“Mens sana in corpore sano
(A healthy mind in a healthy body).”
JUVENAL, (ROMAN POET)

Time Management is about making conscious choices about how to use your time. Consistently good choices lead to health, wealth and happiness; while too many poor choices (we all make some poor decisions!) leads to frustration, fatigue and unhappiness.

There are many areas of life where making good choices matters e.g. dealing with email, handling projects, managing upwards etc. but our focus here is on Time Management theory and its relevance to our sense of well being.

Six of the best

When it comes to making choices that promote health, happiness and peace of mind, the science clearly highlights that there are six topics that are of primary importance:

1. Exercise
2. Sleep
3. Diet
4. Friendship
5. Meditation
6. Prioritising Positivity

Exercise – the best medicine in the world

According to the UK’s NHS website people who do regular activity have a lower risk of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and some cancers. Physical activity can also boost self-esteem, sleep quality and energy levels, as well as reducing the risk of stress, depression, and dementia. So exercise is a vital element of living a happy, productive life. Someone who is keen on sports will, no doubt, follow an appropriate training regime to prepare them for their preferred event. However, for those who aren’t sports enthusiasts, what is the minimum amount of activity that needs to be done to get these health benefits? There are two types of activity that can give great returns… NEAT (non exercise activity thermogenesis – so normal daily movement) and… HiiT (High Intensity Interval Training.)

HiiT involves alternating periods of short intense anaerobic exercise with less-intense recovery periods. There is no ’standard’ method or protocol, and HiiT sessions vary from 4–30 minutes. If it’s any longer than that it’s not HiiT – the idea is to ‘shock the body’ into a ‘healthy response mode’ and that means short, sharp intense workouts. These short, intense workouts provide improved aerobic capacity and improved glucose metabolism (so they help prevent diabetes.) You can get the same results from 3 HiiT sessions a week as from five, much longer, traditional training sessions. They can use any exercise that will boost heart rate e.g. exercise bikes, rowing machines, running (e.g. sprinting followed by jogging) or just body weight exercise e.g. press ups, burpees etc. There are dozens of routines on-line but two well-known (and scientifically robust) protocols are:

• Professor Martin Gibala – McMaster University, Canada – 60 seconds intense work + 75 seconds moderate exercise for recovery for 8 sets (18 minutes total), plus warm up and warm down
• Professor Jamie Timmons – University of Loughborough, UK – 20 seconds intense work (sprinting on a bike) + 2 minutes moderate exercise (gentle pedalling) for recovery, for 3 sets (7 minutes total) plus warm up and warm down

NEAT, is the idea that it takes energy to move even the smallest muscle; about 1.5 calories per minute lying still. Every extra thing you do (e.g. going to the coffee machine, walking the dog, doing the ironing, mowing the lawn etc.) burns more calories. This matters because sitting still for long periods is linked to increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, cancer and obesity – so sitting in your chair can kill you. The latest advice is to set an alarm on your phone to remind you to move every hour. Stand up to stretch, or make a phone call, or get a glass of water. Just make a point of moving more e.g. get a pedometer and set a goal for a number of steps (10,000 steps a day is the usual target that people set themselves.) The small movements add up, and this (non exercise activity) can make a significant difference to your wellbeing. So to sum NEAT up in a sound bite: “take the stairs.”

Sleep – Slip into silent slumber

As Shakespeare puts it in Macbeth, ‘Sleep… balm of hurt minds, great nature’s second course… chief nourisher in life’s feast.’

In a recent study of sleep patterns in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience (Pilcher et al., 2015) Professor Pilcher notes that poor sleep habits, which include inconsistent sleep times and not enough sleep, can lead to: weight gain, hypertension, increased hostility towards others and lack of self control.

While (Xie et al., 2013) discovered “hidden caves” inside the brain, which open up during sleep, allowing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) to flush out potential neurotoxins, like β-amyloid, which has been associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Good sleep is also associated with an improved memory, cell repair, healing and improved relationships. The research base also consistently shows that the vast majority of adults need 7-8 hours sleep to ensure good health.

Good sleep hygiene, as most people know, involves: going to bed at the same time every night, avoiding caffeine late in the day and allowing time to mentally wind-down before bedtime, making sure that the bedroom is dark and cool.

