Most interview processes only cover skills and experience. That leaves the four most important questions unanswered before you make a hiring decision. A confident hire requires six things: revealing who the real person actually is beyond their polished presentation, understanding their true motivation for wanting this specific role, determining alignment across culture, capacity, and contribution, pitching your company so they can decide if you're the right fit too, communicating your standards clearly enough to scare off anyone who isn't, and walking away with enough to say yes with confidence or know exactly what you're still missing.
Most business owners do interviews the same way every time: ask about their background, see if they seem capable, make a call on gut feel. And it works out sometimes, which is why we keep doing it. But the times it doesn't work out, we're usually missing the same information we were always missing. We just never built a process to get it.
This episode is part of the ongoing hiring series. It maps out the six objectives that turn an interview from a gut-feel conversation into a structured process that produces confident decisions.
- Most interviews only accomplish one thing: confirming the candidate can do the job. That leaves the five most important questions unasked and unanswered.
- The person who shows up in the interview is not necessarily the person who shows up six months in. The whole job of the interview is to close that gap as much as possible.
- Motivation matters as much as skill. A candidate who wants a paycheck and a candidate who wants this specific role for your specific company will behave completely differently once they're through the door.
- You cannot evaluate alignment if you haven't defined what alignment looks like for your business first. Culture, capacity, and contribution have to be written down before the first interview starts.
- The interview is a two-way process. Good candidates are comparing you to every other company they're talking to. Make your pitch. Tell them what sets you apart. Tell them what working for you actually looks like.
- Use the interview to communicate your expectations clearly enough to scare away anyone who isn't a fit. If they can be scared off by your values and standards, it's better to find that out here than six months in.
- You should end every interview in one of three places: confident and ready to move forward, unsure and scheduling a second interview to fill the gaps, or passing because something revealed a real incompatibility.
What should I actually be trying to accomplish in a job interview?
Six things. And most interview processes only get to one or two of them.
One: Reveal who the real person is. The version of someone who shows up to an interview is not always the version who shows up six months in when things are comfortable and the walls are down. The whole job of the interview is to close that gap.
Two: Understand their motivation. Do they actually want this role, or are they just looking for a paycheck? The person who wants this specific opportunity and the person who just wants income will behave completely differently once they're through the door.
Three: Determine alignment across culture, capacity, and contribution. Four: Pitch your company so they can make an informed decision. Five: Communicate your expectations clearly. Six: And walk away with enough information to decide confidently or know exactly what you're still missing.
Most interview processes are all the same. It's very much just focused on the candidate, and it is very much just focused on skills and abilities and the role and experience. And here is your chance to set yourself apart.
Amy Dardis, Episode 35How do I figure out if a candidate actually wants this job or just any job?
You ask directly, and you listen for specificity. The person who wants any job gives you generic answers. The person who actually wants this role and your company gives you answers that are specific to what you do and why you do it.
There are three types of candidates: the one who just wants a paycheck and will take whatever gets them there, the one for whom this is a stepping stone to somewhere else, and the one who truly wants this role and sees it as a fit for their gifting and where they are in their life. Only the third type is going to thrive and stay.
The stepping-stone candidate isn't always a bad hire. But you need to know if that's who you're looking at. If you're hiring for a role where longevity and ownership matter, someone who sees this as a short-term move is going to disappoint you. The question isn't whether they're a good person. It's whether what they want and what you need actually line up.
Really, what we're trying to determine is we want this opportunity, we want this specific role with your specific company to be an ideal fit for them, something they are excited about, that aligns with their gifting, that they're going to thrive in.
Amy Dardis, Episode 35What does alignment actually mean and how do I evaluate it in an interview?
Alignment has three parts: culture, capacity, and contribution. You cannot evaluate any of them if you haven't defined them for your business first.
Culture alignment is whether they share your values, thrive within your work style, and bring the character and personality traits that your best people have. The candidate alignment evaluation form breaks this down so you're assessing against a real written standard, not a feeling.
Capacity is whether they can actually do the role well. Three things inside that: ability (natural strengths and skills), potential (their ability to learn and grow in the role), and bandwidth (their actual capacity right now in this season of their life). Someone might have ability and potential but be going through something that limits their bandwidth. That matters.
Contribution is the value they'll bring beyond just doing the job: fresh perspective, energy, ideas. And what they'll get back: growth, challenge, purpose. When culture and capacity are aligned, contribution follows naturally.
How do I use the interview to protect my team and make a confident decision?
Two things most business owners skip: pitching their company and communicating their standards clearly enough.
On the pitch: good candidates are comparing you to every other company they're talking to. Tell them what makes you different. How do you value your people? What do you expect from them? What sets you apart? The more specific you are, the more you differentiate yourself from every other interview they're sitting in.
On communicating expectations: this is your chance to scare them away. If you value radical candor and moving fast and taking ownership, say that. If someone gets uncomfortable with what you describe, that's the information you needed. Far better to find it now.
The decision should land in one of three places: confident, unsure but knowing exactly what's still missing and going back for it, or passing. Even passing on a strong candidate is a good outcome if you can see clearly that your working styles are going to create friction. Knowing that now is the entire point of having a process.
This is your chance to scare them away. And we want to scare them away if they're the type that can be scared away. Because the problem is once they get in those doors, if they can't live up to that standard, it doesn't work for anyone.
