An interviewing philosophy and strategies to create real connection and reveal candidates’ true value in real time; and remove the stress of the hiring process for everyone.
This short guide presents a very simple philosophy which, when implemented from the heart, will help you find the best people in far less time and with far less stress.
The team at Humans Working collected our experiences of hiring people throughout the span of our careers and this guide represents our collective wisdom of reflecting on what really has worked.
Now, we find that when we (and our clients) conduct interviews, it’s a fun and meaningful process for both them and us, regardless of the outcome. We love meeting new people and better understanding humanity as a whole through that process.
We find the best people by seeing the best in people!
Interviewing, like the basis of almost every other relationship, is mostly about listening, which as you likely know, does take effort.
Are you doing any of the following, and are you aware that doing so could interfere with your ability to deeply listen?
You probably already know in your heart that we’re all in this together, all the time, even when it looks like we’re not. Just remember that, and remember that the key to finding the best is continually building a human connection.
While a deep understanding of someone’s technical skills may be important, it’s easier to ascertain that understanding through a conversation built upon a deep connection rather than having to ask specific “hard” questions.
As an interviewer, one of the most important things to consider is where are you coming from?
As anyone who has gone on a date knows, while dates can be awkward, it's understood there's no interviewer or interviewee and conversation can flow freely in any direction. It's just two people exploring the idea of potentially spending more time together.
So, like when you're having fun chatting with a potential mate over a cocktail, consider these questions as you interview:
If you want to hire people that are smarter than you, as so many people say they want to, you have to be willing to look into the unknown unknown - that place that you don't even know that you don't know about! (Read that again!)
So, I encourage you to deepen the journey that you go on with candidates, not just ask questions that you know the answers to. And try to open yourself up to being shown something you don’t already know and even be open to learning from them in the moment.
Remember, when you're with a candidate, both of you are experiencing your own thinking, not what the other is saying. So, if you’re in a low state of mind, you’re more likely to see what look like faults rather than their magic. If you're in a great state of mind, you'll find all the nuggets of gold without having to do a lot of sifting.
When you approach the interview knowing that there is literally nothing on the line and that your job is only to bring out the best in everyone you will absolutely revolutionize the way that you discover “the best!”
Here are some specific strategies that we have used, in companies we’ve built and with our clients, to build amazing teams and cultures! Adjust to your own liking!
We all know that It feels wonderful to be welcomed with warmth, in any context. And we all strive to be able to express our true selves, right? So why not make it your goal, when starting an interview, to welcome them and provide a space into which they can emerge into a state that is as close to their true self as possible. If we reflect on our own experiences of being interviewed, we'll remember that we've often been nervous and probably put up our guard. Since no one shines that way, why not shift the whole mood from the first introduction?
We like walking into the room and with a giant smile, offering a big handshake with eye contact. We like to offer a compliment rather than small talk (perhaps about their resume, or how someone else described them), and to sit on the same side of the table as them to make it like a fireside chat.
We might say something like, “You seem pretty awesome! How could you help us be better?” If your experience is anything like ours, most likely, they’ll light up and smile and their shoulders will drop. They’ll be so happy that you want to see them! And they'll jump at the opportunity to share with you how awesome they are how they can help you grow! And from there, almost guaranteed, something will be revealed that you couldn’t have imagined as possible.
If you want to know how someone is going to perform in a job, talk about things relevant to the job. Silly (yet often used) questions like, “If you were being chased by a bear and only had a roll of duct tape and half-eaten Cinnabon, what would you do?” aren't really relevant and can also create separation if there's any desire on the part of the interviewer/company to create any sort of discomfort in the candidate.
If it's a skills interview (which could be for any job that requires specific skills, like sales, project/product management, graphic design, engineering, etc.), you could try asking something like, “Here's something we’re currently working on that we can’t seem to solve. This is exactly the type of thing we’d ask for your help on if you were working here. So, can you help us out?”
“Can you help us out?” feels so different than a challenge. It seems to us that when you ask people to help, something in them wants to help!
You could do part of your interview as a group and work on a problem collaboratively, exactly as you might if the candidate was already working with you. This alone can have such a huge impact on people letting their guard down and showing their true colors!
As they develop potential solutions, you can ask them to dig deeper or challenge them on something they’ve said – a fine way to find the edges of their skills. But we try to do it from a place of connection and curiosity, as we likely would if they were already on the job!
As you connect with a candidate, the more you ask open questions (that you don’t already know the answer to), not only will you learn things you might not have otherwise, you can also reveal your own humanity, showing that you, too, don’t have all the answers. It’s a conversation, through and through.
Here are some other things you could ask to enter the zone of the unknown unknown, especially when discussing technical problems.
