4.Use Questions to Elicit Interesting Episodes
Master connectors learn from one of the most commonly used interview strategies today: behavioral interviews. Instead of asking “general questions” such as ”
• “What’s your strength?”
• “What’s your dream job?”
• “What’s the most important thing you have learned from your role as a customer service rep?”
A lot of times, these questions are often responded with quite abstract terms. Rather, behavioral interviews focused on specific, concrete examples of the past that demonstrate certain qualities. Here’s a few examples:
• “Can you tell me about an experience in your current role where your strength came to limelight?”
• “What’s your current role at work? Tell me a success story of one of your accomplishments this year.”
One caveat is ensuring that you focus on both tact and tone. These questions can often sound intimidating. So, it’s important to sound genuine and interested, not like an interrogator. When you use this method here’s a few examples of what it might sound like in a conversation:
• “Oh. I see. Interesting. So what specifically happened after that?”
• “So what happened to that guy after it happened?”
5. Leverage the Power of Research
We live in a world where transparency is the currency of relationship and information is free on the internet. Whether it’s a blog, Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, this creates an opportunity for master connectors to do pre-work to ask the right questions when you meet the person for the first time.
Whether you are preparing for an interview, going out on a date, or preparing for a networking session, I always spend 30 minutes to an hour to really research the person. I immediately think about what do I share in common? Also, I might follow the person beforehand and read their tweets to see what kind of information this person is interested in.
