Motivation-Based Interviewing (Introduction & Overview)

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The Key To Hiring Success is Hiring Self-Motivated Employees!

There’s a philosophy out there that you can motivate almost anyone to do their jobs. It implies we can motivate someone, as well as take away their motivation.

Although this viewpoint is typically well-intended, it is counterproductive to greater success.

For starters, it does not foster greatness. Rather, it fuels a belief in personal powerlessness. It causes people to rely on others to do for them what they won’t do for themselves - motivate themselves. It never leads anyone to actualize their full potential.

Furthermore, it implies that people can have control over us - we need them to motivate us, and they can take away our motivation. It’s the ultimate blame game: “I didn’t get good results because my boss inadequately motivated me, so it’s not my fault.”

My question: Why would we want to take responsibility for motivating someone who isn’t? Don’t we have enough responsibility of our own already? After all, being unmotivated doesn’t work for us; why should it be okay for anyone else? It appears, however, that “unmotivated” has become almost socially acceptable simply because it has become so tolerated. We sling the term "disengaged employees" around as if it's normal and unavoidable.

The philosophy of “motivating the unmotivated” has also made 'how we manage' more important than 'who we hire'. It causes us to focus on finding the most effective motivational tactic rather than the best hiring practices.

Nothing is going to improve until WE (not them) change.  The sole purpose of the job interview and the employee selection process is to correctly identify and hire... (drum roll please) -- THE BEST JOB PERFORMERS!  I guarantee you the best job performers are not the disengaged employees. And they're not great hires who morphed into under performers once on board due to some workplace imperfection (note: there is no such thing as a perfect workplace)... and now they just need someone to re-motivate them. These are not High Performers. They are bad hires that resulted from an ineffective employee selection process. Fix that... and you'll see a quantum leap in improvement in your organization's overall performance and success.

To create a highly motivated organization, hire highly self-motivated people. If we’re truly hiring self-motivated people who are passionate about finding solutions, overcoming obstacles, and achieving goals, then we don’t need to motivate them. 

Sadly, not all interviewers have learned what they need to know about hiring High Performers. For example, they don't know:
     *About the 3 components all High Performers share in common that enable them to achieve above-average results,
     *What interview questions will expose a candidate's level of self-motivation?
     *What's the difference between an effective and an ineffective interview question?
     *Exactly what information to gather, and how to gather and how to assess it. 

High Performers don’t need a perfect work environment to produce great results. They don’t become less motivated and quietly quit when a job becomes hard... they become MORE motivated. They don’t whine about what’s stopping them or what's unfair. They find a way to achieve their goal with the budget, people, and resources that they have. Their mojo to do the work they love cannot be taken away from them. That's because their drive and motivation come from within. It's theirs! They are 'internally' self-motivated, not externally motivated like most disengaged employees. Just think of the power this gives interviewers to recognize this difference BEFORE hiring someone!!! That's what MBI is all about. 🙂

As this understanding of motivation and job performance gains momentum, leadership will place greater value on hiring rather than on trying to change their employees into the people they meant to hire.

By hiring those who are truly High Performers and rejecting those who are externally motivated, our focus will shift from employee engagement to maximizing quality of hire and High Performer retention.

This one-hour session is an introduction and overview to the globally-used interviewing method specifically developed for hiring High Performers - motivation-based interviewing (MBI). This session does not teach; rather, it gives event attendees the opportunity to learn more about MBI and ask questions directly to the creator of motivation-based interviewing.