OHOOOOO MINISTER FOR EDUCATION OHOOOOO!

The Minister for Education Says Ghana has an EXCELLENT educational system.

Please can someone tell me if it’s the same Educational system I went through?

Is it the same one that BECE’s (Basic education) pass rate is only 50% even though 40% of its educational budget is funded through budget support from Europe?

Is it the same one that Secondary science students graduate without having practically interacted with half of the things they are taught in theory?

Is it the same one that Tertiary students are marked up for “BaBaRiSinG” lecturers’ notes and marked down for being innovative and challenging their lecturers?

Is it the same one that teachers are neither paid nor brought abreast with new, faster, more impactful and efficient ways of delivering education other than chalk and blackboards?

Is it the same one that lumps all students at all levels and has no prevision for “gifted” and “exceptionally talented  children, who should be tapped very early in life?

Is it the same one that students at all levels graduate from and realise the focus have been on theory rather than problem solving and challenging the status quo?

Is it the one that the general curriculum I studied was the same one my father studied and my younger brother and which God forbids my children from studying?

Is it the same one that his ministry does not have any strategy to marry education with industry in order to make education relevant for Ghana’s industrial economy?

 

IS IT HUH, MR MINISTER? IS IT HUH? PLEASE ANSWER ME, IS IT?

FIRE HERE, FIRE THERE........

It baffles my mind and am sure many others, the recent spate of fires in the Accra and Kumasi Metropolis - all these places have existed, operated and been safe all these years, then all of a sudden, IN JUST UNDER ONE YEAR, there's fire all over????

This is beginning to smell like a well orchestrated series of ARSON plots - 

 (1) Are the insurance companies involved in order to justify cash release from their reserves via pay-outs and write-offs?

(2) Are some people high up there trying to justify a "soon to be proposed" building of new markets and the relocation of the current ones? OR

(3) though remotely possible, are these attempts by disgruntle political elements to make the current Administration even more unpopular??

Call it conspiracy theory or what you wish but something just isn't right - these occurrences appear too structured and well spaced out to be naturally occurring coincidences.....

THESE CHILDREN ARE REALLY UPSETTING ME!

The NPP cannot convince me now, that they really had the interest of this country at the heart of their search for power. If they did, they would have shown political maturity by collaborating for national progress instead of squabbling in court for this long. In fact I dare say they could have equally proven to Ghanaians that they could make positive impact on this country whether in power or out of power. Their genuine desire to serve this country would have been better expressed that way.

The NDC has displayed gross political insecurity and childishness by not nipping this whole nonsense in the bud when they had the political will to do so. They cannot tell me now, that this whole standup comedy show has achieved any value-for-money for the resources they have been made custodians over nor can they prove that it has added any measurable, tangible value to the democracy of this country. Not the democracy of showing off their childish, competing, legal powers, but the real democracy of electing, as a government, to focus their energies on providing electricity for the citizens to be productive; of reducing child mortality at our hospitals ; of tackling our very weak border and immigration controls which is about to blow up in our faces like Chinese rice and of ensuring job creation for the many jobless graduates struggling to contribute their efforts to our country's growth - yes, that democracy.

Disappointing, sickening, disgraceful - especially for the quality of human resource we have as a country.

IF GHANA WERE A PRIVATE BUSINESS - WHAT WOULD THEY GIVE US?

Our leaders (Presidents and Parliaments) should be answering one simple question to Ghanaians:

“If this country was their personal profit-making companies, would they have employed those they have, for the various departments? Would they have made the decisions they have made to date? Would they have robbed their employees of their salaries in order to pay for their own incompetencies, the way they have robbed the Ghanaian taxpayers to pay for their inefficiencies? Would they have denied their workers electricity and water at work and still expect them to do their jobs efficiently??? Ask yourself, Do they think you are a FOOL?

Irrespective of party affiliations, each Minister of State, should answer to these 4 CORE areas before appointment:

1. Productivity – How have you evidently demonstrated it in your personal life to date? Corporate productivity is a reflection of personal productivity.

2. Innovation – Select a common problem in their sector of specialisation and ask them how they would consider solving it using non-traditional YET self-sustainable approaches.

3. Value-for-Money Mindset – present them with 1 general problem and 5 different solutions. Get them to defend why their choice of solution is the best long term value-for-money option.

4. Patriotic Values – demonstrate a conscious system you will put in place to instil in the workers under your ministry, the daily realisation that the success of Ghana as a nation equals their individual successes.

There are Ghanaians out there with BRAINS and a foward thinking WILL to see Ghana do better, so why are we allowing these greedy political wolves to short-change us?

GHANA ON THE ROAD TO JERUSALEM

So, the Government of Ghana wants to spend $600K on a pilgrimage to the Wailing wall in Jerusalem. I can understand why Ghanaians are crying out loud. I do.

Inasmuch as I am a strong believer in the Jewish faith and Abrahamic (in this particular case, Solomonic) mysteries and covenants, I do think we need to carefully explore some realities.

Personally, I believe sending 7 genuinely true men of God to pray and write the country’s prayer needs on the wailing-wall in Jerusalem is equally as effective as sending 200 or a 10,000, so I guess the question the Government should be answering is, “what is the justification for the 200 being sponsored”

Secondly, if all these is stemming from advice that has been given to the president based on 2 Kings 8:41-43, then I suggest to the President that there is a better option to locking Ghana into the covenant and that whoever advised him spiritually has “short-changed” him. He should ask himself why countries like Britain and US no matter their failings will never collapse? Because they are the 2 biggest supporters of Israel. If the president is to get ONE response to ONE prayer, then yes, he can send a team to Israel to pray (but certainly NOT 200 of them). If he is looking to lock Ghana into the Abrahamic blessings, then he should consider giving a token seed to Israel every year and it certainly won’t cost him $600K. Or better still, invite the Israelis into business partnerships with Ghana. That way, we still enjoy the blessings of Abraham but also enjoy shared profits and development. (Genesis 12:3 -7). How about asking the whole nation, Muslims and Christians alike to fast and pray for the country for just one day? Don’t you think there is scope in that, for a larger number of men and women with genuine hearts, that God will listen to? And don’t you think Ghanaians individually know their problems and pains more than the 200 men you are sending off to pray?

