How To Spot A Leader During A Job Interview

The next time you are interviewing a candidate and you want to access their leadership skills, consider asking the candidate these questions:

What personal qualities define you as a leader? Describe a situation when these qualities helped you lead others.
Give an example of when you demonstrated good leadership.
What is the toughest group from which you've had to get cooperation?
Have you ever had difficulty getting others to accept your ideas? What was your approach? Did it work?
Describe a situation in which you had to change your leadership style to achieve the goal?
One leadership skill is the ability to accommodate different views in the workplace, regardless of what they are. What have you done to foster a wide number of views in your work environment?

Thanks to Sharon Armstrong, author of The Essential HR Handbook, for these helpful questions!

Comments

How To Transform Self-Empathy Into Your Most Valuable Professional Asset

Today brings a highly personal, timely and compelling book for coaches, clinicians, executives, and leaders who want to create sustainable success without sacrificing their humanity and while putting self-empathy at the core of their professional role. The book is Leading From The Heart: The Essential Guide to Self-Empathy & Self-Compassion by Dr. D. Ivan Young , a renowned behavioral neural science expert, and ICF Mastered Certified Coach. “Empathy invites us to pause, to witness, to connect, “says Dr. Young, “It is a quiet, unhurried force that creates and builds bridges between us. At a time in which we increasingly interact with technology and artificial intelligence, practicing empathy allows us to be and feel truly human with one another.” In the book’s forward, Carrie Abner, Head of Credentialing for the International Coaching Federation, she explains that empathy allows leaders to connect more deeply with their teams, listen beyond words, suppor...

How To Uncover Your Blindspots To Become A Better Leader

What you don't see about yourself can hold you back as a leader. That's typical for many leaders. What we don't see is what we can't see: we have blindspots . Your blindspots prevent you from achieving your greatest success. “It turns out that we're often not great judges of ourselves, even when we think we are. Sometimes we're simply unaware of a behavior or trait that's causing problems,” explains Martin Dubin , author of the new book, Blindspotting: How To See What’s Holding You Back As A Leader . “Bottom line: until we uncover these blindspots, we can't move forward. The good news is that you can learn to do your own blindspotting .” “Most of us understand the idea of blindspots in a general sense—areas we can’t see, to take the term most literally, or places we have gaps that we may not even realize, to be a little more abstract,” says Dubin. “But in the context of this book, I’m defining blindspots quite specifically: They are...

12 Data-Driven Steps To Finding A Job You Love

In 2024, I named Be The Unicorn: Data-driven Habits That Separate The Best Leaders From The Rest , by William Vanderbloemen , as the best new leadership book of that year. The book is timely, incredibly practical, and immediately usable for any leader wherever they are on their leadership journey. Through extensive research of more than 30,000 top leaders and proprietary data, Vanderbloemen identified in the book the twelve habits that the best of the best leaders have in common. These superstar leaders are the unicorns – highly desirable but that are difficult to find or obtain. And recently, Vanderbloemen followed up that gem of a book with another terrific book called, Work How You Are Wired: 12 Data-Driven Steps To Finding A Job You Love . It’s a great companion book to Be The Unicorn . Those 12 steps align with these 12 personality traits/interpersonal habits: Fast Authentic Agile Solver Anticipator Prepar...

How To Overcome Four Common Challenges To Become A Better Communicator

“Raising your game as a communicator is one of the best ways to make a difference in the world, but it takes courage to open up to others and invite others to open up to you” says Michelle D. Gladieux , author of the new book, Communicate With Courage: Taking Risks To Overcome The Four Hidden Challenges . Gladieux explains that those four hidden challenges and sneaky obstacles that can keep you from becoming the best communicator you can be are: Hiding —Fear of exposing your supposed weaknesses. Defining —Putting too much stock into assumptions and being quick to judge. Rationalizing —Using “being realistic” to shield yourself from taking chances, engaging in conflict, or doing other scary but potentially rewarding actions. Settling —Stopping at “good enough” instead of aiming for something better in your interactions. According to Gladieux, these challenges all have something in common. They require taking risks—to reveal yourself, question your beliefs,...

How To Be More Playful To Build Resilience, Navigate Challenges And Find More Joy

“Research reveals that playful adults excel at problem-solving and stress management and consistently report higher life satisfaction,” explains Piera Gelardi , author of the new book, The Playful Way . The Playful Way is a mindset that transforms how you experience everything from airport security lines to career transitions to navigating grief. More specifically, Gelardi says playfulness is: Finding humor and lightness even in tense moments. Staying open to possibilities rather than fixating on one “right” way. Experimenting rather than seeking perfection. Bringing an ethos of curious exploration to difficulties. Finding wisdom in the body when the mind’s tied up in knots. Tuning your attention to notice details and find wonder. Reimagining dull tasks through reframes and games. Improvising when things go sideways. Gelardi guides readers in uncovering the mental barriers and inner critics that restrict playfulness, offering practical techniqu...

