He asked 1 Question – and it made him a Billionaire.

He asked just 1 Question -- and with that 1 Question, this Manager became a Billionaire.

Atlanta, 1981, The Tower, which came to be called The Bunker. Coca-Cola’s top managers were in summit.

Roberto Goizueta (“Goy-zwehta”) stood before his chiefs. He was a man of impeccable suits, an uncluttered desk, and a broad smile he used like a mask.

He’d worked his whole career for Coke. Born in Cuba four centuries after Cortes had gone west to conquer Mexico, Goizueta began work as a chemist at a local Coca-Cola plant. He moved north to the States, went into management, and rose to become Chairman of the Board of Directors of Coca-Cola.

Now he asked his general staff, “What is our market share?”

Marketing had the figure. “45 %.”

Then Goizueta asked, “How many ounces of liquid does a human being need to drink each day?”

A Senior VP answered, “64 ounces.”

“ ‘64 ounces.' Okay -- now of all our brands,” Goizueta asked, “of Coke, Tab, Mr. Pibb, Sprite, all the Fanta flavors, the fountain syrups, everything – on the average, how many ounces does a human being drink of Coca-Cola products each day?”

That stat was handy. “2 ounces.”

Now the CEO repeated his first question, “What is our current market share?”

At Coca-Cola, Roberto Goizueta’s strategic questions and global answers yielded unprecedented value for its shareholders. He was a shareholder himself. And it marked the first time in history that a manager who was not a company founder became a billionaire.

Conclusions:

Coca-Cola CEO Roberto Goizueta asks Marketing a question and it is the questionwhich holds the value, not its answer.

How much value? That year alone it put sixty-two million dollars in his wallet, and much more in the wallets of Coca-Cola shareholders. Just by knowing the right question to ask.

It is the question that drives the strategy.

The example of Roberto Goizueta illustrates what the competitive CEO does. As a strategist, he looks to improve his position, even the intangibles in his position.

As CEO, he revitalized the meaning of market share. He championed a new approach to positioning Coke. Coffee was the enemy, tea was the enemy, milk was the enemy, even water was the enemy.

From colas to juices to water, market by market, he strengthened his core product's position, and therefore he strengthened his company.

Goizueta positioned Coca-Cola’s flagship product at the core of corporate strategy. He positioned Coke to survive the cola wars and maintain its leadership position.

Coke -- the product -- became what I call a "strategic positioning unit" in the struggle of Coca-Cola – the company -- with its rivals.

Essential to marketing the product was availability of the syrup. So Goizueta established a network of anchor bottlers -- in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Australia, Southeast Asia, and Latin America – to serve entire regions of bottlers. That strategy captured one-half of the international soft drink market. It built the market capitalization of the firm to one hundred fifty billion dollars, reflecting the growing brand value of Coke the product.

Finding Happiness At Work, All By Yourself

I love to ride my bike. There’s just something about being out on the road, all alone, with a simple piece of machinery, cranking out miles just to go nowhere/anywhere. Whether it is in the early morning, when you can smell the dew evaporating off the grass, or midday when the sun is beating on your face and the exhaust of lunch traffic lingers in your breath, or late in the evening when the crickets begin chirping and the wind is blowing you a little off your line. I love being on my bike.

I love it so much, that in 2011 I decided to learn more about riding my bike better, and I even entered a race. I really felt like my training was going well, and I wanted to see how I might stack up against others in a little friendly competition. After all, I had just come back from deployment in Afghanistan, so I was lean and fit. I had trained nearly every day for a year. I felt light, and my legs were strong. Surely, I could give experienced cyclists a run for their money. So I entered a race in upstate NY called the “Check Your Legs Road Race.” Heck, I knew I was going to win this thing. I was grinning the whole time just thinking about it.

I was the first person to arrive at the site of the race. I couldn’t wait to get started. It had rained all night, so the pavement was wet and the sky was gloomy. It was a little cold, but I didn’t care. I had people to beat on the road. I unloaded my bike, and did a few warm-up exercises. When race time came, about a dozen or so men, give or take, lined up at the starting line. It was going to be 26 miles of me kicking their tails.