I thank God for those advising the president on Spiritual matters but someone needs to explain to him that he has a choice between having ONE prayer answered at the Jerusalem Wall and plugging the country into A LIFETIME of blessings.

Having said all these, I’d like to make the president aware that as a country, God has blessed us beyond imagination. Our problem, I don’t believe has anything to do with our our prayers to God or NOT. It has to do with US as a people. It has to do with our GREED and our INEFFICIENCIES. The earlier we recognize that, the better for us all. We are now behaving like Moses who had “the rod of God” in his hands and getting to the red sea, is still turning to God and asking God, what should I do?

Here is a piece of advice to our President: How about trying something as simple as looking through all senior Government appointments and ask yourself 2 questions: (1) Are the people appointed considerably knowledgeable in their sector of appointment? And (2) What achievements have they demonstrated outside politics

It certainly is not an easy thing running a whole country but if you put yourself forward for the post, you obviously believe you can get the job done, so stop creating excuses and diversions and get on with the job – I employed you at the end of the day.

I am not saying the president shouldn’t send a delegation to pray in Israel, but what I am also saying is this: 1 Timothy 5:8 : “But if anyone provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel”

How does the government justify spending that much money for travel arrangements when electricity load being shed daily represents enough electricity needed to power 5 whole regions. How do you justify spending that much when mothers are delivering their babies on hospital floors. How do you justify that spending when the country still has debts unpaid and children are still on the streets and have nowhere to sleep at night.

In conclusion, I don’t think Ghanaians a angry because of the need for prayer to be offered in Jerusalem on behalf of the country. I think Ghanaians are angry because in their suffering, the government has disrespected their human needs and insulted their spiritual intelligence.

An entire family, has surrendered to you their share of the nation’s resources in the hope that you will use a part to make their lives better today, and the other part to invest for the future of their children. Yet on a daily basis, they live in need, you have put them in debt, and with no hope for the future of their children. Tell me Mr President, how do you expect such a family to react when you tell them, “the remainder of their share of the national resources will be used to pray for them” HOW DO YOU EXPECT THEM TO FEEL?

Ghana is a blessed country - stop making it look like our inefficiencies are resulting from unanswered prayers from God. 

 

GHANAPRENEURS + GOVERNMENT SUPPORT = IMPACT

So the election dust is finally settling and it seems Ghanaians are eager to move on.

One major success Ghana has chalked in the last 7 years or so, is this – Ghanaians, by themselves, have awoken to the spirit of entrepreneurship and for some of us, this is the only hope we have in the future of this great nation – the ability to believe that we can do, and do it.

             The world calls them “Entrepreneurs,” but for lack any word fitting enough, I’ll call them “Ghanapreneurs.” Over the last few years, these crop of mostly young Ghanaians have come to the realisations that (a) Their own future is in their hands (b) they do have what it takes to make impact and (c ) they can’t hold on any longer for governments to act. It is quite a shame that throughout the just ended presidential debates, none of Ghana’s presidential aspirants took any recognition of these Ghanapreneurs. Perhaps, none of them sees their potential. Yet sadly, it is these very people who have a track record of making great nations what they are today. It won’t change.

I fear that our new governments (whoever they will be after things settle) will continue to ignore these group of people to the detriment of the nation as a whole, so I feel frustratingly obliged to say to our leaders – DON’T! Let’s face it, Ghanapreneurs cannot merely succeed on the ticket of their raw talents and brute determination – they need support, and that’s exactly what I am hopeful the government will provide.

            If politicians are looking for reasons why my suggestions in this article are economically, financially and politically excellent value for money, then here is a simple one to consider: (i) One of your top priorities is to get the average Ghanaian out of poverty (ii) it costs a lot less to support a Ghanaian entrepreneur, than it will cost you to get him out of poverty with his hands folded (iii) Entrepreneurs, once established can be mostly self-sustaining, generate jobs and see good reason to support local development.

So what exactly do I suggest the government should do?:

1.       Set up a dedicated Entrepreneurs unit in the government to lead the entire process strategically and operationally. I am referring to a unit that will deliberately and systematically ensure that over the next 4 – 10 years it:

·         Drives a forceful campaign for Ghanaians to believe in their own ability, to be daring to try start-up businesses and ventures and to dare put their education or non-educated abilities to work. It should become a national responsibility to try.

·         Have a fully functional database of easily assessable material and properly skilled staff, who can take any desirous Ghanaian and empower them with the basic knowledge they need to make choices between options best suited to them, gain confidence and make viable decisions on how to start up a business or venture with minimal failures. In fact this department should be measured with the yardstick of how many successful start-ups they have been able to engineer in any timeframe.

 

2.      Government then needs to incentivise people to become more enterprising.  In other words, government should make it rewarding for being an entrepreneur, for being able to think out of the box, for being able to add value to one’s self and others – we are talking about special Tax breaks for entrepreneurs. In fact, if Government wanted to make it a bit more exciting, it can create tax incentives for other larger businesses which support registered entrepreneurs. This is a somewhat strategic move in my opinion because this way, the business environment becomes self-sustaining, in that bigger businesses are making their profits by serving individuals and tax gains from serving entrepreneurs, whereas entrepreneurs on the other hand are getting maximum support from bigger businesses which is very valuable to their growth – in the end, everybody is a winner.

 

3.      Thirdly, and not in any order of importance, the government should consider introducing a full-steam Entrepreneurship course into every university degree. Don’t misunderstand me. I know currently, elements of this subject area are included as compulsory modules by some tertiary. What I am suggesting is that they are done across board, intentionally structured and with a precise objective – in other words, the government must first decide what objectives it wants to achieve with students coming out of tertiary school and who have studied Entrepreneurship; and based on that, a course outline strategically designed to ensure that anyone going through such a module will satisfy the national level objectives. Now that’s how to tie education to National development.

Think about it, currently, our educational system (especially at tertiary level) is unconsciously structured in such a way that when students come out of Tertiary school, and based on the way they have been taught, gaining employment is their best option of survival – if for various obvious reasons, that option becomes unavailable, such students are rendered incapable. Should we blame them? Not really. Truth is we never equipped them to lead themselves into business or into other innovative uses of their newly acquired knowledge if they don’t find traditional employment.

