The Secret to Acing Job Interviews: The Skills That Matter The Most

In the more than 30 years I've been in business and the thousands of people who have sat in front of me for a job interview, I could probably count on two hands the number of people who absolutely nailed their job interviews.

And each of those people got the job they wanted.

But I don't think any of them were the best qualified on paper.

What I mean by that is they weren't the ones who had the most schooling, or had the most certificates in the industry, or even the most experience for that job…

Because they would never even be sitting in front of me unless they had all those things.

But after you go through an interview with HR and then an interview with the person who would normally be your direct supervisor if you were hired, and if you're then sitting in front of me...

I'm not looking for experience, because I already know you have that… I'm looking for 2 things.

First, I'm looking for your values to see if you're a fit with our company values.

Second, I'm going to determine if you understand how to get CLEAR.

Because what holds most people back from hitting their target is that they’re not clear on what actions to take to reach that target, so they get distracted by busy work.

Most of the people who work for you will say they understand something, because they can picture the end target, but they’re not good at defining the daily actions that get them to that target.

So then they get frustrated because they worked harder this month than they ever have, and they think they deserve praise, but they weren't doing the few things that would've made them successful.?

So instead of hitting their target, they have a list of excuses…

Being absolutely clear on what your target is and the few actions that get you to that target the fastest is an essential trait, and it’s very difficult to teach.

So when you find somebody in a job interview who has that, those people absolutely will grow your company, as long as they also fit your values.

And by the way, those few people I told you about, out of all the thousands of people who sat in front of me over the years, those few people who absolutely nailed their job interviews asked me amazing clarifying questions.

And that doesn't mean they just randomly asked me a bunch of questions that wasted my time.

When we spoke about what their responsibilities would be, they each volunteered to do something during the interview similar to those tasks.

And they didn't do that to impress me or to prove to me that they knew what they were doing.

They volunteered to do those tasks during the interview to confirm in their minds that they were clear on what I needed and how to properly execute whatever it was.

And at that point I could care less about what was on their resume, all I cared about was the fact that they knew how to get clear on what needed to be done, and then they did it.

The people on my team who know how to get clear, and get things done, give me energy and make it possible for me to stay focused on what I need to focus on to really grow the company.