Culture Interview
Your goal is to gather specific evidence on the above signals around Culture. The questions are a guide for the conversation, not a script. You do not need to ask all the questions on this list.
Time: 30 minutes
Interviewer: Anyone
Signals: Communication, Introspection & Continuous Improvement, Discourse
Introductions (3-5 min)
- Break the ice
- Introduce yourself and let the candidate briefly introduce themselves
Interview Questions (30 min)
- Talk me through what your day to day looks like? How do you interact with your team?
- Who are the members of your team or close colleagues?
- (Pick a colleague)
- What are their strengths?
- What are their weaknesses?
- What have you learned from them?
- How have you personally helped them grow?
- How would your coworkers describe you?
- What was the last disagreement your team had?
- What was your take?
- What was the opposing take?
- How did you explain your side?
- What was the outcome of the disagreement?
- What did you learn?
- If you could go back in time, what would you do differently?
- Tell me about your manager?
- What is that one thing they do that motivates you?
- How could they better motivate you?
- What is one area they could improve?
- Can you provide an example of how you manage up?
- When was the last time you received constructive feedback?
- What was the feedback you received?
- What were your thoughts on this feedback?
- What was the outcome?
Candidate Questions (5-10 min)
Rubric
Signal | Strong No | No | Yes | Strong Yes |
Interpersonal Skills | Cannot articulate examples of interpersonal connections
This is not someone you would want to work with everyday | Roundabout explanations, unstructured thoughts
They can not talk through their colleagues roles | Articulates clear interactions with members of their team | Deep understanding of the social and political aspects of the team.Â
This individual clearly has a multiplying effect on their team/org. |
Introspection & Continuous Improvement | They have never thought about what motivates them, the team dynamics, or others perception of them | They understand what’s lacking in their role, but have taken no steps to remedy the situation | They have a clear understanding of what drives them and the team dynamics.Â
They have made strides to develop those around them. | They have clear demonstrated examples of identifying gaps and upleveling those around themselves |
Discourse | They incite conflict - the only side of the argument they see is their own | Even if they are right they are unable to drive their point home. | Is reflective on past experiences and has meaningful learnings from themÂ
They understand that there are two sides to every argument | Everyone else plays checkers
They think steps ahead - they ask the right questions to lead others to their conclusion |