Do you want to hear the interview question I've used that I created to tie up? Even the best candidates. This seems to screw with executives as much as seasoned salespeople to entry level and everything in between. I don't like trick interview questions. I think it's goofy. However, there are some questions like this one that are important to ask because you want to find out if people have serious red flags for this question, I want to know.
A little bit about their humility, their self-awareness. I'm gonna give you the question and then I'm gonna explain what's behind it, and you can use this and be ready for this in your interview, whether they ask this exact question, which they probably won't, but this will make you ready for every variation of it. The question I would ask is, if you could change one thing about your working style, what would you improve?
Or if you could improve one thing about your working style, what would you change? And some people could tell me something right away. A lot of top candidates, some had to sit and think and think. the reasoning, the thought process behind this question is to find out if they are self-aware. They're humble, if they can recognize. Anything about them that needs to change or improve, and you might be surprised. Some of you listening might be this person. Some of you, hopefully not many.
You might be surprised how many people could not think of one thing. That they would change or improve about themselves, their working style, what they do day to day, their skillset. I'm not trying to trap them. I actually want to hear something. And this goes back to the root of what's your weakness. And people think that that question exists so that you tell the interviewer something bad about you, so they don't hire you. It's not that at all. It never has been.
What that question is about is whether you, have that self-awareness, see room for improvement, or if you think you've made it, you've got it all. Very few people think that, but again, I've run into person after person who, if I ask, what's your top weakness? Or If you could change one thing about yourself, what would you improve? They can't answer. Those people are incredibly dangerous to hire.
The pattern I've seen is if you hire someone like that and say they mess up, they do something small or big or in between, that's wrong and their manager comes to them and says, Hey, let's chat. You did this this way. The better way is to do this. Let's train you up on how to do this or just don't do it that way again, whatever else. Those types of people will be standoffish. They won't take feedback. They won't make a plan to improve 'cause they think they've already got it.
And to them, that manager is dumb. That manager doesn't do things the right way or doesn't have the vision or doesn't understand what they were thinking. So when you're presented with this question, you're probably being tested on your humility, your tact, your self-awareness, how well you work with others, and take feedback. Having a weakness is normal. We all have weaknesses. Wanting to change something about yourself is admirable.
Wanting to improve something that's the type of employee we all want to have. What's the opposite of someone who wants to change and wants to improve? To keep it simple, it's someone who won't. And think of it that way. When you have an employee, everyone needs to improve. And maybe it's not just on feedback. Maybe it's not just that someone did something they shouldn't and they got in trouble.
Maybe it's just, Hey, we all need to step up our AI game this month so that we can compete with a, b, C company. And one person goes, I don't need to use that AI stuff to stay competitive. It's all up here in my head. Clients love me just the way I am. Be careful when you run into questions like this. First off, be humble. If you're not, this podcast probably isn't for you, but be humble and answer in a way that's humble and smart to me.
The best way to do this, whether you're asked a weaknesses question or the way I word it, if you could change one thing about yourself, what would you improve? Is to talk about something, a weakness that is real. And professional, right? You don't wanna get weird, real does not interfere with their job. And you have a game plan on how to fix it. So an example might be, if you wanna get really real you could say, I've been late to get to my baseball team's practice.
And it's been noticed and I've noticed that what. Is getting in the way is this thing and this thing. So what I did is I actually started setting my clock five minutes earlier and routed out the route to the new baseball field, which is further away, it turns out than the old one. Because of that plan that I put into place, I've been two minutes early for every practice and haven't run into that issue again. Something along those lines.
So identify it, say it out loud, something that's real, not something that's stupid like, oh, I care too much, or I work too hard, I work too many hours. Get out there in the open and talk about your plan to fix it. What's interesting to me is the further along people are in their career, it seems the more that they struggle with this question. This podcast, the listener base is professionals that are further along in their career. Many are director level, VP C-suite. Paid, interviewed.
However, when it comes to talking about themselves or yourself, that seems to be when they struggle most. It's probably when you struggle most. If I ask you about your hard skills, how you did this with a spreadsheet, how you lead teams, your vision for this thing or that thing. It's probably a lot clearer. You're probably able to speak about that in a much more meaningful way that's understood by a recruiter, a hiring manager, a CEO, A panel, whoever you're talking to.
However, when it comes to these soft skills for whatever reason, a lot of times the further along someone is I. The more progress they are in their career, the more they struggle with a question, just like this. Questions about motivations and many other things. So look out. This question is one of a few red flags I had. If someone couldn't answer this question, if someone had to think for 20 seconds on this, 10 seconds, whatever, and say, just nothing comes to mind right now.
This is one of the few questions. That I wouldn't hire that person because of that. That's right. You heard me right. And it's not because I needed a perfect answer, it's just I have witnessed too much, seen too much hired people. I shouldn't have worked with hiring managers or managers that we hired people together and we ignored this red flag, and it tends to work out the exact same way every time. So first thing to do is obviously reflect, be humble. You can improve. I guarantee it.
And the next is work on an answer to this. It could be about something in your job, something small that you're working on improving. One thing that you would change, it could be I talk a little bit too much in client meetings, so I've actually been reading a book on active listening, eye contact, and pauses after people finish.
It's actually been noticed and recognized not only by clients, but by my team and just through this small change, digging into this book and practicing it, I think I've become a better person to talk to professionally and personally. There you go. Or maybe you don't talk enough and your answer would be different. Either way, look out for this one. Prepare for it, and make sure you put your best foot forward because big opportunities are rare, and I want you to show up for yours.
Thanks for listening to the Move Up Podcast, formally known as the job interview experience.