6 Of The Most Effective Interview Questions To Help You Pick The Right Candidate

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Lauren: Welcome to The Biz Doctor Podcast, my love letter to business owners the world over. I’m your host, Lauren Goldstein, award-winning business consultant and advisor whose fondly nicknamed the business doctor by my clients. My clients call me the business doctor because I help business owners who are burning the candle at both ends, diagnose what is actually keeping them stuck in and buried under the day-to-day of their business, and then formulate a business treatment plan to help them adjust their business and team to fit.

And most importantly, support them in having what I call true entrepreneurial freedom. If you’re ready to look at your business in a different lens and elevate yourself out of the business operator in the  trenches 24 7 to visionary business owner and leader who can take a breath vacation and have more fun making an impact with your.

Then grab your favorite beverage and your earbuds, and let’s dive into our latest episode.

Welcome back to the show. In today’s episode, I’m going to put my cognitive neuroscience and NLP hat on to give you some of the most effective interview questions to help you pick the right. It. And yes, I did just say cognitive neuroscience and nlp. For those of you that don’t know my credentials, my degree is in cognitive neuroscience.

There are few things that excite me more than the inner workings of how we think, act and behave. And to that point, I’m also a board certified NLP practitioner. There is so many aspects to our mind that either support where we are going or hinder where we. And if you are a business owner, entrepreneur, ceo, you know that 90% of the game is between your ears.

So a large portion of my advisory work with business owners like you is getting their brain to stop being a business blocker and instead a partner, which is especially helpful when you leverage neuroscience and N L P in your team and hiring to help you choose the best candidate for the job. So I’m gonna break it into three categories and give you my top two favorite questions to ask in each.

So you can get to know your candidates more than just surface deep. Like most interview questions, the first category is how they think. The second is how are they motivated? And the third is how they play team and if they’re gonna play well with others in the first category of how they think. The question that I really like to ask is, when you’re making a decision, do you tend to look at historical data and go internally to process after you’ve had the facts, or do you need and tend to talk it out with those you trust?

I love this question because it tells you a lot about how they think and process information. And this is especially important for leadership and management of this person. It also tells you if they’re introverted or extroverted with how they process information and make decisions. You might have heard introvert versus extrovert before.

So an introvert is typically somebody who gets energy from a alone time. That’s how they recharge versus an extrovert gets their energy from being around people. That’s not the introvert extrovert I’m talking about. Introvert versus extrovert is actually how they process information and how they make decisions.

And I’m laughing because this is huge, because when it comes to team harmony, knowing this is going to save a lot of time and energy and conflict because let me know if this sounds. You have a team meeting and there are a few people who want to extend the meeting and just talk it out. And then there are a few people who you can tell are getting impatient and just want time to think slash mulled over.

Or they say things like, I’ve got it. Let me go give it a thought. Let me go think it over. And so emotions start flaring because you’ve got one side who’s like, I’ve got the information I need, let me go do it. And you have the other people who wanna talk about it, brainstorm, solve it, et cetera. Does that sound familiar?

So knowing this will actually help you keep those fires from flaring up, and here’s how. If you know that there are people on your team that process information internally and stereotypically, this tends to be anyone that’s associated with like back of house operations systems, CFOs, bookkeeping, project management, those people tend to process.

As an introvert versus an extrovert, as somebody who you’ll see in sales, marketing partnerships, customer success. And again, it does play a little bit into the introvert extrovert energies, but this is more about processing information. So if you know who on your team is one versus the other, and you’re having team meetings, You can actually set them up for success by breaking the meeting and allowing the people who internally process to be released to go process and allowing the people who externally process to go have a secondary meeting and then share any information they need with the parties so everybody’s on the same page.

But by allowing them to go their separate ways and process how they need to process, you actually make the team more. The second question I like to ask to find out how they think is, if we were going to do a project together, would you want to know the big picture first, how it affects the company, the team, the customer, et cetera?

Or would you want to get the details of  what we’re going to do first? Whatever they answer. The secondary follow-up question is, would you really need to know the big picture details first? So you ask the opposite of what they answered. This question is hands down, one of my favorites for a secondary check if someone is a player or a worker bee.

I know you’re probably tired of me talking about players and worker bees, but seriously, when you know the difference, this makes all the difference in your team. But if it’s the first time you’re hearing. As a moniker, go back and listen to episode season one, episode three. Why A Jack of All Trades Kills Your Business.

When you know this, it’s gonna tell you if they’re a player or worker bee, as well as knowing how to set someone up for success. Asking which they need first allows you to know how to give them information in the proper. So this is where my neuroscience and NLP background come in. Some people cannot discover the big picture until they build it from the details.

