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July 2007 | Issue 26
The "Aha!" Report What's the "AHA!" REPORT all about?
This series of newsletters contains AHA! information to help people and organizations hire the best employees, make the best promotion decisions, retain the most qualified people, maintain the widest applicant pool, follow best practices, and (if you are subject to US law) remain aware of EEOC hot-spots.
Inferences, Examples, and Bad Jokes The difference is, this isn’t a joke. What follows is based on a real-life search committee I recently worked with, screening candidates for a leadership position. The characters in the story were all fine people, experienced and intelligent, and were successful in their careers. Unfortunately, in their tendency to jump to their own, often fanciful conclusions rather than stick to job-related facts, they represent a sad example of the human condition, recruiting-style. The Sales Manager A famous burger commercial once showed a "grandma" looking at a competitor's sandwich and repeatedly asking, "Where's the beef?" Well, in this case, the sales manager forgets to ask the same question. The candidate was all sizzle, and no meat. The Turn-Around Manager The turn-around manager considered himself to be a good judge of people, but he repeatedly looked for small details on which he could base big assumptions. The HR Manager Was the candidate a poor speaker? The HR manager believed no one could be effective unless they spoke extemporaneously from the middle of the group. His personal opinion (unencumbered with facts) was his reality. The Professional Recruiter Questions like these are, no doubt, interesting, but they constitute psychobabble. The recruiter is using questions that, he believes, could predict job success – but without any actual evidence that they are even relevant, much less effective. Sorry, close, but no cigar. Wrong answer; now go home. The turn-around manager, for example, considered himself to be a leadership expert. He zeroed in on one aspect of the applicant's resume and jumped to a silly conclusion: Applicants coming from staff positions could not possibly have leadership skills. He had no data to support this claim, and was merely reducing the range of choices by making negative inferences. The HR manager made the same mistake. When a candidate responded to a question about giving presentations, the HR manager heard a magic word that triggered a misinformed opinion about public-speaking techniques. Is this resume half full, or half empty? When the sales manager, for example, looked at the applicant's proposed plan, his mind automatically filled in the blanks – although there were almost no supporting facts about what the applicant would actually do. Did the candidate have an example from his own experience about how to grow and organization? No. But the sales manager liked him so much that he unconsciously supplied the positive information he was looking for. The professional recruiter was a bit harder to pin down. His “what kind of tree would you be” questions sounded deep and insightful, but they had only two possible responses: positive ones that gave the interviewers “warm-fuzzies,” or negative ones that gave them “cold-pricklies.” It was just a case of "guess the magic word" and either win the job or lose it. The questions had nothing to do with the skills needed to perform the job. Were they deep and insightful? For a therapist, perhaps. But they were shallow and myopic for a recruiter. Examples and Inferences An inference is jumping to a conclusion based on a "clue." An example, on the other hand, is a clear-cut, historical illustration of job ability. Examples are substantially more accurate than inferences because they are observable demonstrations of job performance. However, inferences are often superficially more attractive, and interviewers and hiring managers are often misled by them. Of course, we have to start by knowing exactly what kind of examples we’re looking for. Let's say that a candidate says she is highly critical. One employer might find that to be a good thing and another might not. Unconsciously making another inference, they each defined in their heads what the phrase meant. "Highly critical" could indicate a analytical skill, or it could mean a general tendency to find fault. Successful interviewing Giving the candidate a problem-solving test provides a good example of whether he or she could solve a job-related problem. But these, too, have to be done carefully. The problem must be clearly written; it must be time-bound; it must have a clear set of answers; and scores should directly relate to job performance. There is both an art and a science to doing this, and neither are easy to master. Cases studies and other types of pencil-and-paper exercises, however, do provide solid examples about the candidate's ability. Interpersonal skills are much more difficult to measure using pencil and paper, for a variety of reasons. Some people are smart enough to fake it. Others have unrealistic opinions of their own ability. Interpersonal behavior also can change dramatically depending on the situation – and a job interview is a very stressful situation. Examples of interpersonal ability almost always require some kind of one-on-one simulation. A situation is clearly outlined, a role-player is carefully trained, and a clear set of desirable responses is developed. Unlike the pencil-and-paper format, a simulation invites the candidate to show an example of his or her interpersonal skills. Decisions about team-membership, management, salesmanship, customer service, coaching, and so forth, are often substantially improved using simulations. There are many methods available for identifying applicant skills. If you look closely at each, however, you’ll find that the most trustworthy and reliable ones measure examples of job-related behavior. The least trustworthy and reliable methods invite people to make inferences based on incomplete information.
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