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Many years ago, I was in charge of a childcare center with a staff of 29 that looked after about 60 children five days a week. The children were no younger than six weeks and no older than six years of age.

When I took over the leadership role at the center there were a lot of dysfunctional practices and systems that needed overhauling; one of them was the way we hired new staff.

Traditionally, we had run ads in the local paper to attract candidates. Each person interested in working with us was required to come to the center to pick up a copy of a three-page application that he or she would need to complete and submit with a resumé by a deadline. The Director of the center would then review the applications, pick eight to 10 candidates and line them up for 30-minute interviews. At the end of the day of interviews, one candidate would be chosen by the Director and would receive a job offer by phone while the rest were mailed a postcard informing them they were not chosen.

That system had a lot of room for improvement. One day, I just couldn’t stand it any more and I set out to design a new system.

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I was hired once by someone who told me their primary criteria for new hires was if they’d want to have dinner with them. I thought it was kind of shallow at the time, but later I learned how important the personality fit factor was. Interesting post, Kurt, particularly as I start to cast the net for people to start working with me, which is a fairly scary proposition.

Everyone Poops is a great book.

How did folks react when you asked them what they would die for - was that a productive/informative question?  I think that question might freak me out a bit, especially in the context of a child care center.

I first heard of someone asking that question in interviews on a radio program. At first I thought it was kind of scary, then I warmed up to it a bit by asking some of my friends the question.

I always let the candidate know that there are no correct answers to the questions, only ones that are correct for that individual.

Some folks just answer, “I don’t know”. Some complain that the question is too hard. Quite a few folks say they would die for their family or church or to save another from drowning, very few have ever said they would die for their country.

It’s basically the one question that 99.9% of the time the candidate is not prepared for, so I can ensure that I’m not getting a “canned” answer, and I can observe in real-time how well they think on their feet; how quickly they can problem solve and respond to the unexpected.

My favorite answer of all time came from a young woman who was right out of college. She answered instantly and without any hesitation. . .

“Chocolate!”