Recently, I was re-reading my professional thoughts journal from 2003 and found an entry entitled ‘Two questions to ask yourself before a meeting’. These ideas came from David Maister’s book, The Trusted Advisor. Using the context of a job interview meeting, here are the questions:
1. What do you want the interview panel members to absolutely believe about you by the end of the interview?
2. How will you demonstrate those things, convincingly?
Here are my responses that I came up with in 2003 prior to a job interview I had.
1. What do you want the interview panel members to absolutely believe about you by the end of the interview?
a. I have passion and presence.
b. I am an attentive listener.
c. They’d be lucky to have me. That is, to project the attitude that I have a valuable set of skills that could be profitably used in the organization.
2. How will you demonstrate those things, convincingly?
a. To be quietly excited in my manner and speaking and to project energy and certainty.
b. To take the needed time to express my ideas – to not rush or be perceived as rushing.
c. To use an Open – Middle – Close, less is more (ie using less words has more impact) speaking structure.
Maister also relays in his book that “Credibility is not just content expertise. It’s how we look, act, react and talk about our content.”
The ‘how to apply’ for this post: Before your next job or promotion or new role interview, answer the above two questions.