Preparing for an Executive Level Interview
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When it comes to interviewing for high level roles such as executive, VP, c-level and other higher up roles, the interview process is often quite different. With these roles, there is typically a higher level of responsibility, a greater need for interpersonal skills, higher stakes in making the “wrong hire”, and so on.
To prepare for such an interview, you will need to be well-rehearsed in talking about yourself and your experience, as well as more in-depth talking points such as your leadership style, how you approach conflict, your personal goals and objectives, and so on. Surprisingly, you could even be asked about your high school experience as a technique for uncovering more cues and information about who you truly are and how you might fit within the organization. In addition to being ready for these conversations, it’s important to get yourself into a responsive mindset, and to know how to truly speak from your heart, which has some key benefits that we’ll discuss further along.
In this article, we will explore:
- The topgrading interview process
- 3 approaches to practice
- Questions to help you prepare
- Strengthening your responsiveness
- Speaking from your heart
- Bonus tips
The Topgrading Interview Process
I mentioned that you might even be asked about your high school experience. The topgrading process is a commonly used approach, which includes, among many other techniques, diving into these much earlier life experiences as part of a larger approach that aims to build the most complete picture possible of your experience, your personality, and how you respond to what comes up in the world around you.
Not all organizations use the 12-step topgrading process. However, because it is such a thorough process, preparing for one will get you ready for just about any interview experience, and keep you attuned to how your interviewer(s) may have prepared.
As the interviewee, steps number 5, 6 and 7 will be most directly related to you, so I’ve only given quick summaries for the other steps. Step number 7 is especially important. Many companies who don’t use topgrading, or who do, but don’t use all 12 steps, will use techniques and strategies from step 7.
The 12 steps are:
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Research and prep
Determining exactly what the expectations are for the role, what is wanted and needed from a candidate, as well as evaluating past hiring successes or setbacks to determine if changes in approach are needed.
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Create a scorecard
A detailed list of all essential skills required by a potential hire, as well as exactly what an A, B, and C player will look like. (You can do a google search if you’re curious about the purpose of evaluating all 3 levels of employee.)
Know that your interviewer may have such a scorecard, which will be used to evaluate all potential candidates to help determine if they’ll move to the interview stage. Most likely, the job posting will mention these skills, so be prepared to discuss and demonstrate your competency.
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Advertise
For the purposes of this article, we don’t need detail here.
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Work history form to filter applicants
A questionnaire sent to all potential candidates. While it may simply be repeating what’s on your CV, this is a critical time-saving and comparison tool for hiring managers to efficiently filter their candidate pool.
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Phone interviews
A screening interview often used in partnership with the work history form for an initial filtering round.
There are different techniques for preparing for a phone interview, but one of the most effective is actual practice, on the phone, with a trusted colleague, mentor, coach or friend – someone who won’t throw softballs, and who you feel will give you candid feedback. The person you practice with should have read the full job posting, and have decent knowledge of the industry and/or high-level leadership expectations, so that they give you as authentic an experience as possible.
It’s especially helpful to practice in the space you will use for the actual interview, as this will allow you to be aware of any distractions or issues with your technology.
More and more organizations today are understanding the importance of keeping “the wrong people off the bus” as Adam Grant put it in his Ted Talk. If you have an initial phone interview, don’t assume that it’s a simple meet and greet. It is most likely a key part of the company’s candidate filtering. Prepare accordingly.
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Competency interviews
Naturally, organizations want competent people. In high-level roles, what qualifies as competent is often more complex than determining if you’re proficient in certain coding languages, for example. A competent executive or leader will be able to give concrete, real world examples that demonstrate their proficiency in the various skills identified in the scorecard from step 2.
You may have a great deal of real world experience that will be highly beneficial to the organization, but your best examples can be hard to recall on the spot. Prepare and practice examples in advance.
You will also want to research some of the top skills and competencies companies are looking for today. In today’s market, these skills often include collaboration, strategic thinking, adaptability, empathy, creating psychological safety, time and priority management, mentoring, active listening, unconditional responsibility, and more. Do searches for in-demand skills within both the industry and the role, and get prepared.
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Topgrading interview
If you’ve made it this far, prepare yourself for a lengthy, in depth interview, likely with multiple different people within the organization.
