The Biggest Mistake Employers Make Interviewing Candidates

The biggest mistake employers make when hiring is not fully vetting candidates for their leadership skills. Leadership isn’t needed just for executives and supervisory roles. Leadership is needed at all levels. Fortunately, this mistake can be avoided by reprioritizing the interview objectives.

What most employers interview candidates for

Whether hiring for positions on a faculty, executive team, or administrative department, you want to hire the best candidate for the job. To help make that decision, you typically have an onsite interview. During the selection process, interviewers try to discover key things that help indicate if a candidate is right for the job. These include:

• Subject-matter expertise (technical/functional)
• Proven experience (including publications, contributions to the field, and experience)
• Meaningful references
• Use of soft skills
• Fit with the culture

While all five are important, employers tend to be effective at discovering the first three but aren’t so great with discovering about the last two. Interestingly, leadership seldom makes this list. Even with some executive searches, interviewers may not probe enough to…