Executive Interviews: Strategy and Storytelling (Complete Guide) - Session 6

Session 6 executive interviews strategy and Storytelling One of the most important things you can do in the interview process is to create advocates. Top executives don't just answer questions. They lead strategic discussions that transform interviews into collaborative planning sessions. In this session, you'll learn about the closer framework, a proven technique for diagnosing challenges in co creating solutions so that you show your interview how you think and solve problems in real time. So the quick hacks for this, right? How do we get ourselves in the right mindset when it comes to handling these that the big four really helps you get away from. Like that intro part of the conversation. Like, that's how we want to set the stage for the conversation. Now I want to talk about the middle of the conversation and how to control the interview from the beginning all the way to the close. Okay. And so we'll talk through the process here. The quick hack for this is just to pretend you already have the job and that you're a consultant. That is the quickest hack. If you can actually personify that behavior naturally, everything else that follows will, will be easier. So if you're a consultant that already has the job, you would say you would ask deeper questions. Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? We're exploring alternatives. We're, we're assessing your strategic thinking. We're showing the care for the outcomes because you're already part of it. We want to think about yourself more as the helping them find the solution rather than trying to sell yourself as the solution. So if you were in their shoes, what types of candidates would you look for? Naturally you'll start to use language like we versus I. That's a big thing when we accomplish this together, when we find the right hire. Here right now, you're the one being interviewed, but you're using language like as we find the right hire, you're collaborating with them and you're on the same side of the table. And that sets the stage for a stronger negotiation later as well, because you're working collaboratively on solving a problem, whether you're the solution or not for that. This also shows that you're, I guess, more impartial. You could be trusted more because you're helping them decide whether you're the right fit or not through the process. So this is also how we help create opportunities versus just finding jobs. So we're not just selling towards the posted job description. We're doing a discovery process to understand what types of challenges that they're having. If you discover through your work that they have something scoped at a director level, but they need leadership and they need to bring in vendors and they need to bring in a transformation to whatever function you're running. You might determine through your analysis that they've underscoped the role. How many times has someone interviewed here and been like, man, they want to see what they want is a C suite, but they want to pay for a director. Right? How many people have seen that? Right? So it's up to you to persuade them and show what this sounds like is a role like this. Is that correct? Right. It sounds like you want the autonomy of a strong leader, you want the. The executive presence, you want the leadership, you want these things. Have you thought about hiring a vp or have you thought about hiring a C level instead? Why or why not? And so that's when you start to ask really deep questions. And that's you increasing the scope and the remit, and it's also driving the price tag up for the person that they're hiring. So that's why I'm a big proponent on pretending you already have the job and you're a consultant, so that you really get to the root of the problems. The way I see a job description or a job posting or even a recruiter reaching out is that they have some type of challenge. They think it looks roughly like this, so they're raising their hand and saying, hey, somebody help us. And it's your job to help them and consult them through that. That naturally will position you as more of a leader as well, and someone that can be trusted. So the key here is that you're the one solving a problem in the interview process. Again, you're not. You have nothing to sell. You have nothing to be impressive. You wouldn't be in the room if you didn't belong in the room. Simply start solving a problem and providing value from day one. Your job isn't to close the deal in every single interview, is to just get the next phone call. You're doing hooks more so than just spilling your soul out, right? So we do hooks and then we ask questions, which helps us be more proactive. We steer the conversation towards future challenges and solutions. You're showing your prep, preparation, and your expertise when you ask smarter questions. For example, when you ask a question like, have you thought about hiring somebody like this? Now, why would somebody who wants the job ask if you've thought about hiring somebody different from them? That's very counterintuitive for a lot of folks because it sounds like you're selling yourself out of the role. But really what you're doing is trying to identify who the right fit is for them. Naturally, when they see somebody that's open to exploring the best solution for them, they'll be more attracted to you as the answer. So this is a little bit of a rubber band effect here. Like, I'm going to help you solve the problem whether I'm the solution or not, because I'm somebody who can get to the bottom of solutions. If it's not me, there's someone in my network I could