Interview Coaching: How to perform well in a panel interview
March 9, 2011 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
Whether it’s an informal chat with your potential boss and their boss or a formal meeting with the senior management team, panel interviews or group interviews can unsettle the most experienced interviewee.
How can you ensure you perform well and sell yourself effectively? London Interview Coach Hannah McNamara explains.
Do your homework
You’ll most likely be given the names or at least the job titles of the people you are due to meet. Look them up on the company’s website and on social networking sites. Try to figure out what makes them tick. Which are the most important functions in the company? For example is it a sales-led or an innovation-led company?
Prepare examples from your work history which demonstrate skills and attributes which will be deemed important to each of the people around the table.
Make eye contact
It can be tempting to focus on the person who greeted you at reception and direct your comments to them or to only focus on the most senior person at the table, but this could be a mistake.
Make sure you make eye contact with everyone from the moment you enter the room. If you don’t it could be perceived that you’re avoiding them.
Talk to everyone present
There may be some people who sit silently observing and making notes while others dominate the conversation. Everyone who’s at the interview is there for a reason and needs to be included when you address the panel. Be mindful that the note-taker could be the CEO’s PA and will have a valid view on your suitability for the role you’re interviewing for.
Cater for everyone’s needs
Is it possible to please everyone? Yes, if you know how to seed the conversation with the right information. Have you ever been to a movie with friend and found afterwards you both liked different parts of it or had forgotten about things your friend remembered vividly? This is because just like everyone else you filter information out and focus on what appeals to you. You can safely bet that everyone around the table is listening out for the things that are relevant to them and will ignore much of the rest of what you say. They don’t do it on purpose, it’s just that it’s impossible for them to mental record every single word coming out of your mouth.
Broadly speaking people from different departments are looking for the following at your interview:
- CEO – achievements and long term strategy
- Finance – return on investment
- Sales and Marketing – results, customer focus, understanding of the brand
- IT/Legal – technical competence
- HR – detail and people focus
Tell a good story
Given that all the people have different priorities, try to give examples of situations in the form of stories which include information at each point which is going to be relevant to them. For example:
• What you were trying to achieve
• What was going on
• How you approached the situation
• What you did
• How people reacted
• What the results were
• How the results compared with the original goal/brief
Don’t bluff it
In a panel interview situation, there’s a specialist in most business areas sitting in front of you. This is not the time to bluff your way through your answers. They will compare notes afterwards and you can be sure the specialist spotted your bluffing a mile off and will tell everyone else. If you don’t know the answer to a question and can’t call the information to mind on the spot, explain how you would find out.
With a panel interview you’re still dealing with people. They all have a vested interest in finding the right person for the role. With the right preparation, you can demonstrate to all of them that you’re the person for the job.
Copyright Hannah McNamara HRM Coaching Ltd
About the author: Hannah McNamara is the Managing Director of HRM Coaching Ltd an Career Coaching company based in London, UK with clients all over the world. They have a team of Interview Coaching Consultants available to choose from and will manage the coaching programme for you from start to finish.
For more information on interview coaching call +44 20 7939 9910 and ask for either Hannah McNamara or Lenka Hanzelova or contact us.
Employee Engagement: How to engage employees
February 22, 2011 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles, Featured Article
A Short Guide for Senior Managers
What is Employee Engagement?
Employee engagement is more than a buzzword, it’s about creating a culture and an environment where employees want to go the extra mile and are proud to work for their employer.
Definition of Employee Engagement
Here are three examples of how different resources define employee engagement:
Wikipedia: “Employee engagement, also called work engagement or worker engagement, is a business management concept. An “engaged employee” is one who is fully involved in, and enthusiastic about, his or her work, and thus will act in a way that furthers their organization’s interests.”
CIPD: “(Employee engagement) can be seen as a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values and a willingness to help out colleagues (organisational citizenship). It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation. Engagement is something the employee has to offer: it cannot be ‘required’ as part of the employment contract.”
Harvard Business Review: “Engagement represents the energy, effort, and initiative employees bring to their jobs.”
When people talk about employee engagement, they sometimes refer to it as employee satisfaction, employee involvement or staff motivation.
Why is employee engagement important?
Dissatisfaction and reduced productivity obviously have a negative impact on the organisation, its profitability and its future. To those in senior management positions, hoping to shape the direction of the organisation, getting the support of all levels of employees is paramount. Without their support the best laid plans can fail or worse be blocked by employees, leaving senior managers exposed and confused.
Assuming that the correct hiring decisions have been made, it is wasteful to underutilise the people in an organisation. Top managers know that in order for them to succeed, they need to hire top talent to support them. Only mediocre managers hire people who are intellectually inferior to them or will be a ‘yes’ man or woman, rather than choosing people who will think for themselves and have a voice. Mediocre managers are creating a rod for their own back and will find themselves micromanaging their de-motivated and disengaged staff. Better to have people playing to their strengths and taking ownership of situations.