Apart from proactively infusing Entrepreneur studies into tertiary Curriculum, I also believe a step in the right direction would be for government to force a more active marriage between Academia and Industry. I say force, because left to the two alone, it doesn’t appear they have done a lot so far to actively engage with each other. Government in its unique position has influence over both and can in very politically positive ways, ensure that industry becomes more active in academia and that academia begins to see its two primary objectives as (i) serving industry and (ii) researching into the future to find new areas for industry to explore.

Finally, I’ll be daring and say that our government needs to take the bold step to get the right people to overhaul our educational curriculum and make it fit to primarily serve and progress Ghana – the borrowed educational agenda from foreign countries have only ended up so far making our students well groomed domestics of those foreign ideologies. It is about time we develop curriculum that though internationally marketable, is first and foremost biased towards the peculiar needs of Ghana. Perhaps our governments need to start crafting clear national long term agendas (not thrown away by successive new governments) which can be translated into equally long term educational agendas.

 

4.      My Final suggestions, which I am sure many were looking forward to see is financial support for entrepreneurs. Currently the more pronounced attitude of the financial institutions in Ghana is one that seems to say “come to us when you are successful, and we’ll fund you” or alternatively “we’ll fund you but at killer interest rates”. Both stances show lack of confidence in the entrepreneurial spirit and a total averseness to risk where start-ups are concerned. The corresponding effect then, is that those that would have turned out as prolific entrepreneurs of international calibre will rather not bother starting the process for fear of lack of funding.

Either way, Government has the onus to show the financial sector that he (government) believes and has confidence in the potential of Ghana’s entrepreneurs and therefore, they (financial institutions) should do too. Factually, financial institutions in every country primarily gain their foremost confidence about sectors to invest in by looking at the government’s own confidence in those very sectors. In the years bygone when government reposed its confidence in cocoa, as Ghana’s passport to success, financial institutions didn’t have any problem supporting the sector – they were leaning on government confidence. The same was repeated for gold over the last two decades and now oil. If the government shows confidence, financial institutions will too.

That having been said the government can also make attempts to make it profitable for financial institutions to provide much needed capital support to start-ups by directly guaranteeing loans given to start-ups whose business proposals are considered by the Banks as viable – it is much better than the current situation where start-ups can’t even get any financial support at all, or if they did, at interest payments that choke them before they have the chance to grow.

 I am not by any means suggesting this is a full proof approach to making entrepreneurship in Ghana, work for all of us, but it is certainly a good way to consider looking at the challenges practically.

 

Ghana's Political Stalemate after 12/12 Elections

In 2004 the NDC's Atta-Mills lost a Judicial appeal against NPP's Kuffour's Presidential win.

Assuming that both the NDC and NPP share the same faith in the EC and Ghana's Judical systems in 2012/13 as they did in 2004,

Will the NPP's Akuffo-Addo concede a defeat in Judicial appeal against NDC's Presidential win?? Or do we only believe in the EC and the Judicial System, when it is convenient?? S...incerely, my thoughts are very few:

(1) Dont we have a lot to do as a nation than to be marking time when other under-developed and under-resourced countries are busy making giant progressive strides?

(2) Its becoming obvious that over the years, we as a nation have allowed the presidency of Ghana to become an "entitlement" and not a position of servitude. And so, now we have to wait for MEN, acting as "men" to fight over 1 presidential "TOY"

(3) Since when did it become a necessity that you can only impact the lives of your fellow citizens by becoming president. Seriously, if the real motives of presidency are to help the fellow ordinary man better his lot, why spend all these personal and state resources trying to prove who is right or wrong, who is a thief or a saint as if that is more important than the premature babies dying in the hospitals because of faulty equipment or productivity and millions being lost from traffic congestions etc. DONT we really have a lot more to think about??

(4) And we seriously want to be great and strong? if you ask me, we are seriously exposing our political weaknesses to our enemies (if we even know who they are). With all that is happening, it wouldnt be difficult for any external force to know where and how exactly to spark a desent in our country.

GROW UP PLEASE. We the children are asking you the ADULT-CHILDREN to GROW UP so we can also watch and GROW.

Democratic Orgasm through Political Impotence:

I don’t dispute the fact that NDC has touched some of the numbers in the just ended Ghanaian elections – of course, they did. No lie about that. But they also did in the past and yet ex president Kuffour of the NPP snatched victory from them – it just goes to show that the voice of the people will always be reflected at its rightfully appointed time.

The NPP is intentionally clothing itself with disgrace by the post election actions of violence it wants to engage in...... they are now making it obvious (even if it wasn’t the case) that the people's needs and the people's voice was never the agenda and was never going to be embraced.

We as an entire nation put our faith in the independence and ability of the EC. No one challenged its mandate, its make-up, its bias, its constitution before the elections. In that regard let’s respect the FAITH that WE as a people put in it. If we approved them to do the job and we now turn around to say they didn’t do a good job, are we not insulting our own intelligence by which WE chose them in the first place? Com’on now – Ghanaians are a lot more discerning than that. IF the NPP had been declared winner, they would have expected the NDC to show the same political maturity in gracefully accepting defeat. You cant sit at the head of the table if you are not willing to be the one who says the Grace. And you cant say grace if you cant exhibit it.

Lets stop behaving like a child who dropped his toffee in the sand because he was throwing it at someone, and is now throwing a tantrum at his mum.

I guess there’s only one way to describe the tensions in Ghana. Democracy has won, but politics still has a long way to go. Or better still:

Democratic orgasm has been reached with political impotence.

RANDOM THOUGHTS

RANDOM THOUGHTS 1:

Σ NDC ± √ NPP + CPP° ÷ PNC% + π (PPP – PCP) = BETTER GHANA

 

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS 2:

There seems to be a lot of wars going on in Ghana today:

• Between Politics and Religion
• Between visionless Politicians and Enlightening youth
• Between Worldly Philosophy and the Knowledge of God
• Between Ruthless propaganda and the Conscience of men
• Between the force of Will and the power of truth

Interestingly, the things that we all argue about; the things that even good relationships break over are the very things we do not KNOW all the truth about except what we are told by the media and the powers that be.

May God help us all.  

