One of the required electives at Baylor is Organizational Behavior, in which we explore strategies for leading change and managing the human resources of a business. This summer, I remember Loretta (my boss) telling me that being a leader in consulting is really challenging because everyday your most valuable assets (your people) walk out the door. I think this topic is really important, and so far I’ve really enjoyed the class.
A part of the class is a group project for which we survey and assess how a local organization manages its human resources. Our group has selected a marketing firm of roughly 15 employees and we are about midway through our data collection process. Last week, we interviewed five employees in a broad range of positions, from design to sales, and we tried to draw out their honest opinions about the firm’s leadership, communication channels, and talent management.
In the process, I learned that interviewing a real skill, and one that I think it would be helpful for MBAs to master. I only conducted two of the interviews, but here are some reflections:
– Establishing a certain level of trust and comfort is critical to getting open and honest responses… and it’s really hard to do in the first couple minutes of meeting someone.
– I feel like there’s an interview strategy spectrum from planned and rigid on one end to totally free-formed and improvised on the other. The sweet spot is somewhere in the middle. In order to adapt to the interviewee and get the information you want, you have to be flexible. However, it can be difficult to listen to their response while simultaneously formulating your next question.
– One misstep can derail the interview. A poorly timed glance at your list of questions can ruin the interviewee’s trust, comfort, or confidence in their answers. Asking a good question at the wrong time can interrupt the flow of information and result in you missing out on some valuable information that might otherwise have been shared.
– Interviewing is a lot like teaching in that you really have to know the objective inside and out because you have to consider multiple perspectives. On the one hand, you have to know what kind of information you desire to glean from an interview. On the other hand, you have to figure out how to ask the right questions to access that information through the interviewee. Most likely, you will have to restructure, rephrase, or disguise your questions in order get an adequate response.
Overall, I think our group was able to uncover some pretty valuable information from our interviews. Ultimately, this will help us analyze the firm’s strengths and weaknesses and provide recommendations to the firm’s leadership. I’m looking forward to interviewing the managers next week to find both consistencies and inconsistencies with the employee interviews. Hopefully the responses will help our team make recommendations that allow the firm to better manage and lead its employees!
