Chapter 26.
Hire the Motivated

The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good people to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.

—Theodore Roosevelt

It sounds too simple. But the best way to have people on your team be motivated is to hire self-motivated people.

But isn’t that just the luck of the draw? No. There is much you can do to create this kind of team. Let’s start with the hiring interview.

As you conduct your hiring interview, know in advance the kinds of questions that are likely to have been anticipated by the interviewee, and therefore will only get you a role-played answer. Minimize those questions.

Instead, ask questions that are original and designed to uncover the real person behind the role-player. Ask the unexpected. Keep your interviewee pleasantly off-balance. The good, motivated people will love it, and the undermotivated will become more and more uncomfortable.

Know that every interviewee is attempting to role-play.

They are playing the part of the person they think would get this job. We all do it in an interview. But your job is to not let it happen.

One way to find the true person across from you is called layering. Layering is following up a question with an open-ended, layered addition to the question. For example:

Question: Why did you leave Company X?

Answer: Not enough challenges.

Layered Question: Interesting, tell me more about Company X. What was it like for you there?

Answer: It was pretty difficult. I wasn’t comfortable.

Layered Question: Why do you think it affected you that way?

Answer: My manager was a micromanager.

Layered Question: This is very interesting; talk more about that if you can.

Basically, “layering” is a request you make that your interviewee go further and further beyond his pre-rehearsed story. You ask him to “go on,” then “keep going,” then “tell me more,” and then “go on.”

Layering uncovers the real person after a while. So do questions that have not been anticipated and rehearsed for a role-play. Here’s an example of a very open-ended and curious exchange:

“Did you grow up here?”

“No, I grew up in Chicago.”

“Chicago! Did you go to high school there?”

“Yes I did, Maine East High.”

“What was that like, going to that school?”

Another example:

“How was your weekend?”

“Great.”

“What is a typical weekend like for you?”

Or another:

“I see from your resume that you majored in engineering.” “Yes.”

“If you had one thing to change about how they teach engineering, what would you change?”

Or another:

“If you were asked to go back to run the company you just came from, what’s the first thing you would do?”

Think of questions that you yourself like and are intrigued by, and keep your interviewee in uncharted waters throughout the interview. That way you get the real person to talk to you so you’ll get a much better gut feeling about the person and what he or she would be like to work with.

The best way to create a highly motivated team is to hire people who are already motivated people.