Diet – You are what you eat

The knowledge about how to eat well and the health gains from doing so are so widely reported that I hesitate to repeat the key messages, but for the sake of completeness, feeling good and being healthy means…

Not Smoking

Drinking in moderation

Minimising the intake of (appealing but damaging) high salt, high sugar, high fat foods such as: biscuits, cookies, cakes, white bread, crisps, chips, pizzas, burgers, processed meat like ham and bacon, ready made meals, fruit juices, soft drinks (a can of coke has nine spoonfuls of sugar in it) most breakfast cereals (many contain the same volume of salt as sea water) etc.

Prioritising eating fresh fruit and vegetables, salads, wholemeal bread, fish, chicken, unprocessed red meat and meals you cook yourself from fresh ingredients.

Friendship – A problem shared is a problem halved

Human beings are ‘pack animals’. We are programmed to use survival strategies that are based on cooperation and teamwork. So we ‘need’ strong relationships for physical and psychological health in the same way that we need food. In fact, research shows that negative relationship experiences create stress reactions, such as raised blood pressure, that produce excess wear and tear on the body (Hauser et al., 1993.) So from a Time Management perspective it makes sense to make the extra effort to stay in regular contact with family and friends. This can involve phone calls, texts, emails and (of course) actually seeing people face to face! There is no reason, of course, why ‘Friendship Activities’ can’t be combined with other activities e.g. playing tennis or going to Yoga with a friend; meeting someone and enjoying a (healthy) meal.

Meditation – Wherever You Go, There You Are

Research suggests that practicing meditation may reduce blood pressure, symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome, anxiety and depression, insomnia, and the incidence, duration, and severity of acute respiratory illnesses.

Probably the most famous book (in the West) on the subject is: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness meditation for everyday life by Jon Kabat-Zinn, so that’s a good place to start if you are interested in learning how to meditate. However the level of interest in meditation and mindfulness and its impact on ‘leadership’ has mushroomed in recent years, so there are plenty of texts and courses to choose from.

There are many types of meditation, but most have four elements in common: a quiet location with as few distractions as possible; a comfortable, relaxed posture; a focus of attention (usually a key word, or the sensations of the breath); and an open attitude (letting distractions come and go naturally without judging them.)

Whatever method is used it’s best to meditate at the same time every day, so that it becomes part of your normal routine. The usual recommendation is to build up to meditating for twenty minutes, twice a day, but even five minutes practice will bring benefits.

Prioritise Positivity

Prioritising Positivity is a key theme when making ‘healthy’ life choices. It simply involves organising everyday life around activities that bring pleasure. People who Prioritise Positivity are not just happier than those who don’t, but they also have better relationships, more resilience and are more mindful. This happens because they have more frequent experiences of positive emotions, because they consistently schedule ‘fun things’ into their routine. (Journal of Emotion – Catalino et al, 2014.)

Of course, Prioritising Positivity will mean different things to different people. It may mean seeking out activities that are ‘meditative’ in nature i.e. they create a sense of peace, or it may involve seeking out ‘exercise’ to experience excitement and challenge. For example, for some it might mean reserving Saturday afternoons for going to the park with the family (‘friendship’) or going for a run (‘exercise’) etc.

Reinforcement strategies – the classic responses

Procrastination, lack of motivation, the weight of deeply ingrained negative habits or competing priorities, can overwhelm any goal or objective and when it comes to healthy choices most of us have a reasonable knowledge about what we should/shouldn’t be doing – but we still don’t. That’s primarily down to will power and our ability to resist what we want/don’t want and do what we should instead. Sometimes we steel ourselves to overcome the inertia of inactivity then reward ourselves afterwards to such an extent that it cancels out our effort. So the question is how do we create good habits and how do we maintain them against all temptations?

