One way of overcoming the challenge of recruiting great people to your team is to thoroughly explore their competencies and motivations during the interview stage.
Behavioural interviewing is designed to draw on concrete examples from past experiences and is more reliable than asking hypothetical questions such as: “What did you do?”, rather than “What would you do?”
The approach of exploring their previous work evokes candid responses and also tests their ability to synergize, summarise and connect examples and techniques, demonstrating their depth of understanding and learning from experience. All of which are essential qualities for any role concerned with change management.
STAR(T) Behavioral Interview Questions (STAR Method Examples)
Using the STAR framework, you can explore relevant experiences and take candidates through a structured process to relate them to you. In addition to the original, at Management 3.0 we added the T to the behavioral interview questions: What did the candidate learn about this case?
- SITUATION: Ask for a specific example of something they have dealt with, complete with context (where, when, etc).
STAR Method Examples, such as
“Tell me about a situation when….”
“Describe a time when you dealt with…”
“Can you share an example of a situation which…” - TASK: What needed to be done, what was the change needed? What challenges arose from this? What was the expected outcome? How the candidate defines this will tell you a lot.
- ACTION: “What did you do?” “How did you do it?” for example
A chance to probe for elaboration and test their technical skills, why did they choose that approach? Were there alternatives they dismissed and why? - RESULTS: “What was the outcome?” Can they concisely explain what the benefits were, quantitative and qualitative? This will also tell you something about their values, as well as their ability to evaluate and be analytical.
- TAKE-AWAYS: “What did you learn?”
Examples of Behavioral Questions
Situational interview questions.
- Tell me about a time you had to change your behavior to get things done in an organization or project.
- Describe a situation where you helped someone else to become a better professional.
- Tell me what you did to become a better professional last year.
STAR Interview Questions for Managers – A list
Do you want to prepare with some STAR interview questions? We have created a list of 25 behavioral questions related to Management 3.0 practices and ideas:
Download some examples of STAR Method questions to use in your recruiting interviews
Learn more about how to hire great people for your team within the Grow Structure view. The Module and the STAR Interview Method are part of our Agility in HR (ICP-AHR) Workshop.
