Team

Change is occurring everywhere today due to the pandemic, protests, and economic failures.

Many team members that have been silent are now standing up and speaking up. This can be intimidating for even the strongest of leaders because change can be difficult whether or not you believe in it.

You can view change as a phoenix rising out of the success your company has already experienced. Or, you can hide behind the numbers, policies, and “the way it’s always been done,” and hope no one notices.

The truth is, leaders must manage the change or it will manage them.

How Do You Get Out of the Way?

Embrace, Don’t Fear of Change. This is a must and required to be a leader, especially in today’s new world of work. Learn to embrace change and be part of its evolution instead of allowing it to happen by default. Be the leader that guides teams forward by encouraging innovation along the way.

It’s Not Personal. When team members are standing up and speaking up, it’s not about you. It’s about changes they believe are required of the company’s systems, policies, and/or practices. When you set aside your ego, biases and judgments, you will hear what needs to be heard. Then, you can ask questions to brainstorm ideas that build change and create win-win-win outcomes.

Develop Mindful Resilience. We all get triggered by certain words, facial expressions, or gestures. Mindful resilience is when we develop a conscious awareness of our triggers and address our reactions in a positive manner. It’s starts with you, as the leader, taking responsibility for your triggers when they occur so they don’t get in the way. Remember, clarity of what triggered your reactions is required before you can create win-win-win outcomes. Work with your executive coach or therapist to guide you through these triggered reactions that can get in the way of leading and managing change.

Get Over the Need to be Well-Liked When Making Decisions. It hurts your credibility. Many leaders are afraid to upset others and it is reflected in their decisions. However, change requires fearless leadership to make the tough decisions and manage worthwhile change. Work with your executive coach as a trusted sounding board and focus on understanding the impact your decisions have across the company and with your customers. Include team members in decision-making processes by using facilitated brainstorming sessions. Give them a voice and listen to what they are saying!  You’ll be amazed by their ideas and insights.

Make Your Feedback Positive. Recently a group of people were providing feedback on a project by saying, “I don’t like this or that.” When asked why, they said, “Just because I don’t.” This type of feedback is meaningless and not helpful to a project manager or team. As a leader, discover “why” by asking non-accusatory questions. Otherwise, you and your team will fail to stretch and develop the skills required to make better decisions.

Questions to get the conversation started:

• Tell me more about why you don’t like this idea.
• Interesting…could you tell me what you’re hearing or seeing about this idea that has you say “no”?
• What would make it a “yes”?

Getting out of the way and leading change will make you a better leader. Your career will thank you.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to excel at leading by embracing change. The new world of work has started. Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette to improve your strategic hiring, coaching, training, and managing processes.  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

Change can be a difficult process for everyone! As a leader, learn about your style to see how well you have managing it! Contact Jeannette about the CheckPoint 360^oassessment.

While the crisis initially energized many teams, now, they find themselves plateauing.

Many of you as leaders may not see or feel the difference because you’ve already moved on to other ideas and opportunities that energize you. And, you may have overlooked the needs of your team!

Many team members are not Type A’s like many leaders are! As a result, they need your help as their leader to be productive after the initial hype of any crisis. Regardless of your leadership style, how you handle going forward will determine if your team is engaged and energized!

5 Tips to Engage and Energize Your Team

Listen as Though They Matter. Develop the habit of recognizing where your listening skills need improvement. When you listen with intent, you will hear what your team is saying and notice the all-important non-verbal cues! Listen and ask the right questions. Now, you can be a catalyst to keep the team engaged and energized.

Your Actions Are Louder than Your Words. Non-verbal communication accounts for 80% of what people hear! With the initial crisis over, you cannot hide out during virtual meetings! When you slouch, yawn, or play with your phone, you’re indicating you are not listening and bored. This can be upsetting and demoralizing to team members. Instead, turn off electronics and other distractions. Nod, smile, and look directly into the camera when listening and speaking. This will let you team know you are engaged and expect the same from them.

Influencing Others Is More Engaging. When making decisions, instead of relying on the power of your job title and other factors, learn how to influence others. If you’re committed to engaging team members, you will provide them the opportunity to be part of the decision-making process. This requires training your team members (e.g., listening, critical thinking, brainstorming, etc.) and addressing real-life issues. While this process builds stronger, more engaged teams, remember, the final decision is yours.

