Leveraging the STAR method

- Yes, I know you must be eager now to know the best way to assess skills during the interview process. A simple framework you can use is the STAR method, which stands for situation, tasks, action, and results. Questions typically start with the phrase, "Tell me about a time when," or "Can you share an example of how you had to." These questions encourage candidates to provide specific examples from their past and help you assess their problem solving skills, leadership abilities, conflict management style, work ethic and other skills relevant to the job. Let's break down the STAR method by starting with situation. Here, ask the candidate to describe a specific situation or challenge they faced in their previous job. This question will set the stage for the rest of the conversation. When a candidate answers this question, check for these three things. Did the interviewee provide context, including when it happened, and where? Did they talk about the challenges or opportunities in that situation? Who else was involved in that situation? For example, peers, cross-functional partners, suppliers or customers. From the candidate's point of view, this is where they can briefly share the context of the situation and the background information in about 60 to 90 seconds. Next, let's dive deep into tasks. Here, ask the candidate to describe the tasks or the objectives they were trying to achieve in that situation. Through their responses, you can understand the specific issues they were trying to solve and how they reacted. When assessing, ask yourself the following. Did you get to know the purpose of the task? What was their role? Were there any timelines or constraints? Here, the candidates should be clear about how they contributed to the task. Again, they should spend no more than 60 seconds to 90 seconds. Action is the most valuable section in the STAR method. Here, you should ask the candidate to share the specific actions they took to address or achieve the task. By doing this, you can learn more about their thought process and decision-making skills. Some key things to look for include did the candidate highlight the skills they used to complete the task? Did they talk about how they overcame challenges? If they worked in a team, what did they do to contribute? From the candidate's point of view, this is where they should spend the maximum amount of time sharing specific actions they took to overcome situations to be successful. Typically, this could take five to six minutes. Last but not least, let's discuss the results. Here you should ask the candidate to describe the outcome of their actions and the impact they had on the situation. Ask yourself, did the candidate share specific metrics to quantify their results? Look for things like reducing customer complaints by 5% year on year, or increasing revenue by $15 million or reducing process time from seven days to three days. Essentially, how did their actions impact team morale, organization goals, customers or stakeholders? What lessons did they learn and how did they apply it in the future? From a candidate's point of view, this is where they should share the impact of their actions and use data to substantiate their success. I find the STAR Method extremely useful in understanding what skills candidate excel at. For more information, go to your exercise file and download the STAR method template.