5 Questions Great Job Candidates Ask

Many of the questions potential new hires ask are throwaways. But not these.

                                                           Getty

Be honest. Raise your hand if you feel the part of the job interview where you ask the candidate, "Do you have any questions for me?" is almost always a waste of time.
Thought so.
The problem is most candidates don't actually care about your answers; they just hope to make themselves look good by asking "smart" questions. To them, what they ask is more important than how you answer.
Great candidates ask questions they want answered because they're evaluating you, your company--and whether they really want to work for you.
Here are five questions great candidates ask:

What do you expect me to accomplish in the first 60 to 90 days?
Great candidates want to hit the ground running. They don't want to spend weeks or months "getting to know the organization."
They want to make a difference--right away.
What are the common attributes of your top performers?
Great candidates also want to be great long-term employees. Every organization is different, and so are the key qualities of top performers in those organizations.
Maybe your top performers work longer hours. Maybe creativity is more important than methodology. Maybe constantly landing new customers in new markets is more important than building long-term customer relationships. Maybe it's a willingness to spend the same amount of time educating an entry-level customer as helping an enthusiast who wants high-end equipment.
Great candidates want to know, because 1) they want to know if they fit, and 2) if they do fit, they want to be a top performer.
What are a few things that really drive results for the company?
Employees are investments, and every employee should generate a positive return on his or her salary. (Otherwise why are they on the payroll?)
In every job some activities make a bigger difference than others. You need your HR folks to fill job openings... but what you really want is for HR to find the right candidates because that results in higher retention rates, lower training costs, and better overall productivity.
You need your service techs to perform effective repairs... but what you really want is for those techs to identify ways to solve problems and provide other benefits--in short, to generate additional sales.
Great candidates want to know what truly makes a difference. They know helping the company succeed means they succeed as well.
What do employees do in their spare time?
Happy employees 1) like what they do and 2) like the people they work with.
Granted this is a tough question to answer. Unless the company is really small, all any interviewer can do is speak in generalities.
What's important is that the candidate wants to make sure they have a reasonable chance of fitting in--because great job candidates usually have options.
How do you plan to deal with...?
Every business faces a major challenge: technological changes, competitors entering the market, shifting economic trends... there's rarely a Warren Buffett moat protecting a small business.
So while a candidate may see your company as a stepping-stone, they still hope for growth and advancement... and if they do eventually leave, they want it to be on their terms and not because you were forced out of business.
Say I'm interviewing for a position at your bike shop. Another shop is opening less than a mile away: How do you plan to deal with the new competitor? Or you run a poultry farm (a huge industry in my area): What will you do to deal with rising feed costs?
A great candidate doesn't just want to know what you think; they want to know what you plan to do--and how they will fit into those plans.

Jeff Haden learned much of what he knows about business and technology as he worked his way up in the manufacturing industry. Everything else he picks up from ghostwriting books for some of the smartest leaders he knows in business. @jeff_haden

11 Simple Concepts to Become a Better Leader

Source: http://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20130128162711-15077789-11-simple-concepts-to-become-a-better-leader?trk=mp-details-rc
 

Being likeable will help you in your job, business, relationships, and life. I interviewed dozens of successful business leaders for my last book, to determine what made them so likeable and their companies so successful. All of the concepts are simple, and yet, perhaps in the name of revenues or the bottom line, we often lose sight of the simple things - things that not only make us human, but can actually help us become more successful. Below are the eleven most important principles to integrate to become a better leader:

1. Listening
"When people talk, listen completely. Most people never listen." - Ernest Hemingway
Listening is the foundation of any good relationship. Great leaders listen to what their customers and prospects want and need, and they listen to the challenges those customers face. They listen to colleagues and are open to new ideas. They listen to shareholders, investors, and competitors. Here's why the best CEO's listen more.
2. Storytelling
"Storytelling is the most powerful way to put ideas into the world today." -Robert McAfee Brown
After listening, leaders need to tell great stories in order to sell their products, but more important, in order to sell their ideas. Storytelling is what captivates people and drives them to take action. Whether you're telling a story to one prospect over lunch, a boardroom full of people, or thousands of people through an online video - storytelling wins customers.
3. Authenticity
"I had no idea that being your authentic self could make me as rich as I've become. If I had, I'd have done it a lot earlier." -Oprah Winfrey
Great leaders are who they say they are, and they have integrity beyond compare. Vulnerability and humility are hallmarks of the authentic leader and create a positive, attractive energy. Customers, employees, and media all want to help an authentic person to succeed. There used to be a divide between one’s public self and private self, but the social internet has blurred that line. Tomorrow's leaders are transparent about who they are online, merging their personal and professional lives together.
4. Transparency
"As a small businessperson, you have no greater leverage than the truth." -John Whittier
There is nowhere to hide anymore, and businesspeople who attempt to keep secrets will eventually be exposed. Openness and honesty lead to happier staff and customers and colleagues. More important, transparency makes it a lot easier to sleep at night - unworried about what you said to whom, a happier leader is a more productive one.
5. Team Playing
"Individuals play the game, but teams beat the odds." -SEAL Team Saying
No matter how small your organization, you interact with others every day. Letting others shine, encouraging innovative ideas, practicing humility, and following other rules for working in teams will help you become a more likeable leader. You’ll need a culture of success within your organization, one that includes out-of-the-box thinking.
6. Responsiveness
"Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it." -Charles Swindoll
The best leaders are responsive to their customers, staff, investors, and prospects. Every stakeholder today is a potential viral sparkplug, for better or for worse, and the winning leader is one who recognizes this and insists upon a culture of responsiveness. Whether the communication is email, voice mail, a note or a a tweet, responding shows you care and gives your customers and colleagues a say, allowing them to make a positive impact on the organization.
7. Adaptability
"When you're finished changing, you're finished." -Ben Franklin
There has never been a faster-changing marketplace than the one we live in today. Leaders must be flexible in managing changing opportunities and challenges and nimble enough to pivot at the right moment. Stubbornness is no longer desirable to most organizations. Instead, humility and the willingness to adapt mark a great leader.
8. Passion
"The only way to do great work is to love the work you do." -Steve Jobs
Those who love what they do don’t have to work a day in their lives. People who are able to bring passion to their business have a remarkable advantage, as that passion is contagious to customers and colleagues alike. Finding and increasing your passion will absolutely affect your bottom line.
9. Surprise and Delight
"A true leader always keeps an element of surprise up his sleeve, which others cannot grasp but which keeps his public excited and breathless." -Charles de Gaulle
Most people like surprises in their day-to-day lives. Likeable leaders underpromise and overdeliver, assuring that customers and staff are surprised in a positive way. There are a plethora of ways to surprise without spending extra money - a smile, We all like to be delighted — surprise and delight create incredible word-of-mouth marketing opportunities.
10. Simplicity
"Less isn't more; just enough is more." -Milton Glaser
The world is more complex than ever before, and yet what customers often respond to best is simplicity — in design, form, and function. Taking complex projects, challenges, and ideas and distilling them to their simplest components allows customers, staff, and other stakeholders to better understand and buy into your vision. We humans all crave simplicity, and so today's leader must be focused and deliver simplicity.
11. Gratefulness
"I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder." -Gilbert Chesterton
Likeable leaders are ever grateful for the people who contribute to their opportunities and success. Being appreciative and saying thank you to mentors, customers, colleagues, and other stakeholders keeps leaders humble, appreciated, and well received. It also makes you feel great! Donor's Choose studied the value of a hand-written thank-you note, and actually found donors were 38% more likely to give a 2nd time if they got a hand-written note!

The Golden Rule: Above all else, treat others as you’d like to be treated
By showing others the same courtesy you expect from them, you will gain more respect from coworkers, customers, and business partners. Holding others in high regard demonstrates your company’s likeability and motivates others to work with you. This seems so simple, as do so many of these principles — and yet many people, too concerned with making money or getting by, fail to truly adopt these key concepts.

Education?

Ravi preparing for the 25^th Birthday, he wants to groom like Bride-groom, so that it keeps in his memory forever. That he con’t forget for his life time.

                As hi is preparation started from a week shopped a T-shirt and Jeans. Then the day before his birthday in the late evening standing before the mirror thought of having hair cut, so that he can look slim and trim with his new dress.

                Headed towards Barbershop this is the Best in his area, called ‘HI-Fi Hair dresses’.

