How to Interview Candidates for Your Top Management Team
by Dr. Ichak Adizes (Ichak@Adizes.com)
Wanted: Energy
There are many people looking for jobs, and it is very important for them to succeed, but it is even more important for people who are trying to hire them to know how to hire. Organizations need energy, and the more people who have energy to provide to the organization, the more successful the corporation can be because the energy can be focused and can be channeled for the organization.
When you interview people you want to interview people with energy. Where does the energy come from? It comes from people not having their own “internal marketing”. In other words, they cannot be so preoccupied with their own problems between their ears --the problems that they have with their family, the problems that they have outside of their jobs. In America we even say, don’t bring your problems from home to work. So when you interview someone, you want to be sure that they are energetically, emotionally, and intellectually totally available to your company. They are not splitting their mind and their energy to multiple purposes, and you are just one of many.
Excess is not good for any system, whether that system applies to the individual or family or business or society. Each of these systems does have to balance the ratio of internal marketing versus external marketing. In business, external marketing is energy dedicated to external purposes serving the organization for which you exist, providing the solutions to the market. Internal marketing is spending energy on making that organization work. Total energy is fixed. The more energy that is wasted on internal marketing, the less there is available for external marketing.
What is the “standard” for internal marketing. It depends on the availability of mutual trust and respect. When there is mutual trust and respect, then internal politics or internal marketing or internal integration that needs to be handled is minimal; all energies are available to handle the external world. When an organization has no mutual trust and respect, and marketing is fighting with sales, sales with production, production with accounting and accounting against everyone, and the client arrives, people usually say, “come back tomorrow, I’m exhausted today.” While the departments are protecting their backs from internal fighting in the company, they have to turn around;
thus, by definition, their back is turned to the market.
Wanted: Self-Trust
The same is true for an individual. If an individual does not have sufficient self-respect or self-trust, that individual is busy within his ears about what he should do, what he should not do, why he should do it, etc. So all the energy in between his ears is not available to be used in the company. What you really want when you hire an executive is a person with self-respect and self-trust, and, because of that, he is totally available to work for the company.
Wanted: Scars on the Tongue
How do you check whether a person has self-esteem, which is the essence of mutual trust and respect? I have found that people with a low level of self-esteem have difficulty dealing with issues that affect them emotionally. Thus, at the first opportunity in the conversation, they will try to prove their worthiness, and interrupt another person to talk. One way to interview and check whether a person has enough internal peace of mind, enough self-esteem, is how well they control their emotions during a conversation. As a matter of fact, you can check the quality of the person by the depth of the scars on his tongue. The good executive will bite his tongue when the times get tough, when the ride is difficult. So, during a conversation, I recommend that you raise issues that will touch, annoy, or enthuse the interviewee. In other words, touch a nerve and see how long it takes the person to react. You want the person to react. But not instantly. You want the person to think on it, process it, bite his tongue, and then respond calmly and articulately in reaction to your touching his nerve. Someone who, in the middle of a sentence, interrupts you, or even dominates the conversation all the time, and wants to prove his self-worthiness at all costs, even to the point of annoying you, this type of person you should avoid. Some people have something to say, some people have to say something. Avoid the second group.
Wanted: Grant Other People Trust & Respect
A person with poor self-esteem is a person who then can’t grant other people trust and respect because respecting others and trusting others is impossible without trusting and respecting yourself. What kind of person trusts and respects himself? The type of person that is well-rounded, knows his strengths and weaknesses, and accepts his weaknesses.
Wanted: Acceptance of Weakness
In an interview, I like to ask about weaknesses, and I like a person who is generally honest and says here are the things I am weak at, and he does not portray everything as a strength. I do not look in favor on the person that says that, “I am extremely focused” and makes that a strength rather than a weakness. You want someone who is genuinely admitting, “OK, I am not very good at following up, but I am extremely creative.” That shows you that he knows his strengths, knows his weaknesses, and he is at peace with himself -- a person that gets along well with others because he needs them.
Wanted: Disagreement without Being Disagreeable
I also like to find out through the interview and references how the candidate disagrees. You want a person who disagrees without being disagreeable, which means someone who commands and grants respect and trust. You want a person who can challenge your thinking, someone you can learn from, because they have something to contribute, that adds value, but they don’t do it in a way that is destructive and undermines the discussion and capability to learn and to change views. Somebody who adds value but doesn’t insist that you actually agree with him. What he insists on is that you listen to him. As long as you listen that is all he is entitled to, and he is comfortable with that so that you can make your own judgment later on.
So let’s repeat. The person is well-rounded, knows his strengths and weaknesses, he is capable of learning form other people who disagree with him, and he is capable of making conflict constructive by creating a learning environment. He is a person who is self-actualized, confident with his strength, accepting of his weaknesses, and since he accepts his weaknesses, he is capable of accepting weakness in others.
©
Copyright 2003 by Ichak Adizes and the Adizes Institute
LLC. Reprinted with permission by ManagementVitality Inc.
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