Interview Tips: Power Dynamics

Do you tend to approach an interview as an exam or even as an interrogation that you need to nail? Such a frame is not only limiting, but it can also unfavorably shift the power dynamics of the interview right from the start. What can we do differently? Short answer: we can realize that we have more power than we think.

Contents:

• Ping Pong or Billiards?

• We have more power than we think

• Two types of beta traps

• Avoiding self-made beta traps

• Avoiding external beta traps

• Bonus scenes (you’ll love it!)

Be confident. Approach the situation as an equal, not as a supplicant. In most situations, employers are looking for someone who can hold the table. Provided they are not arrogant.

- Stephen A. Schwarzman. "What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence."

Ping-Pong vs Billiards

It’s quite common to approach a job interview as an exam or even as an interrogation that we need to nail. I see it very often among participants in my sessions. I myself used to think like that in the past. This frame misses an important point: Our goal of a job interview is NOT to prove that we are qualified. Our goal of a job interview is to build a relationship that will allow both sides to find the right fit. And this can happen only if we engage in a natural, authentic conversation.

When we are in interview mode, we are playing ping-pong - it's linear: typical questions followed by no less typical answers.

When we are engaged in a natural conversation it is more like billiards - it's complex and multidimensional; it can go off-script, into the territories that might reveal a more authentic, less polished version of ourselves. Some interviewers do that intentionally.

Back to Stephen Schwarzman:

The more I can get candidates out of interview mode and into a natural conversation, the easier it becomes for me to evaluate how they think, react and might adapt to change.

We Have More Power Than We Think

Every relationship has a power dimension to it, including the relationship that we build during a job interview.

Many of us approach a job interview with a false belief that the power lies exclusively with the interviewer and thus adopt a lower status even before the interview starts.

Such belief is natural. Surely, our interviewer might have an impressive background, impressive title, impressive office; after all, it’s the interviewer who has the power of the hiring decision. Our human nature prompts us to incline in front of authority, which is one of the 6 key psychological cues that trigger our automated behavior patterns. 

Such belief is limiting. If we approach a job interview with a lower status mindset, several things can happen. We may feel and appear less confident. We may feel the urge to please the interviewer instead of helping each other uncover mutual fit. We may implicitly give away all control to the interviewer, limiting our chances to steer the conversation in a direction that will help us reveal our authentic selves. Any of this will result in a less engaging conversation.

We have more power than we think. First, we must realize that power is not just a vertical axis that comes with authority. In an interview, it's us who have the power to be that someone or to have that something that the company is currently missing so badly. Second, power is never entirely fixed. For sure, global power and status remain stable. Yet there is one arena where we can and should actively go and grab the power - it's the arena of situational power & status. In 'Pitch Anything', Oren Klaff calls it local star power:

Our situational status can be mobilized in order to temporarily create a high-status position whenever that is needed. With local star power, you'll be able to succeed in pitching audiences who don't know you; the ability to create and sustain local star power literally is going to mean the difference between success and failure.

A scene from Ford v Ferrari movie (love it!) illustrates the concept of the situational power to the extreme when Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon) takes Henry Ford II for a ride (after having locked in his office his arch-rival Leo Beebe) and totally owns the space and situational power.

Two Types of Beta Traps

I take the definition of a beta trap from "Pitch Anything" by Oren Klaff:

A beta trap is a subtle but effective social ritual that puts you in the low-status position and works to keep you there, beneath the decision maker you came to visit, for the entire duration of the social interaction.

 While Klaff in his book talks primarily about external beta traps - the reception desk, the lobby, the conference room, etc., I clearly see that some beta traps are self-made, internal, they are in our heads.

Let's see how we can deal with these beta traps.

Avoiding Self-Made Beta Traps

The good news about self-made beta traps is that avoiding them, or rather, not creating them in the first place is entirely within our control.

• Always be on time for the interview. When we are late, we give away power.

• Never show neediness. Read here why neediness is the deadliest interview killer. 

• Avoid self-deprecation, hedges, and verbal tags. When we doubt our own words, how do we want the interviewer not to doubt us? Read more on things not to say in a job interview.

Avoiding External Beta Traps

A few pieces of advice based on recommendations in Pitch Anything & Stephen Schwarzman. 

• Be unaffected by your target's global status.

• Be prepared.

• Avoid social rituals that reinforce the status of others. Idle social banter diminishes your status.

• Momentum is key. Create high status immediately. The longer you wait, the more you reinforce the status of your target. 

• Perpetrate a well-chosen, well-timed friendly but disruptive act - it will dethrone the king in a single stroke. In an interview, it can happen as early as in answering "Tell me about yourself" - one of the few points in an interview when WE decide what to talk about. Here we can go off-script, and, instead of doing a traditional chronological walk through a resume, use a different, disruptive, and powerful blueprint to mightily pitch who we are and why we think we are good for the role.

• As soon as we take power, we quickly move the discussion into an area where you are a domain expert, where our knowledge and information are unassailable by your audience.

• Apply a prize frame by positioning ourselves as the reward for making a decision to hire us.

• Confirm our alpha status by making our interviewer, who now temporarily occupies a beta position, make a statement that qualifies our higher status.

Two other scenes from Ford v Ferrari illustrate avoidance of beta traps and seizing situational star power:

We Need To Think Like Ferrari. First, look at the slides Iacocca prepared - not a single fact or figure. Pure emotion. The first kind of emotion is generic, the one that speaks to everyone in the room. Then, when Iacocca gets challenged by the authority and almost dismissed, he manages to counterattack and heightens the level of emotional response by aiming straight to the Ego of Henri Ford II. And finally, for facts and figures, he shows up prepared with a folder with all necessary details. Complete grab of situational power.

Henry Ford II Needs Explanation. A gem. In an interview, we usually get ready for 'Why should I hire you?' question. This scene is a masterclass on answering "Why shouldn't I fire you?' question, while in a totally hostile, one giant beta trap environment. 

Good luck in your power dances and please share how you manage to avoid beta traps and elevate your situational status in interviews and pitches.

Art: Olivier Tallec