If the interviewer is following the topgrading technique, this interview will be a chronological review of your full work and education history, starting with high school! They will be looking for many things during this interview, depending on the specifics of the role and the organization, but expect that they will be taking note of:- Your evolution as a person and how you frame it
- Your reasons for leaving past roles and how you word those reasons
- How you talk about people in authority and people you have had authority over
- How you have realized goals for yourself and your past organizations
- How you discuss your missteps and challenges
- Your attitude toward personal change, growth and development
- Your attitude toward organizational changes
- Your interpersonal and communication skills
- How you interact with and discuss people above you, and under you
Be as specific as possible during this interview. Discuss specific skills and specific examples. As we’ll see in later steps, the topgrading process relies heavily on evaluating “on paper” fitness for the role. Making a connection with your interviewers is key, but that connection must accompany demonstrated experience and competency.
Just as with a phone interview, it will benefit you immensely to practice with a partner. It can also help to practice responses on your own by speaking into a mirror, or recording voice memos and playing them back to yourself.
During the topgrading interview, you will likely be asked to arrange reference checks, or given a heads up that you’ll be asked for this in the future. It’s a good idea to have already chosen your references and gotten their consent.
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Feedback among interviewers
The topgrading process is also about helping organizations continually improve their interviewing techniques. At this stage, the different interviewers will actually be critiquing each other’s techniques.
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Executive summary
This is an analysis of all data gathered throughout the process. One goal of the topgrading technique is to avoid making hiring decisions based on potential bias, especially unconscious bias, so creating this summary is usually a very precise process using specific checklists, tools to identify patterns, evaluations, and so on.
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Arrange reference checks & make an offer (possibly)
In the topgrading flow, you will be asked to set up these reference checks, but many companies still do this themselves.
It’s also at this stage that an offer may be extended, assuming you’ve made it through all the steps.
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Coach the new hire
Essentially the onboarding process. In the topgrading flow, this process will use the executive summary from your interview process to guide your career path in terms of strengths and areas for improvement. This is yet another reason to be as open and candid as possible during your interview.
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Measure annually
This is another step in place for purposes of improving interview and hiring techniques within the organization.
3 Approaches to Practice
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Keep it future-focused
Companies want to know that you’re someone who is serious about staying with the organization and that you understand the importance of the big picture. If what drew you to the company was their history, absolutely talk about that, and bring it into the future. If you’re being asked about your past, talk about that, and talk about how that experience will carry forward for you.
That could sound like, “I love that the company has a long history of community involvement, as that’s something close to my heart. I’m happy that it’s something the company wants to continue and here’s how I see myself being part of that.” Or, “When I worked at XYZ, I had the opportunity to build my team from the ground up, which was a huge learning experience. I understand there’s a desire to reorganize two departments, and much of what I learned at XYZ will be an asset in leading that undertaking.”
Beyond your experience, get yourself up to date on trends within the industry, as well as any that are role-specific. If there is something you need further guidance on, be prepared to discuss a concrete plan for making that happen, including a timeline.
In high-level roles, even if you will not be directing leading people, there is often an expectation that you will bring leadership skills to the table. After all, leadership is a way of being within an organization, and not a line within an org chart. For that reason, be sure you are also up to date on trends in leadership, as well as current expectations in terms of cultivating environments of inclusivity, psychological safety, transparency, and so on.
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Dig deep into what the company is all about
It should go without saying that learning about the company is a key aspect of interview prep. However, especially at a higher level, you need to dig further than the company website and mission statement.
Read news articles about the company going back several years. At least 10, and even further if it’s a longstanding organization. Don’t just read what they have on their website. Do a Google news search for all mentions, so that you even know the things that may not have felt significant enough to take up website space. This not only demonstrates that you’ve taken a genuine interest, it also gives you a fuller picture of the values of the organization, which can help guide your responses. You may also dig up something that makes you second guess your interest, and it’s always better to know sooner than later.
Beyond news, search social media including LinkedIn, check the company’s reviews on Glassdoor, other business review outlets, and even with the Better Business Bureau. Get to know as much as you possibly can about the company so that you can go in fully informed.