Include 1:1 Meetings…They Are Also Important. Talking and providing feedback with individual team members builds trust. It also builds a stronger collective team. 1:1 meetings provide a great opportunity to learn what each and every person needs to be successful. After all, that’s what successful leadership is about…helping teams and individuals succeed!

It’s OK to Admit to a Bad Day. Self-awareness is the mark of a healthy leader and healthy team members. During this crisis (and future ones), being aware of your triggers and upsets are an important part of being an effective leader. Share your upsets appropriately by taking responsibility and communicating your actions to mitigate them. Don’t fall into the common trap of blaming others, the situation, or your boss, customer, or board. Remember, your team will listen and learn from you if you’re being authentic about the challenges you are facing.

©Jeannette Seibly 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to excel at leading by example and building trust. The new world of work has started. Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette to improve your strategic hiring, coaching, training, and managing processes.  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

Business today is not business as usual. It’s why we call it a “new normal.”

While many of us have experienced “new normal’s” during our careers, we have found each one to bring new challenges to the workplace.

The question is, are you ready to be an effective leader in today’s new normal?

The answer is good news because current and future leaders can step up and learn to effectively manage in any situation. The bad news is it’s easy to overlook developing key skills thinking they don’t matter.

For example, many of you have already experienced the challenges of being a remote leader. Skills like listening. You are learning the hard way that listening is the foundation required to build trust and achieve intended results. I’ve addressed these skills and more in two articles this year, Are You Ready to Excel as a Leader? Now is the Time! and  Knowing How to Lead Virtual Team Members Is a Required Skill

This article addresses those commonly overlooked skills that remote leaders must also address to become effective during any new normal.

5 Often Overlooked Leadership Skills

Be More Proactive and Less Reactive. For example, many businesses had been considering allowing employees to work remotely prior to this pandemic. But, they pushed it off thinking it would take too much time and too many resources. Yet, within a week of “Stay at Home” orders, these same companies were able to have millions of employees working from home! What ideas, programs, and plans have you been sitting on thinking now is not the time? Now is the time to either move them forward or find a shredder. Don’t be afraid to brainstorm new ideas with your team!

Manage for Results. Before this latest crisis, only 10% of teams actually executed their plans! Today we don’t have that luxury. To improve your results, expect success and work with your team to achieve them! Do you know the #1 skill to develop? It’s how to listen.  That means no multi-tasking while you pretend to listen. (Yes, I know I’m a parrot about listening! I find it amazing the results achieved when you do!) When you listen intently, you will hear ideas and nuances that you previously missed. Ask questions to deep dive. This #1 skill will facilitate 1:1 and team effectiveness and results!

Choose Who Should Work from Home. Be aware and sensitive to the fact that not everyone can work from home productively for a variety of reasons. Create new options for remote team members to work in safe and healthy environments. It’s up to you to ensure they have the tools and resources needed. Schedule 1:1 meetings to ask, listen, and ensure your team members have what they need to be productive.

Build Resilience, Responsibility, and Resourcefulness. It’s important to develop a team that pushes the edges, takes initiative, and creates positive differences.  Mistakes will be made by you and your team; use these as learning opportunities. Provide podcasts, online webinars, and other opportunities to develop new skills for both you and your team! An added idea: Focus on one new skill per week by facilitating a short discussion (or have a team member do so). This process builds team comradery and ensures they are using their new skills. Skills include, listening to one another, appreciating the diversity of people, using critical thinking, and executing a plan, to name a few.

Be Coachable. Yes, during fast economic growth, we often overlook this essential skill believing we don’t have the time to talk with a coach. Yet, successful leaders have coaches regardless of the economic highs or lows! The bottom line is, you don’t have the time for trial and error for this new normal!  That’s one of many things a coach will help you with. Also, remember your team members will only forgive you for your blunders once or twice before circulating their resumes! So hire the right coach today!

©Jeannette Seibly 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to achieve unprecedented results remotely!  Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

“If it weren’t for assessments, I would hire the way I always do and get the same bad results!” — President, Engineering Company

As offices reopen, companies everywhere must focus on strategies to improve team performance and revive their bottom line.

It starts with hiring and selecting the right employees for the right job…aka job fit, the first time. Sadly, too many companies spend more time evaluating equipment and systems than focusing on hiring the right people to run and manage them!

 “It is not experience that counts, or college degrees or other accepted factors – success hinges on fit with the job.” (Source: Harvard Business Review, Vol. 58, No. 5)

Today, more than ever, using the right assessments for hiring and selecting the right employees will determine fit with the job and impact your bottom line.

