By Lou Adler, January 17, 2013

Over the past 30+ years as a recruiter, I can confirm that at least two-thirds of my hiring manager clients weren’t very good at interviewing. Yet, over 90% thought they were. To overcome this situation, it was critical that I became a better interviewer than them, to prove with evidence that the candidate was competent and motivated to do the work required. This led me on a quest for the single best interview question that would allow me to overcome any incorrect assessment with actual evidence.

It took about 10 years of trial and error. Then I finally hit upon one question that did it all.

Here’s it is:

What single project or task would you consider the most significant accomplishment in your career so far?

To see why this simple question is so powerful, imagine you’re the candidate and I’ve just asked you this question. What accomplishment would you select? Then imagine over the course of the next 15-20 minutes I dug deeper and asked you about the following. How would you respond?

• Can you give me a detailed overview of the accomplishment?
• Tell me about the company, your title, your position, your role, and the team involved.
• What were the actual results achieved?
• When did it take place and how long did the project take.
• Why you were chosen?
• What were the 3-4 biggest challenges you faced and how did you deal with them?
• Where did you go the extra mile or take the initiative?
• Walk me through the plan, how you managed to it, and if it was successful.
• Describe the environment and resources.
• Describe your manager’s style and whether you liked it or not.
• Describe the technical skills needed to accomplish the objective and how they were used.
• Some of the biggest mistakes you made.
• Aspects of the project you truly enjoyed.
• Aspects you didn’t especially care about and how you handled them.
• How you managed and influenced others, with lots of examples.
• How you were managed, coached, and influenced by others, with lots of examples.
• How you changed and grew as a person.
• What you would do differently if you could do it again.
• What type of formal recognition did your receive?

If the accomplishment was comparable to a real job requirement, and if the answer was detailed enough to take 15-20 minutes to complete, consider how much an interviewer would know about your ability to handle the job. The insight gained from this type of question would be remarkable. But the real issue is not the question, this is just a setup. The details underlying the accomplishment are what’s most important. This is what real interviewing is about – getting into the details and comparing what the candidate has accomplished in comparison to what needs to be accomplished. Don’t waste time asking a lot of clever questions during the interview, or box checking their skills and experiences: spend time learning to get the answer to just this one question.

As you’ll discover you’ll then have all of the information to prove to other interviewers that their assessments were biased, superficial, emotional, too technical, intuitive or based on whether they liked the candidate or not. Getting the answer to this one question is all it takes.

Lou Adler is the Amazon best-selling author of Hire With Your Head (Wiley, 2007) and the award-winning Nightingale-Conant audio program, Talent Rules! His new book, The Essential Guide for Hiring and Getting Hired, will be published in January 2013.

About Morgan Hunter HealthSearch
Morgan Hunter HealthSearch (MHHS) provides Executive Search and Interim Leadership solutions for hospitals and health systems throughout the United States.  Our services include executive healthcare recruiting, retained healthcare executive search, healthcare interim management, executive placement for hospitals. 

With the economy still in disarray, interest rates are still low and overextended developers are selling land and building space at greatly reduced rates. There has actually been a boom in medical office building construction, while other sectors continue to wane. If you are thinking of expanding your medical practice, now might be a good time.

Take advantage of today’s low costs while considering the near future, when health system reform will be fully implemented, bringing in millions more patients who are currently uninsured and baby boomers who will need more care.

“Business-smart physicians are looking to the future,” said Thomas Adams, president and CEO of Florida Medical Space, which specializes in health care real estate. “They may only be in practice for another 10 to 15 years, but the real estate they own will set them up financially much longer.”

Experts are also predicting a need for additional or renovated medical office space, to facilitate the use of electronic medical records and because of increased pressure from insurers to change more procedures to outpatient status, increasing demand for private practices.

In a 2010 Medical Office Report prepared for Marcus & Millichap, a national real estate brokerage firm, senior analyst Thomas Hershey estimated that nearly 45 million more square feet of medical office building space will be needed if 50% of the 46 million uninsured individuals attain coverage through health system reform. The report also stated that an additional 25 million square feet of medical office space would be needed by the end of 2013 to accommodate the population growth in the 55-and-up age group.

Of course, there are a few things to consider before jumping onto the expansion bandwagon. Is your practice already successful? Will it benefit from health reform and senior care? Do you have a sound business plan, solid insurer contracts, some business savvy and enough capital to make your practice attractive to banks?

If you feel the time is right to build, renovate or expand, here are some tips to make it easier, more successful and less expensive:
• Location, location, location. A cheap vacant building won’t be worth the money if it isn’t in a good spot. Look for one in a visible, easily accessible area, preferably close to a hospital.
• Have sufficient capital. You need to look financially stable when you go to the bank for a loan. Having that strength means you can ask for, and get, a good rate.
• Present a good business plan. If nobody in your practice has a lot of business savvy, hire someone who can crunch the numbers and make a compelling presentation out of your data. The banks need to see that you know what you’re talking about.
• Seek out incentives. In some communities, you can get tax incentives for development, especially if you operate in areas targeted for growth or with a high number of vacancies.

And, of course, if you need additional personnel to support your expansion, you know where to turn! Contact Morgan Hunter Health Search whenever you need leadership solutions for your healthcare practice.

Has your life become too complicated? Between telephones, cell phones, voicemail, e-mail, and text messaging, we’ve never been more accessible–and more prone to interruption. Add job and family responsibilities, and it’s enough to make you feel overwhelmed!

Here are some ways you can eliminate burnout and get back on track:
1. Practice extreme self-care. When you take good care of YOU, the people and situations in your life will get the “best” of you instead of what’s left of you! Give yourself permission to make self-care a priority. Practicing self-care will show others how to love and respect you by valuing and appreciating who you are.

2. Set strong boundaries and keep them. Practice saying “no” more often, especially when saying “yes” would be dishonest to yourself.

3. Delegate things that need to be handled. Superheroes aren’t real! If you “have to do it all yourself”, it is time to consider help. Be willing to give up some of your control to decrease all the things on your “to-do” list. Recognize when you have a need AND ask for help (when help is available). Remember, the most successful people work with teams–they don’t succeed alone.

4. Decrease and eliminate energy drains. Get rid of clutter, people, situations, and things that sap your energy. Energy drains include: everything unresolved, undone, incomplete, or avoided. Examples: clutter, unanswered correspondence/phone calls, unfinished business, repairs, unpaid bills, avoided conflicts/confrontations, negative thinking.

5. Schedule fun! We all need a bit of downtime so mix some fun into your life—you’ll be much more productive!