Recently, I had the chance to read an interesting piece of information. It was about an actual question asked in an interview for a project manager in a IT company and how prospective candidates answered. The following is the question.
You are the manager/lead of a team. Management wants to promote your top performer and move him/her to another position in another department. You have two top performers who are equals in all respects. Whom do you pick and why?
The following are the actual responses.
1. How am I going to manage my project if I am one member short?
2. I will ask for both of them to be promoted by dividing the budget.
3. I don't want to lose my best performers. So, may be release some other member by projecting him/her as the best performer.
4. Promote one of them to your position, release the other for the open position and ask for a promotion for yourself.
5. If the open position is lucrative, present myself for it.
6. I will flip a coin and decide.
First of all, this is a typical example of what I call the 'intelligent question-intelligent answer' syndrome. The interviewer asks a question which s/he thinks is an intelligent question because the candidate is forced to choose between two identical options. The candidate should further defend the decision and the interviewer will be ready to challenge the choice either way. The candidate on the other hand assumes it to be an intelligent question and tries to provide an intelligent answer. The answers listed above are the result of such pursuit. There are a lot of such 'intelligent' questions which are being asked in interviews nowadays which are irrelevant and misleading.
Let's try and understand the issues with these answers.
1. How am I going to manage my project if I am one member short?
- This is in no way related to the problem statement. It can be assumed that if the management asks you to release a team member, they are ready to supply a replacement. So this answer is so way off and doesn't provide your choice between the two team members.
2. I will ask for both of them to be promoted by dividing the budget.
- This answer looks completely amateurish. If the manager takes decisions like this, all the employees in the company will end up as managers in no time. Moreover, this answer also doesn't provide a solution to the question.
3. I don't want to lose my best performers. So, may be release some other member by projecting him/her as the best performer.
- This possibly is the worst answer a candidate could give. If this was the decision the manager would take in an actual situation, it clearly indicates that he is not afraid to create obstacles in the growth of his team members. It also implies that the team member is being denied an opportunity just because they performed very well. This would be the ultimate team spirit killer. We don't want this manager anywhere near the team.
4. Promote one of them to your position, release the other for the open position and ask for a promotion for yourself.
- This is typical example of the candidate trying to provide an intelligent answer and thereby missing the point entirely. This answer creates more problems then it solves because the management is forced to provide three promotions in the place of one which is absolutely unnecessary.
5. If the open position is lucrative, present myself for it.
- This is an answer which can be interpreted either way. On one hand, it seems to be an intelligent answer but some would argue that it seems unethical and it isn't unfair on the manager's part to grab a team member's opportunity.
6. I will flip a coin and decide.
- I would agree that this is the best answer if the answer is said in a sarcastic way. If this was a serious reply, this could be the stupidest answer for this stupidest question.
Now, let's try to answer this question in a 'non-intelligent' and simple way. Remove all the unnecessary distractions from the equation. The problem before us is that there is an open position in the company which has to be filled with the best possible candidate. Now, what do I have to do with any of this as a manager? What if my two best team members are not interested in the open position. The position has to be advertised to everybody who is interested and the best candidate picked after interviews. And a true talented manager should never have issues with losing a team member. Managers have to understand that anybody can be replaced in a team including themselves. It just takes a little time and effort to train a new member to take up the tasks of the previous member. And, in no circumstance, the manager should stand in between team members and their opportunities.
You are the manager/lead of a team. Management wants to promote your top performer and move him/her to another position in another department. You have two top performers who are equals in all respects. Whom do you pick and why?
The following are the actual responses.
1. How am I going to manage my project if I am one member short?
2. I will ask for both of them to be promoted by dividing the budget.
3. I don't want to lose my best performers. So, may be release some other member by projecting him/her as the best performer.
4. Promote one of them to your position, release the other for the open position and ask for a promotion for yourself.
5. If the open position is lucrative, present myself for it.
6. I will flip a coin and decide.
First of all, this is a typical example of what I call the 'intelligent question-intelligent answer' syndrome. The interviewer asks a question which s/he thinks is an intelligent question because the candidate is forced to choose between two identical options. The candidate should further defend the decision and the interviewer will be ready to challenge the choice either way. The candidate on the other hand assumes it to be an intelligent question and tries to provide an intelligent answer. The answers listed above are the result of such pursuit. There are a lot of such 'intelligent' questions which are being asked in interviews nowadays which are irrelevant and misleading.
Let's try and understand the issues with these answers.
1. How am I going to manage my project if I am one member short?
- This is in no way related to the problem statement. It can be assumed that if the management asks you to release a team member, they are ready to supply a replacement. So this answer is so way off and doesn't provide your choice between the two team members.
2. I will ask for both of them to be promoted by dividing the budget.
- This answer looks completely amateurish. If the manager takes decisions like this, all the employees in the company will end up as managers in no time. Moreover, this answer also doesn't provide a solution to the question.
3. I don't want to lose my best performers. So, may be release some other member by projecting him/her as the best performer.
- This possibly is the worst answer a candidate could give. If this was the decision the manager would take in an actual situation, it clearly indicates that he is not afraid to create obstacles in the growth of his team members. It also implies that the team member is being denied an opportunity just because they performed very well. This would be the ultimate team spirit killer. We don't want this manager anywhere near the team.
4. Promote one of them to your position, release the other for the open position and ask for a promotion for yourself.
- This is typical example of the candidate trying to provide an intelligent answer and thereby missing the point entirely. This answer creates more problems then it solves because the management is forced to provide three promotions in the place of one which is absolutely unnecessary.
5. If the open position is lucrative, present myself for it.
- This is an answer which can be interpreted either way. On one hand, it seems to be an intelligent answer but some would argue that it seems unethical and it isn't unfair on the manager's part to grab a team member's opportunity.
6. I will flip a coin and decide.
- I would agree that this is the best answer if the answer is said in a sarcastic way. If this was a serious reply, this could be the stupidest answer for this stupidest question.
Now, let's try to answer this question in a 'non-intelligent' and simple way. Remove all the unnecessary distractions from the equation. The problem before us is that there is an open position in the company which has to be filled with the best possible candidate. Now, what do I have to do with any of this as a manager? What if my two best team members are not interested in the open position. The position has to be advertised to everybody who is interested and the best candidate picked after interviews. And a true talented manager should never have issues with losing a team member. Managers have to understand that anybody can be replaced in a team including themselves. It just takes a little time and effort to train a new member to take up the tasks of the previous member. And, in no circumstance, the manager should stand in between team members and their opportunities.