RANDOM THOUGHTS 3:

From my experiences before I left Ghana and from what I keep hearing, I have a few suggestions of places and events that the Ministry of Tourism in any government can develop into a tourist attraction:

1. ECG main switchboard
2. Annual Budget & Fuel Shortage Day
3. The Statue of Corruption-Liberty
4. The Ayarigate memorial Lectures

 

RANDOM THOUGHTS 4:

I was wondering: both Mitt Romney and Obama (even though he is an incumbent president) had to do fundraising from the public and businesses to pay for their predidential campaigns. I dont see any of this done by Ghana's predidential aspirants, so I have some questions:

NDC: Is HE Mahama using the taxpayers' money for their campaigns? If not, where does he get the funding from? He is certainly not that rich on his salary alone??

 

NPP: Where has Nana Addo been getting money to finance his 3 attempts at presidency? Is it borrowed money which will be repaid from national cofess when he assumes power??

Insight into Ghana’s IEA Presidential DRIBBLE-ATE (30.10.12)

Midway through the debate I am turned off from watching the rest of the IEA presidential debate..... the reading on my blood pressure monitor says "no reading detected". So I figured, if my blood is frozen from watching, he that is down fears no fall right – I turn the computer back on to watch to the end……

Dr. Sakara: On Education, the petroleum money should not be reinvested in more Ghana owned drills but used for education. (And I take it that after we use all the oil, education alone will make us self-sustaining right?) He also says we should put emphasis on access to education and bring in quality at a later time. (I didnt know the 2 could be seperated. Oh thats brilliant)

Ayariga: "Other part of it is" - I didnt understand anything. By the way, thank you for "Encouraging the salary of Doctors" (I wish you'd encourage the doctors themselves too). Why are you mixing housing and ICT by the way?

John Mahama: I am confused, have you become pro Free-SHS now or? And you havent said how the 61% funding gap in tertiary funding will be filled. (I hope you know the British Government wont be funding Ghana's education budget forever) On debt Management - Ghana's debt is 44% of GDP, other countries do it and we are maintaining ours at a good level (firstly, it was never 44% and does that mean we should continue borrowing with no plan to reducing it? And why are we not investing the borrowed monies in areas that yield enough to pay them back on their own without us putting in more from national income WHY?)

Nana-Akuffo Addo: This is my neighbourhood so I can correct you on this: You dont have a lot of room in redrafting "value-for-money" in debt contracts, rather, you can only effect value-for-money on debts by the way you prioritise its use and in managing its resettlement. Are you kidding me? Debt is a very critical issue in determining whether any candidate has what it takes or even understands what it takes to restore the economy of Ghana and I think you have failed on this one....

ALL in ALL? - Lets go borrow Hugo Chavez and Pravin Gordhan to run the country... (All our candidates think the country is an NGO – there’s no business or entrepreneural sense in any of their answers - I AM REALLY SCARED)

A day after the IEA debate during choir practice:

Trebble (Mahama supporters): Am going back to the heart of free SHS, and its all about you, and its all about you Mahama...

Alto (Akuffo A supporters): Kumbaya Addo kumbaya (3x). Someones crying Addo kumbaya. Someones sinking the economy kumbaya...

Tennor ( Sakara supporters): yeaterday is gone Shakaara has come do something new in our lives.... do something new

Bass (Ayariga supporters): guide me O thy great Yariga... I am weak but thou art mighty, feed me with thine powerful bl3

ALTOGETHER Chorus: you are the most high you are the most high..

YOUR NEXT JOB INTERVIEW – HOW TO EXCEL

The important thing to do with any job interview is to research the organisation thoroughly, after all, this is where you are going to be committing 8 out of 16 hours a day of your waking life, for 5 out of seven days a week for the next 1 or more years. Most importantly, try and understand what they do and also understand what you will be required to do when you are accepted for the job. I have seen many candidates who don’t do any research or who wait until the day of the interview before they start asking questions. If this is your attitude to interviews then I would like to most politely say, that you already have a 90% chance of failure at the interview and if you have already been failing at interviews, you probably have just discovered one of the reasons why. For starters, there are some very very basic things you should note, that can increase your chances of success:

·         Always dress smartly – a suit, a shirt or other suitable clothing make you look welcoming on the eyes.
·         Always try to arrive 15 minutes early (there is no such thing as African time).
·         Always remember to turn your phone off as soon as you arrive at the interview venue. Don’t forget this.
·         Always obtain a job specification or job description or go through the vacancy thoroughly.
·         Always make time to read on the organisation’s website especially anything about them in the news.
·         Always research and remember 5 key aspects of the organisation that makes them stand out.
·         Always prepare 3 questions to ask at the end of the interview (e.g. what are your expectations of me in the first month I am employed; what is it like working for this organisation; what is the next big direction for this organisation)
·         Always wait to be offered a seat before you seat down.
·         Always smile and give eye contact with everybody present on the panel not just the one asking the question
·         Always sit up straight and be enthusiastic with your answers and questions; don’t speak undertone
·         Remember! The energy you show, will reflect in their enthusiasm to hire you; nobody wants a “kill-joy”

People say to me that the culture of nepotism (the “who-you-know” factor) in play during recruitments in most African countries is very high – I don’t deny it exists. But I also believe very genuinely (because I have also experienced it) that if you do your homework well, and perform exceptionally well, in fact so well that your potential employer knows that you have proven yourself beyond a doubt as the best and most suited candidate for the role – believe me, it will be very very hard to exercise nepotism on their part. Even if they did, at least their sleep wouldn’t be so sweet where you are concerned and you can at least hold your head very high.

In terms of Questions at an interview, the easiest and most practical way I have found around preparing is to do this: draw a table with two columns and as many rows. In the first column list down all the most important things (businesses/activities) the organisation does and also the job requirements (i.e. the actual activities or duties that you will be required to do in this role if you are accepted (e.g. to file customer applications orderly on a daily basis, to prepare a bank reconciliation statement at the end of every month, to chase up customers for unpaid loans etc). In the other column, try and match line by line, writing down every activity, experience, skills or anything you have done before or are still doing that makes it possible for you to contribute to or perform the particular business activity or job requirement respectively on each line. Hopefully by the end of this exercise, you should also be able to know if you are (by your own assessment) suited for the role. Let me just say however, that the understanding of most of us when it comes to the word “experience” has to change a little, otherwise, you may wrongfully write yourself off as inexperienced for a lot of jobs. There is such a thing as “transferrable skills”. So although you may be applying for say a job in Banking and finance, there may be many things in the job description that you could do (without further training) as a result of a remotely similar activity you may have done in your old job in a manufacturing company or even at school, even though you have never worked in the Banking and Finance sector before.