Others cannot get the details until they first have the big picture. And the key to successful teams and learning and leadership is to break the information down into masterful chunks and build it up in chunks of the size that makes it impossible to fail. So what I mean is, When you’re listening to their answer, you’re gonna find out if they are specific.

So they want the details or global, they want the big picture. And then you’re going to also find if they go specific to global or global to specific. So if they’re specific and they say they want the details first, if you chunk it too big. So what that means is if you’re too vague or abstract for them, It will be said that you’re giving them fluff or you’re being vague or it’s irrelevant material, and they’ll concentrate on the details of an assignment and may miss the total goal of the project.

Talk about a bummer and not a good place to be in a team. So details on the sequence of operations may be needed, and that’s really how to begin and what to do. Now if they answer big picture, they’re global. They want you to give them the big picture and little else. They’re mostly unconcerned about you giving them the details or would rather fill in the details themselves.

Here’s where a player comes in. This is most likely a characteristic of a player. If you chunk it too small for a global person, they’re gonna be bored, tune out, and then actually that’s gonna cause them to miss necessary. Because they’re gonna concentrate on the overall direction of the assignment. The overall goal, they are really great at understanding the context or the pattern, but sometimes if you want them to follow a step-by-step process, they’re gonna fail at that worker.

Bees love, step-by-step players do not. They really work best when they can delegate the details. Now if somebody is specific to global, they tend to build up the big picture from the details. So when you give them the details first, they may or may not be lost in your vagueness, but they’re gonna concentrate on the details of an assignment and how each individual step contributes to achieving that assignment.

The process of building the big picture out of the details is called in. These people generally, like I alluded to earlier, tend to offer, prefer bookkeeping, accounting, something specific to details where details matter. So if you need somebody who like you need details and like tease, crossed, I dotted, et cetera, specific to global is your person, if they’re global to specific.

They need to have the big picture before they can put the parts in the proper place. Sound familiar? They can concentrate primarily on the general direction of the job and have a natural tendency to understand how the big parts of an assignment project fit together. Again, this is a hallmark of players and why players are so important to your team, especially if their superpower is not your superpower.

When you’re hiring an expert and you are not the expert, this is the kind of person that you need. And when you have this process of  knowing the end result, the global first, then specific and how it all comes together, that is deduction. This is helpful in sales. This is also helpful in operations, big level strategy, things like that.

As a top-notch communicator, you as a leader need to be able to chunk at whatever level another person is. Because if you don’t and you’re trying to chunk in the way you operate, then you’re gonna have issues. So I know this was an interview question and I just went down a rabbit hole of how to actually use it in your team.

But this is really important, again, to be proactive in hiring is knowing what kind of person you need, if you need a specific person or a global person. So asking this question is going to proactively set you and them up for success, and I gave you a little gold nugget of how to actually use it in your business.

Second category, so we want to know how they are motivated. These questions tell us where their motivation comes from, which is another way to tell a player from a worker bee, but also very important for leading them as well as keeping their tank filled. The first question I like to ask is, how do you know when you’ve done a good job or have been successful at?

The follow up question to this is, do you know internally, or does someone have to tell you the reason why this question is so pivotal is it tells you if they’re going to be seeking outside validation from their leadership or peers for not only. Celebration and acknowledgement, but also with decisions or if they’re going to be their own internal compass.

It’s a little bit related to carrot versus stick, and if you don’t know what carrot versus stick is, there are people that are self inspired. Based on little wins. And so they’re going towards a carrot, going towards a goal versus people who are motivated by the stick, which is pain. So if something happens, then they’re in motivated mode.

So if there isn’t enough pain, they’re not going to be motivated. Players tend to be a bit more carrot versus stick worker. Bees tend to be stick versus carrot. When somebody says, Something like, I’ll know I’ve done a good job because I feel like the project was a success or the goal was accomplished, etcetera, versus I’ll know I’ve done a good job when you tell me, I know that sounds a little too simplistic, but it’s very important for understanding their also level of awareness and how they fit in the team and how they’re fitting in success.

A follow up to that one is what is success in this role for you? This tells you how they measure success and more about where their validation lies, whether it’s internal or external. It’s also another really interesting level of the onion about how they like to be rewarded or acknowledged. If you’ve never looked into the five love languages, this is also another really interesting way to interact with your team is figure out what their love languages are.

Some could be words of affirmation, quality, time, gifts, et cetera. Shy away from the physical touch for HR reasons, but I digress. When you know how they measure success, whether they’re measuring it based on metrics, whether they’re basing it on how they feel, how they’re hitting their goals, how the customers feel, et cetera.

