“It’s Time for You to Ask the Questions!”

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work in Your Interview – Part 6

Until now, the questions we have considered in the interview process are ones that you, the candidate, are supposed to be prepared to answer. The questions addressed in this post are those that you need to be prepared to ask. No interview should be allowed to end without questions from the candidate.

Interviewee questions serve several purposes. They indicate that you have enough interest in the position to want to keep the process going.  Questions that relate to what was discussed in the interview, indicate your insightfulness. Finally, well asked questions can reinforce positive impressions.

Questions that you should ask the interviewer fall into three categories.

  1. Questions you feel you need to have answered.
  2. Questions, the asking of which, might positively influence what the interview thinks of you.
  3. The most important question that an interviewee must ask.

Actual Questions

If you need clarity about something that came up in the interview, it is imperative that you ask questions to satisfy your need to know. For instance, if an interview question comes up about your willingness to work nights or weekends, it is smart to ask about the frequency or schedule that such work would occur. If something came up that does not align with the job listing then you are wise to find out the correct. For instance, if the job listing indicated that the job was hybrid office and home and that does not seem to be what the interviewer is describing, finding out where you are expected to perform the job is a necessity.

Leading Questions

If an answer you gave seemed to elicit a positive response from the interviewer, a reminder of your well received answer can’t help but improve your level of consideration. For instance, if you described an innovative process in answer to a question and it was received with affirmative head shaking or a response like, “We could really use that”, then consider asking a question about how quickly you would be allowed to work your magic while on their payroll.

Is this a manipulation? Yes, it is. However, as I have stated repeatedly in my posts on this process, interviewing is a game. It is a game in which the interviewee holds very few of the cards and the interviewer knows more of the rules than you do. If you can influence the odds a little in your favor at the end of the process, then more power to you.

The Most Important Question

One question that needs to be asked is about what happens next. Unless you are sure that you do not want the job, you must make them think that you want the job. Example: “What is the next step in the hiring process? Having had this chance to meet with you and share what I could add to your organization, I am very interested in joining Hokey Pokey Airlines.”

If you think you might want the job, then ask for it. Do not leave them guessing. Remember, some interviewers are more nervous than you. Letting them know you are interested makes it easier for them to tell their boss that you are interested. Seems obvious, but frequently, it isn’t.

Do not be confused, this is not a commitment on your part to take the job if it is offered. Since the potential employer holds almost all the keys, this one belongs to you. But it is good to make them feel like you would take the job, all things being equal, if it was offered.

Please be aware, if you have a bad vibe and feel confident in interpreting such vibes, you can stand up in the middle of the interview and say thank you for your time, but this doesn’t appear to be a good fit. I did this myself, in the ninth month of unemployment, because the interview was going nowhere.  In most cases you will want to leave all possibilities open. I once interviewed someone who was completely wrong for the job they for which they were interviewing.  But I reached out to them a few weeks later when something that did fit came up. If they had cut things off during the first interview, I might not have figured out how great they could be.

Leave some question off your “at the interview” list

There are certain items that it might be best to hold off on asking until after you have an offer in your hand.

Avoid negotiating in an interview. You have no leverage at that point. Only negotiate when you have a serious offer on the table. You and the hiring organization are a lot closer to equals when they have put their proposal in front of you.

In earlier posts, I have given suggestions for how to avoid leaving money on the table by turning questions about money back on the interviewer. In that same vein, it is wise to think twice about starting the money discussion during the interview. Hopefully, by the time you get to an interview, you will have an idea what they are proposing to pay.

Other topics best put off until you have them hooked include hours, starting bonus, office size, vacation.  Ask about those things once the interview has ended and they are trying to get you to join them.

A few thoughtful questions on your part, as the interviewee, can continue to improve your success in an interview. Hiring managers are rightly swayed by enthusiasm, interest and understanding. Remember, it never hurts to ask.

If you’d like some help with your upcoming interview, your job search in general or how to stop hating your job, please contact Crews Strengths LLC. I’d love to help you figure out how you can put your Strengths to work.

Thank you for continuing to follow these posts about job search, resumes and interviews. Please check out other posts in this series about interviewing, or others related to resumes, or how you can put your Strengths to work.

If you found this blog post helpful, please help others by going to the LinkedIn version and like and comment on it. 

Since you are reading this, I have to believe you are considering a job search. Maybe you want to do something new. Maybe you want more security, more money, more motivation. Maybe you want to stop hating your job. At Crews Strengths we believe that NO ONE DESERVES to HATE THEIR JOB. I would be thrilled to have the opportunity to share how we can help you “Put Your Strengths to Work!” Let’s talk .

What “Superpowers” are Hiding in Your Toolbox?:

Putting the Right Tools (Strengths) to Work

Last week, I bought a garden auger. It’s silver in color and approximately 24 inches long. It fits into a power drill like an oversized drill bit. The purpose for this auger is to dig (drill) holes in the ground for new plants. It does an awesome job of digging nice, round, uniform holes even in my root plagued yard.

Did I need an auger? Need might be a little strong, but it certainly makes it easier to create holes in the soil. Prior to my latest garden acquisition, I had a number of tools that would create holes: Long and short handled hole diggers, spades, shovels, trowels and even a pick. I have never owned a post-hole digger but have borrowed one. Putting the auger to work, it creates holes quickly and uniformly. It makes the job of hole digging much easier. I can get more holes dug in less time. I am less tired than when I hand dig each hole. It is the right tool for the job of hole digging to plant new plants.

While I am sure many of you are thrilled to hear about my auger acquisition (I certainly am), you are probably wondering how I am going to be able to make this relevant to Strengths and to your life. Well, here goes. In the past, I used the tools I thought would do the job of digging holes for planting with mixed success, until I found the perfect tool for the job. As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, I see the analogy of using the correct or best tool to do a job.

The CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) Strengths, revealed through the same named assessment, describe your main talents. Gallup, the owner of the assessment, describes a talent as a naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling, or behavior that can be productively applied. Talents become Strengths when you apply effort in these natural channels, developing and honing these innate, positive “superpowers”. Don’t confuse Strengths with skills. Skills are the stuff you know how to do; cook, program a computer, blow glass, close a deal, run a marathon, etc.. Think of talents as your hows, whys, and motivation. Indications that you are working in your Strengths, are when you are more energized at the end of a task than when you started. Or when you look at the clock thinking you’ve worked for an hour and figured out it has been four.

Strengths are like tools which can be applied to do things in a manner that best aligns with your approach to the world. When you work in or with your Strengths you feel more energized, engaged and motivated. There are 34 Strengths revealed by the assessment. You most likely have 8 to 10 dominant Strengths, which means they are the tools you should be calling on most frequently to succeed. Each of the 34 Strengths fall into one of four domains or categories as shown in this table. Once you clearly understand what your Strengths are, you can apply them like the right to tool for the particular task.

Have you ever been working around your home. You notice a nail that has crept out by 1/2 inch from being flush, Since you were originally working on a plumbing project, you have a monkey wrench in your hand. Your tools are out in the garage or in the basement. You decide that a monkey wrench in a pinch is a hammer.

 Maybe it works. The nail is driven in. But now the wall looks a little funny or the monkey wrench won’t adjust quite right. Why? Because a monkey wrench isn’t a hammer. The right tool does the job right. If you don’t have a hammer, find one or borrow one. Your wall and your monkey wrench will thank you.

How does this relate to Strengths? Think of Strengths as a collection of tools. A particular tool may not be right for a particular task. The Activator™ Strength is a great tool to get people moving, but your Empathy™ Strength may be what is needed to understand how your team is feeling about the project you want to get them moving to do. You may have a colleague asking lots of questions – “What about the budget? What about the mistakes we made last time!” Well, if you have taken a look in his toolbox, you may understand that that your colleague has high Deliberative™ Strength. He has a talent for caution and attention to detail. He needs i’s dotted and t’s crossed. He wants to study the blueprint. If you think back to earlier situations, you may realize that after he looks over the plans and gets his questions answered, he will help you move ahead more assuredly than you could before. This becomes especially valuable when you realize that his Strengths are not ones that are in your toolbox. In this case, you borrowed his Deliberative™ tool to move forward.