Below however, are some things to consider in answering some of the most common interview questions you’ll come across. Enjoy it:

What Are You Bringing To This Organisation?

The easiest way to prepare for this sort of question is to research and find out where the organisation is trying to go, where they are heading, their plans for the future and what they say they need to do to get there. What new activities, business operations, new products, new systems are coming on board. Then ask yourself, what skills or knowledge do you have, that will be needed by the organisation, to reach those goals. Every employer is happy to have employees whose skills or knowledge will help the organisation move into the future. Understand that it’s not all about skill – sometimes, it is also about knowledge. If you are just graduating from university or a professional qualification, you may equally have no skill but more crucially, a certain knowledge that will be a useful ingredient in the potential employer’s future operations – this is your ace card, use it. So remember: try matching the future direction of the organisation, with the skills or knowledge you have which may be good ingredients for that direction – that is what you are bringing to the organisation; an ingredient for their present or future success.

How Did You Find Out About This Role/Job?

This is one of those questions you really can’t lie to, but my suggestion is that if it is possible, decide where you want your career to go – is it auditing, accountancy, consultancy, banking, human resource, development, training etc? Once you have determined that, start looking for jobs in the right places. Employers who want the best HR personnel are more likely to advertise excellent positions in magazines or websites or similar platforms that are subscribed to by HR enthusiasts. And the same applies to other career paths. For some employers, potential employees who read their adverts on these types of platforms appear to them as being more focused and more discerning. They appear to potential employers as people who know where to look for the right things. However, where these kinds of targeted newsletters, magazines, internet sites, platforms don’t exist in your particular country, don’t worry, this question won’t be taking too many marks from you. The other angle to it is this – if you heard about the role from a friend, colleague, family, etc –there is a high chance that you are the kind of person with good human relations and you are good with keeping and managing your contacts – this is a superior skill for any employee to have.

How Long Were You In Your Last Job For And Why Did You Leave?                         

Here again, employers want to fish out those who are unstable from those who are. If you are always leaving your jobs within or up to a year, you are likely to be considered as very unstable. You need to understand the way employers think. Most of them take employees on, use about 6 or so months to teach them about their companies and how things are done, and don’t forget they will be spending money on you all these while. So if you leave within another 6 months, they have just made a loss. Now, potential employers don’t have a way of gauging how long you will stay with them except by looking at how long you have stayed in other places. If you are just seeking a job for the first time or you have left a few places in the past within 1 year, then you’ll need to provide some assurance to the potential employer that you don’t intend to leave their employment anytime soon. But you can’t just say “I’ll be here for a while” – you have to let them see a reason why you would. Maybe you have a personal program to gain as much experience from this particular employer that you can’t find with any organisation (and don’t try to flatter them, because they always know) ; maybe the organisation itself provides an excellent personnel development programme that you want to take full advantage off; maybe you are a family person and you need some stability in your career; maybe you have gained several experiences in other places and now, you only need settling down; maybe they are the only organisation that provide the type of career you want to develop in; or maybe you have other past events in your life that you can use to prove that you are a very committed person (not your girlfriend/boyfriend type of commitment though). Whatever the case give the potential employer a reason to believe s/he won’t be making a loss employing you.

Why Do You Want To Work For This Organisation?

STOP! Don’t open your mouth if what you are about to say is very generic e.g. because you treat your staff well, because you are the leader in the industry; because you are the biggest company. STOP IT! This is the one question that shows clearly, which candidates have thoroughly researched the organisation BUT most importantly who know by themselves whether or not this is the right company for them or not. Here is what you should also know – this question is also an opportunity for you to demonstrate to your employer that you are different from everybody else, because the truth is – everybody else will be giving those generic answers. What the employer is trying to establish with this question is whether or not the organisation also satisfies any of your needs or expectations. This is based on the understanding that no two people can agree to be together and be successful in doing so except they are satisfied with each other – in other words, the organisation must be happy that you’ll satisfy its expectations and you, on the the other hand must also be satisfied that the organisation will satisfy your expectations. Most jobseekers don’t recognize the latter, but it is very true. So how do you prepare for this kind of question? Make a list of the things that would make any job, your most satisfying job (I said satisfying NOT perfect); also list down your future career plans, professional plans, development plans, personal plans that are closely related to your career. Now, find out by researching, if there are things about and within the organisation that will satisfy the needs and expectations you listed. I’m hoping you wouldn’t see this as just a step to getting a job but it should also help you determine whether this is an employment you will be happy in or not. If anything about the organisation (now or its future) conflicts in a major way with your current or future plans, think twice.

Where Do You See Yourself In 5 Years?

This is quite a straightforward question. Nobody knows your future plans like you do. The employer is only trying to see whether your future plans will at any time conflict with their plans - because if it does, you are most likely to leave the organisation. It doesn’t mean however, that you have to change your plans. If you want to increase your chances on this question do this: find out what the future plans of the organisation is and also what it is currently doing on a day to day basis; now figure out what your future plans are for the next 3 years. Now ask yourself one by one ‘if the company did “X” today or “Y” in the future, would it hinder me from achieving item “Z” on my list of plans?’ If the plans of the organisation and its activities today or in the future will affect you in any way, then you need to be thinking twice what you are getting yourself into – one way or another, it will be obvious to a smart interviewer.

The following questions are also commonly asked at interviews. The key to answering them is to think about HOW, WHY, WHEN and the OUTCOME. Try to give specific examples from where you have worked, during your education or from extra-curricular activities.

Initiative:-

Share an incidence that required you to utilise your initiative, what did you do and what was the result?

Dealing with a difficult boss/team member:-

Have you had to deal with difficult people in the past – how did you go about it and what was the result?

Team Working:-

What would you do if a team you were part of was not working well together? 