Cost of Poor Hiring Practices

As a leader, you know your turnover rate. In fact, you may be proud that it is below industry standards. Yet, the truth is, you do not know how the actual costs of your current hiring practices impact your bottom line. (Think of the client you just lost and the intangible costs!)

Now is a great opportunity to calculate the cost of a bad hire, and how much it costs to promote the wrong person, or lose a talented team member. When you do this, you will realize you’re losing money each and every quarter, even though your bottom line may be acceptable…not great…just OK!

Not All Assessments Are Created Equal

Not all assessments are designed for hiring and selection purposes. Using assessments that have not been statistically validated for pre-employment and selection purposes can get you in legal trouble. Also, the wrong assessment will cause you to hire the wrong person for the right job OR hire the right person for the wrong job.

Why?

People are like icebergs: they only let you see what they want you to see and what you don’t see under the surface is often far more significant!

Currently, most employees hate their jobs (over 71% according to a Gallup study) due to poor job fit. Many hiring managers and recruiters overlooked tell-tale indicators and used assessments that were not statistically validated for pre-employment use.

Using the wrong assessment or no assessment allows candidates to tell you what you want to hear not what you need to hear. (Note: there is only a 15% chance of discerning a lie!)

For example, candidates will…

• -Talk about the skills and talents they don’t use appropriately.
• -Share achievements they didn’t accomplish.
• -Win the job offer and not be the same person that shows up to work. (Or, ghost you!)

These avoidable hiring mistakes will hinder your ability to revive your bottom line.

Use the Right Assessment to Ensure Job Fit

You would not use a screwdriver to put a nail in the wall. The right tool is a hammer. Using the right assessment tools are no different.

There are over 3,000 assessments in the market today. Most do not meet the Department of Labor’s 13 Guidelines for Using Pre-Employment and Selection Assessments (See: Testing and Assessment: An Employer’s Guide to Good Practices, Department of Labor).

How do you choose the right assessment to determine job fit and core values?

There are two options:

1. Read the DOL’s 13 Guidelines (citation noted two paragraphs above) and review the technical manual for each one. A qualified assessment will have a technical manual showing statistically that it meets the validity and reliability and all other requirements for pre-employment and selection purposes. The key is to ask for the technical manual and refuse to use an assessment for pre-employment and selection purposes without one.
2. Talk with an assessment expert to guide you through the process.

When you take the time to select the right assessments and use them as directed, they work and will positively revive your bottom line.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2015-2020

Source: “Hire Amazing Employees,” Chapter 11, Assess for Job Fit—Use Qualified Assessments http://BizSavvyHire.com

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to hire, coach, train, and manage for unprecedented results. The new world of work is here.  Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

When you experience fatigue, loss of energy, and/or poor results, you’ve hit the wall of resistance. And, no matter what you say, think or do…nothing will change until you do.

We’ve all hit that wall of resistance in our lives. It doesn’t matter if you have been successful in the past… it means change needs to happen for you now.

My wall of resistance recently occurred when I bought a new laptop and software. In the past, I’ve been able to make the changes necessary to be up and running quickly. Initially, I had success. Then, I hit my wall of resistance when the new backup program wasn’t working and I had to call for a tech geek instead of being able to do it myself. The following key points and tips helped me breakthrough my wall of resistance.

Since life and business have changed so dramatically, you will experience more walls of resistance than ever. The good news is, if you’re willing to be open to new ways of doing things you can break down your walls just like I did.

4 Key Points to Remember

• -Humans are resilient…and so are you!
• -This new normal can attract new opportunities.
• -You, along with others, are creating a new world.
• -Be ready! Now is a great time to create new habits, mindsets, and POVs.

Your wall of resistance is a gift. It’s letting you know now is the time to make changes.  

6 Tips to Discover New Opportunities

Breathe! Yes, inhale and exhale. Do this consciously. Breathe in for 5 counts. Pause. Exhale for 10 counts. Repeat this 3 times. Breathing, along with one or two of the following tips, will help you uncover new possibilities. However, you will still need to take focused-action for them to happen.

Write it out. Fear limits new opportunities. Watching the news and reading all the controversy about COVID-19 is confusing and depressing. So, instead, focus on the positive. Journal every day about what is working and your successes (brags). Also, include what you’re grateful for. The act of writing will create new awareness and new ideas. (For those of you that don’t like to write, try it, you’ll be surprised by what happens.)

Move away from the issue by walking it out. Take 20 minutes and physically do something different (exercise, dance, participate in an exercise podcast, etc.). When you return, you will have a different and calmer POV.

