Skip to main content

The 5 Must-Ask Interview Questions to Determine if Someone's a Fit


You need to make sure everyone you bring on fits the culture of your business. Whether you are leading teams at a Fortune 500 company or just starting up, the need to make great cultural hires never goes away.

To hire for culture, your interview should not only consist of basic questions centered around values and team work but also more in-depth questions to understand if this person will be a good fit. How do you hire for culture? What types of questions should you ask potential candidates?

Basic questions like; What are your values? Tell me about a time you were part of a great team and what made it great? These questions only give you a surface level insights into whether a potential new hire will be a great cultural fit.


Following are five must-ask questions to determine if the people you are bringing on will be the right fit for your company.

1. Why do you want to work at this company and what are your expectations?

You need to know if people want to join your company for the right reasons. For example, do they know what it takes to be successful at an early-stage company? Are they prepared to embrace ambiguity? Are they ready to get their hands dirty? Are they ready to execute quickly with limited resources? Are they scrappy? Whatever values you hold true at the heart of your culture, you need to hire people who are aligned with how your business operates and the values you live by.

2. Who inspires you and why?

You must learn from people who their points of inspiration are. Who are their role models and what makes those people special to the candidate? You often garner quite a few insights from this question as it gives you a peak into the behavioral patterns an individual respects and in many cases models themselves after.

3 What’s your superpower?

Everybody is great at something. Everyone has a superpower. It is the go to trait you pull from when times get tough and you need put your head down, crank and produce. People should be honest about this and you should encourage an honest answer. Part of setting people up for success is ensuring you have them in the right role at the right time.

It is responsibility of a manager to get the very best out of their people. Putting them in right position with the right team is an important part of the equation. Doing so goes a long way towards ensuring positive cultural fits.

4. What motivates you to come into work every day?

There are a number of ways for people to answer this question, but try to find those that carry a great energy and hit on curiosity as a reason to run up the stairs every day. Great hires know that learning never ends and they maintain a high degree of intellectual curiosity throughout their day-to-day work. You will find that these hires stay on top of what is happening around them, the business and the industry. They identify trends before they happen and they think in a very pragmatic way. It’s a superpower not everyone possesses. When you find someone who is thinking about the world in a way that is bigger than him or her, that energy is contagious.

5. How do you rely on others to make you better?


This question gives people an opportunity to showcase their self-awareness. The best hires know that they don’t know everything. They are aware of their strengths and limitations and can speak to them both with transparency and honesty. In particular they can focus on specific areas they want to improve, grow and learn. They spend more time talking about their losses (and what they learned) than their wins. This shows that they cherish collaboration and the development of a transparent working environment.

Comments

Post a Comment

Please do not enter any spam link in the comment box.

Popular posts from this blog

Understanding SWOT Analysis and its mechanism

Why SWOT Analysis important With the help of SWOT analysis you can uncover opportunities that you can capitalize on and you can learn and understand about the weaknesses of your business. It also help you detect potential threats and allows you to manage it well in advance and eliminate it. Furthermore, it enables you to formulate a strategy that gives you an edge over your competitor. SWOT analysis can be used in a simple way or as a Strategy tool. Strengths and weaknesses are often internal to your organization, while opportunities and threats generally relate to external factors.SWOT is sometimes called Internal-External Analysis and SWOT Matrix also called an IE Matrix. Strengths Important questions to be considered: ·          What advantages does your organization have? ·          What do you do better than anyone else? ·          What u...
5 comments
Read more

Different Kinds of Learning (Loops of Learning), everyone must know.

Single and double-loop learning-concepts have been developed by Chris Argyris and Donald Schon. These theories are based upon”a theory of action” prospective designed by Argyris. However, the origin of triple-loop learning is not well-known. It is clear that triple-loop learning is inspired by Argyris and Schon, but the term does not appear explicitly in their published work. 1-Single-Loop Learning (Following the Rules) The conventional example used to explain this concept is the thermostat. It operates in one mode. When it detects that the room is too cold, it turns on the furnace. When it detects that the room is too hot, it turns off the furnace. In other words, the system includes one automatic and limited type of reaction – little or no learning occurs and little or no insight is needed .Experts assert that most organizations operate according to single-loop learning – members establish rigid strategies, policies and procedures and then spend their time detecting and co...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ensuring Effective Performance Appraisals.

Four ways to ensure that performance appraisals are effective. 1-Establish Clear Objectives. Lot of successful organization follows the SMARTER approach, S=Specific M=Measurable A=Attainable R=Relevant T=Time bound E=Expendable R=Reward able Before appraisal begins- Ø   Managers should collect all performance related facts and go through employee record thoroughly. Ø   Managers should not only rely on their memory to evaluate performance. Ø   It is important that performance objectives are agreed upon by both managers and theirs employees. 2-Evaluate skills and performance. In addition to reviewing an employee’s performance based on the yearly objectives achieved, performance appraisals should also assess how successfully; Ø   Employees have acquired new skills Ø   Refined their existing skills set Ø   Highlight skills required to perform well in future Ø   Any initiative an employee has taken ...
Post a Comment
Read more