How To Reclaim Your Time And Be Time Smart

“Four out of five adults report feeling that they have too much to do and not enough time to do it,” reports Ashley Whillans , author of the book, Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time and Live a Happier Life . “These time-poor people experience less joy each day. They laugh less. They are less healthy and less productive.” And, in one study, time stress produced a stronger negative effect on happiness than unemployment. Drawing on the latest science, Whillans teaches us how to escape the time traps that make us feel this way and keep us from living our best lives. She explains that the six most common time traps are: Constant connection to technology. Obsession with work and making money. Limited value placed on time. Busyness as a status symbol. Aversion to idleness. The Yes…and then regret it effect. Her playbook shows you how to : take back the time you lose to mindless tasks and unfulfilling chores. improve your "time affluence.” f...

How To Unleash The Most Powerful Force In Business

In Marcus Buckingham ’s latest book, Design Love In: How To Unleash The Most Powerful Force In Business , he details the one hidden skill at the heart of all the best leaders today—and what you can do in your own working life to cultivate it. The skill is leading lovingly —what Buckingham calls Design Love In (DLI). Being a leader, whom people say they love working for and for whom they’d walk through walls. A leader who gets the absolute best out of their employees and who builds the kind of team employees desperately want to be on. “Love fuels our resilience, sparks our creativity, and bonds us together as collaborators,” shares Buckingham. “Love means a passionate commitment to something or someone. Love means deep loyalty. Love is advocacy. And, of course, love can also be hard-edged, hence ‘tough love.’” Buckingham recommends leaders create experiences that: Make employees feel bigger. Allow employees to feel safe enough to open up. Help employees flourish. Further, Buckingh...

Let's Meet At The Intersection Of Marketing, Leadership And Blogging! A Q&A With Debbie Laskey

Credit: iStock Photo For the past 16 years, I have relied on Debbie Laskey's Blog for expert leadership guidance and always interesting insights into marketing best practices and recaps of marketing trends. Fortunately, through the years, Debbie has also shared her expertise through a variety of postings on my blog, and I'm honored again today to feature Debbie with the following Q&A's: QUESTION: You've featured many leadership experts on your blog through the years. What is a common theme from all the Q&A's? DEBBIE LASKEY : Back in 2011, I met Mark Herbert, a leadership expert and author based in Oregon, as a result of our interactions on Twitter/X. I interviewed him several times, and he provided a quote that I will always remember and share often: "Leadership doesn't require you to be the smartest person in the room. It requires you to block and tackle for others." That quote has appeared on my blog countless times over the years because...

Leadership Lessons From Kent Taylor, Founder Of Texas Roadhouse

From cover-to-cover of Made From Scratch you’ll learn the leadership lessons of the late Kent Taylor , founder of the restaurant chain Texas Roadhouse. In the new book, Taylor recounts how he built the restaurant chain from the ground up after being rejected more than 80 times as he pitched the idea for the business. His approach to business was often out-of-the-box, however, his business lessons and leadership lessons from the course of his life and career are invaluable. Here are some of my favorite leadership lessons from Kent and his book: The best leaders stay down-to-earth and approachable. In a bottom-up company, the leader learns from frontline people. As soon as you make a profit, find a way to give back. Be willing to laugh at yourself. Become a student of your craft. Positive reinforcement inspires much greater performance than fear ever can. Want to get the respect of your people? Then roll up y...

How To Use The CPR Business Efficiency Framework To Eliminate A Team's Pain Points

In Nick Sonnenberg’s book, Come Up For Air , you’ll learn about his CPR Business Efficiency Framework , which stands for: C ommunication P lanning R esources This framework focuses on eliminating the pain points most teams experience by optimizing these three operation areas foundational to every organization. “In my book, I show you the tools that will boost efficiency in all three of these domains and I provide you with a detailed blueprint for the most effective ways to use them,” explains Sonnenberg. He further shares that some sections of the book may be more applicable to managers, and some may be more applicable to individual contributors. “However, it is still integral that both roles understand all of the concepts within the CPR Framework as each one benefits the team as a whole,” says Sonnenberg. As you read the book, you’ll learn what Sonnenberg has learned through years of building a leading efficiency consulting business – that th...

Eric Jacobson On Management And Leadership

Search This Blog