Motivation-based Interviewing: A Revolutionary Approach to Hiring the Best

by Carol Quinn

Even if a candidate doesn’t really want the job, all candidates, without exception, want the job offer. No candidate wants to be rejected. This forces candidates into the role of saying what they need to say to get the offer.

Step 1: Relax the Candidate

Giving nervous candidates extra time to relax before jumping into your interview questions takes conscious effort,

Here’s how it works: A candidate erects a wall to keep some information from escaping, just as if they were preparing for an interrogation. It’s possible for this wall to stay up during the entire interview. This defensive shield begins to lower when there are no signs or reasons for apprehension. It is lowered even more when feelings of congeniality and rapport develop.

My point is body language can be taught and consciously controlled during an interview in order to project a false impression to the interviewer. Furthermore, I don’t believe there is certain body language or other physical clues that are exclusive to high performers or low performers.

We’re not looking for a specific level of relaxation that everyone achieves, rather we’re looking for signs of change. That change may not be dramatic. Some people will walk in the door more relaxed than others will ever become, and that’s okay. This is nothing more than a visual clue to help the interviewer know when to move deeper into the interviewing process.

Step 2: Show No Negative Judgment

I was recently in the company of a client who had a viewpoint that was in opposition to mine on this particular topic, but I was careful not to let on. I respected her right to think differently. The more I sought to understand her point of view without showing negative judgment or contrary belief, the more she opened up and shared her perspective. As a result, the conversation was enjoyable rather than constrained and tense. In this situation, I had nothing to gain by inserting my point of view. This strategy should be applied to the interview process as well.

It’s amazing what people will share with you during a job interview when they don’t feel like they are being negatively judged. If candidates pick up any indication that their answer wasn’t what you wanted to hear, then a completely different reaction takes place.

You have the right to negatively judge, you just can’t show any of it. Keep it to yourself—it doesn’t benefit you!

The attendees are the interviewers, and I play the candidate. I give them an interviewing scenario where they just asked me why I want to leave my current job. Then I disclose a shocking tidbit—that I’m about to go ballistic if my current boss doesn’t quit picking on me. I realize this is an extreme scenario, but it works well to make a point. Attendees are challenged to respond to me in a way that will persuade me to disclose more information. My guard must remain down, or they won’t get more details from me. For those who’ve attended a workshop where I’ve used this exercise, you already know exactly what I’m talking about. We usually have to go through half a dozen or more people before someone responds in a way that actually persuades me (the candidate) to spill the beans.

Remember when I said a simple smile and positive nod works well? The prop that is used is a bobblehead with a giant smile. When you touch the head the smiling face bobs up and down. That’s the visual image interviewers need to have in their head regarding how they should react to every candidate answer no matter what they say.

If the candidate talks about their frustration with a prior work situation, you should appear to be empathetic, and most importantly, be on their side.

Let the candidate believe you know exactly how they feel—“Yeah, I can understand. Tell me more.” Come across as if you can relate to the candidate’s situation. This will help to establish trust and make the candidate feel as if they can tell you anything.

We need candidates to feel that they can confide in us. That’s the goal, and have no doubt—it’s possible!

Remember this: offering any additional information about the job prior to the interview benefits only the candidate, not the interviewer.

O-S = Obstacle-Situation A = Actions taken E = End results

The O-S questions always start out “Tell me about a specific time when…” The second half must be written by you.

Let me provide some insight. The key to determining locus of control is to learn how a person responds to adversity

the A question simply prompts, “Tell me about the actions you took,” and the E question is “What were the end results?”

Rule 1: One Obstacle—Include only one obstacle per question. Rule 2: Open Outcome—Don’t ask for a successful or a failed outcome. Leave it open. Rule 3: Specific—Ask for the specific details. (This is the interviewer’s power word!)

Rule two requires that you always keep the outcome open and never ask for examples of success or failure. Sometimes interviewers also try to slip “success” into the A question by asking what actions the candidate took to meet the deadline, achieve the goal, satisfy the customer, or similar. Never assume your candidate took action or achieved a good outcome. Don’t help them out. That’s going to lead them to give you a good answer.

