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By Martin Yate
Instead, you should take a leaf out of a good reporter's notebook.The reporter uses all the styles we have discussed, but in a way that peels back different layers of truth until a topic has been examined from every angle: The reporter asks who, what, why, when, where, and how. In this instance, you do the same thing by joining the closed-ended question with some of the other questioning. See how much more relevant information you can glean:
"Can you work under pressure?" (Close-Ended)
"Tell me about a time when you had to work under pressure." (Open-
Ended)
"So, it was tough to meet the deadline?" (Mirror Statement)
"How did this pressure situation arise?"
"Who was responsible?"
"Why was this allowed to occur?"
"Where did the problem originate?"
Now you have eight different angles to the same question, each revealing a different aspect of the personality, performance, and behavior of your candidate. Nearly every question in this book can
be given the layering treatment. In fact, this technique makes the possibilities for questions theoretically endless; it just depends on how thorough you want to be.
Remember: You should not accept a candidate's first answer to any of your questions. You have a right to look closer and check for cracks. If you feel something is lacking in an answer, pursue it by layering your questions. You'll never know unless you ask.
12. Hamburger-Helper Questions
Just as people will sometimes use a little hamburger helper to make the ground beef go a little further, so you can use these three techniques to stretch a question.
1. If you are either dissatisfied with the first answer and want
more data, or are so fascinated with the answer that you want
to hear more, say, "Give me some more detail on that. It's
very interesting," or, "Can you give me another example?"
2. You may hear an answer and add after it, "What did you learn
from that experience?" This is an excellent layering technique
that can give you a handle on judgment and emotional maturity,
as well as give you more thinking and planning time.
3. Perhaps the best technique for gathering more information is
simply to sit quietly, looking at the interviewee and saying
nothing. All mankind is embarrassed by a conversational lull.
Remember the last cocktail party you attended, when the
silence lasted just a couple of seconds and was terminated by
two or three people talking at once? This human frailty can be
used to your advantage during the interview: The interviewee
thinks, "Well, he's not saying anything, so he must be ex-
pecting me to say something else. I must not have finished my
answer to his satisfaction." Even as the interviewer, you will
find a little silence in the interview difficult to manage at
first, but it can pay substantial dividends in the long run.
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