Live Mock Interview Recap

Last Thursday Matt Stinson (CEO/Founder of Inspirewell) interviewed Jaron Farnham, a Sales leadership candidate. Here's a recap of the questions that were asked and the feedback that was given (plus live audience questions). You can watch the recording here.

2 questions a Founder/CEO asks leadership candidates in interviews

1. Can you tell me about a time, as a leader, when you made the wrong decision. How did you know you made the wrong decision and what did you learn from it?
2. When you have a rep on your team who is under performing, how do you approach the conversation of trying to level them up?

Feedback on the Candidate's response from each question

1. Can you tell me about a time, as a leader, when you made the wrong decision. How did you know you made the wrong decision and what did you learn from it?

Candidate feedback:

-> I think I did alright, you can always be more concise with your answer
-> Hiring/firing is always at the forefront of a front line manager role, it's important to always look for improvement
-> This use case is good for an interview because it's a critical part of the job vs something minute
-> I feel like I could've added more details around the learning and impact
-> I'd give myself a B+ / A- on my response to the interview question

Founder feedback:

-> Your assessment sounds right to me
-> You came across as authentic, genuine and owning the mistake you made
-> The worst answers to this question are when people give platitudes or something that isn't a mistake (I used to work too hard)
-> I agree with you on there being an opportunity to be more concise
-> Have more examples ready besides hiring (I see this all the time) it could be comp, product, territory, etc.
-> I'm looking for an internal locus and a focus on continuous learning

2. When you have a rep on your team who is under performing, how do you approach the conversation of trying to level them up?

Candidate feedback:

-> The thing I always battle with my interviews is that I'm a storyteller and give too much detail
-> What I'm realizing is that Sales Executives are more tactical/operational, they want clear cut

Founder feedback:

-> Balancing who you are and calibrating your communication style to the people interviewing you is tough
-> Most Sales leaders are direct, dominant, driven so I think you're right about adapting your style to it
-> The start to your answer was incredible, walking through your stance and process sequentially was smart
-> After this is where we got into the run-on aspect of the story, have more data points in your story
-> When you bring data and/or examples into the answer, you make it easier for the interviewer

Live Audience questions

1. As a Founder/CEO, what are questions that candidates aren't asking in their final round interviews with CEO/Founders that they should?
2. When you're interviewing a candidate who is going to be a first time Manager, what's something they can do better?