Your intuition is probably wrong

Accept the limits of your ability to decipher strangers.

Estimated read time: 1 min 56 sec

How many times do you hear this?

“I’m really good at judging people.”

“I just need to look into someone's eyes - then I’ll understand them.”

Or my personal favourite

“I’m a great judge of character.”

People believe they are good at reading others, BUT it's likely not true.

?This can be disastrous for recruitment, but luckily, there is a solution (more on that in a minute) ?

First, we’ll examine the pitfalls of trusting your gut..

We're going to take a quick trip back to 1938 just before the outbreak of WWII.

Worried about Germany's military expansion, British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain traveled to meet with Adolf Hitler who managed to persuade him that he would halt his military operations.

Upon returning from the meeting Chamberlain infamously said Hitler was:

“A man of his word”

Hitler was not a man of his word - his military plans ramped up despite what he had said to Chamberlain.

Chamberlain was subsequently criticised for this mistake, but in his book Talking to Strangers, Malcolm Gladwell points out that Chamberlain was acting rationally.

He was acting as explained in the truth-default theory.

This basically says that humans evolved to believe that others are telling the truth - it’s the only way society can work.? ?

But this means we are susceptible to people that aren’t truthful.

Gladwell goes on to suggest we should? “Accept the limits of our ability to decipher strangers.” ?

Pretty tricky in recruitment when we have a small window to understand a candidate.

??Are they telling us what we want to hear?

??Are they manipulating us??

??Are they simply lying?

Hard to know - that’s why you need to ask the right questions.

You need to get to the core of who someone really is.

Here is one question I love:

“What content have you consumed recently that has changed how you go about your role?” ?

This works for a few reasons?

• It’s specific: No one can bullshit this on the spot
• It sparks conversation: If they have consumed interesting content, it can (and should) lead to a conversation
• It tells you how they think: By relating it to their job, you can see how they've applied the content to their role
• It tells you if they care about the role: A-Players consume content around their job, so this tells you if this person loves their job.

I have seen an incredible correlation between answers to this question and performance.

Give it a try and see for yourself.

What we're saying is...

Intuition is flawed. Resumés lie. Interviews are staged.

You might be hiring? an A-player…

Or someone who destroys your company culture.

Our talent team asks the questions so you don’t have to.

Stop guessing, start hiring.

??Book a call with Liv and Doug to get started.

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