Secrets of Successful Interviewing

By Hugh Murray & David Friedman

Hiring errors rank amongst the costliest of common business mistakes. A recent study showed the direct costs associated with a poor hiring decision of a mid-level manager approached $40,000. What strategy is in place at your organization to lower this risk and maximize your chances of hiring the right person the first time?

What is behavior-based interviewing?
Behavior-based interviewing is a technique where questions are asked about past behaviors. It is effective because past behavior is the best indicator of how a person will behave in the future.

Behavior-based interviewing is different from biographical interviewing. Biographical interviewing involves asking questions about the past and is what most interviewers usually do. You will need to ask questions like "I see you worked in the engineering department for three years. What exactly did you do there?" before you can ask behavioral questions.

A behavioral question goes deeper. It focuses on one specific incident, sometimes called a critical incident, and probes to find out how the individual behaved during that incident. An example of behavioral question is: "Can you tell me about a time during your work on the T54 when you realized that you were not going to complete a drawing on time? ("Yes."). What did you do?"

Behavior-based interviewing is also different from hypothetical interviewing. An example of a hypothetical question would be: "What would you do if…?" This can be useful for understanding someone’s thought process but not a reliable indicator of what someone will actually do.

Behavior-based interviewing is also called competency-based interviewing or critical-incident interviewing.

What is behavior and why does it matter?
When psychologists talk about behavior, they refer to all the responses that a person has to a stimulus, which includes everything that goes on in and from a person in a particular situation. Examples include what they think, what they feel, and what they do.

At work, we are interested in the way people do their jobs. This is observable behavior. All sorts of things might be going on beneath the surface but the part we can see is the way they do their jobs.

When we recruit somebody, we want to know how he will approach his job and the best indicator of this is his past behavior and that’s why the behavior-based interviewer is interested in it.

Behavior is remarkably consistent. If a person is scared of heights atop the Sears Tower, he is likely to be scared on the 82nd floor of the Empire State building. We do not have to understand everything that is going on inside to make predictions about how someone will behave in a given situation.

We all have natural characteristics, which tend to assert themselves again and again. We can adjust these and in some cases, such as overcoming a fear. We can change our behavior, but past behavior remains the best, though not a perfect indicator of how we will behave in future.

The advantages of behavior-based interviewing
The advantages of behavior-based interviewing can be summed up as:

· Effective: Behavior-based questions find out how people have actually behaved in the past. This gives you a much better indication of how they will behave in the future.

· Objective: By comparing the way someone has actually behaved in work situations, the interviewer is unaffected by subjective feelings that the interview may have.

· Transparent: The candidate can’t tell the interviewers "what they want to hear" because he or she will be describing actual events. The candidate would have to quickly construct a complicated lie to do this, and that story would certainly not hold up as questions proceeded.

· Legal: The competencies sought are openly described and all candidates are given an equal chance to demonstrate that they have those competencies. Provided every candidate is asked for evidence of the same competencies, and provided those competencies are genuinely necessary to the performance of the job, organizations will avoid discrimination by asking behavior-based questions.

---

David Friedman is Vice President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, a twenty year old provider of products and services which improve the way organizations communicate with their customers. Visit our website at www.telephonedoctor.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, November, 2006

Secrets of Successful Interviewing

By Hugh Murray & David Friedman

Hiring errors rank amongst the costliest of common business mistakes. A recent study showed the direct costs associated with a poor hiring decision of a mid-level manager approached $40,000. What strategy is in place at your organization to lower this risk and maximize your chances of hiring the right person the first time?

What is behavior-based interviewing?

Behavior-based interviewing is a technique where questions are asked about past behaviors. It is effective because past behavior is the best indicator of how a person will behave in the future. Behavior-based interviewing is different from biographical interviewing. Biographical interviewing involves asking questions about the past and is what most interviewers usually do. You will need to ask questions like "I see you worked in the engineering department for three years. What exactly did you do there?" before you can ask behavioral questions.

A behavioral question goes deeper. It focuses on one specific incident, sometimes called a critical incident, and probes to find out how the individual behaved during that incident. An example of behavioral question is: "Can you tell me about a time during your work on the T54 when you realized that you were not going to complete a drawing on time? ("Yes."). What did you do?"

Behavior-based interviewing is also different from hypothetical interviewing. An example of a hypothetical question would be: "What would you do if…?" This can be useful for understanding someone’s thought process but not a reliable indicator of what someone will actually do.

Behavior-based interviewing is also called competency-based interviewing or critical-incident interviewing.