Creating good habits means that some kind of reinforcement strategy needs to be in place to maintain the momentum to a successful achievement of improved exercise, sleep, diet, relationships or meditation. The most common methods for this are:

• Breaking tasks into small chunks and just doing one bit at a time e.g. I won’t plan to mow all the grass, I will just do the small lawn at the front of the house. The key point here is that you don’t always have to be in just the right mood before you do something; you can just choose to use your will power and do the task, whether you feel like it or not!
• Having a fixed time to work on the task e.g. going straight to the gym on the way home from work, or doing your yoga as soon as you get up in the morning.
• Allowing yourself a ‘reward’ for achieving certain milestones e.g. buying a new shirt or blouse if (when?) you reach a set weight.
• Telling lots of people about your goal so the embarrassment of a public failure motivates you to keep going e.g. announcing you will run a half marathon and signing up to a charity website so people can sponsor you.
• Making it a team effort by joining a group who all have the same objective and can provide mutual encouragement e.g. weight watchers, a running club, reading group etc.
• Fujita et al. (2006) suggest that self-control can be increased by ‘looking at long term goals’ rather than focusing on the here and now. So, someone trying to eat more fruit and vegetables should focus on the ultimate goal and how each individual decision about what to eat contributes (or detracts) from their goal to eat well.

So what’s next?

Reflect on how much of your week is spent on Prioritising Productivity – can you, maybe with just some small adjustments, engineer more joy into your life?

Review your physical activity levels. How much are you moving? Are you active enough, or is it time to commit to more structured, regular exercise, be that going to Circuit Training, taking up Pilates, getting on a Spin Bike, or starting swimming regularly?

Video

Watch Jon Kabat- Zinn talking about the power of Letting Go
(4 minute clip)

Workshop

If you think that you or your work team could benefit from our help then take a look at our half-day, in-house Practical Time Management workshop.

Coaching

Or maybe our ‘one to one’ executive coaching services.

And to end with a quote from Hippocrates…

“Let food be thy medicine
and medicine be thy food.”

You can train a turkey to climb a tree but it’s easier to hire a squirrel”

Anon

If you want to have a successful business or lead a high performance team (and who doesn’t?) then you need to be excellent at interviews. Sitting down with people and talking to them in a structured way is at the heart of (i) identifying good people and (ii) motivating them to want to join the organisation!

This matters because, by and large, good people do good work and don’t need excessive amounts of management time to keep them on track. So it makes sense to take the time and trouble to hire capable staff. However, research by Korn Ferry suggests that 40% of newly appointed managers don’t live up to expectations and the cost of turnover, due to a poor appointment, is 2-4 times salary. Of course no approach to hiring can be perfect; we are trying to predict future behaviour and sometimes, try as we might, we are going to make the wrong choice. The question is ‘how to minimise the number of hiring mistakes we make?’ So how then is it possible to work out if someone is (most likely) the right person for the job?

Failing to plan is planning to fail

Great interviewing starts with proper preparation: it’s hard to make good choices if you don’t know what you want the person to do when they arrive in post, or if different hiring managers are at odds about what the ideal candidate should bring to the party. It’s also not easy to attract talented people if you don’t manage the obvious hygiene factors (like clear communication with the candidate, arriving on time for the interview, having a private setting for the meeting and turning your phone off etc.)

But getting consistently good results also requires the use of specific interview ‘processes’… so what are some examples of effective, standardised, research-based interviewing systems…?

Looking at the numbers

The research says [Oh, I-S., Postlethwaite, B.E., Schmidt, F.L. (2013)] that the best assessment method for deciding who will do well in a new job is a General Mental Ability test (also called psychometric reasoning tests e.g. verbal reasoning, numerical reasoning, spatial awareness etc.)

This is then followed by interviews, which, as you might expect, provide insights into a candidate’s self-confidence, impact, relationship building skills etc.

Psychometric tests (as long as they are based on the ‘big five’ personality factors) also add predictive information about success in the job; so they are worth including as well. Initially proposed by W. Fiske (1949) the ‘big five’ are broad personality traits that researchers feel most reliably describe personality: 1. extraversion 2. agreeableness 3. openness 4. conscientiousness and 5. neuroticism

So it’s helpful to include a General Mental Ability test and a personality inventory as part of any hiring process. Tests are usually administered after the interview – why put someone through a testing process unless you’ve decided they are a good fit?

