by Brenda Abdilla

We have all done it. Hired people who were nearly perfect in the interview process—they said and did the right things—and then turned out to be fakes and liars. Disaster! Where did we go wrong? Why didn’t our instincts alert us to the imposters? Instincts Need Harnessing Instincts can be useful in the recruitment process, however, they must be harnessed in a very conscious way or they can lead us in the wrong direction. For example, if you are trying to decide between two candidates with relatively similar experience and you ask your instincts which you should choose, you will likely choose the most attractive of the two, the one with the same skin colour as yours, or the most outgoing. This is where our instincts can mislead us. We can’t help it, our instincts are loaded with our personal biases.

Instead, set that part of yourself aside, and ask your instincts how the two candidates would do under pressure or how they would deal with the most discouraging part of the job in question. Another great way to use your instincts is to pay attention to hunches you get during the interview. Ask questions, and let candidates talk . Let your instincts tell you when to pry a bit deeper or ask for more specifics. Everyone has good instincts—harnessing them is what makes them useful.

“Truly successful decision making relies on a balance between deliberate and instinctive thinking.”—Malcolm Gladwell Blink, The Power of Thinking Without Thinking

Brenda Abdilla is the president of Management Momentum. After a 15-year career as an author, speaker and editor, shefounded Management Momentum to focus on fewer companies and to utilize her passion for improving sales and management performance. She now does specialty recruitment projects and performance coaching for managers. Contact her at 303-456-1210 or www.managementmomentum.net.

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