Many Strengths can be applied for purposes other than your initial understanding. There may be times when you can make one of your Strengths (tools) act as a Swiss Army knife. Trying to get a team to work together might give you opportunities to use Relationship Building Strengths like Includer™ or Connectedness™ to draw people into the fold. Or you might use Influencing Strengths like Communication™ to paint a picture of the path ahead to get your team to want to join you.

Following the analogy, one needs to recognize what tools you have available and what is the correct tool for the job. When you have to drive a screw into a hole, you need to look at the slot in the head of the screw to determine what is the correct screwdriver to use. If it has a single straight slot, you should use a flat-head screwdriver, recognizing that the size of the slot will influence the size screwdriver you should choose. In a pinch, you can use a small coin or a pocket knife. If the slot is a Philips head (the indent in the head is a cross or an X), it is best to use a Philips head screwdriver. In a pinch, you can use a flat-head screwdriver on a Philips head screw, but a Philips head will be a better match.

Sometimes you don’t have the exact tool and you might have to dig down and find a substitute. If you have a Strength like Adaptability™ it might be easier to accept a substitute especially in the short term. Sometimes, you might end up with a bolt with a hexagonal socket. You might dump your toolbox on the floor and open every drawer in the work bench and still not have even a decent substitute. You’re beginning to get frustrated. Maybe a little bit angry. That’s when it is good to find a colleague with a few different tools, that could better do the job. When you become aware of the selection of tools your team has in their toolboxes, you can reduce the frustration, because you have an idea what can be applied to many situations.

Coaching is one of the best ways to gain clarity on what Strengths fill your teams and your toolbox. Then you can determine when and where you can best apply them. Also, it helps clarify what tools other have that can supplement or augment your tools to get the job done. Comprehending what your team members’ toolboxes contain can also give you understanding why this person always starts by grabbing their hacksaw, while someone else needs to see the blueprints. Recognizing each person’s interest in the quick short term solution or the big picture may give you clarity that you couldn’t reach on your own.

If you are interested in getting a clearer picture of what you have in your toolbox or helping your team share and compare the tools that they bring, reach out to Crews Strengths to help everyone on your team apply the right tools to the right situation. I can also show you pictures of my new auger, if your interested.

Thank you

Thank you for reading this post.

If you found this post to be of value, please like it and comment on it on LinkedIn at this location.

Helping people stop hating their jobs by finding meaningful, purposeful, engaging work is my goal. If you need help leaning into your Strengths and working around your weaknesses, please contact Crews Strengths.

If you would like to help your team understand the tools each member is trying to put to work, so that they can be happier, more engaged and more successful, we need to talk.

If you are considering a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out.

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work for Your Interview – Part 4

Personality Questions: What You Know Begins to Meet Who You Are

My last article about interviews began to address questions about you as an individual versus you as a collection of skills. Opinion, quirky and stress type questions were covered in that last article. Two other important varieties of individual questions are personality and behavior questions. This post discusses personality questions. Behavior questions will be addressed in the next post.

Personality questions relate to who you are and how you relate and react to the world around you. One major factor that gets you hired is convincing the interviewer that she can stand to deal with you on a regular basis. Will the interviewer look forward to having you report to him several times a week? Are your personalities likely to compliment or clash? Can you perform at a level that leads to the department’s success.

Job seekers tend to concentrate on experience and training, thinking that the most experienced and best credentialed applicant gets the job.  However, the truth is that work success is often about the ability to learn, adapt, think, support, and get along. Your behavior will tend to have a greater influence on your success in most jobs than your degree or years performing some similar task. 

Don’t get me wrong. Skills matter. You are not likely to get a job as an airline pilot, unless you have massive amounts of experience flying airplanes. Surgeons need to know their way around arteries, kidneys, and adenoids.

Success in a job though is also about a different collection of abilities. Personality questions tend to delve into your behavior and performance, rather than just your professional background and experience.

Greatest Strength / Worst Weakness

The two questions that are most likely to come to mind of this type are “What is your greatest strength?” and “What is your worst weakness?” Most candidates kind of love the first one and hate the second. The reality is that the successful answers to these questions are less about the superlative and more about a balanced and realistic understanding of who you are.

Your answer to the first question does not have to be your absolute greatest strength. Instead, it should be your greatest strength that relates to the job for which you are interviewing. If you have a great sales record and you are an outstanding judge of people, consider which one aligns best with the available position. If the job you are interviewing for is in sales, then that should be your greatest strength (at least at that moment). When the sales manager’s job comes up, your people insights might be more important. This isn’t deceitful. Trust me. No one will come back a year into the job and say, “Well you are a great salesperson, but now we discover you are also very good at developing a sales force. You’re fired.”

Yin Yang of strengths and weaknesses

Dealing with the weakness question requires a little finesse. The old recommendation was to answer the weakness question with something along the lines of “I work too hard.” Any HR person or manager who has hired one employee can see through that before you get the word “too” out.

As a Gallup Certified Strengths Coach, I know that our strengths and weaknesses frequently align on the same axis. You pay great attention to detail, but that can lead you to lose sight of the big picture. You care deeply about people and want them to feel wanted and welcome, which can make it hard for you to correct or discipline them. You are a hard worker, who judges success by completing lists of tasks, which means you can get too far out in front of my team.

That sort of self-evaluation can help answer the weakness question in a way that puts you in the best possible light. To do so, it is necessary to close this loop, to describe how your self-awareness has given you insight in compensating for your weakness. For instance, “I pay great attention to detail, but that can lead me to loss sight of the big picture. Understanding that, I set aside time each week to review what the departmental plans and goals are. Doing that and discussing the big picture with my manager has helped me understand that the details I love are part of something bigger. This has helped me still be effective with detail work, but not so much so that I let the minutia take over for the important.”

Example Personality Quesitons

Here are some Personality type questions and some suggestions for how to answer them. As always, the best idea is to answer them truthfully, but not exhaustively. The interviewer is trying to get the flavor of the person on the other side of the table. Do not overwhelm them.

What do you do when you are not working? (What are your hobbies, outside interest, . . . ).

When answering this question, your answer should be authentic. Lying to seem to share an interest with the interviewer is likely to be discovered in the next one or two questions the interviewer is likely to ask. For instance, you claim to be a golfer when the reality is you don’t know a birdie from a sand trap. If the interviewer knows even the slightest bit more than you about golf, you have marked yourself as untrustworthy. Unless the job you are applying for requires great amounts of daring and bravery, perhaps keep your skydiving to yourself. If you are lucky enough to actually be in someone’s office and can see something like a picture of the interviewer involved in an activity that you actually do participate in, like bicycling, then absolutely share that. However, do not let yourself be drawn into an argument about the superiority of side-pull over center-pull brakes. You are not selling your potential boss a bicycle , you are selling you.

Tell me about yourself.

The interviewer’s opening, “Tell me about yourself”, can be an invitation for you to soar or crash. Your answer needs to be predominantly about your work, your career, your work ethic. Where you grocery shop, your shoe size, your second dog’s name are details to save for never. Consider a quick career synopsis including why you do what you do. “After I earned my nursing degree, I worked in the emergency room at XYZ Hospital for almost 5 years. I learned a great deal there but decided that ICU nursing was more closely aligned with my skills and temperament. In fact, I originally decided to go into nursing because of the excellent care I received during a childhood illness and long hospital stay.” This answer relates to the work, covers your career path while emphasizing the importance that your work has to you.

Where do you want to be in X years? Or, what is your career goal?

