How To Communicate What Really Matters In Leadership Interviews

Start with the motivation. Identify the question behind the question. Tailor your responses to the audience. And don't forget to frame your case in the final stages!

Client: I am qualified and I have the relevant experience. I get feedback that I do well in the interviews. But often when I’m one of two or three candidates, and they decide to go with someone else, saying they have more relevant experience. Why is this happening? Is it just bad luck?

One of the most common pieces of feedback executive candidates receive is that they are not a great fit for the role or the hiring manager went with someone who has “more relevant experience” even though they did well in the interviews. From the hiring panel’s perspective, seemingly qualified candidates often fail to communicate “what matters” in the interview process. This extends the search and creates frustration for all involved.

How can you influence the hiring process and pitch your experience and candidacy in the best way possible for competitive senior leadership roles? The secret lies in asking better questions, not providing more practiced answers.

Uncover The Real Motivation

First, understand the true motivation behind why a hiring manager is hiring for a role. Put on your customer research or detective hat. What problem are they trying to solve with someone in this role? Why is this problem a priority for the company to solve? What is the real challenge in the job?

As a candidate, here are some great questions to use when probing for role clarity:

• What are the top three priorities for this leader? What is one thing you wish this person had done yesterday?

• What types of leaders were in this role previously? What worked well? What did not work well?

• What are the strengths of the rest of the leadership team? What is the skills gap you’re looking to fill on the team? What cultural elements are you looking to strengthen and why?

• If in a year the leader fails in this role, what are the top reasons you would hypothesize?

• What is the one skill you believe is absolutely critical for this role? Why?

All these questions are tailored to draw out from the interviewer “what matters” in different ways. Discussing surface-level indicators (e.g. size of team, years of experience in the industry, the caliber of previous companies) will get you in the door. It will not land you the job.

It is only by understanding what the job truly requires that you can make a case for why you’re a great fit for the job and appropriately highlight past experiences and work that is relevant to the interviewer.

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How and when to ask these questions?

Okay, you want to ask the questions — but when?

First, do your research and homework with these questions in mind and form a hypothesis. Research the company history and latest announcements. Consider the stage of the company, the industry, and the investors on their board. Look at the work experiences of your interviewer on LinkedIn.

• What are they likely to care about (e.g. growth? revenue? profitability?)

• What challenges are they likely facing at the moment (e.g. scaling teams? finding PMF? entering a new market?)

• What type of leadership style will this interviewer likely prefer based on past experiences? What cultures have they worked in during their formative years as a leader? Will they be more analytical or design-oriented? Authoritarian or servant leadership forward? hungry for action or introspective?

Doing your research well and forming an initial hypothesis will give you a more informed starting point for honing in on “what matters”.

Most interviews start with the interviewer asking a broad question like “Tell me about yourself.” or “Tell me about your management experience.” Your goal with your response is to give enough to the interviewer so that they can dive deeper into what matters to them. So, keep it short (2-3 min), highlight a range of experiences, and keep it all outcome-focused (the why and what, not the how where it gets long). Give slightly more airtime to the areas that you think will resonate with the interviewer based on your research. Then, let them drive. Let your interviewer get to their next questions, so they can get to questions that matter to them.

Sometimes, the interviewer will open with “Do you have any questions for me?” to start. This is the best question you can get (I always get excited about this). This is your chance to probe what matters to this interviewer! Try to get at least one question in to give you a sense of what matters, so that you can tailor your responses to their questions.

Speak to your audience

Any interview panel for senior leadership will have a wide breadth of functions and experiences represented. Remember to ask the previous set of role definition questions not just to the recruiter or hiring manager, but also to future peers, board members, and anyone else you meet in the interview process. Learn “what matters” to each decision-maker — they will be different.

Perhaps the CTO is looking for a product leader who has technical depth, and the CEO wants someone who can manage relationships with the board well. The team is eager for someone who is a great strategist and has a strong vision.

Then, say the first question you get is “Tell me about your experience.” You would highlight your more technical skillsets and projects with the CTO, speak to selling the board on a 3-year strategy with the CEO, and narrate your vision from your previous project with the team.

Remember, no one really wants to know all the details of all the roles you’ve held in chronological order. They just want to know if you’ve done what matters to them.

If during the interview you feel like you are losing the interest of the interviewer in your answers, you can also ask them a question directly about what matters to them. In most leadership interviews, it is okay to “break format” and switch gears for a moment. You need more information about what matters to them. Try asking:

• What are you most excited to get with someone in this role?

• What do you think is going to be a big challenge for someone in this role?

• Is there a particular type of experience you’d like to hear more about from me?

By breaking up the flow and bringing in curiosity, you break the downward cycle of the interview and allow the interviewer to have some air time (most people like to talk and share their opinions!). At the same time, you’ll gain some insight on where you should be refocusing your responses.

Bring The Panel Together

Perhaps surprisingly, when starting interviews for senior leadership roles, the criteria for the “ideal candidate” are often not fully defined or sound like a unicorn leader who excels at every aspect. Busy executives go into the hiring process with different notions of what the “best” candidate is like, and only in the interview debrief process (if there is one) do they hash out the differences. Sometimes, the hiring leader will intentionally bring various types of candidates into the interview loop to help the group hone in on the type of leader they truly want.

One of your goals as an interviewee further in the hiring process is to help the hiring panel solidify what they are looking for (and give you the top offer). In fact, you’re doing the job of a future leader — bringing people with various contexts together with a common framework and decision-making criteria, and getting the group to the best decision (hiring you!)

This type of conversation typically happens after the first few rounds, when you’ve met the cast of characters and passed the initial interviews. At this point, the hiring team will have a few candidates they’re excited about and are actively debating who to hire. As a candidate, this is also around the time you will have follow-up conversations with the hiring manager or key decision-makers.

Use this time to help the hiring panel frame and decide (e.g. influence the outcome). If you notice discrepancies in “what matters” between key decision-makers, highlight them for the hiring manager and help them prioritize what’s most important. Remake the pitch for why hiring a leader with your unique leadership superpowers is the best move for them.

Going back to the previous example: Highlight for the CEO (the hiring manager) that while you have decent technical chops (CTO’s What Matters) and are strong in storytelling (teams’ What Matters), what the company truly needs their next leader to spike on is managing the board (because the board is often disruptive company priorities or you will need to raise again in just 6 months). This convinces the CEO to put you as a top candidate and gives the CEO the narrative they need to convince the rest of the hiring panel.

This latter part of the hiring process is where the qualified candidates often slip up. They rest on their laurels knowing they’ve told their story and nailed each of their interviews. However, remember that hiring panels for senior roles frequently finalize what they’re looking for down to the offer stage. This is where you are one of a few final candidates and then they give the offer to someone else!

So, don’t miss chances to keep honing in on and framing what matters and positioning yourself as the top candidate. Even if you get an offer, this approach will give you a boost in negotiations for a more attractive offer! =)

That’s all folks. See you next week at 3:14 pm!

Yue

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