Amy Dardis, Episode 35Resources mentioned
- Free Candidate Alignment Evaluation — The form that maps all six interview objectives into a structured evaluation
- Free Interview Questions Download — Questions designed to reveal true character, motivation, and inherent strengths
- Ep 33 — Why Hiring Is the Most Important Process in Your Business — The mindset of hiring and why it matters more than any other process
- Ep 34 — The Real Cost of Hiring the Wrong Person — What a misaligned hire actually costs in time, money, and team damage
Full transcript
When we're in an interview, what specifically are we trying to accomplish? What are we doing throughout the interview process intentionally so that we can actually make a confident decision? There are really six things we are trying to accomplish throughout an interview process.
One thing I want to point to first: if you go to clearauthenticbrands.com/resources, there are free hiring resources there, including the candidate alignment evaluation form and some interview questions. Both of those play a direct role in these six objectives. They are built for you, ready to download.
So what are we really doing in an interview? The goal is to be able to say: are we going to hire this person? Do we believe this person is going to be the right fit for our organization as well as for this role? In order to answer that question confidently, there are six things that have to happen first.
The first objective is to reveal who the real person is. This ends up being one of the biggest struggles and frustrations for businesses, because it is so hard to get people to actually show who they really are. Who they present themselves to be in the interview is not always who they really are. That's not necessarily the person who's going to show up on the job six months down the road when things are comfortable, the walls are down, the guard is down. That's what we need to know. Who is actually going to show up? Who is actually going to be the person talking to my customers or in charge of this process? So during this process, we want to ask questions and facilitate connections and do things intentionally in order to answer the question: do I feel like I saw the authentic side of this person? There's a lot of strategy behind that, and we're going to go deep on it in the next episode.
The second objective is to determine motivation. Why are they applying for this specific role at your specific company? We want to know: what's the drive behind why they want to work for you? Or do they really want to work for you? Someone is either looking for a job, just something that will pay the bills. They'll say all the right things, get their first few paychecks, and then you see a completely different side of them. They start dropping the ball, or they bail out completely. If that is their primary motivation, they don't actually want this job. They want what they want for the short term. Or maybe this job is just a stepping stone. Not really what they want, just a foot in the door to get somewhere else. That's not always a bad thing. But if you're looking for someone who's going to thrive and stay long term in this role, you want the person who actually wants that role, not someone who's using it to get somewhere else.
The third objective is to determine alignment. How do they, as a person, align with your business? There are three components to alignment: culture, capacity, and contribution. Culture alignment means do they share our values, do they thrive within our work style, do they have the character and personality traits of the people who thrive in our organization, and do they stay away from our non-negotiables? This starts with the brand clarity foundation: you have to know what your values are, what your work style is, what the traits of your best people are, and what your non-negotiables are. Without that defined, you cannot tell if the person you're interviewing aligns with those things.
Underneath culture is capacity: will they excel in this specific role? Within capacity we look at three things: ability (their natural strengths, talents, and skills), potential (their ability to learn and grow within this role), and bandwidth (the time capacity, emotional capacity, and structure to take on this job right now in this season). Sometimes someone has the ability and the potential, but something going on in their life is minimizing their bandwidth to perform at the highest level right now. That's something we need to consider.
The third part of alignment is contribution: the value and impact this person is going to bring to the table. Once they walk through the door, they are pretty much immediately delivering value, even if they're not fully trained yet. Fresh perspective, fresh ideas, energy, relational ability. And because of that, they're getting something back too: they feel valued, challenged, they're growing, there's fulfillment and purpose in the work.
When we're looking at revealing the real person, determining their motivation, and determining alignment, it all starts with two things. First, us being clear on what we're looking for and the specifics of how we operate as a business. Second, it's dependent on the quality of questions we ask. We will never get the answers to the questions if we don't ask them first. I see this happen in interviews all the time: too much time on skills and experience, not enough on character, motivation, and drive.
The fourth objective is to pitch your company. As much as we are trying to interview them, we also want them to interview us. Most applicants, especially really good ones, are applying to multiple places. They are comparing their interview experience with you to their experience at the next company. What you say about your company, beyond just benefits and compensation, matters. Talk about how working for your company will add value to their life. How do you value your employees? How do you challenge them and help them grow? What sets you apart? By sharing what you value and your unique differentiators, you're already differentiating yourself. This is your chance to be different from every other interview process out there.
The fifth objective is communicating expectations. Be very clear and very direct about the expectations, the deliverables, the commitments you have from your employees, not only functionally but behaviorally. When you tell a candidate that your organization values taking ownership, values doing the right thing, values radical candor, that gives them the opportunity to ask themselves: am I that type of person? Does that excite me or does that scare me? The more information you give them up front about the actual working experience, the actual values, the actual environment, the better each party can make an informed decision. This is your chance to scare them away. And you want to scare them away if they can be scared away. Because once they're through those doors and they can't live up to that standard, it doesn't work for anyone.
The sixth objective is making a confident decision, for both of you. Using the candidate alignment evaluation form, it's spelled out: did I ask questions to see if they value radical candor? Did I ask questions to see if they take responsibility for their actions? If you can't fill that out and point to what they said that gave you each answer, you know you're missing information. So you end up in one of three places: confident and ready to move forward, unsure and needing another interview to fill the gaps, or passing because something in their answers revealed a real incompatibility. Work style is a common one: if your organization moves fast and operates with ambiguity, and the candidate needs structure and clear direction, they are going to be frustrated in your environment. That is a real mismatch even if everything else looks great.
When you keep these six objectives in mind, you become more intentional and more strategic about what you say, how you say it, and when you say it throughout the process. Write these things out. Create an interview outline. At the beginning it's a little awkward, but you get comfortable with it and you find your flow. The goal is a 95 to 98% success rate in your hiring decisions. That is achievable when you know what you're looking for before you begin, and when every element of the process is working together.