Ensuring that your executives are culturally aligned with your organization is essential. How do you get a good measure of cultural alignment from an interview? This is something that many businesses struggle with. That’s why we have compiled a list of executive interview questions that focus on measuring cultural alignment.
Here are ten executive interview questions around cultural alignment.
1. What was one thing you hated about a company you have worked for?
This is a great way for you to measure the honesty of a candidate, as well as see what types of work environments they don’t fit in.
2. What do you value most in an organization with integrity?
Your company’s core values might not match with their personal ones. This is an executive interview question that methodizes the overlap of character between your brand and theirs.
3. At the end of each quarter, what is the most important metric that you pay attention to?
How does your company measure success? Yours might be ROI, theirs might be market share. Find out if the candidate’s quantitative values align as well as the qualitative values.
4. How do you maintain relationships with your coworkers?
Knowing how someone interacts with their fellow workers is important. They don’t have to be best friends, but they do need to match the workplace feel that you have.
5. How do you maintain relationships with your clients?
Today’s world is dominated by relationships. Keeping your clients and their sentiments in mind goes a long way for a company culture.
6. What is the best skill that you could bring to this role?
Regardless if this is a canned answered or not, you can tell what a leader considers important to bring to a new position.
7. In what environment are you most productive?
The candidate might admire the open office model of Zappos, or they might still stick to the traditional hierarchy.
8. How do you ensure that you are a relentless learner?
This is a very open-ended, intentionally vague question. “Relentless” is subjective. Let the applicant define how they continually grow through learning.
9. How do you make decisions that will affect the whole team?
Not every decision needs a popular vote from the whole department, but it is interesting to know what types of decisions warrant what type of response in their eyes.
10. How do you reach out for help when you need it?
This is a crucial question. In your organization the synergy could be fluid, where anyone can ask anyone for help. The way that your company operates is how the applicant should also be willing to operate.
A cultural fit is not a factor to be overlooked in any hiring scenario, much less top-level employees. Measuring candidates for cultural fit should always be a priority. Targeting questions around culture will open up the interviewee and show a better picture to how they align with your company culture.
TruPath helps organizations find culturally aligned talent. Contact our team today to learn how we may be able to assist you in hiring a culturally aligned leader.