Stand in front of the shop around 8  O’clock in the evening, saw the rush and waited by walking here and there in front the shop. After sometime the shop-owner nodded him and told ‘please have chair’. Few retired people also waiting for their hair-cut.

                Those were chatting about fees for admitting school for their children and  grandchildren.
   

One person said, “Nowadays for our children getting seats in reputed school very difficult, there is much competition”.

Other replied, “No,now-a-days” children are getting seats and courses in the college not based the marks secured in the exams but from the donations.

Another said, “Correct..!!!, last year what was happened was one of friend’s son had wanted get admission from the Brilliant International College, But staff told him that you should be secured more then 80%  and pay 20,000 rupees”.

“How can he offer that amount as his father working in the oil mill with monthly salary 5000 rupees and not only  money but the boy has secured 79%, But college did not offer him seat[Frowned]”.

One more interrupted, said “Now –a –day colleges are look like five-hotel or shopping mall and classrooms are like Night Clubs, all doors and windows shut and  full of light tubes and teaching are doing by using mic and big theater screen so, maintenance cost is very high”. 

“They are teaching about the Foreign cultures in foreign languages”.

“I am sure some other day our children forget our culture, languages and history”.

One more replied, “That is not for away in our the capital cities our country people are speaking in foreign languages”.

                The discussion irritated to barber [shop-owner] murmured “this people discuss like as if they are the leaders and going to revolutionize the entire education system in the country”

“I know these people only will be in the first queue to get admission for their children and grandchildren” murmured shop owner.

He nodded Ravi to sit on the chair next him for haircut and to avoid the conversation switched on the Radio.

FM regional channel started. Ravi headed to radio talk.

RJ: You’re listening to the channel Joy 99.5 FM, be Happy…!!! (Punch line of the channel).

     : Today we are started new program for the students of PU, called ‘Prepare your Exam’.

     : Guide by the Dr: Shiva Murthy, the Sanskrit lecturer from International PU College.  

     : I request sir to start providing guide and tricks to the our listening students.

Dr: Shiva Murthy: “Namskara...! My dear children we have examination tricks and hints for the students who have chosen Sanskrit as first language.

                                : Sanskrit is the first language for the PU second year student which carries 100 Marks,

                The question paper has divided in Six Parts.

Let’s start Part One: which contains 12 questions and each carry 2 marks in that you can answer only 10.

                Listen carefully my dear children……..

Question No,1 comes from Second paragraph in Chapter No 1.

I repeat comes from Second paragraph in Chapter No 1.

Question No,2 comes from fifth paragraph in Chapter No 2.

                The sloka which is said by Sunjaya to Dhritarashtra

 Question No,3 comes from Seventh paragraph in Chapter No 3.

 Question No,4 comes from eleventh paragraph in Chapter No 4.

Question No,5 comes from sixth paragraph in the Chapter No.5

                                                 My dear children you should by heart those paragraphs to get full marks else you can write you own that is also well and good”[Saying as if is in the classroom and only to the student].

Continued….”.

Barber asked to Ravi “short or medium?”

“Medium”, replied Ravi.

Barber asked “What do you do?”

“I am a software Engineer in Global Solution Pvt Ltd.” Replied Ravi(Actually he is working as BPO Employee in that company ).

“How long you have been there?”

“From Two years”. Replied Ravi

Ravi asked to Barber “What is your qualification”.

“I have just studied up to 10^th Standard and as I have came to this profession so I quite the studies [told it with pride]”, replied Barber.

Then,

Ravi headed towards the radio,

Dr: Shiva Murthy: “Now, my dear children”,

                Now we have come to Part Six, which is final part of the question paper.

In which you have 2 questions each carry 10 marks, you can answer anyone which is related to translate from Sanskrit to you second language.

Listen carefully my children,

The first choice you will be getting from the poem section in the second chapter fourth paragraph.

The second choice will be from the poem section in the fifth chapter second paragraph.

                                So I recommend you that both of the paragraphs translation you should be by-hearten to get full marks or else you can write your own way that is also well and good. 

                Ravi has finish with hair cut and came out of the shop thinking “collage seats can be bought and syllabus cab be by-hearten the What about EDUCATION???”.

Written By: Mutturaj Hulagabal