He actually answered the O-S and A portions well, but I didn’t see his E answer coming. He gave me specific details of a situation involving a yelling, disgruntled customer and talked about how he pulled the customer to the side, listened, apologized, and asked what he could do to make things right. Then I asked, “What were the end results?” He answered by saying he called the cops on the customer and told him to never come back. He said he just got tired listening to him. I smiled and nodded as if I could relate and displayed no hint of negative judgment. I also didn’t hire this guy.

Rule three states that the word “specific” must always be used in the O-S question. That means 100 percent of the time. Here’s why: The only person who can talk about their specific problem-solving efforts and provide all the underlying detail about the actions they took is someone who actually did the work.

That’s why “specific” is the interviewer’s power word. Just as those who actually went into problem-solving mode can speak specifically about the experience, those who didn’t go into problem-solving mode and didn’t try very hard to overcome the obstacle cannot talk about the specific details of the action they took, because those details simply don’t exist. The best these people can do is explain why they didn’t do the work, or offer up a generic, nonspecific answer they believe sounds reasonable. It’s a night–and-day difference compared to the answer an authentic high performer will provide.

Including an obstacle in a question is achieved by adding one or two descriptive words—usually adjectives—that characterize a situation as challenging or difficult. Time or money aren’t problems when we have plenty of them. They become problems, or obstacles, when we don’t have enough. Words like insufficient, inadequate, not enough, or lacked can all be used as obstacles (but only one at a time). Below are two examples: Tell me about a specific time when you lacked the time necessary to achieve a goal. Tell me about a specific time when you were asked to achieve goals with an insufficient budget. There are a lot of obstacle word options. You could have an uncooperative, annoying, or unprepared teammate. How about having to communicate a tough, vague, or unwelcome policy change? You pick the adjective that best applies to your specific workplace. Questions that specifically ask for a success story, such as, “Tell me about a specific time you went above and beyond to satisfy a customer,” can easily cause interviewers to overrate candidates. It turns a one-to-five skill-scoring scale into more of a three-to-five scale.

So, let’s see if MBI fixes this issue. By adding an obstacle into your interview questions, and following the other rules, can we widen the range of possible responses? For example, if I say to the candidate, “Tell me about a specific time when you dealt with an irate customer,” could I get average answers where the candidate satisfied the customer but did nothing more? Sure. Is it possible I could get an answer that the candidate not only satisfied the customer but went further? Again, yes. Is it also possible I could get an answer where the candidate insisted the customer was impossible to please or that there was nothing else they could do to resolve the problem? You get the idea. Unlike when I ask for a success story, I can now get a full range of responses, including the kind that would deserve a score in the lower range.

For organizations that want to hit the ground running using MBI immediately, Hire Authority offers a subscription-based MBI Interview Guide Generator with hundreds of ready-to-go O-SAE questions in seventy-five skill categories.

The good news is that when you compile a set of questions that work well, you can use them over and over again. Unless the job changes, the questions can be used for years. I’ve used the same set of questions to hire hospitality managers for two decades. So how do you get started writing your questions? First you must identify the skills that are required to do the job: the technical, soft, and core competencies. Remember, O-SAE questions are skill-specific. Without a functional knowledge of the required job skills, you can’t write O-SAE questions. Personally, I’m not a big fan of using job descriptions to compile a list of required skills. Depending how the job description is written—listing essential and nonessential job functions, ADA compliance, and so on—it can be challenging to derive what you need. I like to keep it simple.

Both time management and organizational skills were on the list.

It turns out that time management was about showing up for scheduled appointments with clients on time. Organizational skills were about being able to plan their day and their route efficiently because no one was going to do that for them.

Tell me about a specific time when you encountered an overly demanding customer. Tell me about a specific time when you had to deal with an unhappy internal or external customer. Tell me about a specific time when a customer was rude to you.

Basically, any question that involves an adversity of some kind is a locus of control question. Below are three examples: Tell me about a specific time when you struggled to do something that you did not know how to do. Tell me about a specific time when something (a project, a schedule, etc.) didn’t go as you had wanted. Tell me about a specific time when you were in a new social situation and knew no one.