Except, I didn’t. After the first few miles, I dropped to the back of the pack. Shortly after that, I dropped off the pack altogether. Then all the women, who started 5 minutes after us, began to pass me. Some of the men and women were not nearly in as good of shape as I was. Why was I struggling? What was going on? I was supposed to win this thing. I KNOW I trained much longer and much harder than many of the other racers. My happiness and eagerness from early in the day began to turn to anger and frustration.

Sometimes at work, it’s easy to look at our peers and colleagues, and try to measure ourselves against their successes and accomplishments, or measure them against ours. This is especially true when someone that we feel has been promoted without merit, or been given some award that we feel was more deserved by someone else.

Is this why we go to work? Certainly, there must be more to life than promotions, awards, recognition, and status. Why do we waste our time worrying about how well others have done compared to us, even if we feel we have done more than them or deserved it more?

In times like this, we must remember why we decided to go into the field of work that we do. Do we love what we do? If so, why? What things do we love most about our work? Can we do more of that every day? Hopefully, you are in a job that you love to do, and not simply in a career for the purpose of gaining a paycheck to pay the bills. If you aren’t, I recommend changing careers as quickly as possible, no matter what your circumstance, but that’s another article.

Whenever I have staked my happiness to the successes or failures of other people, I have found that I am always disappointed. What’s worse is that I gave away freely my own determination to control my mood and happiness. At some point, I decided it was time to take pride in my own accomplishments, and to correct my own setbacks. I would be happy doing the things I did every day at work, and not worry if somebody was outpacing me. As long as I gave my full effort, and produced something I was happy with, that was going to be good enough for me to find satisfaction at work.

Maybe my bosses would see fit to promote someone else, or give another person an award. As long as my performance review fairly reflected what I had accomplished, I decided not to worry about any of the things I couldn’t control. I would be in charge of my happiness from that day forward.

I finished dead last in that bike race. It wasn’t even close. My legs were cramped and I felt terrible. I got off my bike, put everything in the car, tucked my tail between my legs, and drove home quite depressed. I told my best friend about everything that happened.

“Why did you enter the race?” he asked me.

I answered, “Because I love to ride my bike.”

“Did you have fun at the race? Do you still like to ride your bike?” he asked.

“Yes. And of course I do.” I replied.

“Well, you’ve got that going for you then.” he said.

Indeed. I do have that going for me. And, I continue to enter bike races to this day. I (almost) never come in last anymore.

A Simple Way To Read People A Little Better

They say there are two types of people in the world: those who think there are two types of people, and those who don't.

It's an old joke. But according to sales guru Dr. Tony Alessandra, dividing people up along two specific dimensions can be quite useful for something we could all get a little better at: reading people. Just as understanding where we fall on the Skepticism:Optimism scale can help us build our innovation muscles, properly assessing people's communication style can help us figure out how to optimally interact in different situations, whether the context is business or the grocery checkout line.

Alessandra's two human dimensions are Openness and Directness. "Openness is the readiness and willingness with which a person outwardly shows emotions or feelings and develops interpersonal relationships," Alessandra explains. His definition of directness is a little more nuanced than the dictionary's "trueness of course." In reading people, Alessandra explains, directness is about "the amount of control and forcefulness that a person attempts to exercise over situations or other people."

Like any business lesson, it seems, you can squeeze this one into a two-by-two matrix:

On each end of the Openness spectrum you get Open and Guarded.

Open people tend to:

• Be described as “warm, responsive, informal, personable”
• Easily form relationships
• Be talkative
• Share personal feelings and stories
• Give nonverbal feedback in conversation

Guarded people tend to:

• Be described as “formal, proper, disciplined”
• Be more cautious about the relationships they form
• Be more likely to follow “letter of the law”
• Hide their personal feelings from those they’re not very close to
• Give less nonverbal feedback in conversation

The directness spectrum, of course, is simply Direct to Indirect.

