Selecting Talent – Interviewing with strengths

Posted by Sarah Hobbs

Many of the readers of this blog have been through our Talent Manager programme and are familiar with our Think Strengths tool. Designed as a tactile card sort that can be used to hold conversations with team members, it generates considerable excitement and praise from people who have been through the programme. One question we are regularly asked is whether the strengths card sort can be used for interviews.

Strengths-based interviews are increasingly being used for selection, but are still relatively new to the market. If you want to trial them, our cards are a great foundation. However, just handing the candidate a pack of cards and asking them to choose five key strengths is not going to work – people are just going to tell you what you want to hear. So:

Before you start the interview –

1. Give them the card pack and ask them to sort it into three piles – strengths, weaknesses and things that are neither.


2. Ask them to pick 5 key strengths from the strengths pile and three from the weakness pile – things that they know are not their forté.


3. Make it really clear that you’re going to be asking some questions about those strengths and weaknesses.


4. You may also want to soften any fear about talking about weaknesses, by saying that everyone has things that they are not good at – and you will share your own weaknesses at the end if they are interested! (Doing this really builds rapport and encourages openness – and builds a great picture of the organisation.)

During the interview –

1. Ask them to tell you to tell you why they picked those cards.


2. Pick one of their 5 key strengths and ask three questions –
   
   
   1. Why do you think this is a strength?
   
   
   2. Tell me about a time when you have successfully used this strength.
   
   
   3. How can this strength be useful to this organisation/role?
   
   


3. You could also consider asking them to choose a weakness and then take them through these three questions –
   
   
   1. Why do you think this is a weakness?
   
   
   2. Tell me about a time when this weakness made your job more difficult.
   
   
   3. How did you work around or overcome this weakness?