Prioritising:-

If 3 people came to you with work, all saying that their work was important, how would you prioritize?

Organisation:-
Give us an example of an incidence in which you had to demonstrate your organisational skill

Deadlines:-

Has there ever been an incidence when you didn’t meet a deadline? Why and what would you do differently?

Implementing new systems-

Have you ever implemented a new system, if so what did you do, why and what was the result?

Dealing with people:-

How would you deal with a chief executive? Would this differ from how’d deal with a junior if so why?

Flexibility:-

Give us an example of how you have demonstrated flexibility in the past?

Now, I am not guaranteeing that by reading this article, you will be on your way to becoming the best candidate for a job, no, that’s fantasy. But I am guaranteeing that by reading through this thoroughly you will firstly be more realistic about assessing which jobs you stand a better chance of finding most satisfying and doing much better at their interviews.

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NDC & NPP : the Good, the Bad or The Ugly?

I had an experience many years ago that never left my memory; we all get that once in a while. I was sitting with a friend in an open air restaurant somewhere in Tema and close to me was a table of three, two of whom I recognized to be “big guns” of the National Democratic Party (NDC). A Toyota Landcruiser vehicle then pulled by, its automatic window on the driver side rolled down slowly and a man I know as a senior National Patriotic Party (NPP) politician stuck out his head, slowed down and yelled at the NDC men “mu di abaen sika nu paaa O” literally meaning “you guys are really enjoying the country’s money”. To my not-so-surprizing amazement, all three of them laughed out loud at the insinuation. The eldest of the two NDC men retorted back with hysteric amusement “se, saa na musu mue di bee” which literally translates “of course, just like how you guys also enjoyed it in your time”.  Right then, it dawned on me; first of all, that was my hard-earned money in the form of taxes they were insinuating at and secondly, these politicians came across to me puppet masters and the population, the puppets. If that is the case, then “WOW” what a large population of puppets they have available to play with.

The current events in the political landscape of Ghana raise many many many questions in the minds of many many people. The recent events surrounding the death of the president John E. Atta-Mills (may he R.I.P), before, during and after simply make it obvious that the leaders of the NDC consider the political image and interests of the party a higher priority than anything else including the very life of those in it. I am not saying the NDC killed the ex-president but it’s become very obvious they weren’t interested in doing anything more than “the minimum required” to support the needs and very life of a person of such high national importance. The question every Ghanaian including the so called “party-faithfuls” should be asking is this – “if they don’t care about a president that much, would they care about you the ordinary citizen?” As sad as it sounds, it took the death of the president to expose the total and immovable commitment of the NDC to LIE about everything about the president’s health, all the way to his death. I question many of its members who, after the fateful event are now parading themselves touting how they objected to the lies, how they knew something like this would happen and on and on; one question – did the president have to die before they talked? One thing lingers on my mind – if it took the death of the president for this commitment to lies to be exposed, every Ghanaian should wonder what other evils have transpired of which we may never know. The fact of the matter is this – if a man, or a group of them are so committed to falsehood, even if it means the death of one of their own, I assure you they would do likewise with no hesitation for one who is not their own.

Now, the NPP; Firstly, their recent aggression and blind resolve, to win the presidential elections “AT ALL COSTS” leaves a lot to be feared. It begs the concern – if all they want to do is contribute to the progress of this country, why can’t they do so without necessarily having to be a ruling party? Or is it because their current presidential candidate owes too much debt as a result of the so many failed attempts at the presidency? And if per adventure this was true, and per adventure he also won the presidential election – I wonder whose money will be used to pay those debts. I simply wonder, nothing more.  I didn’t want to, but I had to ask: if a man or a group of them aspiring to be leaders of this country, claim that they are willing to go all out and DIE in the process, in order to be elected into such honourable roles, shouldn’t we all as Ghanaians be asking if we are safe to exercise our freedoms under the leadership of such men? Honestly speaking, it appears if I voted against them, I would also have to taste death. Secondly and just out of curiosity, does every Ashanti bear total allegiance to the Ashanti King? If that is so, would the current presidential flag bearer of the NPP possess the complete independence needed to act properly in the office of president or could he be influenced or be seen to be influenced? I am just asking.

I don’t deny the fact that there are a “few good men and women” left in both the NDC and NPP. For these few, it is their personal choice to remain bonded to a party and people with corrupt natures?” Permit me to borrow the biblical illustration, “what has light got in common with darkness?” I guess it begs the question whether the followers of Ghana’s political parties are being loyal to the virtues and ideologies or to the leaders of such parties. By and large, the basic underlying principles of making life better for all Ghanaians that the NDC and NPP subscribe to have all been eroded by their proven exemplary records to date. In financial auditing, we say a person must not only be independent, but they must be both “independent and seen to be independent”. In other words the two must go together for the principle of independence to be established. In the same manner, Ghana’s two major political parties must “care about this country Ghana, and be seen by Ghanaians to care for this country”. Unfortunately however, Ghanaians have had a taste of both, and none of them is “SEEN” as caring enough about this beloved country. In fact, the experience has been like eating Quinine in the morning and Alafia bitters in the evening.

Ghanaians cannot be fooled, and even if they could, you couldn’t fool them all the time. They know that the essence of party politics is to offer them a greater variety of good, clean and progressive leadership; they know that party politics is not to be used for the current injustices it is being used for – the injustice of knowing that I cannot get what I rightfully deserve, or earn my due wages from my genuine abilities or get equal access to all opportunities, simply because of my political or non-political affiliations. But then again, we are realists: we know corruption and all manner of greed and political wickedness exists in every nation, but then again some nations progress more than others. Why do we have to be reduced to what this nation has been reduced to in spite of all our Oil, our Gold, our timber, our quality human resources, our rich farming land, our bauxite etc. Why?

Our political leaders have a huge hurdle ahead; if they feel the need to restore the trust and confidence we once gave them freely, they need to honour their duties to the citizenry and to demonstrate that they can and are committed to taking this nation forward with no prejudice to ethnicity or political affiliations. They need to show that their overall allegiance is to the good of this country’s future and that no single person or political entity has greater importance than the lives and destinies of all Ghanaians. Or perhaps, to put it as bluntly as a very good friend of mine recently put it – Ghana just needs fresh blood. A fresh breed of posterity and people-centred ideas; Ghana needs fresh blood. A fresh breed of politicians who do not score their points by how much then can embezzle or how many people they can insult; but rather, how many Ghanaian lives they can affect positively for the greater good and what progressive legacies they can leave to posterity.

