The BEST Fit #1: Talk Less

A New Year often leads to quite a bit of hiring. I'm going to create a handful of posts in the coming weeks to help leaders be better interviewers who make great hires.

Leadership Tip: Interviewing—Talk Less & Listen More:

One of the biggest mistakes hiring managers make while interviewing is they talk too much (if you're a GenX'er, you've probably qued up Run-D.M.C.).

As a rule of thumb, the interviewer should talk roughly 10% of the time, and the person being interviewed should talk roughly 90% of the time. I've sat with many managers, observing how they interview. So often, I see the manager doing most of the talking. It's very difficult to hire someone who is a great fit for your organization if you haven't spent time learning about them and can't learn about people without listening to them. I've watched hiring managers spend lots of time setting job expectations for the person five minutes into the first interview and telling the person why and how former employees failed in this role.

Stop talking and start listening! As a hiring manager, you really want to understand how the candidate thinks, their personality, what motivates them, past behaviors, and how self-aware they are. The more you listen, the more you will be able to assess these things along with other important hiring criteria.

I believe hiring managers talk too much during an interview for a few key reasons:

1. They don't realize what they are doing is not helping them make a great hire, so they do what comes naturally. It takes discipline to sit and listen.

2. They have not spent time preparing for the interview. In the ministry context, this goes beyond prepping questions, calling previous employers, and checking digital footprints. It includes being prayed up before the interview. When a hiring manager is not prepared, they typically get nervous, and as a result, they talk too much.

3. They want to correct the person being interviewed when they say something the interviewer disagrees with. Never correct someone in an interview; if they say something that you think may be a real problem, then ask a more probing question around their initial response. You can make a correction later in the interviewing process, perhaps during the expectation-setting phase, but whatever you do, don't correct someone in the early stages of the interview process.

I hope this is helpful to you. If you think this post will be helpful to others you work with, feel free to share with them. If you have a question on how to be a better hiring manager send me an email. 

More to come soon & Happy Hiring!