recommend to you. So as I've seen companies go through the stages that you've gone through, in some cases I am the best fit for it. In other cases, I might recommend Jared or I might recommend Michelle, or I might recommend Anna for their expertise. I want to make sure that regardless of what we do through this process, we find the right solution for you because that's what they're interested in. And if you're the person that helps them find the right solutions, you're going to be in a better light there. All right, so here's an example of being the solution, right? So we're hiring executives that have an opinion on things, right? Have an opinion on what the company should do. Offer specific actionable insights based off what you know about the company or what you know about the industry or what you know about things that you've learned in the past. This is proactive. So this isn't, hey, this one time five years ago I did this thing. It's instead, when I've seen companies like yours go through this, here's one way we've overcome it. Have you tried that? It's a different shift. You're still saying the same stories, but you're, you're sharing them proactively versus reactively when they're asking you questions. The use of we language and including the names of team members. This is a tribe mentality behavioral psychology hack where we use names to show that we're already part of the team. And we use things like when we accomplish these things, it shows that you're already thinking about doing it with them. So that language is something that must be incorporated to show that you're also enthusiastic about the opportunity. And I'll keep going through quickly here because this is the meat and potatoes of this section here. So this is how we run the middle part of an interview. It's called the closer framework. This is adapted from a sales methodology I picked up from Alex Hermosi, and he was talking about how he trained his sales team on this to close more deals. And I just adapted it for an interview process because it makes a lot of sense. So we go through that initial hook. We go through the hook of tell me about yourself. What's next for you? Why do you want to leave? Ideally, we've skirted away from the money question. When we're in a deeper hiring process, the money question doesn't come up nearly as often. It's usually a recruiter process or an HR process. So we've gotten through that initial framework and now we're going into exactly how we do this. So we want to clarify why we're in the room. That's what we do. Off that first question, hey, what is it about me that you're interested in? What about my background is exciting to you? That's the start of the closer framework. So hook to clarify. And what we want to listen for is what are their true challenges? What are they talking about? Where's the pain? Like, where. It's usually not directly correlated with the job description. If you've seen one, it's usually said in different language depending on who you're talking to at the organization. Like, HR is going to talk about it differently than the CEO, who's going to talk about it differently than the growth officer, who's going to talk it about it differently than the engineering team. So be expected that each person's going to have a different way of framing the challenge, and it's your job to clarify that and listen. Then we want to label them with a problem. It sounds like. And I'll actually go through, we have some, some hooks on this in the next slide. So we want to label them with a problem. Then we want to overview what it is they've done about it and what, what it is they're trying to do about it. Next. Why hasn't this been solved before? Right. Have you found success doing this in the past? Why or why not? So this is really a discovery process. And then we want to sell them the vacation. And this is my favorite part is to psychologically plant yourself as the solution somewhere down the line in the future. I know Anna's smiling real big because we talked about this before, but you say things like, fast forward six months from now when we've accomplished this. What's the next order of business? So you're selling yourself six months from now. Picture it. You're right next to me and we're in a better headspace now we're selling this. Whereas most of your competition in an interview process are still focused on Things that they've done in the past. Oh, I've done this before, believe me. And I'm saying, we've already accomplished this in six months. Now let's go accomplish the next thing together. Who's going to win that deal? So we want to explain away any objections or pain points that you've anticipate. So you might say, hey, as I've seen this process go, go to market before, or as I've seen this roll out in the past, here are three major headaches we need to avoid. Have you thought about those? So we're like, hey, we got to look out for this. This is basically expectation setting, right? If somebody said, you know, build me this strategy and I want it done in six months and it's quite literally a Herculean effort that cannot be accomplished, that's our opportunity to say, look, we're going to run into speed bumps here and here and here, right? Or what's the con of setting overly ambitious goals that the team can't accomplish? When this happens, we need to look out for the team being disenfranchised. Here's why. It's like we explain different areas to set better expectations and then we reinforce and lock in the value in your unique fit and say, very comfortable doing this. We're going to solve these problems again. Go back to selling the vacation and reinforcing. I call that also