These 5 questions can uncover a candidate’s leadership qualities

People are often on their best behavior when they’re being interviewed. They’re trying their best to impress a potential employer, and they’ve likely rehearsed answers to the most commonly asked questions. If you’re the interviewer, it can be hard to know who’s really the best fit for your company.

“We’re deluding ourselves if we think we are discerning great insights about leaders through a face-to-face interview,” says Barry Conchie, coauthor of The Five Talents that Really Matter: How Great Leaders Drive Extraordinary Performance. “The big problem with face-to-face interviews is that it’s difficult to park our own biases.”

When crafting interview questions, Conchie says companies often focus on the wrong thing. “It’s not the strength of the interview question that’s important; it’s knowing what you’re listening for,” he says. “Most people are clueless about that.”

For example, a common question to ask a high-level executive candidate is “Tell me how you develop strategy. And how do you know whether it was successful?”

“What’s a good answer?” Conchie asks. “What it boils down to is if the person who asked the question likes the answer. That’s not a very good way of going about things because it might not be a very good prediction as to whether the person can do the job.”

Instead, Conchie says hiring managers should ask questions that organically uncover the most desirable leadership qualities. Here are five questions and what they can reveal:

1. Are There Some Employees You Don’t Like to Lead?

Several years ago, Conchie was a senior educator in the U.K. When hiring teachers, a common question is “Do you like children?”

“Nobody in their right mind is going to say ‘no’ and expect to get a job,” he says. “A better question is ‘Are there some children you don’t like to teach?’ That’s a brilliant question because there is a truism to it. There are some pretty challenging kids out there. We’ve all met them.”

Some candidates were realists and answered, “Actually, there are some pretty tough people out there, and I really don’t like to teach those people.” But others felt differently and answered, “No. I don’t care. I love all kids.” The people who said they love all kids turned out to be the best teachers, Conchie says.

The same correlation can be made for leading a team. Good leaders will strive to lead all members of their teams—even the ones they don’t like.

2. Tell Me About the Last Person You Fired and Why You Fired Them.

An important quality of a leader is having the courage to make difficult decisions. Typically, people ask, “Tell me about a difficult decision you’ve made recently.”

“That’s a diabolically bad question, because what does it predict?” Conchie says. “They’ve got a prepared answer.”

Instead, a good question is “Tell me about the last person you fired and why you fired them.”

“There’s no more difficult decision than firing a person,” Conchie says. “If a person struggles to come up with an answer, you learn a lot about them as a leader. What they’re really saying is that they haven’t really fired anybody. Or they’ll say things like, ‘Well, we found this person fiddling their expense reports.’ Those aren’t difficult decisions when people inflict ethical breaches on their organizations.”

Instead, a good leader should be able to talk about having to fire someone due to marginal or weak performance or not being effective with customers.

3. Can You Sit in a Room Where a Picture Is Out of Alignment on the Wall?

Conchie notes that another important quality in leadership is having a sense of organizational precision.

“Nobody in leadership tells me that leadership is becoming easier,” he says. “Everybody says it’s becoming faster and more complex. Even though we’ve got all these technological aids to help us, there are a lot of moving parts, a lot of complexity, and a lot of things to get your head around.”

A typical question might be “Tell me about how you managed a complex project and ensured that it stayed on track.”

“The problem is it’s a very easy question to predict, and I could give you a fantastic answer even if I’m not particularly detail-oriented,” Conchie says.

Instead, he suggests asking, “Can you sit in a room where a picture is out of alignment on the wall?” You can also ask, “Do you alphabetize your spices in the kitchen?” Or “Do you double- and triple-check an email before you send it?”

“A lot of people tell you, ‘Of course I don’t. I don’t sweat the small stuff. I’ve got bigger fish to fry,’” he says. “But if you require high levels of organizational precision, not only do you want someone who puts their spices in alphabetical order but the books on their shelf should be organized by a system. And they quadruple-check emails because if it’s going out with their name on it, it will not have an error. I’ve seen some people get out of their chair in a meeting to straighten a picture on the wall. These are all predictors of people who have got a sense of precision in how they operate.”

4. If You Were a Photographer, Would You Prefer a Telephoto or Wide-Angle Lens?

Another important aspect of leadership is to be a big-picture thinker. It’s having an ability to not only look at your part of the company but also to see the entire organization.

“If I’m solving a particular problem, I solve it in such a way that it doesn’t cause another problem over there,” Conchie explains. “A typical question that you might ask in an interview is ‘Are you a big-picture thinker? Do you tend to look at the broader organization before you make a decision?’ It’s a very predictable question and the answer is going to be ‘yes.’”

Instead, Conchie recommends asking, “If you were a photographer, would you prefer a telephoto or a wide-angle lens?”

“A telephoto lens brings something far away up close so we can look at the detail,” he says. “It’s exclusionary, because it intentionally cuts things out of the picture. A wide-angle lens captures as much information as it can. If you’re one of the more curious people who reaches for a wide-angle lens, you’re more interested in that bigger picture.”

5. Tell Me About Ideas That Have Recently Intrigued You.

A big-picture thinker should also be an idea person. A common question might be, “Are you intrigued by ideas?” The answer will most likely be “yes.” Instead, a good question digs deeper, asking “Tell me about different ideas that you’ve been intrigued by recently.”

“You might get a pregnant pause,” Conchie says. “But if someone is intrigued by ideas, they’ll come tripping off their tongue at a fast rate. If you’re an idea person, you’re insanely curious about lots of things.”

An idea person should be interested in ideas that are not their own. Conchie says the things that often intrigue them are unique and seemingly unrelated to their work, such as how the uptick of an airplane wing increases fuel efficiency or how prosthetic lens surgery affects the limbic system.

“You can sit back and listen to these people and say, ‘Holy moly, that is amazing,’” he says. “They’re just insanely curious. If you want to look for a big-picture thinker in your organization, they’d better be damn curious.”

To craft the best interview questions, you need to understand the traits of your best people. Conchie recommends observing and noticing their nuances.

“Build a profile of their characteristics,” he says. “Then develop questions that test out those qualities. When you do this, you can develop a very strong ability to predict future leadership, capability, and performance.”