Direct people tend to:

• Take initiative
• Create powerful (good or bad) first impressions
• Be swift to do things, make decisions
• Express strong opinions
• Speak emphatically

Indirect people tend to:

• Take their time on things, thinking or acting
• Avoid taking risks
• Ask questions and listen more than talk
• Make tentative statements
• Express opinions carefully

Everyone sits somewhere along the spectrum of both of these dimensions, Alessandra says, and paying attention to the combination of the two dimensions can help you read people better. He describes the four resulting categories as the following:

As the names imply, the best way to interact with, to win over, or to otherwise optimally connect with someone is to understand, if not appeal to, their corner of the matrix. E.g. Socializers tend to respond well to directness and openness: enthusiasm, praise, big ideas and emotions, etc. The nice thing about Alessandra's two dimensions it they are easy to spot.

We've been attempting to categorize and read people in some way like this since 400 BC, when Hippocrates defined humans as Sanguine, Choleric, Melancholic, and Phlegmatic. (I'm a Relater, but if you feel like calling me "Phlegm," I suppose I can't be offended.) Though he originally used these as medical diagnoses (which later were scientifically disproven), modern personality researchers often use them to refer to variations of the above four classes.

Whether nurture or nature is responsible for the quadrant in which we fall, our place is not permanent. A Thinker can put on the right show of enthusiasm to appeal to a Socializer if the moment calls for it. But it's not necessary to become chameleons just because we know a little bit about reading people. Simply understanding what kind of a person someone else is—and that it’s okay to be in a different quadrant—helps us be less judgmental and have more empathy in conflict.

And who couldn’t use a little more of that?

When It's Time To Walk Away

If you are reading this -- you probably are not the type of person to give up easily. Neither am I. You are ambitious and skilled and continue to push forward regardless of what obstacles are in your way. And that makes you successful. But here's the secret, sometimes it's wise to turn your back and walk away. Sure, it's painful to admit defeat but when you are in a "no win" environment it's often the only action that can save you and your sanity.

One of the lessons I have learned working in Silicon Valley for the last 15+ years is that it's ok to walk away. And in many circumstances it's even healthy.

Sometimes the company or product problems are too great or your manager is too straight-jacket insane to work with. It is often wise to move on and pour your energy into something that has a better chance of being satisfying and creating value for more people.

I have recently done this with Aha! (the new way to create brilliant product strategy and roadmaps) and could not be more thrilled as the business is growing like crazy.

However, there have been a number of times in my own career when I identified a big hairy problem and after struggling against it for at least a year, decided it was best to move on. And every time my life has benefited and I have gone on to create more happiness for myself and others. The key is that I identified the problem, spoke clearly about it with those who could help me resolve it, and only decided to give up when it was obvious that they would not help and I would be better off doing something else.

In those instances, giving up meant looking for a new job and moving on. If you are in a long-term dysfunctional environment, continuing to do the same job and putting up with the same crap is disastrous for you and people who depend on you at work and home.

The problem is that when you try to persevere, you are in survival mode and a personal hell. You just don't care about the quality of your work and results anymore. Just walk into the local Post Office or DMV to understand what I mean. 

Now, I want to acknowledge that for some it's easier to walk away than for others. Your level of control depends on your career and financial status and I do not want to overlook that. However, I suggest that no matter your situation -- you do have the power to pursue a different course which in most cases will ultimately lead to a new job that will improve your life.

Let's take a look at how you know the time has come to move on. First, let's start with what creates a happy work environment and job joy. I think that job satisfaction is based on four forms of alignment. The more your job is aligned in each one of these areas -- the happier you are.

                             And here are  you  are not aligned does not mean that you can not become so. It's important to consider how long you have been trying to find alignment and if it's likely that you will get there.

If you have been struggling for over a year in any one of these areas, it might be time to move in a new direction.

