Want the job? Lead with motivation. There are only three job interview questions and only three answers. In the vast majority of cases each of the final candidates has the strengths required to do the job. And while the main reason people fail in new leadership roles is poor fit, that’s relatively difficult to assess up front. This leaves motivation as the most important criteria for selection. Be ready to answer all three interview questions, but lead with motivation.
Let’s unpack that.
There are only three true job interview questions.
As I’ve written before, there are only three true job interview questions:
1. Can you do the job?
2. Will you love the job?
3. Can we tolerate working with you?
Every question you’ve ever been asked or asked others in an interview is about understanding strengths, motivation or fit.
The good news is that with only three true job interview questions you need to prepare only three answers. The bad news is that interviews aren’t about you. No one cares about you. All they care about is what you can do for them. This requires different answers to align with different organizations and that requires preparation work on your part to be able to communicate:
• How your strengths align with their needs.
• How what motivates you aligns with what matters to them.
• How the way you work aligns with how they work.
Acing the only three job interview questions.
In an ideal situation, the perfect candidate meets the perfect interviewer and everything aligns. In the real world you’re probably not going to encounter perfect interviewers every time. Thus, acing the only three job interview questions is going to involve getting through the questions asked to the questions that matter. The prescription is to think — answer — bridge.
1. Think before opening your mouth.
2. Answer the question asked.
3. Bridge to answer the true underlying question.
No matter how any question is phrased, it’s always about how your strengths, motivation and fit can help solve their problems. If you can’t convince interviewers you can solve their problems, they won’t hire you. If you convince them you can solve their stated problems, they could hire you. Convincing them you can solve their most important, hidden, underlying problems is the route to becoming the must hire candidate in a job interview.
Lead with motivation.
In a must-watch TEDx talk on how great leaders inspire action, Simon Sinek powerfully makes the case that “People don’t buy what you do. They buy why you do it.” It was true when he said it and it’s even more true as Millennials have become the largest cohort in the workforce and are poised to become the largest cohort of leaders. If not now, soon more Baby Boomers will be working for Millennials than Millennials will be working for Baby Boomers. And Millennials tend to be purpose-driven.
This means that people are no longer going to hire what you can do. They will hire why you do it. You must be able to communicate how your strengths will help interviewers solve their problems. You must be able to assuage their fears about tolerating working with you. But jobs are increasingly going to those with the best alignment of motivation.
Two sample answers to why someone wants the CFO job at an organization working to improve doctor/patient interactions:
1. “I see how I can contribute to improving your financial operations and help you through the coming exit to private equity investors.”
2. “Some of my family members’ healthcare was compromised by poor interactions with their doctors. I want to be part of helping you fix that.”
The second wins — every time.
Make motivation your message.
Supply chain, operations and CIO leader, Lee Wachter told me how he’s using the three interview questions as the framework for interview thank you notes. How brilliant is that! He makes the key points in interviews and then reinforces them in writing later. This way people without perfect memories have an easy reference to the main points Lee wanted to make.
Do that. And make motivation your message.
• Prepare by getting clear on the alignment between what matters to you and what matters to the organization and why.
• Lead with that in interviews as appropriate.
• Lead with that in your thank you notes.
• Lead with that in your executive onboarding work.
