll be spending that time? Genuine enquiries about what their days will look like will show that they are intelligent and thoughtful people who are serious about finding an environment in which to excel.
Here is a really important tip: Answer them honestly! Don’t tell them what you think they want to hear to ‘encourage’ them to come and work for you. It is a short sighted and disingenuous move which will end in disaster. If the answers to their questions sound like they will put them off… maybe its time to have a look at your organisations culture?
Of course, if their questions are all about salary… or worse they respond with, “I haven’t really got any questions” – perhaps they aren’t the self-motivated, creative person you are looking for?
Over to you!
Have you got any suggestions for questions that give real insight into what drives prospective candidates? As you can see from the post, at letsworkhealthy.com we are giving simple practical help to leaders wherever we can. We would love to hear your thoughts on the tips in this article, so it would be great if you could leave some comments below!
How about subscribing to the mailing list so you can be kept informed whenever we publish a new article or release a new resource for leaders? Simply add your email address to the subscribe box and we’ll do the rest. I promise not to spam you or give your details to anyone else at all. If you are new to leadership and would like a quick start guide to establishing yourself in the role, and developing a creative and motivated team – the new 32 page E-book, ‘New Leader Quick Start Guide’ is for you! If you subscribe to Let’s Work Healthy, you’ll be able to download the E-book for FREE!
See you for the next article!
Greg Bennett is a Public Health Professional and
Leadership Coach
References
Kernis M.H., Goldman B.M., Zanna M.P. Vol 38. Elsevier Academic Press; San Diego, CA US: 2006. A multicomponent conceptualization of authenticity: theory and research; pp. 283–357. (Advances in Experimental Social Psychology).
https://recruitingblogs.com/profiles/blogs/8-interesting-resources-for-recruiters-in-2018
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