The right answer is something that relates to the current position, shows some ambition but doesn’t indicate your plan to usurp the role which your interviewer currently holds. Answering this question can also give you an opportunity to discuss your desire to solve the department’s problems with customer acquisition, logistics, shrinkage, whatever and helped the interviewer in her continued meteoric rise in the company.

If your homework indicates that the role you are interviewing for is an up or out job, assure them that you will be among those who continue to grow with the organization. If you are nearer to the end of your career, answers that indicate your desire to make an impact in your final role can be acceptable.

Knowing as much about the position, why it is open, career paths in the organization, etc., can help you craft authentic answers. However, it is mandatory that your answers describing how you goal will be achieved through the position for which you are interviewing.

What is your greatest achievement?

You may legitimately believe your greatest achievement is raising two healthy and happy kids. However, that is not what the question you are being asked is looking for. The question is related to what you will do for the interviewer. Now you might say something like, “I am most proud of how I took care of my mother during the last 3 years of her life and successfully performed my role at ABC company. I miss her now that she is gone, but I can only imagine how much more I will be able to do for you without that concern taking up so much of my energy”.

If you are only few years out of college, answers about graduating Sigma Cum Laude are acceptable. If you have 24 years of work experience, you better have something else to be your number one achievement. It would not hurt your prospects if at least for the moment you were in the interview, you were able to convince the interviewer that your greatest achievement was increasing sales for your last company, year over year by 8.7342%. Especially if increasing sales appears to be a major part of the role you are trying to get. Since you are describing your greatest achievement, you probably need more than one sentence to describe it. Your huge sale increase probably deserves a brief description of how you did it.

Answers to personality questions are about you, but just like every other question in an interview, the you that you are presenting needs to be the you they need to hire. If the job is right for you at the point you are at in your career, then you should be able to help them connect you to that opening.

Thank you for continuing to follow these posts about job search, resumes and interviews. Please check out other posts in this series about interviewing, or others related to resumes, or how you can put your Strengths to work.

If you found this blog post helpful, please help others find it by going to the LinkedIn version and like and comment on it. 

Since you are reading this, I have to believe you are considering a job search. Crews Strengths would treasure the opportunity to share how we can help you “Put Your Strengths to Work!” Let’s talk .

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work for Your Interview – Part 3

In my last post, the interview questions discussed centered around your work experience, the areas of abilities, qualifications, and knowledge. If you missed that or need a refresher, please go here.

In this post, I’ll discuss questions concerning you as an individual. The line between the two is not always precise. Some life experiences questions may be intertwined with some work experience ones. The hope is that you can be prepared for types of questions.

When it comes to you as a person, the interview questions you are likely to have to deal with should fall into the following categories.

  1. Personality
  2. Behavioral/Situational
  3. Opinion
  4. Quirky
  5. Stress

I am skipping ahead to items 3-5 in this post to give 1 and 2 a little more space in my next post.

Opinion Questions

Opinion questions are about your outlook or perspective. These do not necessarily have a single correct answer. They are questions to determine what you know about “something” and how you apply what you know to a particular situation or event. While they can be specific or broad, these questions are mostly about how you think rather than what you think.

  • “How can we increase sales in this department?” The interviewer is more interested in your observations than your actual plan. As an outsider, you only know so much about his organization
    • Answer with what you know. “I am aware that you have seen sales increases of 4.7% per year over the last 5 years.” Meaning, I have researched your company.
    • “The industry average has been 2.8% to 3%.” Meaning, I know something about the industry “. 
    • “First, I would complement the team.” Meaning, I know I ‘m not a gift from the solution fairy who is going to fix everything that is wrong at your company.
    • “Then, I would look for opportunities, outside of your current customer base to see if we have some additional sales opportunities that I can bring to the table especially from contacts developed during my previous work.” Meaning, the current team is doing great. I support them. Here is something I can add to this great team.
  • “How do you describe success?” This is a very subjective question. You should be honest but concentrate on an answer that sounds like it can happen in the job for which you are applying. Winning the lottery, opening a small winery, or hitting a hole in one at Pebble Beach, may be closer to your personal dream of success. None of those things will help your potential employer expand its market share. “Rising to a level where I can positively influence the profitability of the company and develop leaders for its future” sounds like a good answer. Be prepared to describe a scenario in which this could happen. Otherwise, it can sound like a platitude rather than a goal.

When answering opinion questions, if they relate to the interviewing organization, consider hedging your answer, indicating that you don’t know everything about their internal affairs, but as a well-informed person viewing their company from the outside, you believe the best course is XYZ.

Quirky Questions

Quirky questions tend to require you to think outside of the box.

  • “What is the volume of this lightbulb?” The interviewer is not interested in the answer. She is interested in how you got to the answer. The over thought answer is to measure various parts of the bulb and try to add them all together. The easier answer is to get a large measuring cup. Fill it with enough water to submerge the lightbulb. Record the amount of water before submerging the bulb. Insert the bulb into the water, just until the bulb is submerged. Record the level of the water. The difference is the lightbulb’s volume. There are probably other methods.

The master of the quirky question was Admiral Hyrum Rickover, U.S. Navy. Frequently referred to as “Father of the Nuclear Navy”, Rickover personally interviewed every officer who was admitted to the nuclear submarine service for a period of over 30 years. His interviews are legendary. Stories abound of questions like, “Do something to surprise me.” The successful answers to which included the interviewee jumping up and sweeping everything off the admiral’s desk or the interviewee breaking one of Rickover’s submarine models in half. While this probably led to screaming and cursing, both approaches apparently worked. Another interview included the question, “Do you like to dance?” A yes answer led to the admiral commanding him to dance with his secretary. The admiral wasn’t auditioning a dancer, nor did he want his submarine model modified. He was looking for an ability to deal with the unexpected. That is frequently what quirky questions are about. Assume some of these responses also helped the admiral to discover his own ability to deal with the unexpected.

Stress Interviewing

The ugly sister (brother?!?) of quirky questions is the stress interview. Stress interviewing is when the interviewer attempts to create a stressful situation to see how well you handle it. Don’t confuse this with the normal stress that interviews tend to create. Stress interviewing is about the interviewer putting the interviewee in a tough position and supposedly seeing how she reacts. It may include burst of anger, intimidation, or bullying. Personally, I think this is rude and unprofessional.

If someone who is interviewing you is rude, yells, curses, then consider this is likely to be how they will behave when you are on the job. However, before writing them and the job off, figure out two things. Will you be in close contact with this person and are you being too sensitive.

I once had a stress interview with the senior most person with which I interviewed. I seriously considered not taking the job because of the way he acted. I asked friends who worked there if I was reading this guy correctly. They said that his interviewing me was a formality. I would not have much direct contact with him. They were right. I may have been in 5 or 6 meetings with this person in a 6-year stay at what was probably the best job I ever had. He had very little effect on my life. By the way, the guy was a jerk and acted like one in every one of those meetings. However, with an average of one meeting per year with this person, the positives greatly outweighed the negatives. 

Some people are jerks. Other people are ill equipped to perform certain tasks like interviewing. Someone may think that they will be able to see how well you perform when the going gets tough. As I said in the earlier articles, interviews are weird and mostly indicate your ability to be interviewed. If the interviewer seems to be trying to be intimidating, it could be ignorance not malevolence. If you are a reasonable and mature person, I trust that you will understand the difference. Don’t perceive slights when none are offered. Conversely, don’t put up with nonsense.

Some people are jerks. Other people are ill equipped to perform certain tasks like interviewing. Someone may think that they will be able to see how well you perform when the going gets tough. As I said in the earlier articles, interviews are weird and mostly indicate your ability to be interviewed. If the interviewer seems to be trying to be intimidating, it could be ignorance not malevolence. If you are a reasonable and mature person, I trust that you will understand the difference. Don’t perceive slights when none are offered. Conversely, don’t put up with nonsense.

It is worth being reminded that the line between questions about you and about your work, are not going to be totally segregated. You may be asked a behavioral question that requires you to draw on your skills and work experience. What they are trying to figure out is how you think and how you apply what you know.