What is behavior and why does it matter?
When psychologists talk about behavior, they refer to all the responses that a person has to a stimulus, which includes everything that goes on in and from a person in a particular situation. Examples include what they think, what they feel, and what they do.

At work, we are interested in the way people do their jobs. This is observable behavior. All sorts of things might be going on beneath the surface but the part we can see is the way they do their jobs.

When we recruit somebody, we want to know how he will approach his job and the best indicator of this is his past behavior and that’s why the behavior-based interviewer is interested in it.

Behavior is remarkably consistent. If a person is scared of heights atop the Sears Tower, he is likely to be scared on the 82nd floor of the Empire State building. We do not have to understand everything that is going on inside to make predictions about how someone will behave in a given situation.

We all have natural characteristics, which tend to assert themselves again and again. We can adjust these and in some cases, such as overcoming a fear. We can change our behavior, but past behavior remains the best, though not a perfect indicator of how we will behave in future.

The advantages of behavior-based interviewing

The advantages of behavior-based interviewing can be summed up as: · Effective: Behavior-based questions find out how people have actually behaved in the past. This gives you a much better indication of how they will behave in the future.

• Objective: By comparing the way someone has actually behaved in work situations, the interviewer is unaffected by subjective feelings that the interview may have.
  
  
• Transparent: The candidate can’t tell the interviewers "what they want to hear" because he or she will be describing actual events. The candidate would have to quickly construct a complicated lie to do this, and that story would certainly not hold up as questions proceeded.
  
  
• Legal: The competencies sought are openly described and all candidates are given an equal chance to demonstrate that they have those competencies. Provided every candidate is asked for evidence of the same competencies, and provided those competencies are genuinely necessary to the performance of the job, organizations will avoid discrimination by asking behavior-based questions.
  

David Friedman is Vice President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, a twenty year old provider of products and services which improve the way organizations communicate with their customers. Visit our website at www.telephonedoctor.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, November, 2006

Eight Tips for More Effective Email Communication

By David Friedman

A recent report estimated that over seven trillion emails were sent worldwide last year! Spam messages are jamming in-boxes across the globe and the average office worker now gets between sixty and two hundred messages a day.

While no one denies the obvious productivity gains we’ve realized from the efficiencies of email communication, many people find themselves drowning in all these messages.

Here are eight tips that will make your email communications more effective. 1.

1. Practice being clear and concise with your message.
   
   You’ll save time and your reader will appreciate it.
   
   
   • Consider using bulleted points to clearly express your thoughts.
   • Everyone has a different style of how they intake information.
   • Email communication works best if you clearly outline the points you’re trying to get across in an easy to understand format.
     
     Investing extra time while authoring an email pays big dividends by giving your reader a clear understanding of your message. Remember, if your email is written with the purpose to educate, inform, or persuade, then making sure to get your point across is even more critical.
     
     With the sheer volume of email messages most business people receive, there’s an inverse relationship between the volume of text and successfully making the point. Most people will immediately read and understand a ten sentence email. Send them a ten thousand word document and they’ll likely scan the highlights, save it for later and you risk it not being read fully. People appreciate brevity. Remember, if your objective is to tell the reader what time it is, you don’t need to explain how to build a clock!
     
     
2. Before sending, ALWAYS reread your message and double check for grammar and misused words.
   
   It’s obvious to most of us to use spell check after we’ve composed our message. You should also make it’s standard procedure to reread your entire message before sending. Often times, you’ll notice words that have been left out, grammar that’s incorrect, and worst of all – words witch our spilled write butt knot used inn the write weigh. (Note: this last sentence runs through a spell checker perfectly.) How many times have you caught something too late, making your only option to curse at your spell-checking software?
   
   
3. Copy back salient points when replying to an earlier message.
   
   Most people receive hundreds of emails every week. When you combine that with face-to-face meetings and phone calls, it’s dangerous to assume your recipient will remember your earlier exchange. Which of these messages has the greater chance for reader confusion?
   
   "Sure, sounds fine... Please proceed."
   
   Or You wrote:
   
   Hi Jody, Are you okay with the proposed colour scheme on the new brochure? I'd like to print it next week.
   
   "Sure, sounds fine... Please proceed."
   
   It’s frustrating when someone sends you an email, with a specific answer but you’re unable to recall the original issue. This problem is largely avoidable by copying a portion of the original message alluding to the context.
   
   
4. Use specific subject line descriptions.
   
   Since many email messages go back and forth several times over the course of many weeks, it’s important to accurately describe what the reader will find inside.
   
