Blog Post: Interviewing Executive Candidates Takes Skill & Common Sense

            Interviewing candidates for your company is rarely an employer’s favorite task.  But interviewing someone at the executive level can be daunting.  Executives have often been on the “other side of the desk,” and are often skilled at giving perfect answers to challenging questions.  This often hurts both the interviewing company and the executive since a “misfit hire” never does anyone any good.  Here are a few tips for cutting through the fog and seeing the real person behind the well-polished façade.

            Can the canned questions.  Executives have read all the books you have and, if they’ve had a period of unemployment, probably even more than you have.  Additionally, they are often professionally prepared by an Executive Transition Coach to answer most of the standard questions optimally.  It is far better to have a conversation with an executive than to try to conduct a formal interview.

            Cut out the clever questions.  No real information is gained by asking someone “If you were an animal, what kind of animal would you be,” or similar absurd questions.  This sort of question is best reserved for “getting to know you” sessions or baby showers, but has no place in a serious interview.  It is also fairly useless to ask deep psychological questions unless you have the years of training and skill necessary to interpret them.

            Ignore the new and improved interview that consultants try to sell you.  It seems that every year a new crop of books comes out touting a new way to interview.  These new systems often have techniques to intimidate or relax candidates, and a whole raft of novel questions.  Ignore them.  There is no shortcut to a good interview, and certainly no infallible system.  No matter what questions are asked, a good hire still comes down to having skill at human relations and good, old fashioned common sense.

            In the end, it comes down to a good conversation.  No trick questions or “system” can substitute for gaining the trust of the candidate and having an honest conversation about the company and his or her fit into it.  Most executives are intelligent enough to know that going to work for the wrong company produces a unique kind of misery on both sides of the table.  Unfortunately, some unemployed executives are so desperate to be re-employed that they’ll do or say anything to get the offer.  This kind of consistent misdirection is hard to maintain over several hours, and several people, however.  While it is easy to answer standard interview questions with a rehearsed response, it is much more difficult for an executive candidate to avoid hard questions that come up as part of an extended conversation.

            Most people are inherently honest.  While there may be enormous pressures on an executive candidate to simply “get a job,” there is also an enormous internal pressure to be genuine.

            Unfortunately because of the numerous “systems” and “trick” interview questions it is often the honest candidate who loses to a disingenuous, well rehearsed poser.  A skilled interviewer will be able to distinguish between these two.

            One of the distinguishing marks of a dishonest candidate is that they will rarely identify any true weaknesses.  Rather, they will play games and attempt to avoid “weakness” questions all together.  While a candidate without weaknesses is very seductive that person does not exist in real life.

            It can be difficult to find exceptional executive employees.  But, by using common sense, avoiding fads and fantasy fixes and relying on good old-fashioned people skills, it is quite possible.  The rewards start immediately when both you and your executive candidate know that your decision will be based on realistic expectations and honest communication on both sides.

 John Heckers, MA, CPC, BCPC is an executive transition coach and small business consultant based in Cherry Creek, Colorado .  He can be reached at 720.581.4301 or jheckers@heckersdevgroup.com.  www.heckersdevgroup.com.