Will Answers to Three Questions Decide the U.S. Presidency?

Greetings from Washington, D.C. where we who live and work in this fair city know that the three-ring circus called the 2016 Presidential Election Season ends in just a little over seven weeks.

Some would argue that that cannot happen soon enough.

Political pundits frame the presidential election, not as a big-top attraction, but as one big job interview. And, surely, the upcoming debates provide opportunities for us voters to take careful measure of the candidates.

Of course, there are a lot of issues to discuss (or dodge). And how each candidate answers or doesn’t answer them may be telling.

But as we in the head hunting business know, job candidates are measured on essentially their answers to three questions, best described by former Heidrick & Struggles CEO Kevin Kelly in a 2011 Fortune interview:

1. Can you do the job?

2. Will you love the job?

3. Would we hate working with you?

CAN YOU DO THE JOB?

How well suited are you for the assignment? Do you have the requisite knowledge, training, and experience? Can you back up your claims with positive metrics? Can you hit the ground running with minimal or no training?

WILL YOU LOVE THE JOB?

This question speaks directly to motivation: What sets the fire burning in your belly each morning as you begin your work day? Are you passionate? Will you enjoy a job of extreme multi-tasking — and crisis mitigation — where priorities turn on a dime? Can you visualize being successful on the job?

Actually, it is most-likely during the face-to-face interview round that hiring managers pick up on body-language and soft-skills to determine whether or not the candidate will be happy and thrive on the job.

WOULD WE HATE WORKING WITH YOU?

This is the “fit-check.” Regardless of great answers to the previous two questions, a hiring manager and his or her team may not visualize you being successful — or worse — compatible with the existing workplace culture. Or the consensus may be that you are too compatible with the existing work culture. Instead, they may seek an iconoclast or an agitator. With this question, one hopes for the best outcome. But really it is for others to decide if your fit-check is satisfactory.

For The Green Suit — enterprising talent in the New Green Economy — who is in consideration of a sustainability or social responsibility management role in a not-already-committed-company, determining whether or not the team members can work with you may have a lot to do with how you frame language and answer [their] questions about difficult “situational dynamics” or company politics.

Indeed, so much of our success on the job is based on strong political skill.

The next seven weeks draw out a lengthy, if not painful-to-experience, campaign season. And extracting from the party nominees credible answers to the three questions may determine which one gets the job — and fancy Washington, D.C. public housing — for the next four years.

In a hopeful mood, we say this: our best days lie ahead.

DAN SMOLEN is executive producer and host of the new professional career empowerment podcast, Green Suits Radio. He is author of Tailoring the Green Suit: Empowering Yourself for an Executive Career in the New Green Economy and member of Environmental Entrepreneurs (E2). He is also Founder and Managing Director of The Green Suits, LLC, which provides talent recruitment, workforce planning, and success management to green business and social good enterprises.

Photo credit: Politics USA.