Competencies and why they matter

There are a number of structured formats that could be adopted to question the candidate, but one essential, and research-based component to the selection isprocess, is the “Competency Based Interviewing” method (also called Behavioural Event Interviews -[BEI] and Criterion Based Interviews. Developed by David McClelland of Harvard University in the 1970’s, BEI asks that we identify the distinctive Knowledge, Skills, Attitudes, Traits and Motives (competencies) of high performing people in a given occupation e.g. sales professionals, surgeons, technical support staff etc. and then ask questions of job candidates to see if they have those attributes associated with superior performance. So if our analysis found that (say) “Initiative – taking action, that no one has requested, to avoid problems or create new opportunities”, was important to success in a role, we could ask questions to explore if a candidate had those qualities…

Deceptively simple but very powerful, this takes the form of asking the person to tell you, in detail, about a specific situation when they demonstrated the competency in question…

“Tell me about a time when you… took action, without being prompted, to avoid a potential problem…”

Of course all candidates need to be asked the same questions and be given a similar amount of time to respond. The relative strength of the examples given can then be ranked against an agreed scale e.g. addresses current issues that will arise in the next few days Vs. is decisive in a crisis Vs. anticipates situations 2-5 years ahead etc.

Why competency interviews aren’t enough

One potential problem with competency interviewing is that experienced candidates come armed with a series of anecdotes and so do well by virtue of preparation, rather than necessarily the quality of their actual experiences. This means that BEI needs to be augmented with additional interview methods to get a clear sense of the candidate’s capabilities. For example, “Unstructured Interviews” to assess cultural fit and personal chemistry, and “, Biographical Interviews” to find out about drives, motivation and behaviour.

It’s worth noting that a structured approach that uses tests and a variety of interview techniques also helps to ensure that judgments comply with company policy and avoid legal challenge – recruitment isn’t only about getting the right person for the job, but should also show the workforce that the process was unbiased.

Selling the job

The interview is a two way process – so success doesn’t only mean spotting a talented person; it also means persuading them to accept the job offer. There are two aspects to this: (i) anticipate and answer the candidate’s questions about the role and, (ii) provide a Realistic Job Preview (RJP).

The RJP is a short ‘sales pitch’, which describes both the positive and potentially challenging aspects of the job (Premack & Wanous, 1985). It is based on the theory that there is a ‘psychological contract’ between the employee and the company that sets (informal) expectations about obligations and behaviours (Rousseau 1998). A good RJP excites the candidate about working in the company, but also means that they join with ‘their eyes open’ about any potential difficulties that they might face, so reducing any ‘nasty surprises’ for the new joiner, and by extension, minimising quick turnover.

Know the law

Most countries have legal do’s and don’ts that affect the hiring process, and failing to comply with them can lead to financial loss and reputational damage; so follow the letter of the law.

For example, In the UK it is illegal to discriminate against anyone when making hiring decisions on the grounds of:

• Race
• Religion
• Gender
• Sexual orientation
• Age
• Disability

This means that it is important to avoid asking questions of a candidate (or writing text in a advert) that touch on these areas, because it could lead to an unsuccessful candidate claiming that they didn’t get the job as a result of unfair bias. The remedy is to just stick to questions that relate directly to the job they’ve applied to do.

What’s next?

Reflect on how you handle your selection interviews at present. Do you plan thoroughly? Do you have a set formulae, or methodology that you’rer attempting to apply in the face-to-face meeting? What improvements could you make?

Reading

Competence at Work; models for superior performance, L Spencer and S Spencer (John Wiley & Sons)

On-line

Watch this three minute clip giving an overview of ‘bad’ interview techniques, followed by examples of competency based questions .

Courses

Consider sending your managers on our three day, “Managing the Individual Employee” course (which looks in detail at a wide range of interview situations and formats).

We also have a half-day workshop on Successful Selection Interviewing for managers that is a great way of ensuring consistency in the hiring process.

And we have another half-day workshop on conducting appraisals called Performance Management.

Coaching

If you’re a senior executive maybe a ‘one- to-one’ executive coaching session would be a useful option for helping you improve your interviewing skill.

Contact

Or give us a call on 0844 394 8877 (UK) or email us at
coaching@boulden.net and we’ll be happy to discuss how we can
work with you.