beating the drum, consistently sharing that same message. And here's a slide with some of these hooks here to see how this would naturally flow in conversation. So let's picture. You have a 30 minute interview scheduled. The CEO, the first, say three to five minutes. We want to get through that. Tell me about yourself. What's next for you? The pleasantries, why did you leave your last job? And then we want to shift towards running the interview like this closer framework here. Before we dive in, I'd like to understand what you're looking to accomplish in the next year and a half. Like, I want, I want to hear it from your perspective. You might also say, I heard from HR or I heard from the recruiter, but I'd love to hear your perspective on it. Give them a pedestal to share their pain. Then we want to reaffirm that we heard their pain. It sounds like the real challenge isn't just scaling the team, but transforming the culture while maintaining momentum. Is that right? Ideally, they're saying, yes, you've labeled the problem correctly. Now we're attaching it to something we've done. I faced a similar problem at Oracle. We needed to Rebuild the trust, drive growth, do all these things. It sounds very similar. Here's what I learned from that. Have you tried those things? It's overviewing now. Because you've done it before, you can do it again. Now we sell the vacation. Fast forward to having the leadership team so aligned that decisions happen in days versus months. That's what we experienced at Oracle. I suspect that's what you want to happen here too. I also like to use very emotional language when possible. Chelsea, six months from now, when you have to walk into that board meeting and share the work that we've done together and what we've accomplished as a team, how, how do I know you're going to walk into that room with your head held high like confident? Because how many people have walked into a board meeting kind of nervous or full of anxiety, right? You're not really sure what you're presenting or you, you don't feel good about the performance and you have to spin it in some way that looks good to everyone else. If I can visually walk someone through a stressful situation, but having it done in a more confident way and then being attached to that, you're going to get better insight into what you need to accomplish in that role and then you're going to again build that confidence with the leader that you're going to be the one to support them, then explain away any concerns they have. This is part of the expectation setting here in this explain and reinforce section. The key to making this work will be balancing the quick wins and the long term, the low hanging fruit, so and so forth. Let me share how I would accomplish that in the first couple days and then have an opinion on that. Based on what we discussed. This is where we need to start. Right? And we might also say I can get started on this in the next six weeks just to plant that I'm ready to go, right? And so I'm already providing value, but I'm ready to go. I want you to be able to get your way because as you start to walk somebody through this process, you're building your confidence too because you're leading the discovery and you're leading the sales process of yourself as the product. And so the gauntlet here I think is really important that. And let me explain what the gauntlet is to me. So the gauntlet is my first conversation is going to be with Jill, my next conversation is going to be with Paul, and then my next conversation is going to be with Brian. And I have three calls in one day. How many people have had an interview process like that, Right? Several. Right. I call that running the gauntlet. Sometimes it's six people, sometimes it's 10 people. Sometimes it's really obnoxious, sometimes it's 10 people over six months. When you're in the really high level positions, like I've had clients do 10 and 12 month negotiations off of waiting for companies to get acquired and scooped up and positions to open up and all that. So running the gauntlet is to show that you need to essentially build champions internally at a company and you need each one of those people to sign off on you. And so this is, this is how we run the gauntlet. So we say they have a conversation with Jill. Let's say Elizabeth was the recruiter. You say, hey, Jill, you know, Elizabeth got me excited about the opportunity to talk to you today. She said I should ask you about X, Y and Z, but I'd love to hear from you. What excites you most about talking to me or what are some of the pains that you see that need to be solved? Right. I might start that way, but I'm using Elizabeth as the hook. You know, Elizabeth, she got me excited because you like Elizabeth, therefore you should like me a little bit more. It's just a subtle hint. And then I might say my next conversations with Paul, I guess go through the closer. Let's fast forward near the end. Jill had a great conversation today. You know, I gotta talk to Paul next. What are some things I should avoid bringing up to him or in your perspective, what'll get him excited? Right. And what I want Jill to do is coach me. Oh, don't bring this up. Paul hates SEO. Don't do it like he'll roll his eyes. Just don't even talk about it. And I, and I might. That's going to give me a lot of insight. And I might say, you know, why is that? What experiences have you had? What you know, and then I can drill down into a couple more questions. But what I want Jill to do is to coach me on how to take care of Paul. Right. So now Jill is an advocate for me and a coach. And a coach wants their players to be successful. And that