Interview Questions

[Shenstone]

Does anyone know any good resources for putting together interview questions that help expose someones attitude?

Reason I ask this is I have been asked to help my team lead interview an internal candidate that he likes and gets on well with.
I have seen a few red flags with this individual.
To name a few: Criticising her current manager, complaining to our team lead that people in our team have upset her because they didn't agree with her way of doing things. Sending messages to a member of our team whilst she was on a call, disagreeing with what she said. This person sending the messages wasn't even on the call.
Thanks
Shentone

[UncleEbenezer]

If you don't have sufficient experience to lead a team in interviewing I'm puzzled as to why have you been selected to lead.

Erm, that would be "... to help my team lead interview ...". Couldn't read the dynamics of that without knowing the people concerned, though (unless it's no more than rubber-stamping) it'll be about a process that helps shield individuals from blame. If someone knows that Shenstone and the team lead see the candidate differently, they might envisage good-cop, bad-cop.

If the subtext here is that the candidate is good at brown-nosing the boss but toxic to others, you may be on to a loser. The accomplished [expletive deleted], like a barrister in court, will run rings round an innocent interviewer. You could maybe try - like Hamlet's players - some hypothetical scenarios that relate to the misdeeds or patterns of behaviour, and raise "what if" questions.

[Shenstone]

Erm, that would be "... to help my team lead interview ...". Couldn't read the dynamics of that without knowing the people concerned, though (unless it's no more than rubber-stamping) it'll be about a process that helps shield individuals from blame. If someone knows that Shenstone and the team lead see the candidate differently, they might envisage good-cop, bad-cop.

If the subtext here is that the candidate is good at brown-nosing the boss but toxic to others, you may be on to a loser. The accomplished [expletive deleted], like a barrister in court, will run rings round an innocent interviewer. You could maybe try - like Hamlet's players - some hypothetical scenarios that relate to the misdeeds or patterns of behaviour, and raise "what if" questions.

Thanks for your input.
It could be a rubber stamping exercise. Which I will need to clarify.
The candidate has a 'different' approach to others compared to our Team Lead.
The person has not caused any issues for me. However the candidate has for females in the team.

[tjh290633]

Moderator Message:
Can we just let the spirit of goodwill to all men prevail? This is no time for verbal sparring or rudeness.

TJH

[servodude]

As to the original question, before it was dragged off topic, I'd probably contrive a light role play to address the concerns; highlight what might be considered questionable or unusual behaviour, then find out the "why". Context will be key to understanding their motives, and actions.

-sd

[chas49]

Moderator Message:
This discussion is off-topic.
The rules for this board can be found above.

Direct answers only to the OP's question (asking for resources).

Further off-topic discussion risks deletion (chas49)

[modellingman]

It is a good few years since I was involved in interviewing (on either side of the table) but one of the techniques that impressed me when I was involved as an interviewer was behavioural event interviewing. It is a technique that allows interviewers to home in forensically on any areas of concern: eg tell me about a time when you were in conflict with other team members - how did you deal with this and what was the outcome?

The difference between this and "how would you deal with conflict with other team members?" is that the former allows the interviewer to probe with questions which probe the factual situation introduced by the interviewee. "How would you..." questions give the interviewee much greater latitude to embroider a fantasy response which might bear no relation to how the interviewee behaves in reality.

[AlumniLawn]

Given the negative comments you make regarding the candidate, perhaps a segment of the interview should be given over to conflict management. Here are three questions for consideration and as an interview is a structured conversation (or should be) there will be (or should be) opportunities to ask more probing questions along the way.

1. How do you think interpersonal conflict is caused
2. What do you think are the effects of interperson conflict
3. How would uou ensure that interpersonal conflict is minimised.

You should get confirmation as to her self-awareness with this line of questioning (she does not sound very self-aware and you are right to be doubtful).

[modellingman]

Given the negative comments you make regarding the candidate, perhaps a segment of the interview should be given over to conflict management. Here are three questions for consideration and as an interview is a structured conversation (or should be) there will be (or should be) opportunities to ask more probing questions along the way.

1. How do you think interpersonal conflict is caused
2. What do you think are the effects of interperson conflict
3. How would uou ensure that interpersonal conflict is minimised.

You should get confirmation as to her self-awareness with this line of questioning (she does not sound very self-aware and you are right to be doubtful).

Good questions. I would definitely frame 1. and 2. using the BEI approach - eg tell me about a time when you have been involved in serious disagreement with a colleague, perhaps serious enough to consider talking to a manager about it. What was the disagreement about? How did you deal with it? What were the effects of this on your performance, the colleague's performance and the team's performance? 3. should be about whether the individual has reflected on the experience on how (if at all) they have changed their behaviour - ideally by describing that behaviour through questions based an "what did you do" rather than "what would you do"

[AlumniLawn]

Given the negative comments you make regarding the candidate, perhaps a segment of the interview should be given over to conflict management. Here are three questions for consideration and as an interview is a structured conversation (or should be) there will be (or should be) opportunities to ask more probing questions along the way.

1. How do you think interpersonal conflict is caused
2. What do you think are the effects of interperson conflict
3. How would uou ensure that interpersonal conflict is minimised.

You should get confirmation as to her self-awareness with this line of questioning (she does not sound very self-aware and you are right to be doubtful).

Good questions. I would definitely frame 1. and 2. using the BEI approach - eg tell me about a time when you have been involved in serious disagreement with a colleague, perhaps serious enough to consider talking to a manager about it. What was the disagreement about? How did you deal with it? What were the effects of this on your performance, the colleague's performance and the team's performance? 3. should be about whether the individual has reflected on the experience on how (if at all) they have changed their behaviour - ideally by describing that behaviour through questions based an "what did you do" rather than "what would you do"

Agreed. What you suggest can be the primary or a follow up question. I would prefer them as follow up as it can lead to a more conversational rather than interrogative style (it's down to personal and preference but either way will work).

[torata]

Given the negative comments you make regarding the candidate, perhaps a segment of the interview should be given over to conflict management. Here are three questions for consideration and as an interview is a structured conversation (or should be) there will be (or should be) opportunities to ask more probing questions along the way.

1. How do you think interpersonal conflict is caused
2. What do you think are the effects of interperson conflict
3. How would uou ensure that interpersonal conflict is minimised.

You should get confirmation as to her self-awareness with this line of questioning (she does not sound very self-aware and you are right to be doubtful).

Good questions. I would definitely frame 1. and 2. using the BEI approach - eg tell me about a time when you have been involved in serious disagreement with a colleague, perhaps serious enough to consider talking to a manager about it. What was the disagreement about? How did you deal with it? What were the effects of this on your performance, the colleague's performance and the team's performance? 3. should be about whether the individual has reflected on the experience on how (if at all) they have changed their behaviour - ideally by describing that behaviour through questions based an "what did you do" rather than "what would you do"

I second Modellingman's advice for a BEI approach. "What did you learn from that episode?" (his point 3) is a powerful question. STARL is the acronym I use: Situation, Task, Action, Result, Learning.

torata