And remember…

“People are not your most important asset. The RIGHT people are.”
Jim Collins

“The simple act of paying positive attention to people has a great deal to do with productivity”
TOM PETERS

Mercer’s “What’s Working” US Survey, 2011, asked 2,400 employees about their work, and of the ‘non managers’ interviewed:

• 44% trusted senior managers to communicate honestly
• 54% said their department is well managed
• 53% felt that their managers demonstrated concern for their well being

So one way of looking at this data is to notice that around half the workforce have concerns about how well they are managed, which suggest a ‘problem’ with current skills levels when it comes to managers communicating with their staff. But that begs the question, “in what areas specifically do managers need to improve the way they connect with their people?”

One answer to that question comes from a Corporate Leadership Council study in 2000 (Building the High Performance Workforce.) In the study the CLC assessed 19,000 people: 50% in USA & 25% in both Asia & Europe…

They found 7 factors directly related to improved business performance… three of those factors were…

1. The Performance Management System (having clear performance standards)
2. Formal Performance Review (balancing praise and criticism)
3. Informal Performance Feedback (being fair and accurate)

So the skills of giving ad-hoc feedback and conducting formal appraisal interviews are key components of good management and developing a productive workforce.

A long and winding road

When people work collectively there is a need for some system or process to make sure that employees are working productively, that their goals are clear and aligned and that morale is maintained. Unsurprisingly then, Performance Management has a long history. Murphy, Kevin and Jeanette N. Cleveland (1995) reported that in the third century AD, the Chinese used performance appraisal systems. They were also common in factories during the 18th century in the UK, during the Industrial Revolution. By the 1960’s, boosted by the use of appraisals in the US army during WW2, over 60% of US organizations were running a performance appraisal system.

Little and often

At the risk of stating the blindingly obvious, if a review of how someone is doing is limited to a once a year conversation (when most of the events being discussed are long past) it is likely that the conversation won’t be that productive. The remedy, of course, is simply to talk with people more frequently than that. The ‘key’ to a good performance management system, and a good annual appraisal meeting is: frequent feedback that emphasises recognition for work well done, a focus on priorities, coupled with coaching for improvement (as opposed to criticism.) (CLC 2000) This is why monthly, ‘one to one’ meetings are such an important part of good people management e.g. W. J. Boss, Journal of Applied Behavioural Science 1983, found that employee effectiveness increased significantly when managers held monthly, private meetings with employees.

The death of the appraisals?

Many companies (e.g. Accenture, GE, Adobe) have been reported as moving away from their traditional annual systems in favour of more ‘flexible’ processes. So does this mean the death of the performance review? Not really, the changes (for the most part) simply reflect the best practice of holding regular ‘one to one’ meetings, which should always have been followed.

GE, for example, have taken their long standing EMS system (Employee Management System), which consisted of a formal, once-a-year review, and are now asking managers to hold regular, informal “touchpoint” sessions, where they set or update priorities that are based on customer needs. Development is forward looking and ongoing; manager’s coach rather than critique; suggestions can come from anyone in an employee’s network. However a summary conversation between the employee and manager still takes place at the end of the year, and an ‘overview’ document, which reflects achievements and sets future goals, is still produced. Furthermore, just as they did under the EMS, managers still base compensation, promotion, and development decisions on these inputs (as well as a range of other factors, including business performance, internal and external benchmarks, and budgets.)

Understanding the pitfalls

Both the Annual Performance Appraisal meeting and monthly ‘one to
ones’, can be a conversation that managers and employees dread. And
for sure there are plenty of opportunities for people to feel ‘ill used’
or poorly treated as a result of the annual review process. Disaffection
with the review process can occur due to (i) the design of the appraisal
scheme itself, (ii) corporate culture and (iii) poor interview technique.

Design of the appraisal scheme

Bad scheme design creates a lack of clear goals, insufficient preparation
by the manager, no follows through on agreed actions e.g. not
implementing development plans. The way that pay awards do (or don’t)
relate to an overall appraisal rating can also have a distorting affect on
having a positive, productive conversation.

Corporate culture

In some corporate cultures honest conversations about performance,
or potential opportunities, or how a person can ‘grow’ are discouraged,
and the emphasis is on ‘transactional’ conversations focused solely on the
next task that needs to get done. That this state of affairs exists often
becomes apparent when a manager decides the time has finally come for
a poorly performing employee to go, but a review of their past appraisals
states that they’ve been a consistently good performer!