also helps build your confidence with Jill too. I also like is that reinforcement piece of the closer framework. Hey, Jill, it sounds like this conversation went well. When you have to talk to Paul and you have to talk to Jason. Next. Have I earned your support or is it too soon? Right. I want to actually encourage the type of feedback. I also like a question. This is one to write Down. Is there something that I didn't bring up that I should have? That's a great way to elicit feedback. That's just one of my favorites. Um, or I like to say things like, hey, Jill, if you were in my shoes, what would you ask Paul? Or is there anything you would like me to bring up in my conversation with him later? Because now I'm serving to create alignment throughout the journey. Then I go to Paul and I say, hey, Jill told me not to bring up SEO. Is that a sore subject? Right. And just see what the reaction is. Right. And it's showing that, like, I have these insider secrets with you and your colleagues already. I'm already a part of the team. So Jill got me excited to talk to you because she said you were going to love X and Y and Z. And when I talked to Elizabeth, she said you and I were going to click for these reasons. But I'm curious, like, what's your take on all that? Is there anything in my background that excited you? Now I'm shifting to clarifying why I'm there. Right. But I'm using Jill and Elizabeth as the hook to get Paul's interest to drive the conversation forward. Then I rinse and repeat, hey, Paul, my next conversation's with Brian. To be honest, I'm a little nervous because I don't often get along with technical people. Right. Sometimes you can share and just be kind of funny if that's part of your personality or you can share. I'm not sure how to win Brian over. Right. If you were in my shoes, what would you ask? And you can keep that process spinning forward lots of different ways to bring that. But this is asking others in the process to coach you. And when you say, I had a fantastic conversation with Jill, what you're doing is you're bragging about yourself through the lens of a third party. Jill, this person you respect likes me and got me excited, so I'm reinforcing that message. I'm also. You're communicating to yourself that it's been going well. So this is a psychological trigger in two ways. Right. You're telling people it's. It's going well, it's going to be great. It's going to be huge, to quote some politicians. Right. You're building hype. This is important rhetoric to consider. Right. Jill said it was going to go well. Jill said you and I were going to get along. Elizabeth got me excited. I'm sure, like, you and Brian are going to really kick my ass on some of these things. Whatever. Like you're reinforcing that team mentality and rhetoric. But when you say it's gone well, she said it's gone well. I'm sure it's going to go well with you. You're also talking yourself up. And the influence trigger for yourself is that it's commitment and consistency. The things that you say are happening are more likely to happen. So you're saying things are going well and you're more likely to believe it as well. So you actually have to say, this isn't like some weird, fluffy vision board type of thing. You're like, I'm going to be this someday and I need to speak it into existence. But it's very similar that repeat to build your confidence along the way. All right, now I want to talk about leading the next steps. Speaking of taking your power back. Right? This is how we close conversations. Like the very, very end. So we've gone through first five minutes and then working and trying to persuade the conversation back to that closer framework. And now how do we end the last couple minutes of a conversation? Right? So our goal here isn't to get hired right away, and our goal here isn't to wait around forever. Because how many people have heard, oh, we'll get back to you. If you hear, we'll get back to you, you didn't get the job, just chalk it up to that, assume it's over, okay? Now, in many cases, you'll still get the job or still get follow up sometime in the future. But in that seven days, 15 days, whatever the days are between, we'll get back to you. And when you hear it back, you're an anxious mess, Right? Especially if you only have one opportunity at a time. And that anxiety hurts you for looking for other jobs and hurts you from building Pipeline hurts you. And again, that tears your mindset apart. So I want you to get comfortable setting the next steps, not waiting for the next steps. This does a couple of things. It says you're essentially selling kind of that next step in the process, but you're building scarcity by saying, I'm only available a couple times, so I'm not going to wait around for you forever. You might say, hey, I'm going to continue my conversation with Jill, I'm going to talk to Paul and I'm going to talk to Brian. Elizabeth, I'm going to loop back to you after I've had those conversations and chat with how it went. Right. With Jill. I might say the same thing. Hey, I'm going to talk to Brian. And Paul next, I'll let you know how it goes. So I'm planting the seed that I'm going to have a conversation with you next. As we get through the entire process and we're waiting for next steps. You'll say, hey, Elizabeth met with the team. Sounds like it went really well. I'm available to talk again on Thursday or Monday next week. What works for you know, it sounds like I'm going to need to talk to Jill again. I told her I would share what I learned. I'm available on Tuesday and Thursday. What makes sense. I'm setting the stage. I'm not waiting for them to figure out what their