today i want to give you five questions
to ask before you hire your next manager
or someone into a leadership position
and i want to give you what i call our
success predictors these are things to
listen for
in their answers throughout the
interview that are indicative
of success so if they say things in a
certain way they use
certain words or they have certain
styles
this would be indicative of success and
they're likely to be successful in the
role
or a lack of these would indicate that
they're not going to be successful in
the role
and these are tools that you can use
whether you're hiring a project manager
customer service manager
a director it doesn't matter any type of
leadership or
management position these are key things
that you are going to want to
understand about a candidate before you
make a decision
and one of the most important things is
compatibility
you want to make sure that the person
you hire is compatible with the people
that they're going to be leading you
don't want to put in a manager who
is ideologically opposed to the people
that they're going to be leading this is
just going to cause a lot of friction
and you're not going to get things done
so compatibility is huge
it's very important to understand how
they have led
in the past what kind of manager were
they did they lead from the front
did they lead from the rear leading from
the front is when they're out there
setting the example and getting in the
trenches
and you know working with the team and
showing them how to do things
they're leading from the front or are
they the type of manager who leads from
the rear where they basically
tell the team here's what needs to be
done here's the plan
here's how to do it now go do it i'll be
here if you need me
lead from the front lead from the rear
those are they're both good styles
but you want to understand what their
style is and whether that's going to be
compatible
with the people that they're going to be
leading the first question i like to ask
is what's the biggest reason a team may
not be performing
at its most optimal level now an
experienced manager
will know this and they'll be able to
answer this easily but there's really
only two reasons the team isn't
performing
at its highest level i mean one is
they're not clearing the goal they don't
see the big picture
they don't really know what's going to
happen when the project is done
the other reason is they don't believe
in the plan
that means they were handed down a plan
from management to go execute
and it's not their plan it's not their
idea and they don't
totally believe in it they don't believe
that if they do all these things that
they're going to reach the goal plus
they don't know what the goal is
so it's either one of those two reasons
or both that a team really isn't working
at its highest level sure there's other
reasons
there could be financial reasons there
could be resource reasons there could be
all kinds of reasons but
these are the two biggest reasons
assuming you have a team that's well put
together and well funded
those are the two reasons why they won't
be working at their most
optimal level and so that's something
you want to look for in candidates and
this will give you a lot of
information about you know how deep that
manager is able to go
what level of experience that they have
if they've if they've
been in this type of situation before
all right moving on to number two
have you ever been on a project before
where
there was no clear leader but you
stepped up and took charge
and did you get the respect of your team
most leaders will have some type of
story like this which is why they're a
leader
because they've been on a project before
that lacked leadership
and because of who they are inside they
felt
the need to step up take charge and give
the team some direction
to complete the project so look for some
story like that in every managerial or
leadership candidate this will tell you
a lot about them and
who they are and whether they're likely
to be successful
if you hired them moving on to number
three tell me about a time when you led
a team
towards an objective where you didn't
achieve
the desired result and what i'm
listening
for in this is ownership
i'm looking for someone who is owning
the whole project owning the failure
of the project meaning that whether it
was someone else's fault whether they
didn't have enough funding whether it
was management's faults whether it was
the weather
it doesn't matter i'm looking for
someone to come in and say you know what
i led this team
and we did not achieve the desired
result
and it's my fault i take full
responsibility
that's what i'm listening for i'm also
listening for people
who are blaming other people they're
blaming the weather they're blaming
their team they're blaming resources
they're blaming management
everything but themselves those people
are not my leaders they're not my
managers and i will
they will not get a second interview
with me because that is the surest
sign of lack of leadership
is someone who blames other people and
other things
no matter if they're outside of their
control or not if you're a leader
you have to own it you have to own it
all that's your job
moving on to number four what qualities
do you think
makes for a great leader and a bad
leader
when you boil it all down the job of
leadership
is to maximize resources that's what a
leader is supposed to do
they take the team they take the
finances they take everything that they
have
all their resources and they channel it
towards a desired outcome
and a desired result the highest form of
leadership is to get
people to do what you want them to do
because they want to do it so that it
benefits
the team so that it benefits the company
bad leaders
are manipulators they try to get people
to do things
that only benefit themselves and
we don't want bad leaders working for us
we want the best people
moving on to number five here is my
absolute favorite question
i ask this for all management and
leadership positions and
even some non-leadership positions too
because it's such a good question
and it is what are three areas of
improvement
that you are working on right now and
if they don't know if they have no idea
or they hem and they haul
they're amateurs they are total amateurs
because true leaders
true high performers a players are
always up in their game they're always
stepping up they're always working
towards the next level
they're doing something to better
themselves
and if you come across somebody who's
not and just kind of fumbling through
they're not who you think they are so
those are my five favorite questions to
ask
all leadership candidates now obviously
there's more than
five but those are the ones that are
going to give you great
insight into the candidate and what
they're capable of and if they're going
to be a good fit for the team
other things that you want to look for
and listen for
are body language i love looking at body
language because
it communicates and looking for it to
communicate what they're saying
so if you have a leader who's talking
about their accomplishments and maybe
they're just kind of slouched back in
their chair
that's telling me that they're saying
one thing but their body language is
saying something completely different
if they're talking about their
accomplishments and they're enthusiastic
they should be sitting up in their chair
they should be excited and they're and
it should just be all over the face and
in their shoulders
and in their voice body language is so
important make sure that their body
language
matches what they're saying listen for
their enthusiasm
they should be excited they should be
excited about your vision
where you're going your products leading
this team they should be excited about
the kinds of things
that they've done before and how they
can help you do those kinds of things
enthusiasm is huge if they're not if
they're just kind of dull and
kind of just sitting back in the chair
that means they're going to be a dual
leader that means they're not going to
energize your team they're not going to
push your team
to new heights they're not they're not
going to be on fire
listen for confidence as you're talking
to them and this kind of goes along with
body language as well body language ties
all back to it but listen for their
confidence
do are they totally confident about what
they're saying
or are they just kind of soft and
speaking maybe just a little uncertain
these are all clues that
they really haven't been there they
haven't really been in the trenches
they haven't really been the leader that
they are
proclaiming to be so
listen for that confidence they should
be when they talk to you and they answer
questions
they should be nailing them to the wall
with absolute certainty and making you
feel and believe that you know they
are really capable of doing these kinds
of things for you in this position and
lastly listen if they're a team player i
mean just because they're a leader
and they're a manager they still need to
be a team player they need to be on the
team
they need to be there helping and
coaching and guiding
and mentoring the people on the team
they can't
just be the type of manager that that
hands your team
a project and just says go do it they
need to be there with them they need to
work with them and help them grow
and give them the resources that they
need that that team needs
to complete their mission their job
their project
whatever it is all right my friend that
is all that i have for you today
oh i also have something very special
for you today i wrote a brand new book
and it's called the seven master steps
to hiring
a players and it covers seven master
steps
from creating a job scorecard to writing
job propositions to phone interviews to
interviews to auditions
covers everything and you know what it's
an easy ebook download you can get that
from the simplehiringsystem.com i'll put
a link for that in the description below
all right my friend that's all i have
for you good luck
on hiring your next manager or your
leader
and i'll see you in the next video take
care bye now