   Considering the level of spam and anti-spam software in place today, you can’t afford to risk your message not being delivered because of a generic or poorly worded subject line. A subject line such as, “What do you think” doesn’t tell the recipient much. “Need your suggestions for options re: acct#45619 – Robinson Inc.” is more specific. Remember, a legitimate message coming from your plant in Hong Kong advising you that “they’ve still had no luck increasing the prototype by 3 inches” is unlikely to ever make it past today’s spam filters!
   
   
5. Realize that once your message is sent, THERE’S NO GETTING IT BACK!
   
   Email communication in the workplace has been around about ten years. Before the 90’s, if you composed a letter later deemed too harsh or in poor taste, there were more steps involved before the message was sent. Today, the stakes are much higher. People can literally ruin their career with a single sixty-second lapse in judgment, by sending the wrong message to someone.
   
   Email is also ridiculously easy to edit and forward. Keep in mind that sending a message to one person can eventually be viewed by many other unintended parties. Always double-check the recipient line before sending any email. Horror stories about messages accidentally copied to “ALL” are becoming routine.
   
   As a rule, it’s a good idea to never put anything in writing that a reasonable person would consider to be confidential or dangerous. If your situation dictates you email such information, try to word your message in as factual and balanced a way as possible. As you write, imagine that the person you’re writing about eventually sees your message. Stick to facts, not opinions
   
   
6. Practice the 24-hour rule when you’re upset.
   
   It’s never a good idea to send an email when you’re angry. We’ve all been guilty of this. In the heat of the moment we type up a literary bombast. A message that will reduce the recipient to mush. We even reread it, and we’re actually sort of proud at how powerful the wording is. We imagine the recipient opening and cringing as he/she reads our words. Then we send it.
   
   Only later, after we calm down, we revisit the message and realize that we dramatically overreacted. But it’s too late to do anything now, except apologize and try to mend fences. This is more common than you think.
   
   If you compose an email in anger, wait a predetermined period of time before sending it. If your emotions are legit, then your issue will still be there tomorrow. But in ninety-five percent of the cases, you’ll be glad you waited and toned things down after you’ve gain the perspective that can only come with additional time.
   
   
7. Avoid sh-cuts and abbr. in biz email msgs.
   
   Anyone with a teenager knows you practically need a CIA decoder chart to understand the abbreviations and shortcuts that are popular in email, pagers, text messages, and instant messages. These cutesy short cuts and misspellings are ill advised to use in any corporate context, no matter if your customer is external or internal. Even common shortcuts like LOL (laughing out loud), BRB (be right back), 2 (to) and u r (you are) are simply too casual for most business communication. What’s hip to one sender can be read as flip and disrespectful by another reader. Since a casual message to a coworker could easily be forwarded, it’s best to practice the same high level of professionalism no matter who you're writing to.
   
   
8. Don’t Forward Viral Messages.
   
   What’s that you say? You’d only forward important messages on to your coworkers and friends? Not so fast. Unlike obvious computer viruses that involve actual destructive code, many messages are viral in nature, in that they are purposefully crafted so you’ll send them on to friends with the idea that you weren’t positive if this was real but wanted to be sure they saw it just in case! Although not usually harmful, these emails prey on normally smart individual’s desire to inform others.
   
   Every day, intelligent people who would never consider themselves gullible forward on hoax messages about:
   
   
   • Pending Congressional taxes on emails
   • Avoiding waking up in a hotel bathtub of ice – minus your kidneys
   • Easy steps for getting some of Bill Gates/Disney/AOL’s money
   • How to delete viruses from your PC (which are actually legit Windows’ files your system needs)
   • Child abductions at giant retailers
   • A widow from Zimbabwe begging you to look after her $18,000,000 if you’ll just give her your bank account number
     
     
   The list goes on. If you are the recipient of an email message you think is relevant to your friends and family, run it by this test: Copy and paste a few words from the message into google.com along with the word “hoax.” If the returns come back showing articles claiming the message is a fake, save everyone in your address book some time by hitting the delete key. The same rule applies to jokes and pictures, which would be deemed as inappropriate by your employer.*
   
   While there may not be a silver bullet that saves us from an onslaught of never ending messages, common sense practices can make our business email correspondence more effective and productive every working day.

* PS Unlike hoaxes and spam mentioned above, it's good etiquette to forward this article to others in your address book who will find it helpful!

J David Friedman is Vice President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, a twenty year old provider of products and services which improve the way organizations communicate with their customers. Visit our Web site at www.telephonedoctor.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, April 2004.