Use Your Sounding Boards and Stop Being a Lone Ranger. Learn how to talk and listen to your family and/or work team. Also, talk with your executive coach, therapist, mentor, or other trusted confidant. If you don’t have one, find the right one for you. Together create new solutions by listening and valuing each and every idea. (SEE Brainstorming below.)  Important Note: Don’t fall into the trap of talking ad nauseam about it that you don’t take any action. Pick one good idea and take focused action steps toward a solution.

Brainstorm. Yes, truly brainstorm. Now is a great time to develop and hone the skill of brainstorming. This will help you create new solutions anytime and anywhere in life, especially when you hit the wall of resistance. However, keep in mind, it does require a new level of listening and aligning with your team before creating a focused-action plan!

Update and Upgrade. Now is a great time to update and upgrade your skills: technical, financial, decision-making, and people skills.

Here are some ideas (trust yourself by picking one and taking action now):

• -Complete a certification program or get a degree
• -Develop new and improved leadership skills (e.g., listening, conflict management, aligning the team, critical thinking, virtual meetings, etc.)
• -Focus on finding a job that fits your interests and personality

Remember, hitting your wall of resistance can be a gift. When embraced and acted on, it will open up new opportunities for you to excel.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to excel at blasting through walls of resistance and creating positive results. The new world of work is here. Are you ready to lead?  Contact Jeannette to improve your strategic hiring, coaching, training, and managing processes.  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

The new way is to use your team…

Recently, I worked with a leader that had taken on a new project. Her primary concern was to help her team avoid another project failure. As we talked, she shared her plan based on articles that focused on what “she should” do.

As I listened to her, it was clear she lacked a clear strategy and plan on how to get her team back on track. Her approach needed adjusting or she and her team would fail again.

Using my straight-talk approach, I shared with her several concerns.

Together, we created a new strategy and plan for her to guide her team to success, instead of doing it all on her own. We focused on guiding her team to build new strategies and tactical approaches for success from start to finish. She left the meeting feeling clear and energized. As a side note, they won!

Because of COVID19, many leaders today are becoming lone rangers and relying on, “This is what I’ve done in the past.”

Studies show that right now leaders have heightened levels of anxiety and stress. As a result, they have become more focused on the goals and are more task-oriented and less “people-oriented.”

Frankly, this is a lazy approach.

It’s not business as usual! As a leader, you must work with and through your team to build new strategies for success. Before working with your team, talk it out with your executive coach. It’s important you address your fears and gain a healthier perspective. This is the mark of a successful leader.

4 Foundations for Creating a Successful Team Experience

1.Stay engaged during ALL conversations. #1 Rule! Put away all electronic gadgets. If you pay 100% attention, you and your team will generate better ideas and solutions every time.

2. Learn the differences between facilitating remote and physical meetings. These skills and practicing will help you win success.

3. Conduct true brainstorming sessions. When generating strategic and tactical ideas, write them down each and every time so everyone can see them.

4. Talk out disagreements (aka conflict management). It’s critical all team members get a voice. To achieve this, you must manage meeting saboteurs (e.g., difficult team members, side conversations, people not listening, etc.). Otherwise, great ideas and solutions will be silenced. This can be even more difficult with remote meetings.

11 Tips to Win with Your Team to Create New Strategies and Tactics for Success

1.Know Your Team Members. While you may believe you know your team members, too often you don’t understand why they (and you) communicate, work, and interact in a way that impedes results. Use a qualified assessment to clarify why. Also, use this tool to manage them (and yourself) more effectively. Using an executive coach can accelerate this process.

2. Clean Up the Past. To effectively create “the new,” you must complete “the old” work efforts. Otherwise, team members will gravitate backwards if not acknowledged for their achievements or brags. Use the exercise, “What worked?/What didn’t work?

3. Visioning Exercise. Read carefully before proceeding with this exercise. This process moves the team out of relying on what they’ve always done and opens up something new and different.

Have team members:

• -Write an outline of what should happen in the next 6 months (keep it to one hand-written page).
• -Share a few of the ideas. These will sound like “should’s” and “what we’ve done in the past.”
• -“Shred. What. They. Wrote.” This is a critical step to creating a true strategy.
• -Now, write a one-page outline answering the question, “What would you really really really want to have happen?”
• -Stay away from HOW (tactical) to make it happen…that discussion comes later. 

