Great advice!

James:

My two cents.
You have the resume and you may have a good sense of the candidate from a
professional standppoint,  without actually calling the references.

There a just a few things to get a handle on that are all behavioral.

1. Is this person a micro-manager.  This characteristic is not just someone
who makes an awful boss.  This can manifest itself in someone who works
very hard (60 hrs a week) by tryin to do everyone's job themselves. As an
executive director, this is dangerous. As he or she is mired in looking
over everyone else's work, they tend to not see the big picture. I know of
one person who made poor choices that had a financial impact because her
attention was elsewhere.

This type of person is also the cause of employee turn over like you cannot
believe.

2.      People skills.  Museum work is full of very intelligent people who
cannot always relate well to people who are not as knowlegeable in the
subject. An ED needs to be able to conevy the excitement of the project
without boring the audience. Or they need to recognize someone who is more
skilled at it!!

3.      A leader versus a supervisor. This is the toughest to determine in
an interview.

No I supply no questions. These have to be specific to your organization.
It sounds like Beth can be of help.

MDaly


>Greetings, James and the List!
>
>You asked [hiring a museum Director] "We are trying to come up with some
>good questions
>for our interviews."
>
>I recommend looking into the Behavioral Interviewing (TM) method, by
>Behavioral Technology, Inc (6260 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, TN 38119,
>800/227-6855). It offers the following benefits:
>
>1. Helps you clarify the behaviors that are successful for the job opening.
>For example, a person in leadership role may need to demonstrate good Verbal
>and Written Communication, Coping, Tolerance of Ambiguity, Commitment to
>Task, Organization and Planning, Leadership, Team Building etc, etc.  in
>addition to a host of "technical" skills associated with the museum
>professions. You would supplement the Behavioral Interview with questions
>that reveal  the presence or lack of these technical skills. The Behavioral
>literature teaches you to formulate effective and safe "technical"
>questions, as well.
>2. Once the behaviors are identified, Behavioral Interviewing offers
>hundreds of sample questions to select from, sorted by the desired behavior.
>You can use them as is, or carefully customize them. For example, one
>Organization and  Planning sample question is: "Organization and scheduling
>of people and tasks is a necessary function in creating a productive work
>environment. Consider your experiences in this area and detail for me a case
>that illustrates your own organization and scheduling abilities." Or, in the
>Coping section, " Tell me about a high stress situation in which it was
>desirable to  keep a positive attitude. What happened?"  Listen carefully to
>HOW it is answered, as well as what is said.  Guide the respondent to answer
>from work anecdotes and live experience, not at the theoretical  level. A
>"bad" answer would begin with : "I would...." A good answer starts something
>like, "While at the Bennington Museum, in Vermont, back in 1995, there was a
>situation....."
>3. In today's litigious work place, a "script" of questions, that guides the
>applicant to provide work experience stories, administered equally to each
>applicant and documented to relate specifically to the job opening is worth
>its weight in gold. Or lawyer's fees...which ever comes more dearly... The
>interviewer, with a little practice, can deliver the questions in a natural
>and easy tone, to avoid  an objectionable and stilted "script" feel. A
>couple practice sessions with your peer interviewers helps in this area.
>The script is used to make notes about the responses, and filed with the
>resume. A Likert rating,  scaled from "strong evidence skill not present",
>up to "Very strong Evidence skill is Present" helps sort the applicant,
>skill by skill, for selection.
>
>I held a position for 4 years that gave me final hiring authority over a
>very large staff. I counted  127 job interviews in one year that I had
>participated in! I was grateful for Behavioral Interviewing; it seemed the
>best way to get past the traditional recounting of work experiences, and
>down to a more in-depth assessment of professional behaviors relevant to the
>job at hand. The resume tells me who is qualified and has pertinent work
>experience. The interview is a tool to reveal how the applicant will apply
>that experience to my unique work environment.
>
>A Behavioral Interview also helped me manage time, as I was able to explain
>to the applicant that the interview would take approximately one hour...then
>stick to it. And get much more quality data than 2 to 3 hours of unguided
>discussion.
>
>If you would like some sample interview scripts that I used, send me an
>email. Don't want to hog any more bandwidth on this topic. Too, I would urge
>you to locate the Behavioral Interviewing books rather than my adapted
>scripts.
>
>Best of Luck in locating a "Good Fit" for your opening!
>
>Beth Macdonald
>Big Head Interactive
>415/752.6511
>www.bigheadinteractive.com
>
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