It’s gonna help you build up a relationship with them to continue stoking that fire. I also like to know the answer to this question because it tells me if they’re looking at this like as something just to check a box versus actually being really vested because how they are measuring. Will tell me a lot about how they interact with the role as a whole.

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Last category is how they play team or how they are going to play well with others or not. So these questions are gonna help you peel back that top layer and really get to see how they play Team. The first question I’d like to ask is, tell me about one of the top 10 experiences of your life. This question will help you understand where their primary interest lies in the who, the what, the where, the how, or the why with what information.

When you’re listening to their answer for this, you’re listening for if they’re talking about people, places, things, activities, or information, so people is. Who are they with is important. That’s really what they’re focusing on. This person is interested in the people and will do well when assigned to jobs that deal with people, reception, sales, personnel, clients on the job.

They may spend a lot of time on the phone or hang out with others in the office. Back when we did that, back when we had a water cooler place is the where, so the location to them is most important. It may depend on distance, near or far or some factors such as convenience. This is actually a really interesting thing that companies ran into when the world kinda shut down and we all started working from home or office dynamics changed and remote working became much more of a norm for people that are.

They’re really wondering how this fits into their life in terms of where they’re located. People that are very focused on the where are best assigned according to the location of the office. If the office changes, they’ll probably seek employment elsewhere, which is again, why some people were harder to adjust to remote versus home, or if they got really used to being remote and then you tried to get them into the office cuz they’re more concerned about the.

Things. That’s the what they’re interested in. The what? So possessions, food, money, ambiance. If their primary interest is things and if there is no interest in people in either level of what they’re sharing, then they’ll be best assigned to computers, office equipment. Machinery mechanics, things with their hands that doesn’t have a lot of human interaction.

They’re gonna look for the right notebook or the right pen. They’re really focused on like, how can I set myself up for success by surrounding myself with the right things, so the right computer, the right desk, the right chair, et cetera. We like to say when the going gets tough, the tough go shopping activity.

This is about. This type is interested in how they’re gonna be talking about what is going on and what they’re involved in, the speed of service or what there is to do. They’re gonna also talk about whether it was internal activity, external activity, and managing this person. Make sure that they have a job in which there is plenty to do.

These are the busy bees. If it’s something boring, This is not gonna be a good role for them. They like to have calendars, daytimers, like a lot of stuff going on, but life really centers around the clock. Now, last but not least, the information people. So they’re giving you the why and what information they’re really want to know how to do it.

Again, this might be an inkling that you’re talking to a. They might say, I just thought you ought to know this. They’ll give you plenty of information, or they’re looking for you to give them plenty of information. It’s also important to know if the information they want is about people, places, things, or activities.

People who are seeking information about people or gossips, people who are seeking information about activities are how to, sometimes there are other categories. Around this, but in general, remember that if they’re asking why they really want the details first, and this goes also back to another question I asked above about do they want the details or the big picture first, so that, do you see how these all play together?

The second question in this category is, tell me about a work situation or environment where you were the happiest. A one-time. Now that last part of the question, a one-time event that’s really important cuz sometimes if you don’t say that, they’ll go and tell you about like a 20 minute story, about like all the best things.

You want a one-time thing. And this is really gonna help you tap into if they’re happiest with autonomy or with a group environment. Cuz this is gonna show how they affiliate with people in their life if they are an independent player. They work best by themselves and when in control of their project, they often do not take directions well.

So these are good people to send off somewhere when you need someone who can be alone to do the job and you trust them and they’re really comfortable being autonomous, but they sometimes can really struggle being part of a team.  These are also the people that in group projects in schools, they hated group projects and they were like, Ugh, just let me.

Right. The team player though, and again, you’re gonna figure this out by listening to how they answer, but the team player, they wanna be part of a team and are willing to have their rewards come from a team. They are willing for everything they do to be incorporated into a team. They’re good team players and they probably will not be successful if you try and send them out on their own.

This is also coincident. Something we saw a lot when people left offices and people either thrived or really struggled. Generally the people who thrived were the independent players because now they were like, great, no distractions. I could just get my job done. But the people who were really struggling were the team players cuz they, they played off the team, they missed the camaraderie.

And so knowing who you’re working with is gonna help you, again, set them and yourself up for success. And if you end up having team players who are remote, finding ways to keep them connected to the team and incorporated, whether it’s Zoom or Slacks or whatever, that’s gonna be really important to helping them feel fulfilled in their role.

The other thing to be listening for is if they’re talking about management. So they wanna be part of the team, but they also wanna be in an area of responsibility all on their own. They understand working in a hierarchy or team structure, but where possible they will seek leadership and this is a good thing.

They will also work well with somebody who’s above them. So when you ask this question, you should also note if the answer to the question includes any of the things that I’m gonna list here, whether they’re talking about things or systems or people, because if they prefer to work with things, not people, again, these are gonna be, you’re not your people.