Avoid Weak Wimpy Words

By David Friedman

Pop quiz time: Which of these two statements do you find to be more effective?

• "I think you might like this new service we offer." Or
• "You're really going to like this new service we offer."
  

What’s in a Word?

The difference in wording is fairly subtle but the influence communicated to your customer can be profound.

Reread both sentences. The first one contains a weak, wimpy word. In this case, it's the word "think." Naturally, there are times to use the word "think" as in when you're really thinking about something. But in the example above, it makes the speaker appear unsure or insecure with what he is saying. Some people inadvertently use weak, wimpy words because they think it sounds less combative, while in reality it sounds indifferent and ineffective. Notice how the second example sentence above is confident and strong. That's a statement from someone who believes in what he is saying!

Weak, wimpy words make you appear less confident about the message you're trying to get across to coworkers or customers. While they may seem harmless on their own, weak, wimpy words will subtly undermine the effectiveness of your business communication.

It Starts Out Naturally

Don't feel bad. Weak, wimpy words gained a foothold into our personal vocabulary long ago before we even knew we were using them. But once you start to pay attention to weak, wimpy words you'll begin to catch yourself using them and more importantly, begin to construct more confident sentences. You'll also begin to notice how often others use them.

Examples of Weak, Wimpy Words

Just, as in "I was just calling to tell you about the new communication course we're offering."
Replace it with,
"I'm calling to tell you about the new communication course we're offering!"

Think as in "I think this sentence will be much stronger without those first two words."
Replace it with,
"This sentence is much stronger without those first two words!"

Wondering and might, as in "I was wondering if you might want to go to dinner and a movie with me this weekend."
Replace it with,
"Would you like to go to dinner and a movie this weekend?"

You can probably think of many more examples such as possibly or maybe. The definition of a weak, wimpy word is any modifying word or phrase that makes you sound less confident and can easily be removed and make your original sentence stronger.

We’re All in Sales – Be Confident!

It doesn't matter if you sell widgets or assist customers with their challenges, we are all in sales. Some of us directly sell products and others "sell" assistance, good treatment, or ideas. And no matter what type of customer interaction we engage in, it's important that we express ourselves in a confident manner.

Be confident in your company's offerings and abilities. Don't be afraid to be an advocate for your company. Customers want to do business with organizations and people who believe in what they do and exude confidence and strength. As consumers, we all want to feel like we've made the right decision.

In closing, you just might want to possibly think about maybe not using weak wimpy words in the future. Put another way, removing weak, wimpy words from your vocabulary will help you communicate with greater confidence!

David Friedman is Vice President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, a twenty year old provider of products and services which improve the way organizations communicate with their customers. Visit our Web site at www.telephonedoctor.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, January 2004.

Fighting Back Against Workplace Conflict! Applying the B.I.F. Approach

By David Friedman

Unfortunately, conflict between human beings is about as old as life itself. Is there any doubt that early cave dwellers likely got in disagreements about whose turn it was to go snag another wooly mammoth or who got to sleep closest to the fire? They may have lacked the sophisticated swear words we've been clever enough to invent but the conflict was there, nonetheless.

No matter the era, the reality is, if you put two or more people in close quarters, sooner or later, you'll have a conflict.

And so it goes in today's modern office. But only worse is that in the workplace, negative internal relationships can severely impact how well your organization operates. And ultimately, how well your external customers are treated. We all know that it's really difficult for people to concentrate on providing high levels of external service when there's conflict, unhappiness or lack of respect within an organization.

While it's not possible to avoid all employee conflicts, there are ways to better manage most situations.

When a major conflict erupts between coworkers, it's usually necessary to involve a manager to help resolve it. However, there's a process to help resolve internal relationship issues and possibly prevent the need for management involvement. Used properly, this three-step process will help maintain a positive, healthy workplace atmosphere.

We call it the B.I.F. Approach.

EXAMPLE OF AN INTERNAL CONFLICT SITUATION:
Let's imagine there are two coworkers named Cynthia and Joe. They sit near each other in open cubicles. During his breaks, Joe enjoys listening to his favourite heavy metal band on his desktop boom box. This music really disturbs Cynthia and she has trouble concentrating while talking with customers.

EXISTING METHOD FOR HANDLING CONFLICT:
Cynthia walks up to Joe and yells, "Hey Joe, do you have any clue how loud that is? Turn it down, now!" Joe will likely give an angry stare and either ignore her request or turn the volume higher!

Obviously, simply ordering Joe to change his behaviour isn't likely to be an effective tactic.