Alignment with ambitionAre you working for a company and in a role that is getting you closer to your goal? This is a fundamental question to ask yourself and unfortunately most people never do. Because without a goal it's impossible to know if you are headed in the right direction. I often recommend a "goal first" approach to business planning, but it's also the first place to start as you think about your own direction. If you have never taken the time to write down where you want to be in three, five, and 10 years, now is the time to start. 

Alignment with skillsThe most enjoyable jobs fully tap our exiting skill sets and challenge us to grown new ones. Are you a master of the domain you are currently working in or are you on your way? If the answer is yes, you are probably fairly satisfied with the work you do. If the answer is no you, your confidence has likely been battered and you are constantly looking over your shoulder. Now, if you are out of your element a good boss and training can counteract any suffering and help you regain your mojo.

Alignment with reward expectationsThere are two types of rewards and both are important. Intrinsic rewards are based on the personal fulfillment you get out of a job well done. External rewards include your salary and any other material benefits you receive from your employer. Your reward expectations need to closely match reality for you to be satisfied. If there is a disconnect here for too long, you will grow disenchanted with the work you do or worse. You might not be able to pay your rent or mortgage.

Alignment with bossIt's in vogue right now to suggest that people do not leave their jobs but instead leave their bosses. As you have already read, there are many reasons for leaving a job that have nothing to do with your boss. However, I agree that an unsupportive boss is at the top of the list driving folks to update their resume. I have left bosses who: chased employees around the office, did not allow their staff to speak with other managers, and threatened retribution when someone quit. Does your boss have your best interests in mind?

If you have misalignment in any one of these areas I suggest you admit it to yourself first. Next, have a conversation with your boss or a trusted adviser in the organization who you think can help you.

I want to be clear that you are responsible for trying to overcome the challenge and owe it to yourself and the organization to try and work through it. But, if you can look at yourself in the mirror and are comfortable saying out loud that you tried, you may need to move to plan B. If there really does not appear to be a way out and your misery is increasing, it's ok to admit defeat and walk away.

Do you agree? When do you believe it's not only ok, but healthy to walk away? Add a comment.

How to Steal Ideas From Everybody You Meet

All creativity begins with the moment of conception.

That little piece of kindling that gets the fire going. That initial source of inspiration that takes on a life of its own. That single note from which the entire symphony grows. That single spark of life that signals an idea’s movement value, almost screaming to us, something wants to be built here.

And so, in this new blog series, I’m going to be deconstructing my favorite moments of conception from popular movies. Each post will contain a video clip from a different film, along with a series of lessons we can learn from the characters.

Today's clip comes from the Xerox scene of The Pirates of Silicon Valley:

So, what did they do right?

Good artists copy, great artists steal. According to the bestselling biography Steve Jobs, the Xerox agreement was sometimes described as one of the biggest heists in the chronicles of history. But the subtext is, it’s not because Jobs stumbled across some random fragment of an idea and casually incorporated it into his own strategy. He was ruthless, shameless and intentional. Apple knew whom they wanted to steal from, what they wanted to steal, and most importantly, how to persuade them to let them steal it. And, like any successful car thief, once they brought the stolen hotrod back to the garage, within twenty four hours, it had a new paint job, new rims, new tires, a convertible top and a better designed dice in the mirror. That’s not theft, that’s theater. Proving, that it doesn’t matter if you steal something, it only matters what you do with it once you’ve stolen it.

Ideas are free, only execution is priceless. Xerox’s technologies of the mouse, the graphic interface and the programming language were genius. But they were also ahead of their time. And because their team lacked the taste and design and finesse when it came to prototyping, presenting and the persuading their board of directions, they failed to realize their concepts. Steve, on the other hand, was five moves ahead. And as anyone in the startup world will tell you, he who ships first, wins. Ultimately”, with the help of his trademark reality distortion field, he convinced Xerox to open the kimono and share their new concepts in exchange for an equity investment. Who do you think got the short end of that digital stick? Jobs out executed the competition. He didn’t have an idea, he had an I did. To quote the Steve Jobsbiography once again, “The mark of an innovative company is not only that it comes up with new ideas first, but also that it knows how to leapfrog when it finds itself behind.”

