Interview Tips for Hiring Managers

Everyone knows that hiring managers need help becoming better interviewers but training can be expensive and time-consuming.  There is an alternative, however, GIVE THEM GOOD TOOLS!  Structured interview guides that are customized to the unique demands of the job, based on core competencies, contain behavioral interview questions and target behaviors as well as rating criteria and scales and detailed instructions helps them stay focused and on-target. Structured interview guides help interviewers stay on track and doing what they should do best – listening! Here's a short video by author and Selection Expert, Anne Sandberg on using Interview Guides.

For example, consider our new interview guide for Paralegal/Legal Assistant. The job description was analyzed and core competencies determined for this job:

Ability to take Initiative/Responsibility
Analytical Skills
Attention to Detail
Communication Skills
Critical Thinking Ability
Organization/Planning Ability
Resourcefulness
Time Management Ability
Written Communication Skills

Then, two to three behavioral questions and a key target behavior for each is supplied with a place for notes. Here are questions/target behaviors for the competency: Analytical Skills

Interview Question 1: Give me an example of a legal problem you encountered. How did you take it apart, evaluate your options, and begin working on a solution, or argument?


Target Behavior 1: Formulates logical solutions to problems; constructs logical arguments in support of specific positions; evaluates solutions and arguments


Interview Question 2: Give me an example of a legal problem you encountered. How did you take it apart, evaluate your options, and begin working on a solution, or argument?


Target Behavior 2: Formulates logical solutions to problems; constructs logical arguments in support of specific positions; evaluates solutions and arguments

This method allows interviewers to have all they need to stay focused, on track and ready to go in the interview itself. And there is a place for notes so the guide can be edited and serves as documentation. A rating sheet contains the list of competencies to be rated and overall strengths and weaknesses reported. All in all, a complete package!

Check out our catalog of pre-packaged Interview Guides at http://store.readytomanage.com/store/c/4-Interview-Guides.aspx  If what you are looking for isn't there, let us know.  Email us at info@readytomanage.com with your job description and we'll prepare a custom guide for you.

Case Study: Delivering a Generational Styles Workshop (Using a ReadytoManage Assessment Facilitator Guide!)

The Problem

A major energy utility in California had a problem … a long-tenured workforce, primarily Baby Boomers, that was increasingly being managed and lead by up-and-coming younger managers and leaders (Gen X and Y). Communication and style clashes were becoming more and more common, but what to do? Senior managers decided that education was key – misunderstandings could be better managed if employees became aware of and were able to talk about the issues at work, including:

• Preferences of younger vs. older workers regarding technology
• Sharing of common organizational goals
• Importance of knowledge sharing and learning transfer as living legacy for older workers
• Key motivators and reward/incentive preferences of the different generations
• How to air differences and make one’s self heard in a constructive manner
• How to have fun, be inclusive and mix better socially across age gaps

Solution: Customized Workshop

 A consultant was called in to create a customized workshop that could cover these areas for various small department groups. That consultant turned to ReadyToManage for materials and resources, specifically the Generational Leadership booklet (free on the site) and Generational Style Assessment Facilitator Guide ($49.95) to design a three-hour that could be replicated across the company.

Using an Assessment Facilitator Guide to Structure a Workshop

The company was given the option of including an online assessment prior to the workshop, but decided not to include this step. Even though the Generational Style Assessment Facilitator Guide (FG) was designed to support the online Generational Style Assessment, it could easily be used without the assessment and contains lots of interesting and relevant material the consultant used to structure the majority of the content (with some customized examples inserted).

In fact, the consultant used some of the scenarios from the assessment with the group in the workshop to spark discussion and dialog regarding the various generational styles and communication patterns. It was possible to use the material without necessarily administering the online assessment.

Results

The company was able to educate the workforce in a dynamic and proactive way. The consultant utilized best-in-class resources to create a complete, replicable workshop for less than $50 in resources. Thanks, ReadyToManage!  http://www.readytomanage.com/

KeyCompetencies for Coaching Effectiveness

This week, we continue our focus on the HOT TOPICS 2011 from our reader survey earlier this year. This week’s topic is Coaching.