LEARNING THE B. I. F. APPROACH:
Here's a better way. Let's examine the B.I.F. Approach letter by letter:

B – Behavior – First, describe the behaviour. Use specific facts or an objective description. It's important to keep from asking questions that will put him or her on the defensive and possibly start an argument all before we even get to the point.

I – Impact – Next, tell the effects that the behaviour is having on you. How is it impacting your job or your performance?

F – Feelings – Lastly, relate how the behaviour and impact cause you to feel. After that, you stop and let the other person absorb what you said. Often, that silent period will result in the other person apologizing or suggesting a solution.

HANDLING CONFLICT USING THE B. I. F. APPROACH:

Cynthia: "Excuse me, Joe... That radio is really distracting. It's making it difficult for me to hear my customers and concentrate. It's embarrassing for me because I've just had to ask my customer to repeat herself a number of times."

Sentence by sentence that was:
B – Behavior – "That radio is really distracting."
I – Impact – "It's making it difficult for me to hear and concentrate."
F – Feelings – “It's embarrassing for me because I've had to ask my customer to repeat herself a number of times."

Then, Cynthia stops to let Joe absorb what was said. Cynthia's tone of voice is also very important. It needs to be even-tempered because a calm delivery sets the tone of the conversation. If Cynthia's tone is angry or attacking, it's likely Joe will mirror that tone and respond in the same angry way.

Obviously, The B. I. F. approach won't work in every case. But in many situations, it can help diffuse minor workplace conflicts and reduce the need for management involvement. Plus, you'll know you handled the situation professionally.

Give the B.I.F. approach a try the next time you encounter a workplace conflict situation.

David Friedman is Vice President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, a twenty year old provider of products and services which improve the way organizations communicate with their customers. Visit our website at www.telephonedoctor.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, November 2003.

Stop Telling Customers How Great You Are and Start Showing Them!

By David Friedman

If you're in the business of satisfying customers, the only thing that matters is what you DO!

It's almost a cliché to see and hear organizations advertise to prospective customers about how great their service is. As if somehow, great customer service were just that...bragging about how much you care. You see it all the time, no matter if you're at the car dealer, the bank, or the grocery store.

We've all heard the sage advice that "It's what you do, not what you say." "Actions speak louder than words." "Deed, not creed." "Talk is cheap."

If you're in the business of providing positive customer experiences for your firm's clients, this concept is critical to understand. So why do so many businesses continue to make the same mistake?

What these businesses don't realize is that today's consumers are pretty sophisticated operators and they see through such marketing noise for what it is. In fact, if your business is bragging to customers about how great your service is, but your staff doesn't deliver to those promised expectation levels, one could argue that such puffery actually does more harm to your brand than never having promised anything at all! I can think of plenty of times I've been frustrated at a service experience only to notice some cheesy service promise on their literature or receipt about (insert high pitched, whiny voice) "how valued I am." It's the definition of irony. I assume some clever ad agency or marketing genius wrote the copy without giving any thought at all about how an unhappy customer would actually be insulted by it down the road.

The things which matter most in the customer satisfaction business are the specific actions and techniques your organization employs to demonstrate your commitment to your customer. Think about your situation for a moment. How well do your daily actions demonstrate your commitment to your customer's happiness? Do you spend more time telling customers how much you care? Or actually working to solve their problems?

For an excellent real-world example of this phenomenon, examine Nordstrom. The Seattle-based retailer is on many people's short list of impressive service providers. Yet, when was the last time you saw or heard an ad from Nordstrom gloating about how high their level of care is? They don't need to because they let their actions do all the talking.

Nordstrom has figured out one of the bedrock principles of winning the customer satisfaction game: Invest very little in bragging about how good you are and put lots of resources into demonstrating how much you care. Because demonstrating how much you care is the only thing that matters to your customers.

Sure, Nordstrom likely spends more than the industry average by taking back merchandise that wasn't bought from them or sending handwritten thank you cards or tracking down far-flung merchandise requests that other retailers might only laugh about. But in the long haul, they've obviously found it very worthwhile. There are tremendous economic payoffs with these acts. People are astounded by the service and they like to tell other people.

Customers doing your bragging for you? Now we're on to something meaningful! As you interact with customers, give some thought to how your organization can be the subject of a positive service story in the future.

David Friedman is Vice President of Telephone Doctor Customer Service Training, a twenty year old provider of products and services which improve the way organizations communicate with their customers. Visit our website at www.telephonedoctor.com for more information.

Published in Networking Today, August 2003.