Truth 49. Skillful interviewing is a major (but unrecognized) business asset

You’re not a reporter, you say, so why should you be interested in knowing how to interview someone? Consider:

• Do you ever need to draw information from other people, such as in-house specialists or outside experts? This is critical when you’re responsible for a proposal or report, but also, you often want to elicit knowledge, ideas, or advice.

• Is networking valuable to you, and would active listening and questioning techniques help you build relationships?

• Do you lead teams? Collaborate with other people, departments, clients, or suppliers?

• Do you need to know how to negotiate effectively? Is selling part of your job?

Interviewing techniques help with all of these. Moreover, they make you both a better interviewer when you’re hiring employees and a better interviewee when you’re an applicant yourself. And, interviewing techniques can equip you well for many kinds of confrontational situations.

Journalists generally learn how to interview by trial and error. Even today, the subject is not often taught, even in journalism schools. Here are some strategies worth adopting.

Do your homework—You’ll get much deeper information and relate to people better when you equip yourself ahead of time. In fact, reporters find that when they ask intelligent questions, the subject becomes much more interested and may say amazing things they didn’t expect. So, read up on your subject to avoid having to start from scratch and ask for basic information.

Know your goal—Formulate exactly what you want from the interaction: To elicit specific information? Generate ideas? Establish cordial working relationships? Find out what someone can contribute, or what he or she wants from you? If you’ve figured out what you need to come away with, you’re way ahead.

Come up with a good list of questions and write them down—Then juggle the questions into a logical sequence and take account of how much time you’ll have. If you are getting only five minutes with a VIP, the most important questions should be at the top of your list. A 20-minute session can have a whole different pace and depth, and an hour-long interview differs even more.

Set a friendly tone—If appropriate, explain what you’re doing and what you need. This often will relax the other person because it automatically sets limits and creates focus. Try to make the interaction feel like a conversation, not an interrogation. A good interview usually requires the interviewer to share some information about himself or herself.

Ask your questions—If it’s not appropriate to have your list in front of you, make a point of remembering the first few questions and the gist of what you want to know. Even if you refer to the list you drew up, there’s no need to tick the questions off one by one. Once the conversation is launched, it will follow its own logic—although you should be ready to steer it back on course as needed—and you can check the list at the end to make sure you haven’t forgotten something important.

Listen hard—Really focus on what’s being said, and you’ll not only draw out good material, you’ll make a good impression. It’s estimated that we generally listen to one-third of what other people say and spend most of the other two-thirds preparing our response. Concentrated listening is one of the qualities that make us think some people are charming. Look interested, maintain eye contact as much as possible, and offer all the conversational cues to keep things going: “Oh!” “And then what?” “Hmm!” “Really!” Listen, too, for the sparks that signal that something the person cares about or feels strongly about has come up. A good reporter will always follow that lead, and many times, you should too.

Project enthusiasm—On-camera interviewers know that people tend to respond on the same emotional level the questioner sets. You can ask basically the same question in different ways. We once saw a video director ask a nonprofit’s client, “How did this agency help you?” He spoke in a flat monotone, looking at his notes. The answer was equally flat and noncommittal. Ten minutes later, someone else—focusing directly on the subject and speaking in a bright, interested tone—asked another client: “Tell me, what are all the ways this agency has helped you?” She got a great, detailed testimonial, spoken with conviction. The idea applies equally to general conversation: Treat something as important and you’ll get better results.

End well—Investigative reporters typically reserve the toughest questions—the ones that can get them thrown out—for the end, when the rest is safely recorded. In the business environment, you don’t typically need to ask those questions and shouldn’t want to: It’s hard on relationships. But another reportage technique works really well. Ask, “Is there anything else that didn’t come up which you think is interesting or important? That you wish people knew?”

A note on recording your interviews: Journalists are all over the place on this one. Many still write it all down in a version of shorthand or scribble as fast as they can, while others use voice recorders or even the tiny video recorders now available (which capture expressions and atmosphere). Many take notes and record, not trusting technology 100%. But don’t record without permission.

If you’re taking notes, try to maintain eye contact as often as you can or the other person’s enthusiasm will wane. Note-taking, by the way, at meetings, during a client phone conversation, or on many other occasions, is an invaluable habit to develop. Later, you may be the only person who knows what was actually said.

And at times, it’s good to have that notepad to focus on. A CEO once recounted his experience when, new to the organization, he met with key department heads and clients and took notes on their opinions. “They were very impressed that I took them so seriously,” he said. “But often I was thinking, ‘Thank heavens I have something to look at so they don’t see that I’m trying not to laugh because what they’re saying is so totally absurd.’”