Poor interview technique

Common issues with the appraisal conversation itself include the
problems of ‘cognitive bias’ identified by the psychologist Edward
Thorndike in the 1920’s; namely the ‘horn’ and ‘halo’ effects. The halo
effect involves people being given a better review than objectively
warranted because of some positive quality they possess, for example,
attractive people are often also considered to be kind, trustworthy and
intelligent. The horn effect, also called the reverse–halo effect, is when
one undesirable trait unfairly affects the rating of other (unconnected)
factors. So (say) a person’s tardiness also leads them to being rated
lower for (say) teamwork or initiative than they really merit.

Good system design

Dealing with poor ‘scheme design’ involves applying sound, research based performance management concepts into the systems e.g. from the CLC study…

• Ensure employees understand the performance standards
• Create performance standards that are perceived as fair and linked to organizational success and strategy
• Provide feedback to employees from multiple sources
  (e.g. 360-degree reviews )

Getting the culture right

As for how to develop a more ‘open’, coaching based culture, that supports effective appraisals, John Kotter (Konosuke Matsushita Professor of Leadership at Harvard) says it’s achieved by… “A powerful person at the top, or a large enough group from anywhere in the organization, deciding the old ways are not working, figuring out a change vision, starting acting differently, and enlisting others to act differently. If the new actions produce better results, if the results are communicated and celebrated, and if they are not killed off by the old culture fighting its rear-guard action, new norms will form and new-shared values will grow.”

Managing the conversation

The remedy for poor quality conversations is to employ a robust interview methodology. The simplest approach (in my opinion) is to apply a version of Harvard Professor David McClelland’s Behavioural Event Interview method (1973) as follows…For each part of the appraisal process we ask the employee…

1. How do you rate yourself for…(x)…e.g. the way you managed your team?
2. Give me a specific example of something you did that supports that rating…
3. Here’s what I think…
4. Let’s agree what goes on the appraisal form…

The same process is then repeated for each item on the form…. E.g. as you look back over the past 12 months how do you rate yourself for… (initiative).

The key is for the manager to go into the meeting with a genuinely open mind and be prepared to shift his/her opinion in light of what they hear. In this way the employee has the opportunity to take the lead in the conversation, express him or herself fully (point by point) and provide evidence in support of their views, without first being ‘judged’ by the manager. This creates an open, fact based dialogue, which typically leads to a productive and maybe even enjoyable, appraisal meeting.

So what’s next?

Reflect on how you handle your appraisal meetings at present. Do you plan thoroughly? Do you have a set methodology that you apply to manage the face-to-face meeting? What improvements could you make?

Reading

Competence Based Performance Reviews, R. Kessler (2008)
(Career Press)

On-line

Watch this 7 minute video clip on the questions an employee can ask their manager during an appraisal.

Courses

Consider sending your managers on our half-day, “Performance Management – Conducting Successful Appraisal Interviews” course

Coaching

If you’re a Senior Executive, maybe a ‘one to one’ Executive Coaching Session would be a useful option for helping you improve your approach to Performance Management.  View one-to-one session

And remember……

“I have yet to find a man, however exalted his station, who did not do better work and put forth greater effort under a spirit of approval than under a spirit of criticism.”
Charles Schwab

By Martin Brooks, Programme Director, Boulden Management Consultants

“You never get a second chance to make a first impression”
ANON

Becoming UK Prime Minister and interview techniques

At 10am 8th May 2015 (the day after the UK general election) I was invited by the BBC to do an interview explaining why I thought the public had just voted David Cameron Prime Minister. I was asked; how he had performed better than Ed Miliband, what did Ed Miliband do wrong and how did their communication and impact skills lead to the result that was unfolding that morning? Ed Miliband had interviewed for the job of Prime Minister quite well, but David Cameron had used a better range of well executed communication skills. This helped him perform better in his interviews, look like the better candidate to the electorate and gave him a better chance to land the job of Prime Minister.

