Interviewing with Intuition

August 25, 2010

In continuation from a post I’ve done earlier about the difference between Head vs. Heart, we are given two very powerful gifts—rationality and intuition—to help us navigate through life. Our head (the home of rationality) helps us with survival and keeps us safe. Our heart (the home of intuition) allows us to have breakthroughs that are genuine, unique and fresh. In terms of discovering your Professional Destiny, finding harmony in the combination of head and heart is the ultimate combination.

As I wrote in my book, learning to hone your intuition during the interview process is a huge advantage. Here’s an excerpt of how it helped me in business:

“In the workplace, intuition is especially useful for making all-important employee hiring decisions, or for choosing a business partner. For example, during the interviewing process some people are polished interviewers and present themselves well, but then turn out to be much less impressive when they’re on the job. Others are less polished, but you have an inexplicable sense they will be great contributors on a day-to-day basis. Often it all comes down to your intuition. After making a hiring mistake early in my management career, I learned to hone my intuition during the process and pay attention to my gut feelings. I developed what I called “my lower left corner” interviewing process. I took notes throughout the interview and would record the answers to my questions on a sheet of paper in front of me for future reference but in the lower left corner I would record my “impressions”—whatever struck me during the interview. I might be interviewing a perfectly polished individual and get the feeling that he is “cocky” and that would go in the corner. Or I might be interviewing someone who says all the right things but can’t make eye contact with certain questions and I record that as a warning sign.

On the other hand, I may be interviewing someone who is a little nervous, but who I can tell has high integrity and a strong work ethic. I record that in the lower left corner too. After the interview, I weigh my intuition along with the candidate’s answers and experience. If I suspect a possible flaw, I ask myself if it is something we could live with. For example, I may get the feeling that someone will be nervous giving a presentation and then decide that it is okay in this position because someone else will be the public face. Often that is a livable weakness. If the “flaw” that I suspect is of someone’s character or integrity, however, I will not overlook it, no matter what the qualifications or how urgently I need to fill the position. It always comes back to bite you. When I have gone back and compared my “lower left corner” notes to my perceptions of people six months after they are hired, I have found them to be almost always accurate. In fact, it wasn’t that I didn’t intuit the weakness accurately, the only unpredictable variable seemed to be my judgment of how much, or how little, that “weakness” would impact the person’s performance in that particular role.”

When interviewing, it’s important to ask questions to understand a person’s nature, not just focus on their experiences. How do they operate? How do they think? How do they deal with adversity? Do they strike you as honest?  Yes, you want someone who has job experience, but you also want someone you trust and want to be around.  Honing your intuition can help you find the perfect match.

Filed under: Business Best Practices,Leadership

Tags: Business Best Practices, hiring, interviewing skills, intuition, Leadership