10 tips on conducting effective interviews

Consideration, planning, and communication savvy all play into the successful interview. Regardless of the issue at hand, you’ll get better results if you follow a few best practices.

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Whether you’re having a discussion with an employee about performance issues, trying to gather information about why a project failed, looking for feedback from a staff member about team dynamics, or evaluating someone for possible promotion, conducting a successful interview requires skill and planning on your part. Here are some pointers that will make it easier to get the information you need.

#1: Determine your objective

Before you schedule the interview, determine why you want to have it. What information can you gain from the interviewee? How will this information help you achieve your other goals? How will you be better off after having conducted this interview?

#2: Outline your areas

You certainly could write out the questions you plan to ask the interviewee and then read them aloud at the interview. However, this approach may make you look stilted and artificial, and it could hinder the flow of information. Furthermore, by reading your questions, you might miss nonverbal cues, such as body language, that could indicate an area for further questioning.

A better approach is to outline the general areas you want to cover. I do so at the top-right corner of the first sheet of the tablet I’m using. After I discuss an area, I cross it out.

#3: Pick the location

Meeting at the interviewee’s office may make that person more at ease. Be aware of the possibility, though, that the interviewee might instead think you are invading his or her space. In that case, a neutral location, such as a conference room, cafeteria, or even Starbucks might be more appropriate. Present these alternatives and work things out with the interviewee.

#4: Observe standards of etiquette

If you’re meeting in the interviewee’s office, knock before entering. Don’t sit down until invited to do so. During the interview, keep things to yourself. If you start invading the interviewee’s personal space (for example, by gradually taking over the person’s desk), the latter will become less willing to talk. See below for other reasons you should keep your notebook and other items near you.

#5: Open with standard rapport/small talk

Before starting the interview, take a few moments to get to know the interviewee. Ask the standard questions and make standard comments about weather or make positive comments about the meeting room or office or mementos on the interviewee’s desk. However, be careful about speculating on photographs. That child whom you think is a grandson or granddaughter might actually be a son or daughter instead. A college or high school photo of the interviewee could cause problems if you say, “You looked great back then.” Instead, keep your comments general, as in, “What a great photograph.”

Once you’ve spent a few minutes with the getting-acquainted talk, you can start transitioning to the interview. To signal this transition, shift position in your seat , begin to take out a notebook or tablet, or say something like, “I appreciate your time. As you know, I’ve come to discuss….”

#6: Distinguish open and closed questions

Open questions begin with words such as “Who,” “What,” “Where,” or “When.” That is, they give the other person a chance to give a narrative response, without being confined by the question. Such questions are good when one is seeking general or background information. Their disadvantage is that they can cause an interviewee to ramble on endlessly.

Closed questions, on the other hand, call for a specific answer, usually a “Yes” or a “No.” A person who asks a closed question is usually seeking a particular answer to a particular question. The disadvantage of closed questions is that in using them, you may be jumping too quickly to conclusions.

Both types of questions have their place during the interview. In general, begin with open questions. At this point, you want to get the big picture and to avoid jumping to conclusions or making wrong assumptions. When you ask open questions, you allow the other person to bring up matters you then can focus on more specifically.

As the interview progresses, use closed questions either to confirm your understanding or to explore in more depth the matter being discussed. You can also use closed questions to help control the rambling interviewee. If you think you know the point he or she is making, cut to the chase by asking a question such as, “So if I understand, your point is that…”? If you’re right, the person will agree, and you will have saved time. If you’re wrong, the person will let you know, and (you hope) will summarize the point quickly.

#7: Use notations to record impressions

When I take notes, I draw a vertical line one-third from the left of the page. On the right side, I will record the interviewee’s comments. On the left side, I will record impressions and reactions, and reminders of things I should follow up on. In particular, if I hear something that clashes with what I already know or have been told, I will note the comment accordingly.

Be careful about your notations, though. People can read upside down. If you write “ridiculous” on the left side, the other person may take offense. A better alternative is to develop your own set of codes — one for “ridiculous,” another for “follow up,” etc.

#8: Hide your notepad and pen

Try to hide your notepad and pen while you’re writing. Rather than write on a table or desk, keep the pad and pen in your lap so that the interviewee can’t see any notations you’ve made. Furthermore, the person won’t be able to see whether you’re writing anything at all. If the interviewee sees you writing in reaction to some comments and not others, it might affect what he or she is saying or planning to say.

#9: Use tact when exploring sensitive issues

You may be conducting an interview to determine the cause of some high profile problem or failure. Perhaps you’re interviewing someone who either caused the problem or is connected to it. In this case, tact and diplomacy are important, not only from a courtesy standpoint, but more pragmatically, to maximize the chances you get the information you are seeking.

Be careful about the word “you,” because its overuse can make people feel defensive. Instead of saying, for example, “What factors led you to make that decision?” consider a passive construction, such as, “What factors led to the making of that decision?” Similarly, a hypothetical construction can soften a question, such as, “What might have caused the accident?”

I’m not saying you always have to use such techniques. Rather, I’m recommending that you consider such alternatives before asking your questions.

