3 Rapport Juicers
If you’re making a commitment to being a better interviewer this year, rapport is a great place to start. It will get you better data and it creates a better experience for the candidate too.
Here are 3 pieces of advice you can apply to your next interview:
- Curious > Polite
- “I’m hearing a fascinating story”
- KISS
Curious > Polite
Being polite is ok, but being curious is way better for cultivating high levels of rapport. People absolutely love it when you are curious about them and their story. Aim for fascination.
You can’t fake this—you really do need to make an effort to be interested in everyone you interview (see the next point). But on top of this internal interest, make sure to be the most fascinated version of yourself externally that is still authentic to who you are.
When you amp up legitimate fascination, people will lower their guard and start sharing great data with you.
“I’m hearing a fascinating story”
If you’re not genuinely fascinated in what you’re hearing, something is broken. Either you’re not making enough of an effort, or the candidate is rambling, off-topic or otherwise talking about something irrelevant. This should be a signal for you to immediately jump in with a follow-up question to get the conversation back on track.
If your best friend were telling you a fascinating story, we’d be able to tell by your facial reactions, eye contact, nodding, and vocalizations while listening. The same should be true when you’re interviewing someone. Don’t settle for mediocre interactions. Fascination generates better data from the candidate.
KISS
The Keep-It-Simple-Stupid framework is a good heuristic for your questions and for rapport generally. Show fascination and keep your questions simple and open-ended. There are so many things that you don’t need to do:
- You don’t really need to talk much about yourself
- You don’t need to (implicitly) apologize for asking about mistakes
- You don’t need to ask complicated, multi-part questions
- You don’t need to judge the candidate in real-time
Free yourself by embracing the elegant simplicity of asking open-ended questions about someone’s past accomplishments and mistakes. Do it with legitimate fascination and zero judgment. And then judge the data afterward against a predefined Target.
That is why great rapport is the foundation of great decision-making.