Engaged employees are more likely to bring their manager solutions rather than problems and to come up with insightful ideas and ways of improving the way they work. More stimulated and productive members of staff are happier and less prone to stress related illnesses, which ultimately cost the organisation money.
Creating employee engagement
There are many employee engagement surveys and tools you can use to find out the metrics of staff morale within your organisation, but you can probably ascertain this for yourself simply by speaking to a cross section of staff members or speaking to your Human Resources department for anecdotal evidence. Statistics about how engaged people are can be useful if you want to measure your organisation’s progress in improving engagement.
Since employee engagement is something which needs to be worked at on a consistent basis, we can take it as a given that it is an area that senior managers should be mindful of.
Before setting out to ‘fix’ employee engagement and boost staff motivational levels, it should be considered in line with the organisation’s vision, mission and values. Define what employee engagement looks like on a daily basis, how you’ll know it is improving and the financial impact of having an engaged workforce. Think about statistics such as how much staff turnover and low productivity is currently costing the organisation.
Who is responsible for employee engagement?
It is tempting to say that employee engagement is the responsibility of the HR department and that would be missing the point. Everybody who has contact with members of staff or who carries out work for the organisation is responsible for employee engagement.
How to engage employees
Contrary to what many managers believe, most members of staff are motivated more by feeling they and their contributions are valued, than by receiving their monthly salary.
Employees often complain that they have no idea where the company is heading or how they fit into it. They talk about departments operating as silos and the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Frustrations manifest as stress, health problems, conflict at work and people playing political games.
For senior managers, this means that you can start making a difference and begin engaging employees straight away by communicating effectively with your direct reports. Then ensure that they in turn communicate with their teams. The lines of communication work both ways, so set aside time each week to connect with your direct reports – even if it’s just for 15 minutes – to really listen to them and find out what’s going on at the front line.
Think about whether you can delegate earlier and involve your people in projects you’re working on. This has added benefits such as you having a fresh perspective on things, getting their ideas and input and being able to delegate some of the more operational activities so you can focus on being more strategic. The more time you have available for strategic thinking, the more you’ll be able to communicate clearly and the better engaged your people will be.
There are several steps to employee engagement, but the key ones are to:
- Be clear about the business plan and how it relates to your department
- Help your people to break the organisation’s goals down into departmental goals, team goals and personal goals
- Reinforce the vision, mission and values of the organisation you work in
- Encourage clear communication between staff and between departments
- Listen to what people are saying and take it on board when making decisions
- Keep people in the loop
- Delegate earlier and involve people in projects
While the above steps and tips on employee engagement sound like common sense, applying them can be a little more tricky.
In our capacity as executive coaches and management trainers, we work with many of our clients one-to-one and in groups on all the areas covered above. The key is to start at the top and cascade the message down to all levels.
Find out more
For more information on how we can help with employee engagement, please contact either Hannah McNamara or Lenka Hanzelova on (44) 20 7939 9910 or email info [at] hrmcoaching.com with your contact details and we will call you back.
Five ways to tell someone could benefit from executive coaching
January 21, 2011 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
Knowing when and how to suggest executive coaching to a member of staff or a colleague is key to getting people the development they need, when they need it. Here are five ways you can tell if someone could benefit from executive coaching – and how receptive they are likely to be.
1) They have recently taken on new responsibilities, but carry on doing their old job
When someone is promoted, it’s important for the organisation that they get up to speed as quickly as possible. There isn’t always the time for people to learn the new job before other people start expecting to see results. Many managers in this situation respond by continuing to do their old job (only in a more bossy way) or failing to delegate, which means their direct reports don’t start to develop the ability to assist their manager. This doesn’t help anyone. These people are good candidates for coaching and are almost always receptive to it.
2) They have issues with communication skills
‘Communication skills’ covers a huge spectrum of development needs – they might be sending one-line abrupt emails, belittling people, having difficulties with a colleague, avoiding confrontation, not speaking up in meetings and so on. Coaching can help them to be more empathetic and consider the impact their communication style is having on others. Depending on the person, they may respond well in a workshop or if your organisation is status-orientated they might prefer to work on this in the privacy of an executive coaching session instead.
3) They need to improve their leadership skills
There are so many books, courses and resources available on leadership. They all add value and give people the information they need to be a good leader. It’s the application of that information which makes a difference in the long-term. Executive coaching helps people to apply the knowledge they have and turn it into something practical. It also gives them the space to practice these new skills before trying them out ‘live’ on their staff and helps boost their confidence. Position it to them that they’ll be able to do this in private and they are likely to be receptive.
4) They have started to deliver work at the last minute or late
When an otherwise organised person starts struggling to meet deadlines it can indicate that they are having challenges saying ‘no’, delegating, or something else is bothering them. While they might think the last thing they need is to work with a coach because it eats into their day, the benefits to them can be huge. Executive coaching sessions don’t need to take long – they can be half an hour on the phone. They may need a little coaxing and convincing to take time out, but it will be worth it.
5) They ask for it!
