.png?width=339&height=68&name=logo%20(1).png)
Topgrading Derails Presidential Bid
Interviews Dec 4, 2012 12:00:00 AM Topgrading Team %
BRAD’S STRANGEST INTERVIEWS: A TOPGRADING INTERVIEW DERAILS A RUN FOR PRESIDENT
Want to listen to this?
As you will soon understand, all names have been changed. A charismatic CEO asked me to help him turn a company around and his 5-year goal was to run for, and become, President of the United States. I was interviewing all the executives as part of a Topgrading Audit, to see who were
A Players and those with A Potential … and who might have to be replaced. The Vice President of Distribution had been struggling to get results because the union rates in warehouses were higher than what competitors paid. During the interview I was noting a weird pattern—he kept referring to the mob.
Topgrading Tip:
when a strange topic is repeatedly brought up by the interviewee, stay cool, let the topic come up again, and toward the end of the interview confront the person: “Why are you bringing up this topic so often? This pattern became a red flag. I needed to—you guessed it—probe, but do so subtly. I didn’t want to scare him away from mentioning the mob, so when he brought it up a few more times I listened but didn’t probe much during most of the interview. But at the end of the interview I figured out an indirect way to broach the subject. I was thinking, “Why the heck are you so preoccupied with the mob?” or “Are you in bed with mobsters?” but I asked, “Have you had any mob contact recently?” He said yes, two reputed hit men for the mob had been to the corporate offices and wanted to offer the CEO an “incentive”—make payments of $50,000 per month and the thugs promised that onerous union contracts would “go away.” With the former head of the union in jail, I asked how the national union could enforce local contracts, and he made it clear that a local who refused to do what the jailbird “requested” would be killed. Gulp! Or in mob lingo, the uncooperative guy would be rubbed out, whacked, hit. I interrupted the interview and took the executive to visit the CEO (no, not Donald Trump, Lee Iacocca, or Ross Perot.) The CEO heard the story, declined to pay the bribe, and the onerous union contracts continued. The company continued to decline, and the board eventually replaced the CEO. If I had not discovered the VP’s mafia contacts, one of the best-known companies in the U.S. might have become party to corruption and murder. And if that little tidbit became public during a presidential campaign, the CEO would have instantly had to drop out of the race.
Recommended Resources:
- Topgrading SnapshotAs you probably know, Topgrading, Inc. has recently created a new product called the Topgrading Snapshot that's earning rave reviews from our clients. It's an online version of the Topgrading Career History Form that creates a one page, visual representation of the candidate's entire career. So literally at a glance you can see the person's full compensation history and honest ratings by bosses in every job. This is the best Topgrading product we've created because it solves the biggest hiring problems of dishonesty (in resumes and interviews), lack of important candidate information, and lack of verifiability. A powerful "truth serum" replaces "hype" with honesty.This tool makes the initial screening of hundreds of people using these Topgrading indicators as predictors of future success a task of minutes as opposed to the arduous hours this same task would take using conventional methods. Here's the best news of all … we want you to try this new tool absolutely free as our guest. We'll set you or a designated person in your organization up as the administrator and give you two free Topgrading Snapshots to try out with real applicants. Rather than trying to tell you any more about this great new tool that is changing the lives of hiring managers around the world who are using it every day to streamline their hiring practices, just visit our website at www.TopgradingSnapshot.com to learn more and get your organization setup in a few seconds to use your two free trial snapshots. There's no obligation, no credit card required and you have nothing to lose except all of the time you've wasted in the past screening applicants who didn't tell you the truth. To try the Topgrading Snapshot for free just visit us at: www.TopgradingSnapshot.com
- Topgrading: 3rd Edition - Add the 3rd Edition of Topgrading to your library. You probably know that it made all the bestseller lists. By purchasing the book from our website, you will also receive a recorded 45 minute webinar of the new “good stuff,” and an Implementation Manual. for more information and to order Topgrading: 3rd Edition.