If you have gotten to the interview stage, they are interested. Answer the questions. Always remember, they want to know how you will work for them. Couch your answers to respond to their needs. Don’t lie, but do respond so that they can see you solving their problems and not creating new ones. Believe it or not, you got this. You will not get every job. But, you can hold your head high, put you case forward and remember, there are a lot of variables that you don’t control.

Next time, the post will be about personality questions and behavioral or situational questions.

Thank you

Thank you for continuing to read these posts. I trust that you find them valuable.

If you found this post to be of value, please like it and comment on it on LinkedIn at this location.

Helping people stop hating their jobs by finding meaningful, purposeful, engaging work is my goal. If you need help working around your weaknesses, please contact Crews Strengths. If you are considering a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out.

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work for Your Interview – part 2

This post is the second part of a short series on interviewing. The first post can be found here. If you haven’t read it or need to refresh your memory, give it a review before delving into this post about types of interview questions.

Interview Questions: Types and Answers

When you answer any interview question, you need to connect yourself to the job. You need to make the interviewer see you as the best possible candidate.

Remember that the job opening is not only about your expertise in sales, renal surgery or basket weaving. It is also about getting along with your manager and filling a role in a team. Your goal is to have the interviewer imagine you at the desk around the corner, doing a great job, helping your team succeed and making a positive impact. The best mechanic who can’t get along or show up on time or help an overwhelmed coworker, is not the best candidate. The best candidate needs to be competent and qualified but also needs to know how to get along with the boss, the staff, and the customers. Skills can be worked on, decency frequently can’t.

Interview questions fall into one or more of several categories. Those categories are:

  1. Ability
  2. Qualification
  3. Knowledge
  4. Personality
  5. Behavioral/Situational
  6. Opinion
  7. Quirky
  8. Stress

In this post, I’ll cover the first three types of questions which are about you and the work that the organization needs you to perform. Next post will be about questions related to you, the person, and how you fit in. In both cases, the answers you give should save the interviewer’s energy when it comes to connecting you with the job. Questions about your abilities, qualifications and knowledge need to be linked to what the interviewer thinks is needed to perform the job. In cases where you do not easily check off a requirement, you need to help the interviewer understand that you possess talents that a successful employee performing that job should have.

  1. Ability Questions

Ability questions concern your performance at the jobs you have had and the ability to perform in the position for which you are interviewing. This type of question is used to expound on the information you presented in your resume.

Example: “What were your responsibilities in your last job?”

Your answer should list the major responsibilities but expound on the ones that relate to the job you are seeking. Make it easy for the interviewer to see you succeeding in her team.

If the job listing includes developing training, then after stating that you managed two employees, created quarterly financial reports, and arranged travel for your boss, explain in more detail how you helped train the staff when a new software package was adopted. Do this even if it was not your primary function. Include times when you might have informally taught or instructed people, even if it was about how to cover your duties while you were on leave. The most important thing is to link your experiences with the needs of the interviewer.

Example: “Are you familiar with ______________ software?”

You are not being asked to list every version of Microsoft Office you have used. The question is really about what types of software you have used to perform what kinds of tasks. He is also asking about your comfort with technology. If there is a way to find out what software they use, then that makes it easier. If you have not used their software, you want to show experience with similar types of programs. Also helpful is a (true) story about how you taught yourself to use particular types of software, to show your comfort with technology and willingness to improve skills.

Example: “Have you ever had to fire an employee?”

Not the happiest question, but a legitimate one for someone who manages people. If you have, answer the question putting yourself in the best possible light.  “I had an employee that I had to reprimand for being late on multiple occasions. This woman told off-color jokes and made staff uncomfortable. After trying to help her with her issues, it became obvious that this person did not belong in our organization. I arranged a small severance to try to help carry this person over until they found work. Afterwards, the staff was so pleased to be rid of the person, they covered her tasks until I was able to hire a suitable replacement.”  Take note that you just told a little story in which you were the hero. You appear justified in your actions, professionally trying to deal with the person and ultimately humane in your treatment.

Telling this kind of story is an excellent way to garner the interest of the interviewer. Most interviewers like stories and they are easier for them to remember when they are weighing your candidacy.

If you dealt with someone who you helped not get fired, then use that story, adding how you would have handled the matter if it had not been resolved. If you never came close to firing someone or you have never been a manager before, you might mention some other distasteful task that you were forced to perform and tell how that has prepared you to make tough but fair decisions.

2. Qualification questions

Qualification questions are about external confirmation of your abilities. This might include questions about education, degrees, or certifications.

Hiring managers can be anxious about the possibility of hiring someone who might not work out or fit in. Qualifications provide them with reassurance.

In many fields, particular degrees, especially undergraduate degrees, are nowhere near as important as they seem on paper. Offices are loaded with people who have liberal arts degrees that have little to do with the marketing, sales, or technology tasks that they are performing on a daily basis. Over 50% of baccalaureate degree holders in the U.S. are not even working in their degree field. Find ways to show that your history degree is as valuable as the business degree that was in the job listing. Any degree does indicate that you have made an effort to complete work. Sigma cum laude or honors, indicate an even higher level of effort.

A client, who was working in the sales department of an industrial automation company, asked me if she should include her Master of Education degree on her resume and LinkedIn profile. I admitted that she could remove it if that made her more comfortable. However, I recommended that instead, she should prepare an answer about how her MEd gave her an edge as a salesperson.

Certifications or licenses also serve as proof of accomplishment. They are however, a little different than degrees. Usually, they are earned by people seeking a particular technical skill. If you have certifications and no degree, you might need to explain your clear vision of the work you wanted to do and the fact that you have been able to have career success in spite of or maybe because of not having the degree.

Example: “How many people reported to you in your last job?”

 Job titles like manager seldom indicate the number of people who reported to you. In fact, some people with the title manager have no direct reports. In answering, you can also mention other situations where you directed people such as in a club or social activities. Getting people organized and working together also occurs in places other than work.

Example: “What additional training have you had?”

Point out what is on your resume. The interviewer may not have read it very closely. Also think of workshops, seminars, LinkedIn Learning, even Red Cross training if it applies to the job. Remember, you are giving the person on the other side of the interview table facts to back up the positive feeling she has about you.

3. Knowledge questions

Knowledge questions are used to draw out your current, professional knowledge about the interviewer’s company and industry. Ability and qualification questions indicate what you know about the field. Knowledge questions are asking you to apply your abilities and qualifications. This is also a chance to discover if you have continued to keep current in your field, or if you know more than your education indicates.

If you are changing fields, be prepared to indicate a knowledge of the new field. You may be doing similar work, but the interviewer will be placed at greater ease if she feels that you know something about her business.

Example: “What do you think are the most important developments in this industry?”

Always research the company, the industry and the community when preparing for an interview. The ability to speak about a recent invention, marketing campaign or court case indicates that you have an interest in the company and its industry.

Example: “What steps would you take to make this department profitable?”

Hopefully, your research has indicated why the department is not profitable. If so, then you will use that knowledge to explain how you would do things differently. Always, preface your answer by acknowledging that some details may be different once you are on the inside. Also avoid bad mouthing the person you will replace. You never know what the relationship between the interviewer and your potential predecessor is.

If you don’t know the details, which is more likely, then use your more general knowledge to describe a process that you would use. Look for clues in the reaction from the interviewer as you go along. If they seem sceptical, ask them for clarifications thus showing your eagerness to know more and apply newly gained knowledge. 

That covers many types of questions in the areas of expertise, experience, and knowledge. It is not exhaustive but should help you think about what you are being asked and therefore how to answer. Your answers to these questions need to be designed to give the interviewer comfort in your ability to perform the work. Next post, I’ll discuss questions about you as an individual.

Thank you

Thank you for continuing to read these posts. I trust that you find them valuable.

If you found this post to be of value, please like it and comment on it on LinkedIn at this location.