What is Coaching and what competencies are involved?
Coaching other people is an increasingly critical skill and one that can make the major difference in an individual’s ability to empower people successfully. Coaching effectiveness generally relates to coaching ability in the seven competencies listed below:

• Empathizing ability
• Listening skills
• Capacity to confront and challenge
• Problem solving ability
• Feedback giving skills
• Capacity to empower
• Mentoring skills

Coaching Effectiveness Profile
One way to assess your coaching skills and abilities is to undertake a competency assessment like the ReadytoManage Coaching Effectiveness Profile. The Coaching Effectiveness Profile provides a comprehensive process for assessing an individual’s capacity to coach others by measuring the respondent’s coaching ability in the seven competencies above.

How Does it Work?

By rating various behaviors that underlie coaching competence (1-5 scale), individuals can quickly determine their relative strength in each competency. The participant receives a personalized report of his or her results including a histogram that quickly shows where efforts to improve should be concentrated in the future. Detailed interpretative notes are included for each competency, including improvement actions for low scorers.

What Behaviors are Measured per Competency?
There are 12 behaviors evaluated in each of the seven competencies (or 6 if the short version is selected; same price). Individuals appreciate the use of behaviors in better understanding how competency is built, rather than being rated poor, or low in a particular performance area. Instead, he or she simply has demonstrated or not demonstrated (with gradations in-between) a particular behavior.

Here is an example of some of the behaviors from each of the seven competencies:

Empathesizing Ability

Makes themselves fully available and accessible for people to talk with them

Can be fully trusted to keep a secret

Listening Skills
Listens to understand rather than to reply
Creates a positive climate for people to be candid with them

Capacity to Confront and Challenge
Challenges people to take on difficult or challenging tasks
Encourages people to solicit feedback on themselves from their peers

Problem Solving Ability
Points out that there are inevitably new and different ways to tackle problems
Helps people to understand the facts and data before finding a solution

Feedback Giving Skills

Provides concrete and specific examples to help people understand
Offers people new insights or ideas into old problems or issues

Capacity to Empower

Encourages people to look for new learning opportunities
Avoids specifying exactly HOW something should be tackled or done

Mentoring Skills

Encourages people to set improvement targets and assists individuals to reach them
Looks for ways to match individuals to people who can mentor, help and support them

Coaching is a key skills whether you are a manager, or not! Certainly we in Human Resources and Training & Development need to be excellent coaches and role models to our clients and the workforce we support. Get in better touch with your coaching skills today!

Available Formats

This competency-based assessment is available in a self-report format, a 180 degree format (self + manager) or a 360 degree format (self, manager + up to 10 other raters), allowing the individual to deeply explore where he or she may already be strong as a coach and where more work needs to be done to increase effectiveness.

Buy the self-report format now for half price ($9.95) and take it whenever you like.
One of the four assessments on sale this month (March 2011) in the RTM store is the Coaching Effectiveness Profile (self only is $9.95 instead of $19.95) using coupon code: FebFeature.

Click here for a free sample report. Then you can see exactly what you will get for the $9.95 investment!

Leadership Competencies and Diagnostics

Leadership and Management as continuing Hot Topics for 2011
The ReadyToManage webstore survey conducted in January 2011 reported that the most sought-after training content area was in the Management and Leadership Skills areas. This finding underscores the continuing need of organizations for strong leadership skills.

What is Leadership?

But what is leadership, really? It is just a higher-level of management ability, or is it something else altogether? Certainly leadership sits on a bedrock of sound management principles and practices – how can someone become a great leader if he or she has not mastered the art of managing people and projects? While generally true, this assumption is not absolute in the sense that research shows that leadership is generally quite a different set of core competencies. A great manager can become a great leader, but not necessarily … some great leaders were only mediocre managers but for some reason, were able to climb far enough fast enough to find their true calling as organizational leaders.

Leadership Diagnostic Tools
One leadership assessment tool, the Leadership Effectiveness Profile (LEP), was developed by Dr. Jon Warner and is based on extensive research conducted in the UK, US and Australia. The LEP is an “out-of-the box” online assessment that measures behaviors in eight core competencies:

• Emotional Intelligence
• Directional Clarity
• Change Orchestration
• Reciprocal Communication
• Contextual Thinking
• Creative Assimilation
• People Enablement
• Driving Persistence

Each of these competencies is carefully defined in the LEP.