Yes, this might appear obvious, but it can sometimes be overlooked when someone is already doing well in their job. They might be able to keep up appearances now but know that they need support with something in order to continue to perform. Whether they are asking for presentation skills coaching, conflict management coaching, time management coaching or any other type of coaching if you can respond quickly, they will be very grateful. Executive coaching doesn’t have to be a long-term support. Many of our clients find that one or two sessions is all they need to work on achieving a specific outcome.
While some of the above examples might appear to focus on coaching being used to ‘fix’ a problem, it’s important to position coaching as something positive – which it is. Depending on the culture of your organisation, changing the terminology might convince an otherwise sceptical person to accept help. We know they are going to be coached, but they might respond better to it being pitched as ‘one to one training’, ‘mentoring support’ or ‘leadership development’. Just make sure the coach you choose can cover this as well.
Hannah McNamara is the managing director of HRM Coaching Ltd. She is a former head of marketing and a Chartered Marketer. HRM Coaching specialise in providing down-to-earth, jargon-free coaching and development for senior executives and managers. Hannah and her team work internationally and can be contacted on +44 (0)20 7939 9910 or via www.hrmcoaching.com
This article originally appeared in Training Journal
Girls: Flirt Your Way To The Top
December 30, 2010 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
We’ve all heard about the ‘casting couch’ and most of us wouldn’t go as far as sleeping our way to the top, but is there really any harm in fluttering a few eyelashes and the odd provocative comment to get ourselves noticed at work?
Women have battled with sexism in the workplace for long enough, without encouraging sexual attention at work. Apart from annoying other people and alienating your female colleagues, you can find yourself passed over for promotion simply because male bosses don’t want to be perceived as giving you any ‘special favours’.
So what can you do?
- Keep conversations at work on a strictly business level and keep conversations about extra-curricular activities clean!
- Don’t get drawn into office banter that has sexual undertones (it’s better to be thought a prude than the opposite)
- When dressing for work, think stylish rather than sexy
- Leave the short skirts, tight tops and high heels to the weekend
Yes, you may have worked hard to get the figure you have and may strongly believe in Girl Power, but surely it’s better to get ahead based on your merits than how you look or who you flirt with.
Hannah McNamara is Managing Director of HRM Coaching Ltd in London and the author of ’10 Ways to Sabotage Your Own Career: Are you making these mistakes?’ you can download a copy of the ebook free now by clicking here.
Executive Coaching: Delegation Techniques
November 19, 2010 by Hannah McNamara
Filed under Articles
Delegation is one of the areas that comes up often in executive coaching sessions. The ability to delegate effectively is the key not only to good management, but to good leadership as well.
For many senior people who have risen through the ranks and know in their heart that they could do a task better than someone else, it can be a challenge to delegate – particularly if it is important to get the job done right first time.
Exercise caution here because a failure to delegate is a deadly trap.
The leader who does not trust his or her team enough to delegate, is doomed to spend every day swamped with other people’s work and so stressed that their decision-making ability is compromised. Not good if your role is to oversee, be strategic and drive the organisation forward. This might seem dramatic and perhaps a little over the top and yet you can probably look around you to see people micro-managing and not stepping up to their role as one of your team. If you would encourage them to delegate, perhaps it’s time to lead by example.
Here are some tips to help you delegate more often to the point where it becomes natural:
- Ask yourself if you are the only person who is able to perform the task – if you were out of the office for an extended period what would happen to it? If someone else could cover for you, then as a leader doing it yourself is probably not the best use of your time.
- Define the task – what exactly needs to be done? In executive coaching sessions, we find that many of our clients have not clearly defined the task to themselves, let alone to anyone else. If you’re a ‘make it up as you go along’ or ‘I just know how to do it’ kind of person, it may help to work with a coach or colleague to get how to do it out of your head and onto paper. This could form the basis of a training manual for other people.
- Identify the person to delegate to – who is capable of doing the task, or could be capable if they were trained? Yes, short-term it might seem more expedient to do it yourself rather than show someone else, but in the long-term if you train others to do what you do, you will reap the rewards for years to come. At the moment if doing everything yourself is having an impact on your stress levels, it’s worth it to be able to let someone else share the workload, isn’t it?
- Brief them effectively and give them the chance to ask questions. It can be tempting to make assumptions about what people know how to do and if it’s lived inside your own head for some time, you may be surprised about the things people aren’t able to pick up by osmosis.
Finally, keep asking yourself the question, ‘Is doing this task really the best use of my time?’ If you can work out an hourly rate for your own time and you could be paying someone else to perform the task a lot cheaper, it’s an easy business decision to make. If you still feel resistant to delegating, then working with an executive coach is a good option to help you uncover what’s behind that.
Executive coaching gives you the confidential space to practice your delegation skills, improve your time management and blossom into the leader you know you can be.
Copyright Hannah McNamara HRM Coaching Ltd
Hannah McNamara is the Managing Director of HRM Coaching Ltd an Executive Coaching company based in London, UK with clients all over the world. They have a team of Executive Coaches available to choose from and will manage the coaching programme for you from start to finish. for more information call +44 20 7939 9910 or contact us.
020 7939 9910
