When To Listen To Your Gut

One of the main things we do in our Talgo workshops is systematically show teams how to gather and use predictive data to make more accurate hiring decisions. Data being the operative word—in contrast to more subjective "gut" decisions which are the primary driver of most hiring decisions across the world. And as a reminder, the general success rate of a hiring decisions is around 50% (like flipping a coin).

But does this mean that your intuition should play  no role whatsoever? Not quite. Your intuition and subconscious are powerful forces, but it's very important to channel them properly, lest they trample the integrity of your decision-making process.

Here are some general rules around how to listen to your gut.

1. Try to quiet all judgments during the interview itself. We naturally judge too much and that includes other people. Instead, cultivate genuine curiosity and focus on gathering relevant data efficiently..
2. If you sense the candidate being genuinely uncomfortable, pay attention to that. You never want to do something that feels "off" to you. Some things will initially feel that way, with that feeling dissipating as you become a more skilled, practiced interviewer. That said, pay attention to the interpersonal dynamic between you and the candidate and trust your instincts.
3. Trust your negative gut more than your positive gut, especially when it comes to hire/no-hire decisions. You have many biases working in the direction of wanting to hire someone. You'd love to fill that role right now, and get rid of the pain of not having someone in that seat. In general, you are biased towards wanting any individual to the "the one" and as a result you probably have an optimism bias. Because of this, you should be very wary of positive gut impressions, especially from smooth-talking friendly candidates who clearly interview well. And you should pay attention to negative gut reads, especially around areas related to honesty, integrity, and poor behavior.

   Learn how to balance data and intuition in hiring decisions. Discover actionable tips to channel your gut instincts and make accurate, bias-free hiring choices.

When we help teams move to a more data-driven approach to decision-making, the goal is largely to help prevent them from making biased hiring decisions, which generally tend to be in the direction of people who either: 1) interview well, or 2) look and sound like them. Keep that in mind, and pay attention to when your gut is telling you not to hire someone. It could be worth paying attention to.