Helping people stop hating their jobs by finding meaningful, purposeful, engaging work is my goal. If you need help working around your weaknesses, please contact Crews Strengths. If you are considerng a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out.

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work for Your Interview

Part 1

Job interviews scare the heck out of people. They make them anxious, worried, catatonic. Let’s call it “interview anxiety”. The victim of this affliction is persuaded to believe that she cannot succeed at this unavoidable event (everybody has to interview) and is probably setting herself up for failure.  

Please note, failure is not the only possible outcome. Like all anxieties, interview anxiety can be remedied or at least ameliorated by the sufferer (interviewee) clearly understanding what is going on and being prepared.  

The first step in overcoming interview anxiety is to understand a very important fact.

Interviews are stupid.

There. I said it.

Considering that interviews are used to hire people, it’s amazing that organizations are as successful as they are at finding competent workers. There are few more contrived situations than two strangers participating in interrogatory banter where one appears to have all the power. Sounds almost like being tortured or put on trial. However, if you understand what might be asked and prepare accordingly, you will most likely find the event to be less onerous and your success more likely. Plus, there is almost no chance of being thrown in jail.

Here is a positive thing that can be said about an interview. If you have been invited to an interview, you have already succeeded where others have failed. Remember, you are only being interviewed because there is serious consideration being given to you as a candidate. You have proven something by the mere fact that the interviewer is contemplating hiring you. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back.

Interviews confirm or abrogate your resume

The reason interviews seem to work is because the interview is not the only thing that determines who gets hired. Interviews are not cattle calls. You are only invited to an interview after the potential employer has reviewed your resume and maybe done a little more research about you.  After the interview, references can be asked about you.

An interview is supposed to determine if you could be a good fit. Can the person interviewing you stand to see your face and hear your voice, in person or virtually, on a regular basis. It is also an opportunity for them to judge if your resume is an example of you putting your best foot forward or is a total work of fiction based vaguely on reality.

The truth is that more successful hiring would probably occur if an employer could bring you on for a few weeks and see how you performed. Ever notice how many people find jobs based on their internships. Unfortunately, few potential candidates can get away from their current job for a month or more to do this. Also, few employers feel like investing a great deal of time and energy into someone who would essentially be a temp.

This article is not about changing the hiring process or upending the talent acquisition world. Sorry, but you are stuck with interviewing, and it is best that you figure out how to make them work for you.

If you don’t like the interview process, you might find the following comforting. Some interviewers are competent and comfortable. Many other interviewers hate the process more than you do. These interviewers frequently have no idea what they are doing. They ask you, “Can you tell me a little bit about yourself?”. And you could say “Crabgrass, Tutankhamen and the 23 skidoo” and then describe your socks and they would roll on to the next HR prepared question, barely caring about your answer. In fact, their only concern would be to get through the horrid task and get back to making widgets or wallpaper or balancing the ledger or picking the wings off flies.

A good interviewer has talent and skill. A good interviewer places the candidate at ease. He shows interest and recognize that there is a human being across the table who deserves to be treated accordingly, whether a job offer is the outcome or not. He also has a realistic idea about what he is seeking for the job.

Unfortunately, you don’t get to pick the type of interviewer you are going to get. Whether dealing with a good or poor interviewer, your interests are best served by being prepared, thus making the interviewer’s job easier. If you prepare, you make their life easier. You provide them with the candidate they are looking for. The interviewer who hates the process will be relieved when you take the burden off them. The competent interviewer will feel her professionalism returned and her best instincts satisfied. You can tip the interview in your favor no matter which type of interviewer is sitting on the other side of the table.

How do you prepare?

Study the questions that you are going to be asked before the interview.

How are you going to find out what you are going to be asked?

Well?  Just like for that chemistry exam back in the day, you could break into the office . . .

  • Victorian burglar tools – to break in to get . . .
  • Interview tools – to break through to get the job

Oh, never mind. That never happened. Even if it did, the truth is that most interview questions fall into one of several categories. Knowing the type of questions and having a few prepared, but authentic answers will go a long way to prepare you for the real event.  

Most interviews tend to follow a prepared plan. The questions are printed out for the interviewer. He knows what he is going to ask. Even if you don’t know the exact questions, you can prepare for types of questions. Many of the answers can be adjusted to fit more than one question.

The next installments of the “It’s Time” blog, will discuss types of interview questions with some representative questions as well as suggestions for answering them. Follow me on LinkedIn to be sure to get notified when that installment appears.

Remember, the interviewing process is a game. Just like any game, you need to know the rules and you need to know what strategy your opponent is using so you can be able to win.

Please let me know if you have found this post to be of interest. To make sure others are aware of your thoughts, please go back to this article in LinkedIn and like and comment on the actual post where the most people are likely to see it. Thanks for your kindness.

It’s time to stop hating your job.

Whether you need help with your resume, your job search or in putting your Strengths to work, you need to contact Crews Strengths.

It’s Time to Put Your References to Work

If you came to you and asked nicely, would you recommend yourself?  If you were you, would you have responded positively to your request for a reference? Would you be able to provide a positive description of yourself to help you find a job? Think about that when you ask for a reference.

What would you say about yourself if you served as your own reference? That indicates what you might want a reference to say.

Do hiring managers ever check references?

Yes, they do. Hiring managers do actually get in touch with references. So let’s get clear about what references are and what purpose they serve.

What are references?

References are three to five people who can vouch for your skills and talents at work and/or your character as a human being. When put into a document, it should include their current communications details so that the hiring manager can get in touch with them. Also, indicate your connection to this person, by referring to their job title and place of employment. If the person has moved on from where you worked together, make note that “he was your supervisor at QTC Corp from 2011-2015” to help the hiring manager understand how you and your reference are connected.

In times gone by, most resumes included a line near the bottom stating, “References Provided Upon Request”. If your resume still includes this line, remove it post-haste. The reality is that every hiring manager assumes that you have references prepared and that you will fall over yourself to provide them if he indicates his interest in receiving them. So, like a good Scout, be prepared!

Who makes a good reference?

The best person to pick as a reference is someone who can speak glowingly about you. This means that a good reference knows who you are and has reliable knowledge about one or more of these:

  • your work
  • your character
  • your education or training
  • your aptitude
  • your potential

If you are early in your career, references could be teachers, advisors, or counselors. Sports coaches can vouch for your coolness under pressure, teamwork and stick-to-it-edness (it was a phrase I got from my dad). Remember, your athletic prowess is probably less important than your participation, attitude, and teamwork. Supervisors or bosses from summer jobs are good choices. Even more effective are people in organizations where you were an intern.

If you were in the military, a superior can be a great reference. If the work you are trying to get a job at is like your work in the service, then ask them to address that. If not, they can make excellent character and work ethic references.

The longer that you have been in the working world, the more people have seen you do what it is that you do. Supervisors and managers are the obvious reference choices. They have had to make judgements about your work in the past and may be able to cite past performance reports. Colleagues and coworkers can also be good choices. Choose people who actually know what you were doing and can speak about projects you worked on together or help that you provided to them.

Customers as References

Customers can be excellent references. If you went above and beyond for a customer, that person is likely to feel some loyalty to you. If you delivered a crane to a worksite in a tornado or scrounged up food to feed her crew when they were on location and your competitor let them down, then they might be the best possible source for a reference.

Outside of work

References that can speak to your success outside of the workplace can also be of value. Avoid ministers, since people feel that pastors tend to only discuss the good. Exceptions to this would be if your priest can speak about your fund raising prowess for the Sunday school building or your diligent 10 years of service as the temple’s treasurer. Colleagues in civic organizations may also be able to address your accomplishments. Unless you single-handedly coerced city hall to repave your street, put in new curbs and gutters, etc. your neighbors are unlikely to be the best choice.