damn process is. I'm controlling time with when I set the follow ups and I'm forcing them. And sure, I'm getting comments here. Well, that sounds too assertive, right? That sounds like it's not going to work. But when I'm on the phone live, that's when I want Elizabeth to say, no, that's not going to work. Right. I might say something like, look, I promised to Jill that I would get back to her, right? Is it best to go through the recruiter or should I contact Jill directly or can you send a text for her? For me, I like to offer different solutions to get to people. Ideally, I love getting people's phone numbers through the interview process so that I can text them and just not to blow them up all the time and be obnoxious but to provide value. Hey, just had a call with Paul. It went great, right? Thank you. The tips you gave me helped me out. I'll follow up after I talk to Brian. Like little things like that. And then how you control the nuances of the follow up emails and the thank yous. To position yourself assertively is very important. It's like you wrap up a call and you say, hey Paul, thanks for the time. The insights you gave me about Brian went really well. Would love to circle back with you. I'm available Thursday and Friday next week. So you can also follow up with each individual and break them out of the process. You pattern break. Right. I'm going to consult with Paul on the side of the interview process. I'm going to consult with Jill. I'm not waiting around for HR to solve this problem for me. Now I want to talk a little bit about storytelling. I'm not going to go too deep here, but this is, that's how you control the interview process. Now how do we make the stories we tell more engaging? And so this is also where we get to be more authentic and honest and transparent. How is it that we do this right? So how do we tell a great story? We have to share a little bit of context. And every great story has conflict. Something that didn't work out that makes it more engaging and more interesting. I think a lot of job seekers mess this up because we always want everything to look great. And we, like, try to polish everything we've done in our past is awesome. When in reality, a lot of our jobs kind of suck. And there are a lot of nitty gritty details, especially in tech. If you're in tech, you know, like, I don't know how long I can sell spreadsheets to millionaires and. And walk around with a smile on my face, like, am I making humanity a better place? I don't know, right? There's some conflict there. There are folks that are like, man, I make a lot of money in this space, but if I were working with saving puppies, I would be much more fulfilled human being. There's conflict there, right? I haven't figured out how to make $400,000 a year at the SPCA, so therefore, I don't do that, right? Or volunteering. Like, there are other things that we often find more passionate in our lives that can create conflict with our jobs. Every great story has a turning point, which is like, ah, the aha moment. This is when I learned, right? I found this out about myself. There was a core lesson here, and then there was a transformation of you as a stronger leader because of that. And if you're thinking that this storytelling framework sounds familiar, it's because it's the backbone of every Disney movie ever created. So I'll give you an example. So one of my favorite movies growing up was Lion King. I don't know why, because it's like the saddest movie when you're four, when it came out. Very, very sad. But the context is there's thriving Pride Lands under Mufasa and a young prince, Simba, is being groomed for leadership, right? But Scar is plotting from the shadows. So that's some context, right? The conflict is that Simba's dad dies brutally, right? Simba's exiled from the Pride Lands, and the kingdom falls into ruin with his absence. That's a pretty big conflict right now. The turning point is that, like, Simba starts growing up. Rafiki helps Simba confront his past, and he says, remember who you are. That's the aha moment. He's like, I need to go back and reclaim this land and therefore bring this Disney movie home. Because every Disney movie has to have a happy ending, right? So he returns to reclaim the throne, he embraces his responsibility and restores the kingdom to greatness. That's a story, right? You apply that to Toy Story, you can apply that to Moana, you can apply that to any Disney movie and just watch it happen every single time. Right? This is how stories are engaging. So I'll give you an example of how to use this in a business context, because we're probably not going to talk about Disney movies that often. So I have a client who was with one company for seven years, grew that company from zero to 200 million, was like employee number three for seven years, and then honestly got burnt out and quit and didn't work for a year. Right now people are like, what the hell's wrong with you? How dare you. Take a break. Right? Yeah. And the reality was he was losing connection with his family. Had two girls under five, right. And he was flying 300,000 miles a year for work. The chief revenue officer, right? So flying all over the world, barely home, doesn't recognize his daughters when he comes back home. Like, that's. That's some interesting context to consider here. And so he was out in that period, so he shared that context. Hey, you know, I was flying. I'm. I was flying 300,000 miles a year. It was time for a break, to reconnect with family. That's the context of how to answer, why were you out so long? The conflict was, to be honest with you, I started to become a little bored and