Example
Here’s an example of how one competency is defined and measured in the LEP.

Definition: Directional Clarity looks at the ability to identify a credible destination and indicate how to get there in a straightforward and simple way. This category asks the question, “How clearly, credibly and unequivocally do you point the way for people to want to travel with you and to stay on track?”

Each competency is supported by concrete behaviors that are rated by the person him or herself (and that person’s manager and up to 10 others peers or direct reports, if the 180° or 360° feedback version is selected).

Behaviors for Directional Clarity:

• Believes that people’s energy needs a clear direction in which to flow;
• Generates a clear personal vision of what the future could be;
• Can explain a mission or purpose in the most basic or simple terms;
• Believes that every goal needs a measure system …
• And so on (there are 12 underpinning behaviors for each competency).

Insights Gained 
By participating in the LEP (self-rating, 180° or 360° versions) individuals gain clear insight into how they stack up against the 8 competencies and each of the behaviors associated with a given competency and they know where improvement is needed. Detailed interpretative text is provided in the color report. These assessments are great for development planning or as a pre-training activity to get participants thinking about their skills and skill gaps.

RTM Sale
Through March 2011 you can try out the Leadership Effectiveness Profile yourself (self-assessment only) for half-price at $9.95! (use coupon code Febfeature at checkout). Why not take it for a test-drive and discover the richness and complexity of leadership behavior!!!

Hot Topics for 2011: Survey Results In!

What are the hottest T&D topics for 2011? We surveyed our readers last month. If you participated, THANK YOU, and we hope you used your $5.00 coupon in the Webstore!  Here’s what you and your colleagues had to say:

 

Top Training Needs for 2011 (pick top 3)

• #1 (76%) Management and/or Leadership Development
• #2 (49%) Coaching and Mentoring
• #3 (48%) Performance Management
• #4 (38%) Change Management
• #5 (37%) Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision-Making

(Other training topic areas included Generational Differences, Diversity, Communication Skills, Teams and Teamwork, Time Management, Delegation, Stress Management, Spanish-language training)

 

What’s Going on with eLearning? Are you using it?

• 49.3% YES, we do use it now  
• 32.4% No, and not sure we will any time soon  
• 18.3% No, we don’t currently, but we plan to

 Do you Use Social Networking? (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) 

• 69.4% Yes, I do! 
• 30.6% No, I do not 

SO WHAT DO THESE RESULTS MEAN?  

Management, Leadership and Coaching continue to lead as a hot topic in today’s business world. HR and training managers are focusing on building great managers, leaders and coaches as Boomers retire and younger workers take over in this challenging economic environment.

Performance Management, likewise is a bulwark of successful organizations. The process of setting performance goals, managing to them, providing feedback, and managing poor or substandard performance is a complex set of activities. Performance management is hardly a new topic but continues to seen as critical to business success. 

Change Management also was rated in the top 5. This seems to us to be a reflection of the environment surrounding us. It’s one of rapid change from technological, social and economic perspectives. Managers are struggling to adapt and to manage that change better within their organizations. This topic had great resonance with most people. 

Rounding out the Top 5 topics were the areas of Critical Thinking, Problem Solving and Decision Making, a set of interrelated topics focused on the analytical dimensions of work. In newspapers and blogs we read, we see a lot of talk about the inability of schools to teach some of these important reading and critical thinking skills – and so it makes sense to us that employers are now turning their attention to the development of these skills in the working world.

We also noticed the number of folks who are engaing in Social Networking is up to almost 70%.  We think those numbers will rise.  While many joined these networks to reengage with old friends and keep up with family, the opportunities for greater engagement with colleagues and providers afforded in networks like LinkedIn should not be missed.  We suggest you consider your current social networking strategy and add a LinkedIn Profile if you don't already have one, and "friend" some of your colleagues and favorite businesses in Facebook.  It's a great way to see innovations, ideas, promotions, white papers and more on topics of interest to you.  Don't forget to friend ReadytoManage on Facebook while you are at it!

And dont' forget check out the webstore for some great ways to jumpstart your training initiatives this year on hot topics such as these.  http://www.readytomanage.com/