Topgrading

First Aid for Your Topgrading Interview!

If you are not achieving at least 75% high performers hired or promoted…you’re probably making mistakes that you can quickly fix – really!

Mistake: Breaking the Topgrading Interview into halves with DIFFERENT interviewers for the first and second halves.

First Aid: Use the same interviewers for the full Topgrading Interview.
The beauty of the Topgrading Interview is the clarity of PATTERNS that evolve across a person’s life and career. There’s no way the “first half” interviewers can pass enough insights along to the “second half” interviewers!

Mistake: Failing to see patterns that make it easy to rate all key competencies.

First Aid: After the interview use your notes from the Topgrading Interview Guide to visually portray how successful (or unsuccessful) the candidate has been.
For example:

This is a “snapshot” of a super sales rep, who exceeded quotas in strong economies (1997-2000) and down economies (2000-2002), but who is not an A player sales manager. He’s a “do it myself” manager who hasn’t learned to hire, coach, motivate, or develop teams. If you want to hire a sales manager, don’t bet on this super sales rep whose performance in management is declining!

Mistake: Performing Topgrading Interviews before learning how.

First Aid: Practice one or two Topgrading Interviews on lower level people, to find your groove.

Initially Topgrading interviewers stumble a bit, have to read questions, and spend too much time on the candidate’s education and early work history. If you feel a bit awkward, any A player candidate will find the process awkward too. So develop your skills and confidence before interviewing “for real.”

Mistake: Going “solo.”

First Aid: Use the tandem interview (have an interview partner).

About a month ago I complimented Jack Welch (former Chairman of GE) on his approving TWO interviewers. Not only did GE improve its success picking people to 90%, THOUSANDS of managers have done the same, following this tandem Topgrading Interview model:

• The main interviewer asks most questions and takes some notes.
• The secondary interviewer asks a few questions and takes a lot of notes.

CONCLUSIONS

To hire or promote with 75% - 90% success, you MUST use the Topgrading Interview. No other method comes within a country mile of achieving such success. To get excellent results practice a little on “easy” interviewees, use the tandem model, and write a 10-year “snapshot” to see clear patterns of overall performance.