understimulated intellectually. Right. So I enjoyed family time. I enjoyed getting my break and refreshing. I think it's important that we all do that. But I was a little bored. And so what I started doing was, here's the turning point. In order to scratch that itch, I began taking calls with investors and former colleagues, and that's when I started consulting, because a lot of folks wanted to have some of my insights from growing this company from zero to $200 million. Right. The transformation is that I learned about where I was most impactful at organizations and where I can provide the most value, and that is opportunities at around the $100 million mark with these parameters. So obviously this is truncated across the board, but this is how you answer a difficult question. Why were you out so long? Well, I was a little burnt out, but then I got bored, having taken a break for so long. And there was also some subtle cues we added to this. Like, fortunately, the exit was quite good. So I could afford the time. Right. So that positions you as a position of dominance versus somebody who's desperate as an example. And then it builds towards the I'm choosing where I'm going next story as well. So context, conflict, turning point, transformation in just how we answered, why were you out so long? And you're not always going to be asked all of these details, but I have an example here. This is probably a good screenshot moment. You should have a handful of stories ready to go that you've practiced. Leadership stories, growth stories, relationship stories, achievement stories, things that likely come up. And I believe we have this in the workbook where you could just take some notes down, just thinking through it and writing it out once or twice. Whether you're going to be asked of it or not is a good practice to have just so that it can be fresh in your mind. So I like to consider this. These stories are the arrows in your quiver. So picture yourself with a whole bunch of arrows. You don't have to shoot them all all the time, but sometimes you're going to be like, man, it would be really handy to have that story on how I transformed that culture. What was the context of that story? What conflict did we have trying to make that change? What did I learn through it? And how did I transform because of that? Why am I for the better? So we follow that playbook. We write these stories and then we keep them just so that it's top of mind and fresh for you should you have to bring it up in conversation later. We also have in the workbook an extended framework for you we call the clear framework. And this is one that we're working on so that you can go through the context, the leadership that you had, the things that you executed, and so on. So that'll be something as a take home assignment here. Yep. And so this is just a subtle reminder that silence and pacing of your stories is important. So it's not monologues we've all seen that we've probably all networked with somebody like that. We're like, this is clearly a script, right? Please don't script me. I'm a real person here. Let's talk like real people. If you catch yourself finding that in your networking conversations, give somebody an opportunity to relax, right? And actually call it out and say, look, no need to be on script here, right? Like, we can have a conversation. Just call it out. Like, I'm sure that's going to be relieving for both of us. Like, just find ways to make conversations more comfortable, even if it can be uncomfortable to bring it up. Incorporating sensory details. We talked about that. I think a lot of executives in their interview process focus more on being the logical hire and being the most credible hire, and they forget about the emotional hire. So in order to win deals that you're not the most qualified person for, you have to win the emotional battle. And so this is Aristotle's rhetoric, like 101 ethos, pathos, logos and people focus too much on being credible and logical. But especially when you're breaking compensation bands, it's not logical to do so. And you might not have the credibility to do so. You have to build an emotional connection with folks to get them to win you over. And typically that's going to come from being more authentic and personable and honest and having more casual and comfortable conversations versus simply reciting your resume and focusing on the past. There were some great notes on reading and adapting to the room. Right. It's also important to note that your job isn't to become Mini Jacob. Right? I've had clients do that. We're like, I did exactly what you said, but they didn't understand the context, that everything is nuanced for who you are. So your job isn't to be funny if you're not funny. Right. I've had folks that are. They're like, I did. I used the joke that you said. I'm like, don't. Only I am that funny. Right. And it didn't work. It didn't hold over well. So you want to lean into your strengths. Like, that's what I'm trying to give you the confidence to do. You are not trying to be someone that you're not. You're leaning into your strengths and being more confident doing that. And then managing story length and detail, keeping it tighter as appropriate, too. Session 6 workbook this week you'll focus on preparing for initial interviews by using the closer framework to structure and deliver compelling conversations. You'll start by researching a company and role that interests you by identifying their key challenges and goals. Then you'll write a script for a phone or video interview and practice it with a peer or mentor, focusing on confidently selling your value to the interviewer.