Everything is prey. This scene perfectly points out the astonishing short sightedness and lack of imagination of top corporate executives. Steve knew the Xerox was sitting on a goldmine, and yet, he couldn’t believe they hadn’t yet commercialized their technology. And so, his philosophy was, if these dolts are so dense that they can’t realize the economic and cultural value of this software­­, that they, themselves, have developed, then they don’t deserve to have it. Xerox wasn’t worthy of their own innovation. And in the words of my favorite country song, “I could love you better than that, I know how to make you forget her, all I’m asking is for one little chance, baby I can love you better.” Jobs was right. It comes down to trying to expose yourself to the best things that humans have done, and then try to bring those things into what you’re doing.

4 Tips for Hiring People Who Work As Hard As You Do

A few years ago, I met serial technology entrepreneur, Heidi Messer, at a CEO Summit hosted by Astia, where I serve as a board member. Astia is advancing women into high growth entrepreneurship. I asked Messer how her priorities have changed since her first start-up experience. Unlike most CEOs who focus solely on sales or product development as an early stage imperative talking point, Messer said that human resources and culture have evolved as top priorities from the get-go. We talked about what successful companies do toattract talent.

Culture and people determine success. I get it. But, now what? How does a CEO ensure that she hires the right people and cultivates the right culture from the get-go? I turned to Sue Stockdale, author of Motivating People, consultant, speaker, and contributor at PSDNetwork LLC, where I am co-founder, for some tips. This is what she shared:

1. Subscribe to social media platforms you think your potential employees follow.

LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook are only the beginning; look at Pinterest, Instagram and Tumblr. Make sure your messaging on each platform is consistent with the story you want to tell about your business. Every touch point is a possible opportunity to engage prospects.

2. Use a behavioral assessment tool in your recruiting process.

Consider the skills, experience, behavior, and values that are important for your business and map them to the candidates you have coming through the door. You might find a candidate with the right skills and education, but not the right culture for the team you are building.

3. Be prepared to invest in your employees.

When you are running lean, like most start-ups, you rely on your staff to deliver fast results. But, your approach to their development needs to be long-term if you want to attract the right talent and keep them with you. "View your job as enabling your team to succeed," says Stockdale. You want to give people a reason to be led by you today and tomorrow. If you invest in hiring on and developing the right staff, they will invest in you.

4. Offer competitive compensation packages.

The war for talent for key positions is tough, even with economic uncertainty. "Candidates are looking for what's in it for me," says Stockdale. Competitive compensation packages that don't break the bank, opportunities to directly impact direction, and inspiring leadership styles all contribute to the attractiveness of candidate and employee engagement.

Over and over I hear from founding teams who learn that they chose the wrong staff or realized too late that they hadn’t created a structure and talent pool conducive to the type of corporate culture they desired. Don’t let this happen to you. Invest in the right people and you build the business you want to lead.

Three Musts to Retaining Superstar Talent

In a previous post, I wrote about five toolsto look for when recruiting superstar talent. In this post, I'd like to share some key lessons learned over the years when it comes to retaining your top people.

As a general rule, it's important to note that by the time your best talent comes to you and says they're leaving, more often than not, it's too late. They've long since reached the conclusion it's time to go, having repeatedly seen or experienced examples of why they no longer want to be at the company. At that point, it's going to be extremely difficult to keep them.

One of the reasons it's so hard to change a person's mind once they've communicated their intention to leave is that they may not be willing to share the truth behind their rationale. At least in the case of the tech industry, it's a "small town," so people understandably want to leave doors open vs. burning bridges by speaking hard truths. Without knowing what's really motivating a person's decision to transition, it can be challenging to convince them otherwise.

Additionally, if losing the person to another company, you'll most likely be up against a grass-is-greener dynamic. Departing employees know what it's like at your company -- both the good and the bad -- but they are being wined and dined by hiring managers and recruiters who are telling them only the good, if not the great, about what it's going to be like to join a new team.

