Submitted by Kevin1 on
in
Forums
Just read this interesting article suggesting that a good interview question for a prospective leader would be to describe the details surrounding the last time they fired someone. What led up to it, what mistakes were made, why couldn't it be avoided, what happened afterwards? etc.
http://www.inc.com/marc-barros/the-interview-question-that-reveals-a-born-leader.html
Not a bad question at the more senior levels. Seems like it would sort the pretenders from the real deal. It had me thinking about how I would answer that. What are your thoughts?
Kind regards
Kev
I'd look for...
Like you said, I think this pertains to someone that has a little bit more tenure under their manager belt. In general, unless the employee was terminated for clear-cut zero tolerance reasons (e.g. theft, violence, etc.), I'd want to see and hear that the interviewee went to great lengths to try to save the person first, and that the termintation was a last resort. In other words, you want to make sure it wasn't just "the easy way out".
Interesting question.
Interesting question. When we terminate someone, we don't disclose internally or externally that the person was fired. We keep it all confidential.
I've used the question myself
I've used the question myself in interviews for managers who will have a team of directs. Performance management is a key criteria and I want to be sure they're doing it right. And even if it's redundancy/ retrenchment, then I want to know they know what is involved.
As a HR Manager, I often find department managers don't understand the legalities surrounding 'fair (or 'due') process' which when done incorrectly can have costly legal implications.
Aside from the legal issues, we want leadership which means we're looking for managers who lead by example and will try every other appropriate avenue first.
Cheers
Cyndy