The Contented Cow Blog

Building Workplaces That Work

Shortly, Americans will begin the process of interviewing and hiring a president. I rather suspect that most of us don’t think of the process quite that way, but perhaps we should. Lord knows the decision is an important one, and with all that’s going on in the world today, it is vital that we get it right. Listening to pollsters and pundits is the last thing we should be doing. Rather, it would seem that each of us should be applying a bit of logic and reason to what may well be the single most important decision we ever make.

Having been responsible for a good bit of the recruiting and hiring that occurred at places like ADP and FedEx, and written a well-used interview guide, I thought I’d start the discussion on determining the critical success factors for the job, the issues facing the successful candidate, and the beginnings of a job interview.

This is not a political or academic exercise. Rather, it is my hope that by applying some basic business principles to an important civics matter, we might get a better outcome, whether the successful candidate is from the donkey’s or elephant’s side of the field. And, who knows, with the advent of YouTube debates, we just might hear one or more of these questions put to candidates by a guy like Tim Russert. Feel free to add your own, but no partisan sniping, please.

Critical Success Factors for the Job of President (limit 7)

1. Judgment
2. Authenticity
3. Courage
4. Influence Skills
5. Capacity to Learn & Adapt
6. Strong Moral Compass
7. Grasp of World & National Issues

The Issues (limit 5)

1. Iraq & Broader War Against Islamic Radicals
2. Immigration and Border Protection
3. Healthcare
4. Fiscal Discipline
5. Energy Policy

Interview Questions To the Candidates:

Judgment

1. You’ve got one word and 5 seconds to answer: Is waterboarding torture?
2. If you had to choose today and it was totally up to you, tell us who your vice presidential selection would be. One name only please, and make it a serious candidate. Why did you pick him/her?

Authenticity

1. What’s on your I-pod? Which song do you listen to the most? Why? What are the 1st ten words to the song?
2. What one thing scares you the most, personally?
3. Tell us about the hardest lesson you had to learn as a child.
4. What kind of things make you laugh?
5. When was the last time you really embarrassed yourself? Tell us about it.

Courage

1. Tell us about a time when you really put your butt on the line for somebody.
2. When was the last time you paid a big price for doing what you thought was right?
3. Give us the name of one person who has personally witnessed your courage. What will they tell us?
4. Tell us about a time when you made a decision that you knew would be terribly unpopular.

Influence Skills

1. Tell us about the last time you tried to convince somebody of something, and came up short. What did you learn from the experience?
2. You’ve got two sentences to convince Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to cease development of nuclear capability. What do you say?
3. In your own specific case, which are people more influenced by, who you are, or what you say?

Capacity to Learn and Adapt

1. What kinds of things do you read (on your own initiative) to stay current?
2. Educators tell us that there are distinctly different learning styles. E.g., some people take in information best by reading or listening, some by watching, while others prefer to kick the tires. What is your preferred style? How do you incorporate that into your daily activities?
3. Most of us tend to associate with people just like us. How do you introduce some fresh air, ideas, and insight into your life?
4. What is the last self development activity you engaged in? What did you learn?

Strong Moral Compass

1. PAC money is nothing more than a thinly disguised attempt at bribery. Why do you accept it?
2. As a parent, what steps have you personally taken to teach your child/children the difference between right and wrong?
3. Tell us about a time when your integrity was challenged. What did you do?

Grasp of World/National Issues

1. Despite spending more per capita on healthcare than any nation on Earth, Americans die younger and have higher infant mortality rates than their counterparts in many other modern countries. Forty million Americans have no health insurance. What’s your solution?
2. Which represents the greater danger to the security of the U.S., our poorly guarded borders, or the prospect of a rogue state (e.g., Iran, Syria, N. Korea) transmitting nuclear know-how to terrorists?
3. America has lost a good bit of its hope, optimism, and standing on the world stage. Please name three specific things you will do to get them back.

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