Listening versus Talking

Listening versus Talking:

Talk:

To set the interviewing stage, by
- Telling the person what you want from them in the interview.
- Helping them understand the way you’re going to go about it.

Ask:

Questions designed to provoke the sample of behavior you want to see.
- Identify key criteria for success and seek stories giving examples of past experience. (Be prepared for the interview by having thought out what key criteria you believe are necessary for someone to be successful in your organization.
  Ask questions that will elicit responses that give you information about the candidate in respect to your criteria. Do NOT share those criteria with the candidate during the interview!)

Listen:

Suspend judgment during the interview itself, and listen with curiosity.
If the person can say anything – then what they do choose to say is significant. (Pay attention to what is not said, too.)
Don’t ask leading questions (Ask, “how have you handled,” rather than, “did you handle ‘X’ well in the past?” or, “you didn’t do ‘X,’ did you?”)
Don’t provide so much information about your point of view that the person can figure out the answer you’re looking for.
Start with broad general questions and listen to the candidate’s answer. Ask careful follow-up questions to probe more deeply, whenever you find you lack complete answers (the who, what, where, when, and hows?).
Careful means don’t ask leading or judgmental questions; rather than, “You did what? Why on earth would you have done that?” ask, “And how did you decide to deal with that issue?” or, “How did you find yourself reacting when you discovered that?” Pay attention to your tone of voice here, too.
The same words said with interested curiosity sound very different when said with a judgmental or doubting tone.
Listen for unexpected silences – let silence build pressure on the candidate to answer fully (don’t feel pressured to fill every moment with speech, or to jump in the instant the other person stops talking).

Listen:

To understand (make sure you have the who, what, where, when, and hows).
To check your assumptions (if you notice there is a gap of a couple of years between their college degree and their first job, for example, don’t assume they were traveling abroad or volunteering for UNICEF. They may have spent the time in a Mexican jail.)
To clarify definitions (what does someone mean when they make broad statements, such as, “I’m very collaborative!”)
Ask for stories as responses. (“Could tell me a story of a time when you used your ability to be collaborative?”)