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Take a co-creative approach
Interviews can often take the form of a conversation, and interviewers are not just evaluating your responses, but also how you interact and the general flow that you create. A co-creative approach uses an us-together mindset to establish connection and explore possibilities, which is great in an interview.
For example, let’s say the interviewer asks about a past work experience. You might answer with something like, “I’m glad you asked about that because that’s where I [insert learning or experience], this is how that played out, and here’s how I see that coming forward with you/the organization.” By using phrases like “I’m glad you asked that,” “You brought up an interesting point,” “I appreciate the way you phrased that,” “You mentioned something earlier,” and so on, you’re cultivating a co-creative rapport of working together to move a conversation forward.
Keep in mind that this is a conversation heavily focused on you. You don’t want to turn it around to a discussion about the interviewer. They may really enjoy that chat, but it won’t demonstrate your value as a potential hire. Keep it focused on you and what you bring to the organization, and occasionally draw the interviewer into the flow in ways that show you are already striving to work together and that it will feel a little more seamless to “make it official.”
Questions to Help You Prepare
Here is a list of potential interview questions that go beyond the most common ones. As you go through them, consider how you might answer them from a place of both radical self-acceptance and strategic authenticity. (I would like to add more that are more leadership/executive related from the Google docs I shared)
- What motivates you?
- What impact do you want to have as [role]?
- How would you define success in this role?
- What are your expectations?
- What are your long term career goals?
- How do you see yourself fitting into the team/organization?
- How do you encourage employee development?
- How do you deliver feedback?
- What role does feedback play for you in employee engagement?
- What are you passionate about?
- What are your top development needs and what are your plans to address them?
- How do you feel about asking for help?
- As a leader, how do you set priorities?
- If you gave your last boss a performance review, what would they need to work on?
- What type of first impression do you think you make with employees? With higher ups?
- What do you do when you’re stressed or overwhelmed?
- How do you handle pressure?
- What would you do to increase sales? (many job postings state the objectives of the role, so refer to this for potential alternatives to this question)
- How do you identify bottlenecks, and what is your approach?
- What is your negotiation style?
- What strategies would you use to optimize XYZ?
- Could you tell me about a time when you made a mistake at work?
- What is your ideal work environment?
- What type of environment or team dynamic do you perform best in?
- How do you handle employee mistakes?
- How do you handle your own mistakes?
- How would you handle conflict within the team?
- When have you stood up to someone on the job?
- What is your communication style?
- Do you have direct experience in [job requirement]?
You can also use Chat GPT to generate a list of potential questions related to the role, industry or organization.
Even if you aren’t asked any of these questions, doing the preparation work will help you build your confidence, and further develop your inner leader, so that you can truly kick ass at any interview.
Strengthening Your Responsiveness
Whether the organization is using the topgrading process or not, when it comes to hiring for high-level roles, expect the interview process to be intense and in depth.
It’s incredibly human to feel some anxiety or nervousness before, during and even after an interview. It’s the body and mind’s way of keeping you tuned into your environment and responsive to what comes up. The key word there is “responsive” as opposed to “reactive.”
What’s the difference and how do you cultivate responsiveness? Reacting is just that. Knee-jerk reactions to feelings and perceptions.
Responding, however, is when you are fully in the CEO seat of your life. You are fully in tune with the messages of your body, meaning you aren’t at the mercy of feelings or perceptions. You are able to respond thoughtfully, with intention, and in alignment with your core values, purpose and personal goals. When you have a solid inner connection between your mind and body, your inner leader thrives. You are better able to truly connect with others, and able to reach those all important experiences, skills and concrete examples that are so important to have at hand in an interview.
How do you go about cultivating responsiveness? It’s all about the work you do before the interview.
Something I recommend to all my clients is to start a mindfulness practice that works for them. Mindfulness is not about clearing your mind. It’s about connecting with the present moment, and noticing without judgment. Noticing the things happening around you and within you, naming them, and letting them continue without any need to control or judge. This practice combats reactiveness, allowing your responsiveness to come forward.
Meditation works for some people, but not all. Some of us need movement, so a daily walk, or stretching session might work. You can practice mindfulness while washing the dishes, or take up journaling. Mindfulness, in whatever way makes sense for you, is such a powerful way of strengthening your mind-body connection during times of peace, so that you have the inner strength and awareness to maintain your calm during times of chaos, stress or uncertainty.