Ghanaians have a very consistent record of ridding themselves of what does not work for the good of their beloved nation. Many years ago nobody else believed we had a right to sovereign independence – we earned it; then we were told we didn’t have what it took to establish a flourishing democracy – we did; then many, including our very own, thought that as a people, we couldn’t sustain our economic stability and yet in spite of the cancerous corruption and plunder – the hardworking spirit of the Ghanaian people triumphs. So, to some politicians who “think” they and they alone have the rights to satisfy their greedy bellies with the wealth and good of this country, hear this – the people of Ghana are not blind, neither deaf nor incapacitated. Remember, by the people’s own will they opened their arms to embrace you, but with that same will and in that very embrace you could be squeezed to choke – to those with corrupt intentions, remember this.

LEARNING IS OVERRATED. TRY UNLEARNING FIRST

If you had to build a more modern house on a piece of land where a hut currently stands, then common sense says, you need to pull down the hut to build your new mansion. Interestingly, that is a whole lot easier in construction terms than it is mentally. Here is the tough truth:

You are NOT where you want to be because you don’t have the information necessary to get you where you want to be. And as if that isn’t enough, here is another tough truth: you need to “unlearn” what is not working for you in order to learn what will move you forward.

Growing over the years, we have picked up along the way, ideologies, concepts, philosophies, traditions, dogmas, beliefs, principles etc. But with the world changing SO FAST, it is becoming clear you cannot use old techniques to solve modern problems. Or for those who are overly spiritual – you can pour old wine in new wineskins. If you are going to succeed now and in the future, your thinking has got to change; more essentially, you need to UNLEARN the old to embrace the new and here are a few things to unlearn and learn:

EXPERIENCE IS THE BEST TEACHER:

I have often been told I am very blunt; well, here is another me then – Experience is the teacher of fools. Yes, in the past it was difficult accessing experience about anything unless you went through it yourself, but in today’s world there is a lot of other people’s similar experiences available in books, videos, seminars, etc. Almost everything you are about to do these days has already been done and written about by somebody (or even captured on video or some other learning tool). Why then do you have to go through it, make the same mistakes, delay your success as a result, etc.? hey! I am just asking.  I am not saying some experiences are not essential; personal experiences are very important are but what I am saying is that you can enjoy your own experience by drastically reducing the errors you’ll make, the pitfalls you’ll encounter and the time you’ll waste if you choose to learn from other people’s experiences and the solutions and preventions of the likely mistakes you’ll make. You may have also heard several times that you cannot achieve certain levels in your career if you don’t have certain experiences. In the modern world, it is NOT the people who have the experience who are making it big in different fields – it’s the people who can think outside the box and be innovative. Experience is overrated.

FINISH SCHOOL, GET A JOB AND BE SUCCESSFUL

Most of us Africans grew up being taught the stereotype approach to being successful – Go to school, learn hard, get good grades, work for a reputable organisation and then, you’ll be successful. Truth is everything is good up to the end – in the modern world you don’t necessarily need to work for someone to be successful. In the modern world, it is very possible to get people to work for you in order to be successful. Today, entrepreneurs rule the world. People who can sit down, and think solutions to problems - they win. In fact the world is so full of opportunities right now that you only need to look in your own neighbourhood and become a winner. Why do I say that? – Well, the problems springing up in the world are more than the solutions available. As a result, anybody who can sit down, think and CREATE solutions to some of these problems is a winner. So you went to school, studied hard, stayed up late nights to get good grades – and are you going to now hand over your brains to someone else to use to make their money? I can understand that in most of our schooling systems, we have not been taught to be entrepreneurial or to be on the lookout for solutions to problems, but it’s still very easy to train yourself. The next time you receive a service or buy a product that you are very unhappy with, start asking yourself how you could have made it better – it’s called, “scratching your own itch”. Let me sound this warning though. A job is absolutely necessary for some people – people who on their own, cannot be disciplined enough to wake up at 6.00 am if they are not employed. If you can be disciplined by yourself to the same degree that you are disciplined when you had a job, chances are that you will do well being an entrepreneur.

IN THE REAL WORLD, THIS AND THAT IS THAT AND THIS

Listen, next time you hear people say, “in the real world this, in the real world that”, you have to be very careful not to let it get into your head. Have you ever wondered what this “real world” really is? In my own experience and indeed if you have read or heard the stories of most of the world’s successful people, you will notice that when people say “you can’t do this because it won’t work in the real world or its never done this way in the real world”, blah, blah, blah, etc. Most of the time, all they mean to say is that “I don’t understand what you are saying but I can’t let you go ahead with it because I haven’t done it myself yet”. Here is a worrying truth – if you ask most of the people who tell you an idea you have won’t work in the real world whether they have tried it before, I can assure you 90% of them will say “NO.. but”. In fact, the term “in the real world” is simply an excuse for people who simply do not understand what you are doing; and if they don’t, they have no business telling you it won’t work in the real world. Next time it happens ask them “What exactly is the real world?” You’ll be sad to know, “the real world” does exist – it is the world where otherwise brilliant ideas are KILLED. Can you imagine what Mr. Kofi Annan’s friends may have told him, when he said to them he was going to become a UN secretary General someday? Or imagine Steve Job’s telling his friends (may he rest in peace) when he was still a nobody, that he was going to build a billion dollar IT business brand called “APPLE” from a garage. Or imagine one of Africa’s own billionaires, Mike Adenuga telling his childhood friends, “I have started selling sugar to the market women so that I can become a billionaire”. The “Real World” is not a world – it is an excuse for those who can’t do what you want to do.

