Be careful !

A pen and pencil together cost £1.10. The pen costs £1 more than the pencil. How much does the pencil cost ?

Most people's gut answer is 10p, but they'd be wrong.

Very few of the really good business people I've met would have been fooled. Not because they're better at maths, but because they don't take things at face value. They question, query, seek to understand, reach answers for themselves, and are not swayed by others' opinions.

Only when they feel they have a good grip of the situation do they come to a conclusion.

Got the right answer yet ?

Great interviewing questions

If you've read my previous post on great recruitment interviews, you shouldn't need these, but it never hurts to ask a few tricky questions, to gauge how they handle awkward situations.

1 What are seven sevens ? Yep, you already know it's 49, but if they don't answer it in a flash, they can't add up, and don't hire them.

2 How do you spell accommodation ? OK, here it's not so critical they get the answer right, but you'll be amazed by how many flap when asked this. And you don't want to hire someone who can't handle a bit of stress, and fear failure, do you ?

3 What shouldn't I know about you ?

4 If I were to ask your previous bosses about you, what would they say were your strengths ? your weaknesses ?

5 Describe the person you have least liked working with. How did you adapt to working with them ?

6 Let's imagine that you have increased profitability by 15% and you can increase this to 30% by shedding staff. What do you do ?

7 It's human nature to play up your strengths and play down your weaknesses...which traits are you playing up right now ?

A final tip. If you want a straight answer to a question, such as their actual earnings last year, ask it completely out of context, to give them no warning that it's coming. Eg, "Do you take milk in your tea ? Sugar ? What did you earn last year ?" You'll tell straight away if they're telling the truth (the answer will come without hesitation) or avoiding the truth (they'll hesitate). I once asked this question when a candidate was driving me to the station and he nearly crashed the car.

Great recruitment interviews

Recruitment isn't easy. How can you predict how good someone will be until they've been doing it a while ? But there are some tried and tested ways to weed out wrong folks early.

1 Ask the receptionist. If the candidate doesn't leave a good impression with your receptionist, don't hire them. If they aren't able to make a good impression when they're really trying, they'll be hopeless when they relax.

2 During the interview, don't ask how should, how would, and how could you questions. All they teach you is how good the candidate is at answering hypothetical questions. Try instead to get stories about how they've reacted under specific circumstances in the past. Ask "Tell me about something in your career you're proud of." Then drill down, look for STARs:

• Situation: what was the position before ?
• Task: What needed to be done ?
• Action: What did you do ? (keep asking: no, you personally, what was your exact contribution ? and if they say "we did this", "we did that, be especially nosy)
• Result: What was the outcome ?

Now ask ""Tell me about something in your career when things went horribly wrong." Then drill down again, look for STARs, but in this instance you'll find out how they reacted to stress, turned things from negative to positive.

3 Do they talk with interest and authority about your industry and market sector ? The folks you really don't want are those for whom this will be just another job. Good people are interested in the trends in the sector, how your market works, the products in it. With the really good ones, you're just privileged to pay their wages while their career passes through your company.

4 Ask yourself: Would I like to spend an hour in the pub with this person ? If not, then will your existing staff, prospects and customers like them ? Probably not - so are they a good bet as an employee ?

Good interviewing doesn't mean you spot the great ones easier, but it does mean you can weed out the wrong ones with much greater certainty.

How to increase email response rates

Does it frustrate you occasionally that important emails, calling for action, aren't answered ? Is it because you're writing to multiple people with one mail ?

There is an identified social phenomenon known as the Bystander Effect. Test after test has proven that groups of people do not act, but individuals do. For example, in a study done at Princeton University where an actor faked an epileptic fit in the street, if over 5 people were present, there was only a 1 in 3 chance that someone would stop and help: most hurried on by, not wanting to stand out from everyone else. But when only one person was walking by, there was an 85% chance they would stop and help.

So how to get maximum response to your important emails ?

Send it to only one person at a time.