Lastly, sometimes the person can't quite put their finger on the reason they want to make a change. They just "know it's time" or have a gut feeling it's the right thing to do. Generally speaking, it's hard to counter an argument when one isn't being made.

All of this underlies one critical dynamic when retaining talent: Start the retention process when the person is still open to staying and not after they've already told you they're leaving. From time to time, you may be fortunate enough to walk someone back from the ledge (in certain cases, I've seen people retained even after they've accepted roles elsewhere), but this is the exception rather than the rule. If you are counting on your ability to persuade people to stay after they've already made the decision to leave, you should expect to lose far more talent than you save.

So how can you prevent this scenario to begin with? In my experience, there are three critical must-haves, all of which need to be in place well before the individual comes to you saying they are on their way out: Mentorship, career path, and recognition.

Mentorship

The primary role of a mentor in this case is to help the mentee determine what it is they ultimately want to do, and ensure they are well equipped to pursue that path. Why is this so important when it comes to retention? Because the clearer your talent is about their desired end goal, the earlier in the process you can work with them to make it a reality.

Bear in mind, simply because you are someone's boss, doesn't make you their mentor. To the contrary, by virtue of your role as manager, your employee may be hesitant to share their future plans (especially if it doesn't include you), or concerns about why working for you or your team is leaving them dissatisfied. Without knowing what's on their mind, it's going to prove prohibitively difficult to make the appropriate course corrections.

Rather than assume you are the right mentor for your directs, help them find the right mentor. That means leveraging your understanding of the individual -- their strengths, weaknesses, values, sensibilities -- and suggesting the best person to complement them. A mentor can come from within your organization or outside the company. Either way, they are there for your employee first, providing an impartial sounding board that can draw upon the mentor's own relevant experiences to assist the talent in making and pursuing the right career choices.

Career path

One of the most common questions I'm asked, especially among interns and new college grads, is, "What can I do to successfully achieve my career goals?" My reply is simple: Understand what it is you ultimately want to accomplish. As straightforward as this sounds, I can't tell you the number of times I've asked this question of people who have been working for five, 10, even 15 years, and still don't have any idea what the answer is. Oftentimes, this is due to the fact their careers have largely been opportunistic vs. goal driven. Swept up in a current of promotions, raises, and job offers from the latest hot new company, these individuals steadily work their way up the ranks in title and money, only to find themselves thoroughly unhappy in their current role years later.

Three ways to avoid this scenario are for any individual to:

1. Know what they want to do (optimizing for both skills and passion)
2. Surround themselves with the right people (e.g. see "Mentorship" above)
3. Always be learning

As a manager, one of the most valuable things you can do for your top talent is ensure you are asking the right questions, encouraging the right conversations, and doing everything within your power to help them realize these three dimensions on the way towards achieving their dream job.

Recognition

Every individual you work with, regardless of their position within the organization, not only wants to be recognized -- they need to be recognized. It's a fundamental part of human nature.

While compensation is an important part of the mix, recognition goes well beyond what a person earns. It can take the shape of a promotion, a shout-out at a staff meeting, a congratulatory email, or a pat on the back. The key is taking the time to understand what motivates the individual and expressing your appreciation whenever appropriate. The more personal and authentic, the better.

Don't make the mistake of taking your most talented people for granted and assuming they know how you feel. If that's the case, more often than not you'll end up telling them, but only after it's too late. Recognize a job well done consistently and you'll not only be more likely to retain your most valuable people, you'll motivate them to do their best work along the way.

Job Interview: Why Only 3 Questions Really Matter

Even for the most fearless amongst us, job interviews can be nerve wracking. In order to give us the best chance of success we tend to prepare for many of the difficult questions we anticipate, questions like:

• Why should we hire you?
• What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
• What are your key strengths and weaknesses?