Someone who knows the hiring manager, or your potential boss is the best possible choice as a reference. Next best is someone in the organization to which you are applying, who the hiring manager does not know, but can easily reach. A person, like one of the HR manager’s coworkers, is considered more likely to speak honestly and therefore that opinion is felt to be more genuine. Remember, managers and especially HR people feel that they will be judged by the quality of the people they bring into the company.

No matter who you choose as a reference, make sure these people are aware of your recent work history. That will help them be better prepared to discuss you when a hiring manager reaches out to them? In earlier posts, I have written a lot about resumes, so you ought to know that each resume is edited for each job. (My post on resumes begins here and cover almost every topic on resumes.) If you give or are asked by a hiring manager to provide your references, then share that specific resume for that job with your references. At a bare minimum, be sure to share your “generic” resume with your references.

How well do you need to know someone to be able to use them as a reference?

How connected to someone do you need to be to use them as a reference? Close enough, seems to be the best answer. Most of the earlier examples indicate a relationship; Boss/subordinate, colleague/colleague, sales rep/customer. There may be times when a “friend of a friend” might be the best choice. In cases where you do not know anyone in the organization to which you are applying, finding someone who does can be a huge help.

It is obviously up to the person asked whether they will agree to serve as a reference. Make sure that the person who agrees to serve as a reference knows enough to be able to answer questions about you. If possible, meet the person. Offer to buy them coffee to get 30 minutes of their time. Tell them about the position for which you are applying. In addition to using them as a reference, see if they know about other opportunities. Share the resume you are sending to her company, so that she knows what you want her employer to know about you.

Not the correct way to ask for a reference.

How to ask for a recommendation?

When you ask someone to assist you with anything, it is best to do so in the way that is most likely to provide you with what you are requesting. If possible, contact potential references in person or via the phone. The advantage of live communications is that both parties can ask questions and share information in real time. While this is not always possible, the closer to one-on-one contact you have with the person, the better the reference will be able to sing your praises.

Let your potential reference know why you are contacting them. Ask them directly to act as a reference. If you have not been in recent contact with them, bring them up to date on your career. Also, remind them of some of the successes that you had with them. “I still appreciate your proposing me for employee of the year in 2016. With all the hard work we did on the XYZ project, I was thrilled to be singled out for that recognition.” Remind them of your positive relationship. Just like you, this person has a life they are living so you may have to remind them about how wonderful you were in the past.

Try to help your reference flesh out their description of you. If you are applying for a management job, suggest that your reference frame their description of you in a management role. Remind them of your success in leading a team project. If the job you want involves presenting, remind your reference of your achievements with trainings and speeches. A reference is most valuable when he backs up or even expands on the positive things your resume and interview have said about you.

Ask the reference to give you the best communications details to provide to potential employees. That way you assure that you only share information your reference wants to be shared. It also makes it more likely that the hiring manager can actually reach them.

The LOOP

Keep references in the loop

If the hiring manager asks for your reference list, reach out to your references to let them know that they are likely to hear from HR. Since many people ignore unfamiliar phone numbers, this can help them be tuned to expect a call from outside of their usual contacts. If some particular topic came up in the interview, share that with your reference, since it might help them help you. When you land a position, whether that reference has been contacted or not, be sure to let them know and to thank them for their kindness. Appreciation is never wasted. There will be other job searches, yours, or theirs.

A caveat

I can’t close this post without addressing the fact that some companies have policies limiting what their employees can say about you in a reference. Let’s blame it on the lawyers. Companies are afraid of suits from referencees (Someone who receives a reference – I think I just made that word up) who might blame their former employer for a less than stellar review which led to that person not getting the job). Seems a little farfetched, but in this litigious world, there have been lawsuits against references. Here is a link to some opinions about this from several attorneys in the practice of employment law .

This company policy is frequently skirted by having your reference address the situation by making the reference more personal, not using company letterhead and expressing in explicit terms, that the opinion is theirs and not their company’s.

I suggest avoiding suing people who provide you with references. Nothing good comes from it. Pick people who can speak well of you and avoid the others. I probably didn’t need to tell you that.

If you were laid off

If you left the organization because of a reduction in force or a layoff, you might want to preemptively request a letter from bosses and even HR, indicating that you were let go due to no shortcomings on your part.

Remember that references are more than names on a list. They are a conduit that can help you connect your past successes to your future employment.

It’s time to put your references to work!

Thank you

Thank you for continuing to read these posts. I trust that you find them valuable.

If you found this post to be of value, please like it and comment on it on LinkedIn at this location.

Helping people stop hating their jobs by finding meaningful, purposeful, engaging work is my goal. If you need help working around your weaknesses, please contact Crews Strengths. If you are considering a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out.

It’s Time to Work Around Your Weaknesses

If there are Strengths, then there must be weaknesses. Otherwise, you would always be succeeding. I feel confident in saying, none of us, is always succeeding. Even if your track record is very good, there are ways in which you can improve.

So, what are you going to do about your weaknesses?

First, what do you think is a weakness?

For this article’s purpose, let’s think of two types of weaknesses:

  1. Talent weaknesses
  2. Skill weaknesses

Not being able to run a marathon, the week after you start jogging, is not a talent weakness. It is the lack of developed athletic skill. Not being able to understand what is going on in a Wagner opera, performed in the original German, is not a talent weakness. It is a lack of language or musical knowledge. If you have the desire to run marathons or comprehend Lohengrin, then you might want to apply effort to develop that ability. That is, if you have the inclination to run marathons or appreciate opera. How good you get or care about getting at either, is about your talents and ultimately about your Strengths.

Not knowing how to do something is a skill weakness. Skill weaknesses may be corrected by expanding your horizons and expending energy to learn something new or improve a skill.

Conventional practice is to expend your energy to overcome your weaknesses. Have you ever had your annual evaluation and been told you are great at A, B, and C, but need to work on X, Y, and Z. A year passes and the ritual repeats itself, excellence at A, B, and C and coming up short on X, Y and Z. You might be told to stop working on B because you are obviously amazing at it, but if you don’t get your Y and Z together, there may be consequences. By the time this “edifying” experience comes around again, you’re A and B are getting weaker, and your X, Y, and Z are only marginally better. By now, you hate your job and your boss and have mixed feelings about the guy who fills the snack machines.

Why?

Why are you good at somethings and less so at others? Sometimes it’s a skill weakness. If that is the case, then improvement is possible given the right tools, motivation, and opportunities to learn to use them. If it’s about a talent weakness, then you either need to find a path to improvement through your talents or you need to find a way around it.

The Strengths’ philosophy recommends that you concentrate on your Strengths and work around your weaknesses.

One sign that you are not working in your Strengths, is exhaustion from trying to do a particular type of task or doing a task in a particular way. Conversely, working in your Strengths is energizing.

My father-in-law was a successful, brilliant, and nimble small businessman. He owned a heavy equipment business that had evolved from a trucking company. He was able to shift his business multiple times to meet conditions changing from domestic to international business and back depending on market conditions. He sought out new areas of business, like learning the ins and outs of the logging equipment business to add lines of equipment and find new opportunities. His talents lay in areas of ideas, adaptability, and developing relationships.

He was also disorganized, prone to jotting down everything on multiple yellow legal pads, while jumping from one great idea to another. The man would have been a failure without a secretary. (That is what we used to call people who handled office administration and actually kept offices running). She transcribed and clarified his chicken scratch handwriting and put order to his genius. He was able to concentrate on his strengths, improving knowledge and skills when necessary and working around his weaknesses.

Gallup defines a weakness as anything that gets in the way of near perfect performance. You may think of a weakness as the opposite of a strength. That is self-defeating. For example, people with the Deliberative Strength tend to slow things down by looking for the pitfalls and being aware of what can go wrong. They want the t’s all crossed and the i’s all dotted. It can be a very valuable Strength to avoid problems.

Conversely, the Activator Strength wants to get others started and wants to do the same themselves. Activators act as spark plugs and bugle blasts calling everyone to move forward. When the ball needs to get rolling, Activators tend to the ones who give it a shove or three.

