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By Martin Yate
9. Half-Right Reflexives
This question style is used to smoke out yes-men, the incurably incompetent, the oddballs who have a total resistance to giving information, and the competent but incurably tongue-tied. The technique is to make a statement that is only partially correct and ask the interviewee to agree. It is astounding what enlightening insights this technique can create. For instance: "I've always felt that customer service could stand only after the bill has been paid, haven't you?" This example of the half-right reflexive always generates fascinating responses.
10. Leading Questions
Here, you lead the listener toward a specific type of answer. These questions often arise accidentally as a result of the interviewer explaining what type of company the interviewee will be joining. The interviewer might proudly explain, "We're a fast-growing outfit here, and there is constant pressure to meet deadlines and satisfy your ever-increasing list of customers," then ask, "How do you handle stress?" The interviewee knows that to retain any chance of landing an offer he or she must answer a certain way and consequently does so. This is not to say that leading questions are inadvisable, but like closed-ended questions, they must be used appropriately. Their best use is as information verifiers, to get the candidate to expand on a
particular topic. For example: "We are a company that believes the customer is always right. How do you feel about that?" But you should use the technique only once the candidate's belief or performance in a particular area has been established. In ether case, leading questions should not be used early in the interview or confused with the somewhat sophisticated half-right reflexive.
11. Question Layering
A good question poorly phrased will lose its bite and give you incomplete or misleading information, but question layering can probe an answer thoroughly and on many levels. Let's start with the earlier example of wanting to know whether a potential employee can work under pressure. Many interviewers would simply ask, "Can you work under pressure?" and while the intent is good, the question style is wrong for several reasons (as mentioned before): The question requires only a yes or no answer, which tells you nothing; and it leads the interviewee toward the type of answer he or she knows you want to hear.
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