A person who thinks critically can ask appropriate questions, gather relevant information, efficiently and creatively sort through this information, reason logically from this information, and come to reliable and trustworthy conclusions. Critical thinkers gather information from all senses, verbal, written expression, reflection, observation, experience and reasoning
Here are some characteristics of a strong critical thinker, according to Raymond Nickerson, an authority on critical thinking:

Uses evidence skillfully and impartially
Organizes thoughts and articulates them concisely and coherently
Distinguishes between logically valid and invalid inferences
Understands the differences between reasoning and rationalizing
Applies problem solving techniques in domains other than those in which learned

For Managers: If critical …read more

Does experience matter when making a hiring decision? In a word "YES!" It better matter to you if you are the hiring manager. Why? Because the cost to onboard a new employee is in the thousands of dollars depending on your organization. Part of the cost for onboarding a new employee in is their training. Whether you provide training or not, it will cost you as an organization. If you bring a new employee into your organization without providing training, it will cost you as they learn through trial and error. There is a cost associated with mistakes that employees …read more

Suppose you are the hiring manager interviewing an awesome candidate with highly marketable skills and you just know they are perfect for the job but you also know that they have several other employers courting them, too.
How can you increase the chance that they’ll want to work for you more than the others? Remember, it’s about so much more than money.

Win them over with your culture. If a candidate has multiple offers they’ll be able to be a lot more picky about which company they want to work for. The culture of the organization often dictates how …read more

Being able to influence people is not critical for all jobs but it is for some and it certainly never hurts.  Influencing people is sort of an art.  It’s about knowing how identify the effective way to speak to all kinds of people on their particular level to gain support, rather than using a one-size-fits-all delivery.  If you are assessing a candidate’s ability to influence in a behavioral interview, start by explaining the concept to them.
Here’s one example of how you could do that.
Influencing is the ability to persuade and enlist others support in accomplishing your objectives.  To sell your ideas …read more

If you work for, or are interviewing at a large company, chances are that responsibilities are spread out across many different people.  The more people that you have in an organization, the more important decision-making skills become.  For example, a company that consists of one manager and one employee may not worry as much about the employee making bad decisions because the span of control of the manager is small, making it more likely that the decision making power remains in the hands of the management.  However, the more staff that a manager is responsible for, the less likely it is …read more

From my experience, the behavior interview questions around problem solving are the hardest for candidates to answer.  Problem solving is tricky but even though candidates struggle with these questions, they can be the most important ones to ask, especially if you are interviewing candidates for leadership positions. 
Start by explaining what you consider the foundation of problem solving.  Here’s one way you could explain it. 
The most important part of effective problem solving is being able to separate the root of the problem from the symptoms of the problem.  After the problem has been diagnosed, it is important to consider multiple potential …read more

I can’t think of a single organization or business that isn’t concerned with customer service. Customer service is not just important in retail where there are obvious customers. Where I work, our customers are patients and even doctors and nurses.
In an interview where you are assessing customer focus, start with providing the applicant an idea of what you see as good customer focus. Here’s an example of what you could say.
Customer focus is the ability to build strong relationships with internal and external customers and identify and meet their needs and to use customer feedback to improve …read more

Behavioral Interviewing is an interviewing technique where the potential candidate is asked to tell the interviewer a story of a time in their career where they demonstrated a particular skill.
The premise of this interviewing technique is that, it’s easy to tell an interviewer what they want to hear when responding to a particular question but it is much more difficult to do when the candidate is required to give a specific example of a time where they actually used the skill. The questions usually start out with “tell me about a time when you…”
The great thing about behavioral interviews …read more

My colleague David Zinger, over at Slacker Manager has an AWESOME contest going on. It’s called the 6 Management Story Contest. His idea for the contest came from Jodee Bock who wrote a post called What’s Your Story (In Six Words..?) I like this contest, because it should challenge you to think about who you are as a manager. Do you know?
Take a moment and visit Slacker Manager. Read some of the comments people have left. My 6 Word Management Story is Living to Shape Minds and Destinies. That’s who I am. It is my mission in life. And I …read more

This morning as I was scanning the various posts here at b5media Business Channel, I saw one that caught my eye from BossHatch: Oh Crap Situation 16: The Resume. It was the resume portion that got my attention. I wondered about the situation.
Here it is:
Frank is your go-to guy in sales. You recently hired him after you decided to expand your business. His résumé was put together incredibly well and he had a long list of references. With his charismatic approach and a long list of credentials, you hired him. About one month later, you decided …read more