If You Were a Company Director, Name One Thing You Would Make Compulsory
How do you answer the interview question: “If you were a company director, name one thing you would make compulsory in the office and one thing you would ban”?
Have you ever been frustrated by the way things are done? Have ever felt so sure that the mode of operation of the company you work in is not proper? Have you ever felt so helpless and deprived of the power to change something you know is not right? If given a one-time opportunity to tight that wrong what would that be? If you were in a position where you had the power to do great things, what will you do? As a child, you will always say when I grow up I will do this or do that. This is because, at that point in your life, you knew you did not possess the power to achieve those things, so you move it to the future. To that child, he believes he will have the authority to do all things as an adult. The child believes that adulthood is a mark of authority. This is the same way a Chief executive officer ( CEO) is seen. He owns the company or is probably the highest staff in the company, so he answers to no one. He can make rules and break them. He has the power to move a mountain from one place to the other in the company. When he speaks everyone listens. Every employee might be given the opportunity to chip in ideas or opinions but he has the final say. He is like a King of that organization. A junior staff or employee might have lots of ideas or rules he might want to implement but lacks the power to do so. But not a CEO, he is in control of all the company’s resources. If you are given the power of a Chief executive director, what would you do with it? Will you fire that colleague that has been a night mere to you? Will you hire all your family and friends and pay them exclusively? Will you sell the company? Will you acquire or merge with other companies? The list can go on and on. This is to show you the depth of the power of a CEO, especially when he is also the owner of the company.
What does the interviewer want to assess?
The interviewer simply wants to assess the candidate’s leadership skills. Is the candidate worthy to be a leader? What kind of leader will the candidate be? What kind of decisions will the candidate take if given the mantle of leadership? The interviewer wants to know your thought on exciting policies and what you can bring to the table.
Practice what to say
As long as you are not a magician, you can never be able to predict what an interviewer will ask during an interview. Practice every time you have an upcoming interview, it makes you conversant and familiar with different interview questions. You can never know all, but knowledge of many interview questions can help you answer questions you have never heard before. Make a list of all you think is not properly done in your current place of work. If you are not working presently, you can think back on the practices or policies you despised in your former place of work. Then make a list of what you would like to add to your new place of work. What is that thing your former company lacked that you will be happy to see in your new company? What are those tools of work that you would like to introduce to any company that you work for?
Back it up with reasons
A candidate might have lots of things that he might want to change or stop in a company, but the interviewer might not share the same thought with you. Do not just list the things you find appealing to the interviewer without giving him reasons why you feel such policies should not stand. The interviewer may buy the idea of the previous policy and you are telling him that what he so much believes in is wrong. That digging your own grave. No matter how unbiased an interviewer might try to be, he is still human, and being human means being fallible. Our judgment will somehow cloud our judgment. Yes, you have dug a grave by telling the interviewer that this is wrong but you can convince the interviewer to drag you out of the grave by explaining or giving him reasons why that policy or mode of operation should be changed. Persuade the interviewer to see through your eyes.
Explain how the new plan will work
Sometimes an idea sketched on a board might not be the same when put into practice. Action speaks louder than words they say. You might have a very brilliant idea to bring to the table but the interviewer might be skeptical about the realization of such ideas. Just telling the interviewer that you will scale up sales by 70% in a region where they don’t even make up to 10% of sales is not enough, give the interviewer a laid-down plan on how you intend to achieve it. You intend to eliminate wholesalers and start selling directly to retailers. Tell the interviewer the reason why you insist that wholesalers should be eliminated. Put him through the blueprint of how you intend to cover the gap between distributors and retailers. Do not just be an empty gong that makes the most sound.
Implement your words
If you are finally recruited, beware to fulfill your words. The interviewer did not employ you cause he liked your motivational speech, he wants to see actions and results. That may be the only reason he hired you, so he will be on the outlook to see if you can achieve your claims. You might not have been given the position of a CEO but your ideas might be so good that the company might want to implement them. There will be no better person to hand the task of bringing it to life than the person who proposed it. Remember every resource is valuable to a company. Be it their time, money, or employees. Work hard and smart to make sure you achieve the new idea you have brought in.