Deliberative and Activator seem like opposites in this example. So which one is the weakness? The answer is neither one. Success comes from positively applying the Strengths that you have.

A weakness is anything that gets in the way of amazing performance. Amazing performance for a high Deliberative is using their superpowers to find the mines in the minefield and the potholes in their path. Amazing performance for a high Activator is successfully rallying the troops and getting the charge going. If you do not have the Deliberative Strength, your “near perfect performance” is not going to be scouring minefields.

Sometimes what the Deliberative needs is someone with a Strength like Activator, to help them get things moving. Sometimes the Activator needs someone with Deliberative to help them avoid taking off without proper preparation and soberness. This is how each of them can work around their weaknesses.

When we think of star athletes, we think of talents, strengths, and agility. On an American football team, like almost all team sports, different players have different contributions to make to the effort. The quarterback calls plays, throws or hands off the ball, and occasionally runs with the ball. Offensive linemen use size and muscle to give the quarterback time to execute. Receivers use speed and finesse to position themselves to receive the ball. Running backs use dexterity to weave through the lines. The defensive players also apply skills and talents specific to tasks they need to perform.

A quarterback who fails to tackle an opponent who recovers a fumble is not suffering from a weakness. He is not talented in that function. In fact, doing so, might be foolhardy, reducing his effectiveness by injuring himself trying.

The quarterback hones his skills by practicing and studying his craft – passing, play calling, rolling out of the pocket. The greats adjust as they go modifying to compensate for age and injuries.

Occasionally a defensive player, intercepts a pass or recovers a fumble and must shift his inclination (talent) to do something different. These moments are celebrated but should he fail to score on that play, it is unlikely to be considered a failure or a weakness. He isn’t wired to make offensive plays.

Each player adjusts to the situation around him as players block or fail to block, receivers are forced to change routes and weather and wind influence each moment of the game.

You have a team of Strengths within yourself. Each one influencing and affecting every other one.

When an orchestra plays, there are times when one particular instrument  plays and others remain silent. At other times, various instruments play together in harmony creating a greater, richer sound than is possible for any one instrument. Just because the contrabassoon or piccolo isn’t played at a particular time, it does not mean they do not matter, it means they didn’t belong at that moment in that piece of music. When you play Concerto for Piccolo and Contrabassoon: I. Allegro giusto by Damian Montano, the piccolo and contrabassoon take center stage. If, however, the glockenspiel player suddenly decides that he needs to be heard and jumps to the front of the orchestra, chaos and possibly hilarity occur, but not music or at least not tuneful music. Your Strengths’ melody comes from applying the right Strengths when applicable and letting other Strengths just mark time until their moment in the spotlight.

The Strengths’ philosophy says that Strengths do not just exist, but that they are attributes that you can work to develop. Strengths are similar to the muscles you develop to succeed at a sport. You develop them not to just be large, but to be efficient, flexible, and toned to apply them to particular situations.

Weaknesses can result from a misapplication of Strengths.  Maximizer is a Strength which is about taking things up another notch. It is about making good things great and great things amazing. Misapplying it can be about “gilding the lily”. There are times when it is necessary to move on, to stop exerting additional effort. It could be time to Maximize a different project. Sometimes deadlines mean that it is time to stop maximizing and get the project submitted.

A golfer needs strengths to send a ball down the fairway. But to be effective, she needs to calculate the amount of muscle power that she is capable of exerting through a particular club, taking the topography of the course, wind and weather and her level of exhaustion as the game goes on. Merely whacking the ball as hard as possible is as likely to end in failure as it is in success. Aiming your Strengths is much the same.

The Strengths philosophy is “Lean into your Strengths and work around your weaknesses”. Understanding whether you are dealing with a talent weakness or a skill weakness, will help you determine your best course of action. Skill weaknesses are shortcomings you may be able to deal with directly. Talent weaknesses are things about which you may need to change your approach, trying a variety of your Strengths until you find the right tool set. Alternatively, you may need to find other people with the required Strengths to help overcome things you are not wired to thrive at naturally.

Thank you

Thank you for continuing to read these posts. I trust that you find them valuable.

If you found this post to be of value, please like it and comment on it on LinkedIn at this location.

Helping people stop hating their jobs by finding meaningful, purposeful, engaging work is my goal. If you need help working around your weaknesses, please contact Crews Strengths. If you are considerng a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out.

It’s Time to Put Your Skills, Talents, Strengths (and even Weaknesses) to Work! (Once you figure out what they are).

Why should you be interested in taking the CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) assessment?

Because the CliftonStrengths (StrengthsFinder) assessment reveals your Strengths’ profile, providing you with your top five Strengths. Actually, the assessment reveals your top five talents. That would be the top five talents out of 34 possible talents.

So why isn’t it called the CliftonTalents assessment? The assessment’s name uses the term Strengths because that is what they can become. I know it seems kind of like calling an egg, a chicken. However, the assessment is about you being the best you possible.

Reach out to take the assessment.

And you might be thinking that the assessment used to be called StrengthsFinder? Yes, it did. In fact, almost everyone besides the company that owns the assessment still tends to call it StrengthsFinder. And that company continues using the title, StrengthsFinder 2.0, for the 2007 book which remains extremely popular and is many people’s introduction to the Strengths movement.

Gallup, which publishes StrengthsFinder 2.0, owns, and maintains the assessment formerly known as the StrengthsFinder assessment. Why the name change? It honors Donald O. Clifton, PhD, the father of the assessment and Strength’s psychology. However, the older name, StrengthsFinder, continues to be the name most commonly used.  Call it StrengthsFinder or CliftonStrengths, either name works. The assessment is just as awesome, no matter which moniker you choose.

So, why does the assessment, known by either Strengths’ name, reveal talents instead of Strengths?  Like the chicken or egg mentioned earlier, it’s about the starting point versus the goal.

Gallup describes a talent as: “A naturally recurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior that can be productively applied”. Think of your talents as your hows, whys, and motivation. Or they can be described as whatever it is that makes you tick. You get an inkling of talents when what you are doing or thinking or feeling, energizes you. Not necessarily doing the task, but by the method, process, or mode in which you approach the task.

How does a Strength differ from a talent? It is a mostly a matter of raw versus refined. Gallup’s description of Strength is “A trait which consistently produces a positive outcome through near-perfect performance in a specific activity”. Another way to look at it is that a Strength is a talent that you can work to develop, and that effort repeatedly leads to amazing results!

Strength = talent + effort

So, talents are like being able to play the guitar and Strengths is like being able to play the guitar really well!?!? Not exactly.

Using the concepts as they relate to Strengths, your ability to play guitar and play it well, is a skill. It’s the why you want to play guitar that reveals your talents and Strengths. The same is true if the thing you are good at is auto repair, genetic laboratory work, marathon running or doing non-Euclidian geometry.

Skills are the stuff you know how to do.

Talents are the reason you choose to do them.

Strengths are why you do them well.

Another way to look at skills versus talents is to think of your skills as being appliances. A toaster might equal auto mechanical skills, and a blender represents computer programming skills. Each of these skills is a particular thing that can be done. The talent is the electricity when you plug it into the outlet. The electricity can make numerous things happen.  And when you don’t have electricity, there is unlikely to be toast or margaritas (or amazing results).

There is a similarity between skills and talents. It is the fact that you can actually work on them. Just like playing and practicing the guitar leads to better guitar playing, practicing, and committing to your talents can lead to greater success.

Talents are about your hows, whys and motivation. Skills are about doing or thinking about stuff. Talents influence skills. For instance, working with realtors, I have found all sorts of reasons why realtors want to sell houses. One realtor is successful because he has a vision of families finding a home where they can thrive. Another realtor grew up in nearly destitute circumstances. Her real estate success comes from a commitment to solve that problem. Yet others love the give and take of negotiation or the thrill they feel when they are competing to be the best salesperson in their office. In each case, their skill is selling real estate. Their talent is what makes them care about selling real estate.

