Powerful Questions to Discover Who Your Candidate Really Is

Imagine that you are a nonprofit headhunter in the middle of a search for your next executive leader. You have reviewed countless resumes and cover letters, and even talked to a few qualified candidates. Still, you don’t have a sense that you really, truly know who your candidates are.

What personal qualities are most important to find in your next executive, and how do you know who has those qualities? How can you go deeper to learn more about each candidate?

While search committees are often focused on the candidate’s professional experience and qualifications for the job, there’s more to a candidate than what’s listed on their resume. Empathy, motivation, compassion and inspiration are all qualities that employers might look for in a candidate. Further, search environments are often highly controlled and regimented: interviews are time-bound and tend to be formal. But the day-to-day life of an executive is often messy and unpredictable, so adaptability and grace-under-pressure are also important characteristics to uncover during the interview process. These qualities can be difficult to perceive unless you know what questions to ask.

As a search consultant, nonprofit advisor, and coach – I have a lot of practice with asking questions. When I lead searches for The Moran Company, I try to stay focused on the basics early in the search process – professional experience, leadership qualities, and interest in the position. This helps me to develop a solid candidate pool for the search committee to consider. When the top candidates make it to the final round of interviews, there’s a great opportunity for the search committee to broaden the types of questions they ask.

The best questions to discover who your candidate really is start with what or how. These prompts allow candidates to tap into their own experience and determine the direction of the conversation. They also give the interviewer an opportunity to see how the candidate works through complexity. Imagine the difference in the response you might receive from asking “Why did you leave your last job?” compared to ‘What prompted your decision to leave your last job?”. With the first question, you are likely to put your candidate on the defensive as they try to justify their decisions. With the second question, you give them a chance to consider the factors that led to their decision, which also helps you to see how they process information, challenges, and opportunities.

You can use other prompts too, of course: where, who, and when are question-starters that provide additional information and may give you a peek into your candidate’s ability to focus on details – another important trait of an executive.

Here are some of my favorite questions to ask candidates to get to know them better:

1. What do you want to accomplish?
2. What do you need to be successful?
3. What makes now the right time?
4. How are you innovative?
5. How do you honor yourself and others?
6. What does imagination and play look like for you?
7. If you had all the time in the world, how would you spend your time?
8. What has been your contribution to the field?
9. How do you know when you’re doing too much?
10. How have you grown?

Questions like this are a powerful tool that invite possibility, imagination, and story into the interview process. When we ask powerful open-ended questions of candidates, we give them an opportunity to express who they are, what they care about, and how they put their values into action. As the listener, we can gain a better understanding of who the person is and how they might fit into the organization.

Above all, remember that asking powerful questions requires the asker to be relentlessly curious. If you hear something that doesn’t make sense or give you information you need, use questions to go even deeper. Interviews are your best opportunity to get to know candidates before you decide if they will join your team, so use them wisely and try not to leave anything on the table. When you practice asking powerful questions, you can gain a clearer picture of who the candidate is and the human impact they will have by joining your organization. There’s no question that it’s a worthwhile approach to recruiting the right person.

At The Moran Company, we utilize a variety of interviewing techniques to get to know candidates. If your nonprofit organization needs assistance with its next nonprofit executive search, we are happy to help. Contact us today for a free 30-minute consultation about your hiring needs.

By Kathryn Evans, M.P.A.
Senior Search Consultant
The Moran Company
“We Find Great Nonprofit Executives”