Mission-Driven Interviewing: Moving Beyond Behavior-Based Questions

Few business functions have greater short-term or long-term impact than employment interviewing. From a human capital perspective, interviewing represents a primary means of building the future, for it is the way of hand-selecting those individuals who will become the face... the voice... the embodiment of the organization to its clients, customers, current employees, and the community at large. This holds true for employees at all levels of an organization, and across all job titles.

Yet the criticality of this all-important function is often undervalued and/or overlooked. Rather than being viewed as a way to shape the future, interviewing is frequently viewed as a burdensome administrative task... something that takes managers and HR professionals away from their "real" work.

Mission-driven interviewing™ will enable you – individually or as part of a larger organizational effort -- to recognize, maximize, and leverage the power and impact that is! inherent to interviewing. More specifically, mission-driven interviewing™:

- Encourages interviewers to take a more "macro" perspective (meaning, what is the mission of the position and the organization) in addition to a more traditional "micro" perspective (meaning, what kind of person do we need in this job).
- Seeks to expand interviewers' focus away from an almost single-minded obsession with behavior-based questions by outlining complementary questioning techniques that will yield more accurate and complete job-related information about each candidate.
- Provides tools, techniques, and processes that encourage consistency throughout the interviewing process, all within a framework that affords interviewers with ample flexibility to incorporate the realities of their organizations’ cultures, as well as the nuances of their own personal styles.

Ultimately, mission-driven interviewing™ can empower managers, HR professionals, and entire organizations with the knowledge and skills needed to find the "right" candidates -- the ones who can meaningfully contribute to the attainment of the organization’s mission.

Cathy Lee Gibson, MBA, SPHR, is a Director in the Management Development / Human Resource Management Program at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations in New York City. In this role, Cathy instructs and facilitates numerous public and on-site management and HR workshops, and designs and directs all aspects of the human resource management program. Cathy also consults with organizations on a variety of topics, with a particular focus on strategic interviewing and performance management initiatives. To these endeavors, Cathy brings 20 years of progressively responsible generalist, specialist, and management experience working with small and large organizations, in a variety of industries, and in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors.

In 2006, Ms. Gibson authored Mission-Driven Interviewing™: Moving Beyond Behavior Based Questions. She spoke on a related topic at the 2006 SHRM National Convention and Exposition, and has since been invited to join SHRM’s Speaker’s Bureau. In 2004, Ms. Gibson authored Performance Appraisals for Silver Lining Publications, a division of Barnes & Noble. In 2005, Cathy authored PHR Exam Prep, for Que Publishing, a division of Pearson Education. Cathy has also co-authored online workshops entitled "Selection Requirements and Communication Skills for Interviewing", " Legal and Unbiased Interviewing and Selection", "Assessing, Designing, and Implementing Performance Management Systems", "Achieving Year-Round Performance Management and Appraisal", "Applying a Compensation Model: Internal and Legal Considerations", and "Expanding the Compensation Model: External and Structural Considerations".

Cathy holds a Bachelor of Arts degree summa cum laude from Ithaca College and a Master of Business Administration from Pace University, where she was recognized for outstanding scholarship in the field of management. Cathy has also been recognized as a Senior Professional in Human Resources (SPHR) by the Human Resource Certification Institute and as a Certified Compensation Professional by WorldAtWork (formerly the American Compensation Association).