Getting your best performance comes from knowing why you do the stuff you do and why you think and feel the way you do. Think of two marathon runners. Let’s say that one has the Achiever® Strength, while the other has the Competition® Strength. Each one approaches improving their results differently. The Achiever® likes to accomplish things. An Achiever® tends to like lists and are thrilled to note completed tasks. The runner with the Competition® Strength likes to win and likes the thrill of competition. Competition® usually looks for worthy opponents because success is about being tested.

So how does the Achiever® improve her marathon? Probably by setting a goal, like shaving 10 seconds off every mile. What about the high Competition®? Most likely, he sets his pace to a runner who is a little better than he is and then passes that person and then picks another and ultimately another. The Achiever® is unlikely to be motivated by the runner half a block ahead of them and the high Competition® is unlikely to consider that a goal of seconds off per mile is making a difference to them. 

Both methods can lead to better marathons. Neither system is likely to be effective to someone who does not have that Strength. This is one of the reasons that most self-help books are so unhelpful. They are usually written from the talents point of view of the author, without understanding that the reader may not be wired the same way.

But what about weaknesses. Surely, you have to consider weaknesses. Yes, you do. That is what I will do in my next post.

Thank you

Thank you for continuing to read these posts. I trust that you find them valuable.

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Helping people find meaningful, purposeful, engaging employment is my goal. If you need help with a job search, creating a resume, deciding to make a career move or figuring out how to put your Strengths to work, please reach out to me.

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work: Why Hire a Coach?

Hiring a Career, Life or Executive coach usually starts when a nagging problem or an unobtained goal begins to bother you.

“I need to find a more rewarding career.”

“I need to get along better with my coworkers.”

“What makes me tick?”

“Why can’t I communicate with my parents, spouse, kids?”

“How can I lead?”

“How can I earn what I am worth?”

Before reaching out to a coach, most people seek answers closer to home. Frequently, it starts with an attempt to work it out on your own. After all, why go to someone who doesn’t know you to find answers to questions about yourself. Why can’t you figure these things out on your own? I mean, who knows you better than you?

The problem is that as an expert on yourself, you are the most subjective expert imaginable. No matter how sincere and honest you are, you cannot be truly objective when it comes to you. You can only go so far as your own batting coach or voice coach because you cannot accurately see or hear yourself from the inside.

“Well then, can’t my friends do a better job than some stranger? My friends know me, right? Maybe I can talk to my spouse about this?” Of course, sharing problems, dreams and concerns with your confidants can be helpful.

Talking to people who love, like and respect you, is not a bad thing. However, friends and family have a vested interest. Your friends and family love you as much in spite of who you are as they do because of who you are. Friends and family can help, but they tend to lack perspective.

Why could a coach be a better source for finding a path through your conundrum?

If you have ever played a sport above the pickup game level, you have had a coach. If you exhibited a talent for singing, acting or playing a musical instrument, you might have sought out a coach, even if you referred to him by another title.

Coaches serve at least three purposes. First, a coach is an expert and an instructor. Second, a coach is a cheerleader, calling on you to put forward your best effort and letting you know when you have done well. Third, a coach is a guide or mentor helping you reveal talent and develop skill.

The coach, in the teaching stage, imparts rules and teaches skills. Maybe Mr. Fonebone wasn’t the foremost authority on curve balls, getting out of sand traps or arpeggios, but at the time, he knew a heck of a lot more than you did. The teaching level of coaching is about the basics and about the development of skills. In sports, it is about what is fair and foul. A ball over here is in play, while over there it is out of bounds. This is the way to stand, to hold the club or racquet, to increase your speed. In music, its learning what the dots with lines and squiggles mean ♩♪♬ ♫ ♫ when they appear on those five lines.

The encouragement element of coaching reinforces accomplishment and induces commitment. If you have talent, encouragement keeps you working on skills to which you will ultimately be able to apply talent.  

The guide and mentor function of coaching is the expertise phase. It is where talent can apply the skill learned in the earlier phases, to rise to the surface.

Michael Phelps had to learn the mechanics of the butterfly stroke before he could master its finer points (breathing, timing, coordination, etc.) to completely dominate men’s swimming at four different Olympic games.

Tom Brady’s football “life” started by attending San Francisco 49ers football games as a child. He then participated in football camp as a child and played at every level from junior varsity through college. As time went on, he applied what he saw and was taught, perfected those basics, leaned into his talent, and according to almost every statistic, has become the greatest quarterback in NFL history.

Phelps and Brady were both coach-able on the basics and then because of their talent, became coach-able on the details. The teaching part of coaching allowing the refinement and mentoring to find a home worthy of the amazing talent. Encouragement kept them going. Then practicing and perfecting the skill, through their talents, their performance was honed to “a razor’s edge”.

When you need to “up your game” at work, you may try numerous things. Let’s say, you are frustrated by your job. You believe you have more potential than your bank account, self-esteem and accomplishments indicate. You probably grouse or complain to your spouse. Maybe you kibitz about it with friends over a coffee or a beer. You may do a little googling. You might try finding a book that addresses your concern. Each of these approaches has merit and may very well help. Any one of them might also lead to coaching.

Realize that there are literally thousands of people who have raw talent who never reach their potential because they never found the right coach. They didn’t get the basics, the encouragement and refinement coaching could have offered. What a crying shame.

A coach is outside of you. A coach is a disinterested and objective assistant in your search for answers. Disinterested does not mean uninterested. Instead it means free of bias. Free of bias, is something you can never be about yourself. A great coach wants you to succeed but can only do so if she can observe what you are doing and then get you to stop shanking the ball or singing those three notes off key or draw out your best traits for success.

A coach should be your Sherpa, your guide and your confidant on the trek up the mountain. However, a coach must let you do the work. In a game or when the curtain goes up, the coach is on the sidelines or backstage. You are on the line of scrimmage or downstage center. But the coach can help you discover how to apply your talent.

Coaches can also help you dissect your mistakes.  Great “players” make mistakes. Part of what makes them great is that they learn from their errors and develop ways not to repeat them.

While you may be an expert on yourself, sometimes you may misjudge what is causing your thoughts and actions. You think you should be one way when acting differently might be more successful and make you happier. Some of this is about blind spots. As the statement on your rear-view mirrors say, “Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.” Yes, you can see them, but experience teaches you where that object really is. Sometimes you have been told something about yourself for so long that you can’t let go of it. It’s like hanging onto a piece of clothing that doesn’t fit, but you cannot get rid of it.

Think of yourself in a bottle with a label, glued to the outside, describing who you are. Part of your confusion, is that you can ‘t clearly make out what the label says. It’s backwards from your perspective and not very readable through the paper and the bottle. You can probably make out some of it plain as day, but some of it is dark and some of it is blurred. A coach can help. A coach can shine a light on the label and help you make out words and images.

There are many types of coaches. Professional sports teams have a variety of coaches in their ranks, each of whom concentrates on a particular position or elements of play: defensive coordinator, pitching coach, skating coach. Life and career coaching can be viewed similarly. Different needs may be better served by different approaches.

At Crews Strengths, we believe that everyone has talents. By understanding your talents (your hows, whys and motivation), we help you develop them into Strengths.   The effectiveness of our coaching is about discovering talents and then helping you to develop them into Strengths.

Growing up, Tom Brady was a talented athlete, playing a variety of sports. At some point, a coach, noticed Brady’s exceptional talent at football. He mastered the skills needed to be a quarterback. As he advanced his skills, his talents became more evident.

Just like in sports or on stage, in your life or career, a coach can help. A coach can help you understand your talents, encourage your efforts, point out errors and clarify goals.

If you think it’s time to hire a coach, Crews Strengths specializes in talent discovery and optimization, especially in the workspace. Let’s schedule a time to talk. Drop me a line at donald.i.crews@crewsstrengths.com or via the contact me page.

It’s Time to Put Your Strengths to Work.