Translating the interview skills of politicians into daily life

One reason for studying the party leaders is to translate the communication skills they use into techniques that can enable anyone to communicate with greater impact, especially if there is the prospect of a promotion or a better job at stake. After all an interview for a job is a highly competitive scenario; very often the person that lands the job will be the one with the best ‘impact’, which helps the interviewer make their decision to hire one person over the other candidates. So in many cases having good experience or interviewing “well” is not enough to land your next job – you have to make a “better” impact than every other candidate. In essence your job as interviewee is to make to make it easy for the interviewer to decide you are the best person for the job. If the interviewing panel is still considering other people after you have finished your interview, you have failed in this central strategy. Here are three ‘tips’ for making this happen (i) Anticipate difficult questions (ii) Make eye contact (iii) Reframe your weaknesses.

Anticipate difficult questions

In the first televised debate, in the 2015 UK election, both main party leaders had to handle tough opening questions from the legendary hard-hitting interviewer, Jeremy Paxman. David Cameron was completely blind-sided by Paxman’s first question about Food Banks. He didn’t know how many there were in the UK, how many people were using them and how their use had sky rocketed during his first term as Prime Minister. Similarly, Ed Miliband couldn’t (or wouldn’t) give an upper limit on the number of people per year he would want to immigrate to the UK, despite Paxman asking him the same question a number of times.

Look at your CV critically and put yourself in the shoes of the most aggressive interviewer you can think of and think about the toughest question you could face. Then think of an even more difficult one. Ask a trusted friend or colleague to look at your CV and ask them to create a really tough question for you. Ask yourself these questions and film your answer on your smartphone and then play it back and critique your answer to see how you could be even more convincing under the pressure of some tough questioning. Look at your body language, listen to your voice quality, think about the structure of what you are saying and the words you choose to express your thoughts and see where you could create a “better” overall impact whilst answering the questions. Then, to fine tune your skills, repeat the exercise until you are happy with your responses. Think of other, tougher questions and repeat the process until you are confident you have covered all potential job-threatening questions. This process will not only boost your confidence, but also improve your chances of landing that job.

Make eye contact

Both the party leaders were questioned on their first “difficult” topic for approximately two minutes by Jeremy Paxman. Both leaders struggled to deal with the questions, but crucially David Cameron looked the more confident and credible. Closer examination of his behaviour reveals why. In those difficult first two minutes of the interview, Ed Miliband, broke eye contact 29 times. David Cameron by contrast only broke his eye contact 4 times – a huge difference.

Practice making strong eye contact when answering tough interview questions. Eye contact is also vital to secure that all-important confident first impression. Of course you don’t want to ‘stare’ unblinking at the interviewer and there is a balance to be struck, but breaking eye contact a lot can be interpreted as a lack of belief in the answer you are giving, or make people doubt your truthfulness.

Reframe your weaknesses

In his first televised appearance, David Cameron was blind-sided by Jeremy Paxman’s first question about Food Banks, but he learned from this mistake. In a later debate, he took this issue and turned it to his advantage. Whilst answering a completely different question, a member of the audience shouted out about Food Banks, immediately David Cameron jumped on the issue and said that the best way for people not to have to use Food Banks was by having a job and his government had created almost two million jobs in his first term as Prime Minister. In a heartbeat he had taken an issue that had previously been a disadvantage and turned it to his advantage.

It doesn’t matter how comprehensive your experience and skills are – everyone has a weak spot in their CV; everyone has something that isn’t to their advantage; everyone has had some “failures” in their career. The ‘trick’ to handing this is to consider how those ‘problems’ can be framed as strengths. Rather than hope to avoid a potential ‘problem’ in your interview, consider how you can turn it into the reason the interview panel should pick you. Plan to talk about how much you have learned from the experience. In an instant you have shown humility, an ability to both learn from past mistakes and to think positively about an event – all attributes many employers are actively looking for.

So what’s next?

Use these three tips to boost your confidence, impact and chances of landing that job at your next interview.

Try watching Harvey MacKay’s interview tips on You Tube…

Try reading: Persuasion Skills Black Book of Job Hunting Techniques: Using NLP and Hypnotic Language Patterns to Get the Job You Deserve, by Rintu Basu.

Think about hiring an expert Boulden Coach for a ‘one to one’ Executive Coaching assignment or commissioning an in-house Impact & Presence programme

Happy, impactful and successful interviewing, Martin Brooks.

“The only limit to your impact is your imagination and commitment”
Tony Robbins.