Speaking From Your Heart
Speaking from your heart is essentially authenticity, which is defined as something being true or real. When it comes to how you interact with others, it means speaking your truth, in alignment with your values and purpose, and not undermining or betraying what matters to you.
It means being truly and fully YOU. There’s a quote from the Four Winds Society about transparency (which has a lot of overlap with authenticity) that resonates with me: “Transparency means establishing congruence between who you say you are and who you really are.” That’s what speaking from your heart is all about.
Why does this matter for interviews? As I discuss in this post, authenticity is felt. Whether consciously or unconsciously, most of us can sense when someone is being authentic in a conversation. When you speak from your heart, it’s felt and it creates a positive connection.
It also puts you more at ease when you drop the masks of who you think you should be, and show up fully as you are. When you don’t have to divert energy or focus into a persona, you are freed up to bring your absolute best to the interview.
Being fully yourself will also help you better determine if the role and organization are the right fit for you. If you are fully yourself and speaking from your heart, the responses you get and energy you sense can give you valuable insight. Remember, interviews go both ways. Yes, the organization is determining if you are the right fit, but you’re also deciding if this will be a role and environment where you can truly thrive and work toward your own goals and objectives, in both your personal and professional life.
Bonus Tips
Really kicking butt in an interview is equal parts preparation and intention. Intention means making conscious choices about how you show up, and maintaining that intention throughout the interview, with ease.
Just like putting yourself in a responsive mindset, getting yourself fully into the driver’s seat of how you show up takes practice. Here are a few tips to guide you:
- Practice power poses
A power pose is all about confidence; fully feeling that confidence course through your body, leaving an energetic imprint on your whole being. You can learn more about it in Amy Cuddy’s Ted Talk. - Practice gratitude
Gratitude puts you in a mindset of abundance. It’s easy to slide into a mindset of scarcity, which can make you feel – and appear – on edge. Think about everything that’s gotten you where you are, and all the good that exists in your world. That can feel difficult with all the turmoil and loss in the world today, and you may even have plenty of sadness in your own world. I’m not saying to ignore that. Rather, as you prepare for your interview, strive to focus on the good, and on the progress you’ve made throughout your life. Let yourself feel gratitude for that. - Take care of your physical self
Work on your sleep hygiene. Figure out what foods fuel you and which ones make you feel sluggish. Are you energized by rest, or by brisk movement? How do you feel after a good stretch? If you have a sedentary job, how are you getting movement into your day? All of this impacts how you feel, which impacts how you show up. - Notice what puts you in a good mood
In your daily life, take note of the things that bring you joy. It could be a song or playlist, an energizing yoga pose, a pep talk from a friend, a message from a mentor… anything that provides glimmers of energizing joy. Lean into your good mood “hacks” just before your interview. - Get grounded
Grounding is a practice that strives to establish a connection between yourself and the larger universe. Some people believe that it works through the earth’s natural electric currents, while others believe it’s rooted in the recognition that we are part of something more enduring than ourselves. As I discuss here, there are different ways to practice grounding, so it’s about finding what resonates with you. It can be meditating with nature sounds, getting in direct contact with the earth, leaning on a tree, or even doing some gardening. What puts you at ease, and reminds you that you are part of something much grander than the day-to-day activities of life?
- Get to know your Saboteurs (and how to tune them out)
Your inner Saboteurs or Gremlins are the voices that try to keep you in your comfort zones. They are distinct from your inner leader in that they try to guide you away from progress. Both voices ask “what if” but one does so with fear, while the other does so with curiosity. Practice recognizing your Gremlins and kindly instructing them to pipe down.
The Bottom Line
You deserve to thrive in your work life. Finding a role that is truly a good fit for you is key to thriving. That will mean you won’t be the right fit for some teams or organizations, and that’s ok. Preparing for interviews is just as much about weeding out the not-right, as it is about finding the just-right; the roles and organizations that are aligned with your values and purpose, and that truly energize you!
If you would like guidance and support in developing your interview skills, or in preparing to be the interviewer, I invite you to connect with me.
