As a Career Strategy Consultant, I find that I am often screening for clients who possess some – “game.” Since a short, successful job search favors a candidate who can master and apply the rules of successful interviewing.
For example, a person’s business profile or resume may highlight that they generated a 60% increase in sales in a particular year. But, when asked about the overall sales goal plan or the previous year’s numbers, many candidates fail to give a clear, succinct process-focused answer.
Be wary if asked to discuss achievements and you experience a “high self-esteem, egotistical overconfident” moment- you could sabotage the winnable moment.
Charisma is often just self-absorption in disguise. And while its utility is unmatched as a brilliant one-act play in the short term, it is generally catastrophic when used to build relationships and buy-in longer term.
If charisma, overly high self-esteem, or egotistical overconfidence can shipwreck your meeting or interview as a candidate, the same goes for the client or the interviewer trying to size you up if they are burdened with the same attribute.
Be mindful as you extol your brilliance at client meeting in an interview. Is the client or interviewer trying to determine the value you or your product will bring to the project, or are they seeking to ascertain whether you are a solid pair of shoulders upon which they can climb to achieve success?
Sometimes it is charisma’s dazzling brilliance at the meeting or interview where the chat goes so well that the client or interviewer takes few notes of value. Consequently, they cannot deliver when it comes to selling you as the candidate or your product is the one to choose. All because your charisma and perceived personal magnetism got in the way.
So, be wary, success in an business meeting or interview requires some self-effacement, and one needs to accept that sales meeting o ran interviewing is a shared performance. We excel at business meetings interviews when we seek to gather information, exchange ideas, are flexible enough to remain quiet during parts of the discussions, and appear to take good notes.
So, while a sales meeting or an interview is theatre, remember that a masterful performance is not the endgame.
