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Interviews are not fair. No matter what the context, be it job interviews, management audits, corporate restructuring, pitching for a project, analysis as part of a management consulting initiative, vendor selection, whatever; they are not fair.

Right off the bat interviews create an inquisitive situation, which is absolutely not warranted. Even the most capable managers, specialists sometimes even leaders become less effective in an interview setting; perhaps because everybody knows, even if only intuitively, that they are in an incorrect, unjust situation. Once you are in the situation where you shouldn’t be, you already lost. Even if the outcome will be perceived as “positive” (like you get the job, you don’t get fired, you contribute to the uncovering of the root cause of a problem, etc. etc.), the experience may leave a bitter aftertaste in the mouth of those, who are not built to give up, to accept injustice, to rationalize by adjusting to the majority, to comply by all means, etc.

Interviews polarize between good interviewers and poor interviewers, not between good contributors and poor contributors. Very often a good interviewer is a poor contributor and vice versa.

Have conversations! Even if you find yourself sitting across from a bureaucrat who just wants to get through a checklist as fast as possible, still make an effort to have a conversation. If you are more experienced, guide the conversation towards the ideal outcome for everybody.

- Prepare: know what you want out of the conversation. What do you want to find out, points you want to make, etc. Hopefully “to impress” will not be on your list.

- Set the stage: it’s possible that your conversation partners just arrived from a series of meetings, grabbed a coffee 1 minute before your meeting, had no time even to discuss what they want out of this conversation. If they don’t do it, set the stage yourself.

- Keep an open mind: the conversation may not go the way you planned, some of the points you planned to make may not make sense anymore, etc. Be open and adjust.

- Make it a pleasant experience. Have fun with it! Relax (remember, it’s a conversation, not an interview): smile, think, take your time, make observations, comment, etc.

- Do NOT give standard answers! Why bother? If you interview for a job for example handle the typical what-are-your-strengths-and-weaknesses type of non-sense with humor and lots of examples.

- If they want to put you in a situation that is not worthy of you, (“group interviews” come to mind as an example), politely refuse and share your reasons with them.

On the other side of the fence, when you’re t the one leading the interview, always think about this: what kind of experience do I create with this conversation? Is it going to inspire, is it going to unleash creative energies, is it going to create an atmosphere of trust, is it going to make the other person want to help me, to open up to me, to share his thoughts with me? Is she going to leave after the conversation with full of energy, is she going to think back to this experience with positive thoughts, is he going to rave about this conversation to his friends? Is she going to leave with a new perspective, with exciting thoughts and ideas?

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