How to Know if Your Leadership Team are Losing Talent Due to Poor Interviewing Skills?

I call them submarines.

Them meaning the extraordinary talented leaders that will take your newly funded software business to seven-figure revenues, or open you to a whole other country market, all within six months of your first encounter.?

They’re submarines, because you rarely catch sight of them – and when you do, they’re gone as quick as they arrived.

Getting these submarines to join your fleet is tough.?

And if you’ve got a great headhunter who can tell you when your reputation and remuneration is bang on, it’s most likely your own leadership team who is failing to capture the talent you need.

Why?

Because your leadership team could be losing talent during interviews.

Below we’re going to look at five anti-submarine weapons they’re deploying, whether actively or passively, to hamper your chances of building the winning team you deserve.

Anti-submarine weapon #1 – just too many interviews

A lot of the leading software companies I headhunt for take new talent through 7-8 interviews.

That’s before they even get to talk to big decision makers – the Chief Revenue Officer (CRO), the CEO, the founder or the Managing Director.

The opportunity to lose extraordinary talent gets Mariana Trench-wide pretty fast.

And that’s even if you already reeled them in with a competitive salary and on-target earnings.?

C-level candidates are not out there on benefits begging for work. More often than not, they?

get lost in where they actually are in the interview process.

There are too many.?

It’s wasting their time.?

They dip back below the surface and – poof!

Gone.

Either that, or the leadership team they’re meeting in the first few interviews just don’t know how to sell the company at all.

Anti-submarine weapon #2 – can’t sell air to the suffocating

Interview skills are massively underrated.?

Most people’s idea of a job interview – nervous candidate, complacent employer – is completely off when it comes to the high-stakes software industry.

If you’ve just got your next round of funding then your job, your company, your vision and your reputation are on the line. You need talent. You know you need it and you’re prepared to pay for it.

But can you guess how many interviews I’ve sat on where an executive attempts to brag about their achievements and the company’s incredible-ness of a CRO who’s just brought in ￡50 million in new multi-year contracts with the biggest brands in a completely new country?

That’s not interviewing. That’s anti-submarine weapon #2. Someone who doesn’t know the interview skills that will keep high-performing talent engaged – even when that candidate is really, really interested.

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was one of the first theories I was taught when I began studying the art of the interview. Well over 10,000 hours of interviewing later it’s still a go-to theory for me.?

You’ve seen the Maslow pyramid of needs, right?

Think about it.

If you’ve got a high-flying submarine to an interview room or video call, they’ve probably already got the lower three levels of Maslow’s pyramid covered – physiological needs (shelter, food, water), safety needs (employment, health, property) and love and belonging (family, friendship, sense of connection).

So you’ve got to tap into their top two levels – esteem and self-actualisation.

Rather than talking about how great your own company is, for your leaders to be great interviewers they need to ask what the talented candidate feels is lacking in their own company.

What does an already successful VP of sales or CRO or sales executive need to make their job a 10 out of 10?

Is it the software product itself? Is it the people they work with?

Did a recent restructuring or corporate acquisition throw things off track?

Is it the long hours stuck in the office, when they’re a born face-to-face deal maker?

“OK, Mr Candidate, you feel you’re suffocating in the work environment at your current job, so let me tell you how easy you’ll breathe here with us…”

Anti-submarine weapon #3 – candidates don’t fit the bill

When I start headhunting for a top software company, I head straight for the Founder, the Chief Revenue Officer, the CEO or the MD.

I need to know exactly what they’re looking for.

If it’s a new Chief Revenue Officer you need, chances are you know what the talent you want looks like. And I’m talking specifics.

You’d want someone who has taken a ￡3 million software business to ￡10 million, or thereabouts, right? You want them to have opened up in more than one new country, correct? And you want them to be able to join you, fast, am I wrong?

So why don’t the people conducting your entry-level interviews know this?

If they’re unwittingly deploying anti-submarine weapons #1, they’ve lost the candidate before even being able to answer these important questions.

If they’re using anti-submarine weapon #2, then you’re heading for a total mismatch of expectations when this candidate finally gets to talk to you.

The candidate might not be a submarine after all. Just any old bit of flotsam that washed up in your inbox.

The candidate might well be a submarine but be confused about your software company’s vision. If it’s not what they expected, then – poof!

Gone.

(Oh, I should probably mention that 78% of people lie during the hiring process, according to a survey from Checkster. A massive 33% of job seekers will say they achieved things when they didn’t.)

Anti-submarine weapon #4 – cut the crap

Talent comes alive in the face of challenges – so why do so many poorly skilled interviews paint a pretty picture of life in their company?

There are always problems and challenges to growth.

If there weren’t challenges facing your software business – why would you be out hiring new talent in the first place??

The kind of talent you want, the submarines, will smell the crap from a mile out and be back below the surface before you can exchange LinkedIN profiles.

This is one of the main reasons why I suggest that I pre-qualify candidates with the initial interviews, and I advocate to sit in on further interviews if leaders are not competent. You need an interviewer who can both fit the candidate’s aspirations with your business’ vision and give a realistic break-down of the obstacles at play.

Having a headhunter sit in on your interviews adds the benefit of 10,000+ hours of interview practice plus the chance to give notes on a leaders’ interview skills.

After giving specialist interview classes to the team conducting the first interviews with new talent, it’s the next best safety net to stop the loss of great candidates.

Anti-submarine weapon #5 –?ignoring counteroffer risk

This fifth and final anti-submarine weapon is passive rather than actively searching for the next step in his/her career

But it is losing you new talent all the same.

When I’m pre-qualifying candidates I’ve headhunted for a high-performing software firm, I’m finding out the counteroffer risk.?

It’s so important.?

In the weekly check-ins I have with the Hiring Manager , I’ll often hear something like, “Yeah, that candidate looks perfect, I’ll get someone to talk to him or her next week.”

Don’t do it.

Talk to them right now.?

High-performing leaders are either in a great work situation right now, or have enticing offers waiting for them as soon as they surface for air.

They’re not going to be in the market for a new job for long. Catch them as soon as you can.?

Get one of your (more competent) leaders to interview them. Give these leaders the exact bill the candidate needs to fit, and be 100% sure they are not going to launch into a presentation about how great the company is.

Please, no.?

You can’t afford to lose fantastic talent. It’s not just a question of keeping your headhunter on for another month to find the next submarine surfacing for air. More often than not, there’s a chink in your interview process itself – among your own people – which is letting the best Commerical Taelnt you’ve ever had in your net slip away.

When you’re newly funded or at the fast-growth stage of your software business’ vision, attracting talent is everything.

Keeping that talent is everything too.?

You’ll be pleasantly surprised how much both of those challenges can be resolved when your leaders have interview skills that hold a candidate’s attention until they’re sitting in your office.

If you are interested in understanding how you can improve your chances of attracting top talent and you want to improve your ability to interview, DM me on Linkedin