Of course, you can never predict how an interview will go and what questions you will get. You might get an interviewer who fires one tough question at you after the other, or one that turns the interview into a more comfortable, natural two-way conversation. Preparing, therefore is difficult. In most cases we practice the answers to a long list of possible questions. The problem is that this can leave you over-prepared and as a consequence your pre-conceived answers can come across a bit robotic.

From my experience, there are really only 3 questions you have to prepare for and you can link most of the interview questions back to these three. Preparing for these three questions also means you can answer most questions more naturally, simply by referring mentally back to your preparations for these three questions.

Basically, any interviewer wants to establish 3 key things:

1. Have you got the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?
2. Are you enthusiastic and interested in the job and the company?
3. Will you fit into the team, culture and company?

However, during the job interview, the interviewer might use many different questions and angles to get to the answers. If the interviewer doesn’t get what he or she wants from one question, they might ask them in different ways. Or they might probe from different angles to test for consistency in your answers.

Here is what’s behind these 3 questions:

1. Have you got the skills, expertise and experience to perform the job?

Think about the key skills you might need for the job you have applied for and assess your own level of expertise and experience in that context. It makes sense to identify the more specific or technical skills that your potential employer might expect as well as some more generic skills such as being a good communicator, having good IT skills, being a team player, etc. Once you have prepared for this question it will help you answer many different interview questions without getting sidetracked into talking about things that are not relevant. Remember that you want to demonstrate that you are aware of the key skills, expertise and experience required to do the job and that you have what it takes to perform it. Always go back to the key skills, expertise and experience when answering scary (and sometimes silly) questions like:

• Tell me about yourself?
• What are your greatest strengths / weaknesses?
• What can you do for us that other candidates can’t?
• Why do you think you are right for this job?
• What do you think the main challenges will be?
• Etc.

2. Are you enthusiastic and interested in the job and the company?

Any potential employer wants to know that you are interested in the company and excited about the prospect of working there. You therefore want to demonstrate that you have researched the company, understand its strategy, current performance, structure, market position and products and that you can’t wait to join them. For most, you will have done your homework before you even applied for the job, but if you haven’t then check out the ‘about us’ section on their website and search for the latest strategy documents, annual reports, key statistics as well as the company history. Show that you know them and demonstrate your enthusiasm for the job and company. Here you might also want to think about your ambitions and how they fit into the company you have applied for. You can then use the insights for answering questions such as:

• What do you know about our company?
• What do you think our company is aiming to achieve?
• What do you know about our products and services?
• Why do you want to work for this company?
• Why do you think this job is right for you?
• What motivates you?
• Etc.

3. Will you fit into the team, culture and company?

This final key question is about your personality and your style and how you as a person fit into the team and culture of the company. Companies have different cultures, which translate into different ways of behaving and working. It is important to make sure you fit in and don’t feel like a fish out of water. In fact, it is important for the company as well as for you. Again, hopefully you will have done some research prior to applying for the job. Sometimes, it can be tricky to find detailed knowledge about the company culture, in which case you simply talk about your assumptions and why you feel you fit in. One relatively new website that offers a glance inside companies is Glassdoor. The site is still in its infancy but provides a growing amount of data and information about what it is like to work for different companies. You want to map the culture of the company or the team you are planning to join and compare this to your personality traits, style and behaviors. Again, once you have done this you can use it to answer questions such as:

• How would you describe your work style?
• How would you describe yourself?
• How would your colleagues describe you?
• What makes you fit into our company?
• What makes you a good team member?
• If you were an animal, what animal would you be?
• Etc.

Of course, any interview is a two-way process. In the same way the interviewer wants to find out that you are right for the company, you need to assess whether the company is right for you. Each of the questions can be turned around so that you can assess:

1. By joining this company, will I make best use of my skills and expertise and will they help me to grow them further?
2. Is the company excited about having me work for them and will they give me the necessary support?
3. Is the company culture the right fit for me so that I can flourish and be myself?

If you ask relevant questions from your point of view then this will make the interview more balanced and create a more natural conversation.