Hiring managers often ask for a crash course in interviewing -- a wise request, considering the lack of frequency the task is required. And because most interviews are conducted in less than two hours, effective use of that time can be critical to surfacing candidates most likely to excel in a specific corporate culture.

Insightful, well-placed questions can help achieve that goal, according to Jim Kennedy of Management Team Consultants, San Rafael, CA. His Effective Interviewing seminars help recruiters ask "high gain" questions and deal with their intuitive concerns about a candidate during the interview. As a tool, Mr. Kennedy offers "33 Best Questions", the result of his survey among members of the elite Association of Executive Search Consultants, of which Columbia Consulting Group is a member.

"These very powerful probes," according to Mr. Kennedy, "ask the candidate to interpret in behavioral terms themselves or their accomplishments -- either directly or through the eyes of a knowledgeable third party. (Example: 'How do your subordinates describe your management style?')"

With appreciation to Mr. Kennedy for his permission to use, here are MTC's best questions, followed by our own consultants' favorites.

Forming Values

• How do you perceive your early background/family experience to have impacted your career?
• How has your personal background (upbringing, schooling) influenced what you are today, your career progression, your management/people style?
• What are the values you are taught in your family?

Professional Relationships

• Where do you relate the best? Up one level, down one level or with peers?
• How are you best managed?
• How do you build a team under you?
• What qualities have you liked/disliked in your bosses - why?
• How do you evaluate the performance of your subordinates?
• How do you elevate a subordinate's performance?

Priorities and a Balanced Life

• Discuss the importance of your job vis-a-vis your family and your faith.
• How do you balance your personal and business lives?
• How do you reward yourself for working hard? How would you spend more free time if you had it?

Handling the Downside

• When and why have you fired people?
• What is the most adverse situation with which you have had to deal in your personal or professional life? How did you deal with it? What was the outcome?
• Is there any pattern to critical feedback you tend to get from others?
• Have you made any mistakes during your career? If so, what were they? How did you fix them?
• Let's talk about >set-backs. How have they affected you and your family?
• Tell me about the events surrounding firing someone or severely reprimanding someone.
• How do you show your anger and frustration? [The value in these questions is as much in how the candidate answers them as what s/he says.]

Career Success

• If I hadn't contacted you about this search, what would have been your current career prospects in your current company?
• Do you consider your progress to date to be representative of your abilities?
• Tell me about your most recent interview.
• According to your definition of success, how successful have you been?
• What's been the role of luck in your success?

Nowhere to Hide

• If you were speaking tonight to the National Association of Manufacturers, which subject would you select that would enable the audience to see what is special about you as a business person?
  
• What was the most difficult ethical decision you have had to make and what was the outcome?
  
• What is the difference between a good position and an excellent one?
  
• Tell me how your approach to managing an organization has changed from the way it was ten years ago.
  
• Tell me about my client.

For further information about "behavioral competency interview training", contact: Jim Kennedy, Management Team Consultants, 1010 B. Street, Suite 403, San Rafael, California 94901; (415) 459-4800. ...and some of our own favorites

To Mr. Kennedy's list, several of Columbia Consulting Group's consultants have added their own tried and true questions.

Larry Holmes

• What improvements do you require as a professional?
  
• Is there anything that would prevent you from further exploring this position?

Phil Grantham

• If you look back to your early career, what was your most significant short-coming, and how have you learned to manage it?

Julie Mercer

• If I took your staff (subordinates) out for drinks and I asked them to describe your strengths and weaknesses, what would I learn? And how about your peers?

Bill Johnson

• What ethical issues have you had to face directly or indirectly in your career, and how did you approach them?
  
• Who had the biggest impact on your career? How?
  
• What career goal haven't you accomplished yet?

Executive Search Activity up 18% Nationally

CCG outpaces trend at 22%
Member firms of the Association of Executive Search Consultants (AESC) reported an 18% increase in assignments last year, the organization recently reported. The New York-based professional association (of which Columbia Consulting Group is a member) tracks trends for the industry, in addition to supporting high professional standards in executive search consulting.

Highlights of its 1997 study included the following increases in executive demand:

• a double digit jump from all industries, except the service sector (+7%)
  
• an 89% increase from utilities (credited primarily to deregulation)
  
• food/tobacco businesses, up 64%
  
• manufacturing, up 22%
  
• communications, up 39%, led by print media businesses (+91%) and telecommunications companies (+26%)

The study indicates that more than half of all searches in 1997 were for newly-created positions, a first in the survey's three-year history.

Of the searches booked by member firms, nearly half (49%) were in the $100-$199,000 range, and almost one third (31%) from $200,000-$499,000. Five per cent represented compensation packages over $500,000, and 15% for those under $100,000.

Columbia Consulting Group outpaced the search industry, with a 22% increase in search activity during 1997, with search assignments divided equally between newly created and replacement positions. CCG further expanded our global reach, with 14% of assignments being for positions outside the U.S.

The majority (60%) of CCG's search assignments were in the $100,000-$199,000 compensation range; and 30% of all searches booked had compensation packages greater than $200,000. Searches with compensation packages of less than $100,000 made up only 10% of CCG's assignments during 1997.

CCG's experience continues to cross all industries, with a strong emphasis in financial services and manufacturing.

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