Mike chose to continue his career in retail management at the video store because he lacked the education or experience needed to get hired right away as a computer programmer. And I am sure the person who interviewed and hired him at this video store did so because of his past retail management experience.

The candidate is the wall outlet and the right job plugs into the socket and the energy is unleashed into the organization. Realize, not every plug will fit every socket. There is more than one type of each.

Likes and Dislikes: 1. Out of all the jobs you have held, which was your most favorite? Why? 2. Out of all the jobs you have held, which was your least favorite? Why? Strengths and Weaknesses: 3. On your last performance evaluation, in which three areas were you rated the strongest? 4. On your last performance evaluation, tell me the two areas that you could improve upon. Goals: 5. Tell me about your career goals for the next two to five years.

Likes and goals are the strongest of the indicators of what interests a candidate the most. Strengths are important indicators as well, and should align with likes and dislikes.

Weaknesses also tend to reflect dislikes.

What specifically did you not like doing at your last job?

When a candidate’s answer to the likes, strengths, and goals questions align with a part of doing the job, score that answer “match.” When the answer has nothing to do with the job, the score is “mismatch.” That means the candidate won’t get to do what they love on this job. Next, if the dislike and weakness answers are not job duties, score those as a “match.” Do you understand why? It’s because the job doesn’t involve doing what the candidate doesn’t like to do, and that’s a good thing. It’s a match. Conversely, if the job entails work that the candidate strongly dislikes, or is least motivated to do, then it’s scored “mismatch.” When you finish scoring all five Career Fit questions, you should have a combination of five match or mismatch scores.

What one person finds enjoyable is not necessarily something everyone will. Because it is an individual preference, all candidates must be fully evaluated for their own interests.

When I look back at each job I’ve had, I can see a direct parallel between my interest level in that job and my motivation level to do it.

It’s in the middle of a challenge the greatest opportunities exist—but only if you have employees who care enough to go the extra mile.

Some of the greatest customer service experiences I’ve personally had, and some I’ve heard others share, involved something that went wrong. But more importantly, they also included an employee who cared enough to resolve the problem in a way that created a loyal customer.

Tell me about a specific instance when something went wrong in a cuatomeer faving position that would have left tthe customer complaining abbout the husoiness after leving.

Lee Cockerell, I highly recommend that you learn more about him. He’s easy to find. Just Google his name or go to www.LeeCockerell.com. He shares his wisdom for free through an awesome weekly podcast on every imaginable management topic, and they are always fifteen minutes or less. I learn so much every time I listen to one; I highly recommend that you subscribe.

Try to anticipate any upcoming changes or shifts in responsibilities or required skills, and incorporate these into your assessments of both interests and skills. A new hire with a 60 percent job match may only be a 40 percent job match six months down the road, and that will have a negative effect on motivation. I always recommend an estimated 70 percent to 80 percent match between the candidate and the job whenever possible.

At a minimum, satisfactory skill (this is a rating of three or higher for each required job skill) A predominant internal locus of control A predominant Career Fit match

1. Candidate demonstrated satisfactory skill—three or higher—or will train? YES / NO 2. Candidate demonstrated a predominantly internal locus of control? YES / NO 3. Candidate demonstrated a predominant Career Fit match?

When you don’t have a high performer among the candidates you have interviewed, you always have the option to keep looking. I understand it can be difficult to find and hire someone when few people are applying and you have no one else to interview. It’s just another challenge, and one that requires a creative recruiting solution. Bad hires are never the solution. Don’t turn a recruiting problem into a hiring problem or even a management nightmare by having to clean up the mess your bad hires create.

the process of achievement, where it breaks down, the power of attitude, the role passion plays in performance, how these two come together to create the highest level of self-motivation, how to write effective O-SAE questions, the three rules that must always be followed, not to mention the five Career Fit questions and how they work, how to assess and score, and so on.

Good starter for framework

This culture is further fueled by the flawed notion that human beings have the power to change other human beings. A quantum leap forward in productivity is at hand, but that cannot and will not occur until employers shift their perspective, not just in regard to how they hire and who they hire, but also by recognizing that employee engagement is not the way forward.