#10: Contradict with caution

Be careful when confronting an interviewee who gives you contradictory information. That person might be innocently mistaken or might have recalled things incorrectly. Calling him or her a liar will hardly endear you, and it certainly won’t advance the interview. Instead, consider a statement such as, “That’s interesting, because I’ve heard different things from other people….” Making this kind of statement signals that you may not disagree, but that the other interviewees might. You could go one step further and adopt the Columbo approach — namely, pleading ignorance and lack of familiarity, then asking the interviewee to explain differences with you have heard elsewhere.

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Calvin Sun works with organizations in the areas of customer service, communications, and leadership. His Web site is http://www.calvinsun.com and his e-mail address is csun@calvinsun.com.

The 7 most important communication skills an IT leader should have

Everyone wants to tell IT pros that they need to develop people skills, but no one really tells what those skills are. Here are the most important skills an IT leader should have and how to develop them.

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You hear the advice everywhere: IT pros need to learn how to communicate in order to become leaders in their fields. What so many of the sources of that advice fail to do is define the magnitude of what is meant by the word communicate and how one goes about learning how to do it.

I found a book that does a pretty good job in breaking down the different aspects of communication. The book, Leading IT Transformation: The Roadmap for Success, actually refers to communication as “human interaction skills,” a term I’m not exactly fond of because it sounds like the person who is doing the learning isn’t exactly human to start with. But the points the book makes therein are valid.

Here are the most important communication skills IT leaders and their staff need to have or develop:

Audience profile

The book stresses how important it is to know the history your IT department has with its end-users. They may be enthusiastic about new initiatives or they may be leery because they feel they’ve been burned in the past. The expectations of your clients color how you will enter into a situation.

Listening

The book makes a great statement on this topic: “Incorrect assumptions are the bane of any listener.” I’d go further and say incorrect assumptions are the bane of the speaker too. Do you know how many opportunities there are in the average conversation for meaning to be misconstrued? Seemingly unimportant words can put a sentence’s meaning in a totally different light. Let’s take the word up. If you had a client who said he wanted a system up in two weeks, would he mean up and tested and ready for prime time? Or would he mean live but with the understanding there would be bugs to be worked out? You have to clarify or else you’ll run the chance of having a dissatisfied client.

Empathy

I think if everyone had the innate ability to automatically put themselves into someone else’s shoes, the world would be a better place. You don’t have to agree with everyone, but you have to be able to understand why they feel like they do. The book says this is the IT pro’s Achilles Heel: “Too often, the IT pro’s gut instinct is to defend himself or herself, cut off the other person or flat out make them wrong. But being effective isn’t about the right answer. IT others can’t hear what you have to say because of how you deliver the message, you’ve lost your ability to influence.”

You can demonstrate empathy by simply paraphrasing what the speaker has said or acknowledging the idea before you add your two cents worth.

Diplomacy

Let’s face it, sometimes your clients are just out and out wrong. But if you come barging in with that attitude, you’re not going to get anywhere. You have to learn how to disagree in a way that makes the person you’re talking to not be defensive. And sometimes you have to help that person save face. Say something like, “I completely understand why we gave that impression but…” or “You make good points, but if you look at it this way…”

Avoiding emotional hooks

Now what do you do if the person you’re dealing with isn’t diplomatic and refuses to validate your side of the issue? Your first reaction is probably going to be to push back with the same obstinacy and that will get you absolutely nowhere fast. Try to step back and not take the other person’s words personally.

Educating without arrogance

A common failing of IT pros is the perception that everyone is as technically knowledgeable as they are. This can develop into an arrogance toward those people who don’t. You don’t see the marketing staff rolling their eyes and sighing loudly because you don’t know what an ansoff matrix is. The fact is, everyone has their own area of expertise. The IT leader is a valuable resource to have at the big table because you have knowledge that the others probably don’t. But don’t hold that against them.

It’s not just about playing well with others. It’s about developing communications styles that don’t alienate the very people you’ll need to have in your corner when you want new initiatives to pass. It may be your knee-jerk reaction of yours to lose patience when one of your colleagues just “doesn’t get it.” But know that it may eventually be a knee-jerk reaction on the part of that same colleague when asked to reject one of your proposals. This brings us to the last communication skill…

Rapport building

From the book: “The bottom line is that people are much more willing to give others the benefit of the doubt if they feel a mutual connection.” Understand that the users of the technology you implement and maintain are people. If you go out of your way not to speak to these people or develop some kind of rapport, then you’re losing out on a good opportunity. I’m not asking you to take everyone to lunch, but don’t be afraid or averse to just shooting the breeze with someone.

Before I got into IT publishing, I worked at two separate companies where I was almost afraid of the IT pros. In both places the IT pros in charge of the service desk seemed to be surrounded by au aura of hostility. They would practically snap my head off if I couldn’t adequately explain an issue I was having with my computer.

If you want to succeed as an IT leader you have to shed this tendency. The rapport you build with the other departments in your comp will go a long way toward the goal of success.