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.

Measuring Customer Satisfaction

There are some things that sound easy but quickly become really challenging, and one of them is measuring customer satisfaction.

It's easy to become mired in weighted averages, and median responses, and what do they really mean by satisfaction ? The more accurate you try to make the data, the more unreliable it seems to become, especially if you're trying to use it as a trigger, for example to make staff bonus payments.

And let's not talk about how the scope can start creeping into how can we turn them into advocates, or and tap them for case studies or referred leads.

Just One Question

So let's keep it simple. Let's ask just one question. And how much simpler could it be ?...

Ask: On a scale of 1 to 10, how much do you like us ?

The average response to this question over time will tell you if what you're doing is working or not. Dead easy.

Now we don't want to make work for ourselves do we, but could also take the opportunity to ask a second question.

Ask: Why ?

...and this'll save us from having to think too much about what to do next.

Why do things the difficult way ?

The harder you work the luckier you get

Check out this loser...

* 1831 - Lost his job

* 1832 - Defeated in run for Illinois State Legislature

* 1833 - Failed in business

* 1835 - Sweetheart died

* 1836 - Had nervous breakdown

* 1838 - Defeated in run for Illinois House Speaker

* 1843 - Defeated in run for nomination for U.S. Congress

* 1848 - Lost re-nomination

* 1849 - Rejected for land officer position

* 1854 - Defeated in run for U.S. Senate

* 1856 - Defeated in run for nomination for Vice President

* 1858 - Again defeated in run for U.S. Senate

So who failed this often ?

Meet Abraham Lincoln, elected President of the United States of America 1860.

Answering difficult questions

It happens to us all: things are going so well, and then suddenly a question arises we have no idea how to answer - sometimes you genuinely don't know the answer, other times you definitely don't like the direction the question will take the conversation.

One word is all you need to remember: REFRAMING...

Step 1: Repeat the question, check you've understood tight (you know most people like the sound of their own voices, they sometimes let you off the hook by just carrying on talking...:-)

Step 2: If it's still up to you, then reframe the question: go back in time, how did we get into this position ? what are the real issues at stake ? what did we both want out of this situation in the first place ? what's changed since then ? then you can say: so perhaps the real question is.....and ask it in its new shape.

At least then it's a question you'll be happier to answer.

Take Theo's advice

Having just read Theo Paphitis' 10 Rules for Business Success, thought you might find them inspiring and very practical too....

1 Reduce risk (get all the information)

2 Don't fool yourself (don't believe your own bullshit, check the facts)

3 Cash is King (you can live without profit but you can't live without cash)

4 Embrace change (sell on the Internet)

5 Make decisions (don't hesitate, ask for help, just don't stop making decisions)

6 Weigh up the opposition (don't underestimate them) and yourself (don't overestimate...)

7 Start small (DIY so you know everything first)

8 Get your staff on board (most important people in any business ? not owner, not customer, but the staff)

9 Capitalise on others' ideas (active execution is much more important than having the idea)

10 Turn your dreams into reality (go for it, determination is the difference).

You can find the original at http://www.smarta.com/advice/general/theo-paphitis-10-rules-for-business-success