How To Be A Positive Interviewer - Part 1

Too many managers make the mistake of thinking they have to be a "tough" interviewer. They think that interviewing is adversarial. They think they need to apply pressure to see how candidates react. But in fact, positive interviewing is much more effective, both in terms of outcomes and in terms of offer acceptance rates.

Most people hate being interviewed. It's stressful, because there are only 2 outcomes, one of which you don't want. it's pass/fail, which very few situations are. But in addition, they hate interviews for another good reason - most interviewers don't know what they're doing. They don't ask the right questions. They don't know how to evaluate answers. They don't know how to elicit behavioral answers.

And sadly, far too many manager-interviewers think that making things "tough" will reveal more about the candidate. But positive interviewers get better results, both in accuracy of their interviews AND in likelihood of offer acceptance.