4. Be clear about the difference between your strategy and tactics. Your strategy (goal) acts as a guide for the tactics (actions) that your team will undertake. Tactics answer the question, “How are we going to accomplish the strategy?” Source: https://www.dummies.com/business/business-strategy/ 

5. To get started creating a new strategy, engage team members by asking these questions and listening to their responses.

–Who are we?

-Where do we want to be in 6 months?

-Why is this important now?

6. Brainstorm. Write down all ideas, especially the off-the-wall ones. These usually prompt additional ideas and keeps the team engaged and listening. Remember to have fun.

7. Align on the strategy (without “how” you will achieve it). Write it down in 10 words or less. This keeps everyone engaged and on the same page, now and in the future.

8. Now, develop the tactics. Brainstorm and align on specific detailed focused-actions for your team to achieve the strategy.

9. Address current team skills, budgets, legalities, and resources. What’s missing and what’s needed? Don’t be afraid to encourage initiative and resourcefulness.

10. Build on current systems, procedures and policies. This will move you and your team forward faster and more effectively.

11. Measure results. Determine what you will measure so you can track the team’s progress and impact the results, now and in the future.

If you are still experiencing challenges and unable to create true strategies for success, contact your executive coach for answers NOW. Remember, waiting and hoping it will resolve itself is not a winning strategy.

©Jeannette Seibly, 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to excel at achieving unprecedented results. The new world of work has started. Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette to improve your strategic hiring, coaching, training, and managing processes.  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

Attention all leaders! Business will never the same when and after you reopen your office!

How you handle reopening your office will determine your team’s ability to trust you now and in the future. The key is to focus your time and energy on communication, safety, and team connectivity. Remember, change is never easy for anyone regardless of the reasons why.

The challenge is providing clarity and building trust 24/7. When you do, you will find your team members are amazingly resilient.

Focus on These 6 Tips to Provide Clarity and Build Trust

1. Manners Matter. Fear of this pandemic will not go away for a long time. Unfortunately, fear can and will be expressed in unexpected and, sometimes, unacceptable ways. Handle microaggressions immediately or team members will become disengaged. Lead by example with exemplary manners and encourage others to do the same. These positive new habits will build a positive new workplace culture. The simplest way to get started? Always use “please” and “thank you.” Now, build from there.

2. Use Positive Acknowledgement as the Norm. Meet with team members individually and as a group to express gratitude for their contributions…no matter how small. Don’t forget to give out gift cards and other small perks as acknowledgments. These make a big difference in team members feeling valued, especially right now. Be on the lookout, now more than ever, to positively acknowledge each and every person, each and every day!

3. Rally Your Team’s Spirit. Today, there has been a major upheaval in each team member’s world. So it’s important to focus on rallying them back together as a team. For example, your sales team will need a boost. Host fun and engaging sessions to review product offerings, share new research, and encourage new ways of talking with customers.

4. Health and Safety is #1. Regardless of anything else you do when you reopen your office and bring back your team members, health and safety is #1. On Day 1! Re-onboard ALL team members! Review new and old policies and procedures. Don’t expect them to read and understand your intentions. Share your expectations of them, what they can expect from you, and why it matters.

Here are some examples:

• -Are there new cleaning protocols?
• -Are hand sanitizers and face masks provided?
• -How will you monitor team members’ health?
• -How are you staying current with local, state, and federal changes?
• -What are social distancing requirements for reopening the office (e.g., large group gatherings, shared office space, break rooms, etc.)?
• -When can they work from home and what are the protocols?

5. Encourage Self-Responsibility. Team members must be responsible (including you) for following ALL protocols. This includes paying attention to their own health, safety, and well-being. Examples include honoring other’s boundaries, avoiding large group gatherings, and relying on virtual meetings whenever possible. Also, encourage team members to stay home when feeling ill without the threat of repercussions.

6. Remember, Change Is a Process, Not An Event. Respect the fact that each team member will process this period of loss and change differently. Ensure frequent and consistent communication…even if you sound like a parrot…to enforce new policies and practices. Team members will forget or not understand how their attitudes and behaviors impact others! It’s imperative that you are mindful and set a positive example…or confusion will reign and trust will quickly diminish.

Remember, providing clarity and building trust is a 24/7 job when reopening your office.

©Jeannette Seibly 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to excel at leading by example and building trust. The new world of work has started. Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette to improve your strategic hiring, coaching, training, and managing processes.  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.

Welcome to the new world of work!