People. These are gonna be like the people behind the scenes. Um, if they talk about systems. They’ll work with people or things, but they’re mostly gonna be interested in how things work or how people work. They’re gonna really like systems, so they’re gonna be great at being consultants or project managers or anything where they’re trying to build an s o p or a system to make things more efficient.

And then last but not least, people, if they would prefer to work with people, these again will. The people people. What I really love about this is this question actually ties in really well to the Wealth Dynamics Square, which you guys have heard me talk about. If not, I will link it in the show notes.

But we use the wealth dynamics and team dynamics test to uncover what your unique CEO profile is. The square is made up of what, who, when, and how. And so this question layers on that really perfectly, cuz again, when you understand. How people operate at their innate level, not with technology, but like who they are at their core.

You’re gonna have much more success, not only managing them, but integrating them into the team, making sure they’re set up for success and happy and fulfilled in their role. Now, because I always like to give a little more than expected. Here’s a bonus question for you. Why are you looking for a new role?

Right? And then a follow up question to that is, tell me more about your current role and what is misaligned that led you to looking for a new role? This is a whopper of a question that I, I mean, I love all these questions, but this one is actually so profound because it’s gonna tell you a lot about how they view personal responsibility.

And again, if you’re working with a player or worker bee, and here’s. When somebody talks about why they’re looking for a new role, if they talk about things like, I’m feeling like I’ve outgrown the role I’m in, or I feel like I wasn’t valued, or they didn’t value my expertise, or I feel like I just had, you know, hit my ceiling.

You’re generally talking to a player and somebody who is. Satisfied with the status quo or feels like their expertise is not being valued. Because here’s what I know for certain, if you do not let players plan and run and use their expertise to make an impact, they’re gonna go bye-bye. And if you treat them like worker bees, they’re for sure 86 right outta the organization.

Now, if they’re talking about things like, well, you know, I just, I didn’t like my job. It was just too much to do or I just am looking for something new, then you’re probably looking at a worker bee. And also the difference is one person is going towards vision and saying like, I want more for my role and and where I’m going versus somebody who’s coming from victim.

So I didn’t get along with my boss, my coworker. Job, whatever. There’s lots of different reasons that I’ve heard over the years, but when you listen between the lines, you’ll discover how somebody is taking responsibility. For example, if they say, I just really don’t like my job anymore, that’s a great follow up question of, well, what is it that’s misaligned?

And then you listen and they’ll tell you either you know, that they’re not valued. That it’s boring or a lot of different things. Trust me, the things that people say, bless them for being honest. But I’ll never forget when I was interviewing, this was actually when I was in a COO role, uh, for a wealth management firm.

But I came in and was talking to the team cuz they had some pretty significant issues that were popping up in the team. And I asked her what she did if the partner didn’t have anything for her to do, like, didn’t have any tasks. And she said she just checks. I use that example because people will be very honest and answer exactly how they really show up in real life.

If you’re listening carefully enough, if you ask this question and the follow up question of what was misaligned and listen for how they take responsibility or don’t. If you’re gonna see player versus worker B, you’re also gonna see somebody who’s going to add value and versus create drama. If you are hiring somebody that cannot take personal responsibility, then they’re gonna actually drag the team down and create a lot of drama because they’re gonna blame the boss or the systems, or the this or the that, or the trafficker or the weather.

Yes, versus having a proactive growth mindset of personal responsibility and saying, well, this is what I was committed to. Here’s why it didn’t happen, or Here’s how I’m going to make sure it does happen. The reason I love these unorthodox questions is because they really help you peel back the layers of the person you’re interviewing to get to know them on a different level so you can objectively determine if they truly are the right person for the role.

And then once they are, you can set them up for success with the team. That’s it for this week’s episode. Thanks so much for listening in. It’s because of listeners like you that I embarked on this podcast journey, so I’d love to hear from you and your biggest takeaways. Don’t forget to subscribe and make sure you’re following along.

Tag me on Instagram at it’s Lauren Goldstein or LinkedIn or wherever you hang out on the interwebs. Thanks again for listening and we’ll. Speak.

Thank you for listening to The Biz Doctor Podcast. Now, I like to say that friends, don’t let friends WebMD your. So if you’re wondering what your next steps could be, here are some options for you no matter what. Head to the show notes or to my website, goldenkeypartnership.com for some impactful resources to support you getting out from under your business.

That’s also where you’ll find the links to learn more about our services and how we support business owners just like you. Who are ready to make the successful jump from business operator in the trenches to visionary business owner with more freedom and flexibility. All that info is on our website, so pop on over to learn more or get in touch.

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