What Signals Are You Sending? (Expanded from Inc.)
By Kurt Schmidt In Blog On September 19, 2014
Are you doing everything you can to get the most out of your job interview experiences? Sure, you’ve prepared, done research on the company, read and re-read the job description, thought about key questions and answers, and generally read up and reviewed everything you could ahead of the big interview but did you consider the softer things?
Jessica Stillman’s recent Inc. article “4 Ways to Signal Power” on Nick Morgan’s new book “Power Cues: The Subtle Science of Leading Groups, Persuading Others, and Maximizing Your Personal Impact” (long title!) is just as applicable for job interviews as it is for public speaking and sales presentations. In the context of an interview, here’s what you need to think about:
Posture: Put in a conscious effort to exude confidence and control. Enter a room like you know you’re supposed to be there. Walk like you know the foundation under you is solid. Hold your head up to look to the future because you already know where you are now.
Focus: Exert energy into staying “on message” and remember your purpose, mission and goal. Imagine the length of the interview, meeting or presentation and make a game out of maintaining your focus through the entire thing. Control the possibility of distraction by controlling how you perceive and react to your environment (and turn off your phone!).
Empathy: Work to honestly visualize the viewpoints and expectations of the others involved. Try to understand what their goals and needs are before you enter the room. Thinking about where “they,” your audience, no matter who they are, are coming from and why they are there will help you speak to their needs.
Communication: How strongly do you feel about what you’re selling? Is your voice communicating that strength or revealing weakness. Think about when you’ve had to speak clearly and make sure you’re heard (maybe ordering coffee?) to get what you want. Think about your voice. How many of us regular people do that? Recruiters talk on the phone a lot so I have thought about my voice. I know what I sound like when I want to sound “authoritative.” Do you? If you don’t, practice and really think about it when you’re in an interview. Control your voice strength, clarity, pace and pitch.
It’s up to you to control the things you can in any interview situation and put in the effort to do the best you can on every level. Anything less increases your risk of failure. “Signaling power” as the original article suggests is a lot about confidence, and confidence is something that can be developed through preparedness. Last time I checked, job interviews weren’t exactly growing on trees so it’s a good idea to treat them as highly valuable opportunities.
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Kurt Schmidt is the author of “Modern Job Search” and the President and Owner of Capto Systems, an executive search firm focused on supply chain and strategic sourcing jobs in manufacturing and energy. He’s also an aspiring photographer and traveler. If you’re really looking for a job, you need this book!