Whether you’re ready or not, virtual interviews are the way recruiters and hiring managers will select job candidates, now and in the future. It’s safer, more effective, and saves time and money.

And, it’s important to remember, your company’s reputation, and the ability to attract great candidates depends on your ability to conduct the best well-prepared virtual interviews.  

19 Tips to Conduct Effective Virtual Interviews and Ensure a Positive Candidate Experience

Remember, as you incorporate these 19 tips, make sure you update your strategic hiring process by reviewing the processes and tools being used and make any improvements NOW  (e.g., applicant tracking system, job fit assessments, training interviewers, background and reference checks, etc.). 

First steps, these are a must and are often overlooked:

1. Review your company’s vision and mission. Any changes? Write them down.
2. What are the new company goals, short-term (Q2 and Q3) and long-term (Q4 and Q1-2021)? Write these down.
3. Review these with your management team before interviewing and hiring new employees.
4. Once your management team has aligned, review, and update job descriptions and corresponding policies to reflect changes (e.g., hiring and selection, remote employees, working from home, working and meeting with customers, etc.).
5. Create a 180-day Success Plan for each position. Keep it simple and focused.
6. Update structured interview questions and selection tools being used (e.g., benchmarks for job fit assessments, etc.).
7. Train all interviewers Do not rely on them to read the new policies and procedures. The virtual training will ensure consistency for the best interviews and positive job candidate experiences.

Second steps, prep work for virtual interviews:

8. Be prepared and don’t wing it. Hiring biases and gut reactions will be a problem without preparation. Remember, there will be new biases. For example, job candidates are being interviewed in their homes and not in a professional setting.
9. Send out ATS reminders with time and date, length of the interview, name of interviewer(s) and job title(s), plus the URL for the virtual interview.
10. Test virtual connections. Request job candidates “test” the URL connection before the interview and resolve issues. If you don’t use a conferencing system often, also “test” your virtual connections before the scheduled time.
11. Review the job description and structured interview questions (yes, reread them each time). This allows you to listen and stay focused, instead of thinking about what to say next.

Third, conducting the virtual interview:

12. Be sure everyone is visible on your monitor during group or panel interviews.
13. Turn off electronic devices and other distractions. This keeps everyone focused and saves time spent in the interview.
14. Start the virtual interview by introducing yourself (20 seconds). If in a group, have each interviewer provide a 20-second introduction. State name, title, and how this job impacts their area.
15. Share what to expect during the virtual interview process with job candidates.

For example, today I am (or, we are) conducting the first set of interviews for XXX position. This will take approximately 1 hour. “Have you scheduled this amount of time for our conversation?”  (If no, reschedule to ensure consistency in the interview process.)

16. Ask your prepared structured interview questions to objectively compare job candidates. (This is also required by law.)
17. Listen by looking directly into the camera. Also, speak directly into the mic. Maintain eye contact without staring.
18. Deep dive into the job candidate’s answers to determine actual hands-on experience. It’s important to know the quality of their skills and the ability to use them in different situations. Also, this will help you create a training program focused on their needs. Do not sound like an interrogator since that will hinder a positive candidate experience.

Examples of deep-dive questions:

• -What is one specific challenge you have faced?
• -How did you resolve the issue?
• -What specifically did you do?

19. At the end of the interview, not the beginning, share the following information. Here’s why: You want job candidates to tell you who they really are…not tell you what they think you want to hear based on the information below.

• -Vision and Mission of the company
• -Title and top 3 to 5 job responsibilities (do not negotiate at this time)
• –Quick overview of 180-Day Plan with a specific focus on Q2 and Q3
• -Reporting structure and potential start date
• -DO NOT conduct salary and benefit negotiations until it’s time to make a job offer
• -Share what’s next with selected candidates (e.g., future interviews by team members, due diligence process, completing assessments, notifying job candidates of status, etc.)
• -Be responsible for following-up and following-through on any promises made.

Conducting the best virtual interviews means you are well-prepared, focused, and follow your company’s policies & procedures. Remember, if you don’t, job candidates will share their less-than-positive virtual interview experiences on social media!

©Jeannette Seibly, 2020

Jeannette Seibly is an award-winning executive coach and keynote speaker.  For more than 27 years, she has been an expert in guiding leaders to excel when selecting the right people for the right jobs.  The new world of work has started. Are you ready?  Contact Jeannette to improve your strategic hiring, coaching, training, and managing processes.  Don’t forget to listen to her podcasts on Anchor.FM or YouTube.com.