Are you asking the right questions?

Whether you are hiring a top performer for your RM team or are looking to find a Revenue Management Analyst, it starts with asking the right questions in the selection process.

Have you ever wondered why some managers consistently hire better people on their teams, while many others continue to struggle?

I don’t need to tell you about the numerous books and articles that have been written to illustrate how great leaders always lead by asking the right questions.

In this article, rather than convince you to ask questions, I will go a step further to provide you with a framework so that you can ask better questions to solve the most important challenge of leadership; hiring and growing a team of top performers.

Have you identified the need for a new hire or to grow your team?

Great! The following section will illustrate how great leaders ask questions by looking at the questions they asked in interviews to identify talent. The objective is not to copy their questions, but to learn from their thought process and structure of creating challenging questions that reveal the true potential of applicants.

What role or vacancy do you want a person for? Let’s say, a Pricing and Inventory Analyst or a Revenue Analyst.

What should a person on your team need to do in this role, to be successful?

If you know the answer to this question, then you are 90% ready to create right question for your team.

So, don’t rush your answer to say: The person should be analytical, logical, creative, etc because this is not the right person, especially for your team.

The right answer is to list the objectives and goals of your team for the next 3 to 6 months and all the things that the new team member(s) will need to do in order to achieve them.

Example: (is an extract from the goals and responsibilities of an RM Analyst for a fast growing low cost carrier)

• Evaluate trends in market conditions using information available through and from various sources, to make informed pricing and inventory management decisions.
• Analyze data to identify booking behavior, ancillary product performance, network connections etc to take proactive measures to enhance and protect the different revenue streams for the airline/ hotel/ transport company/ etc.
• Analyze Group booking patterns and materialization rates to take proactive measures in ensuring optimal group bookings percentage on the routes based on seasonality and demand patterns.

There maybe more than three, but the most important thing is to clearly identify the tasks that will be performed by the analyst on your team in order to address your challenges and goals. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of identifying the goals and responsibilities of the analyst on your particular team. The challenges that the new hire will face are unique to your team and it should form an integral part of the selection process if you intend to find the best and long lasting fit.

Creating a unique question for your team:

Now, that you have a list of goals and responsibilities for an RM Analyst to succeed on your team, take each item and convert it into a task by giving it some general context.

Responsibility: Evaluate trends in market conditions using information available through and from various sources, to make informed pricing and inventory management decisions.

Task: We intend to launch a new route from KUL to HKG. Considering other low cost carriers flying to Hong Kong from Kuala Lumpur, what would be your recommendations for the right aircraft type and price point for this route?

This task is the best question to ask an applicant in a job interview as it creates a tangible opportunity for you and the applicant to evaluate each other on merit, thus increasing your chances of success together.

The applicants who can answer such a question would have demonstrated their market knowledge, ability to research information, analytical ability to determine pricing and yield, competitive analysis, understanding of the industry/ sector in additional presentation skills and use of documents and file formats such as MS Powerpoint and MS Excel.

In addition to evaluating the performance of an applicant through her answer, you also know that an applicant answering such a question is highly motivated and committed to solving the problems of your team. Because, no one would spend a couple of days solving your challenge for job if they weren’t really interested in it.

This approach towards asking performance based questions sets great leaders apart from the rest. It’s no surprise that great leaders value team members for their real performance rather than the name of their university, second name, social class or gender. And such a performance based metric builds trust and mutual respect among all team members and creates an work environment of excellence.

This approach has been developed by analyzing hundreds of questions asked by leaders from different sectors who have used performance questions as a way to spot top talent. If you have any questions of your own or you would like help to create performance questions for your next interview, feel free to email me at kedar@gapjumpers.me or connect with me on Linkedin.