 “THERE’S NO TIME” IS THE SAME AS “I AM VERY LAZY”

Many of the most successful people in the world started building their business in the evenings after their 9am-5pm jobs. Let’s face it there are only 24 hours in the day for everybody in the world. So the real issue is not that some people magically conjured 79 hours in their days and others still had 24 hours, no – the real issue is what you do in the 24 hours that everybody has. You can’t sleep 6-9 hours in a day and expect to be on the same level as everybody else. “Time” is a very liquid commodity. It must always flow and continue to flow. It never stops flowing. If you don’t spend it on something, it will still be spent on something else and that’s just how it is – it must be spent. Here is the thing, until you start something you wouldn’t know whether there is time available to spend on what you’ve started or not. Before I wrote my first book, I used to think I could never make time to write it – until I started. Then after I started, I realised I could squeeze ten minutes here, another thirty minutes there, and another forty here to get my book written; then I realized it was possible. I didn’t suddenly get 40 hours in each day – No, I made time. I created more time, from the 24 hours I always had. Because you haven’t started anything of your own, you think you still have enough time to watch that favourite TV show for 1 hour, or to talk to that friend of yours for 2 hours or to just check your messages on facebook for 30 minutes, which ends up becoming 3 hours. I talked to a friend of mine recently who had returned back to Africa from England. He said to me, “Charles, you remember that business I said I would start when I return?” “Oh yes yes yes” I responded eagerly, only to be hit back “its been almost 9 months now and I haven’t been able to make time to get it off the ground”. I paused and contemplated how best to say what I really wanted to say without offending him. The rest of the conversation went like this: “how many jobs do you have now Mike?” he answered “one” I paused and then followed up “and how many jobs did you do when you were in the UK?” it was his turn to pause but be braved an answer “two, sometimes three”. I wanted to be sure so I asked “two or three jobs in a day?” he got the drift “Yes” he replied, rather reluctantly. At this point, I didn’t have to say anything further – Time is a finite commodity, but it is the only commodity that gives us the widest range of options we choose to apply it to. So, it is not the hours in a day that make it a scarce commodity, it’s what we use it for that define its sufficiency.

HARDWORK WILL ALWAYS PAY OFF

Yes, hardwork will always pay you off by breaking your back. How about working smarter rather than harder to achieve the same results? The working hard is not the same as being very committed. And working smart is also not the same as producing substandard results in shorter time. Working smart is about being innovative and inventive. It is about always asking the question “can this be done in a better way? Being the last to leave the office and the first to come in doesn’t make you the best – in fact it only makes you very tired and full of unnecessary mistakes. Working hard is generally an excuse not to think out new and better ways of doing things; it’s an excuse not to embrace progressive change. Working smart is the new working hard.

7 INTERVIEW QUESTIONS TO GET BEST CANDIDATES

I like asking questions. It’s one of only three things I am very good at, so believe me when I say there are some questions that make people think twice before they tell the truth and thrice before they lie. Asking questions got me into the audit profession, then the forensic accounting profession. It led me into philosophy and better still; it is what gives me a 90% success rate in the calibre of people I recruit. Here, I share 7 very simple questions which impact on how you conduct interviews. In fact, you may have come across all the questions before, but understanding how the answer to them affects a decision about a candidate is what makes all the difference.

You do need to remember that recruitment can be a very expensive exercise and so an effort needs to be made to make it as successful as possible. Although there are new fancy approaches to recruitment such as aptitude tests, behavioural and cognitive based interviews etc., I still maintain that a one-on-one interview still gives a lot about a candidate you are looking to recruit. Remember, the recruitment is for the organisation, not for you. There are times I’ve had to recruit people who personally didn’t come across to me as likeable, yet they were perfect for the organisation and where it was heading.

The two important things to always look out for in any interview are Culture and Expectation congruency. Every organisation has its own culture and its own expectations – and so does every potential candidate that you interview. The whole objective of an interview process is to try and answer the two basic questions (a) does the organisation’s culture and that of the candidate make a good fit? (b) Do the organisation and candidate’s expectations conflict or align? Anything more than this – you are not running an interview.

What Are You Bringing To This Organisation?

This is the one question that will make a lot of candidates feel deflated or defeated. Interestingly however, it is the one question that will enable you as interviewer see the candidate’s confidence and their ability to demonstrate a clear understanding of who you are looking for in the the role. When you start hearing generic answers like “I am hardworking” or “I am a team player” etc., then recognize the candidate either doesn’t know what it is you are looking for or hasn’t carefully assessed what s/he is capable of offering in the role, should they get it. It is a question that will also test the candidate’s ability to demonstrate that their past experiences are usable in the organisation’s current state, or if s/he is dynamic and understands trends in business, they may further highlight their skills, experiences etc. which may not be useful now but soon will be in the future. Finally, it tells you point-blank if the candidate can sell convincingly. Being able to sell is entirely different from being a sales person. If they can sell themselves, they can sell anything. It also shows persuasion skills.

How Did You Find Out About This Role/Job?

This question is quite deceptive. To the candidate, it is a straightforward question and nothing to lie about (no sense in doing so), but to the interviewer it provides tremendous insight. Depending also on where you advertised, a candidate who learnt about the job by word of mouth or in social circles or through colleagues are likely to have strong relationship building skills; learning from a niche publication such as an industry specific magazine rather than a widely public newspaper may indicate that s/he is very discerning or focused; on the other hand any indication that it was referred to them by someone in the organisation is likely to mean that they have already been investigating the organisation or at least have been talking to someone about it.

How Long Were You In Your Last Job For And Why Did You Leave?     

We all know this question. But I must warn you not to make a decision based on one of the two. Always make a decision based on both. If the candidate has left all their previous jobs under say two years and mostly because of conflict with someone, then surely you need to ask more questions because all those people can’t be so impossible to work with. It is also a question you must be sure to request specific answers to and not the general well-known answers such as; “I was looking for better opportunities” – well then, what opportunities were they looking for that their former employer didn’t provide? Chances are that your organisation may also not provide it.

What Is It About This Organisation That Attracted You?

This question will help you pick up a few things; firstly whether the candidate by themselves has assessed the culture of the organisation as matching their personal culture and for which reason they want to be there. It will also tell you whether they have at all done any work trying to understand your organisation or that they are just looking for somewhere to work for now; you will also be able to find out by asking this question what are the areas and parameters on which the candidates feel connected to the organisation – and if any of those parameters happen to be your organisation’s top cultures or values or principles, then you can be sure, with some degree of certainty, the candidate will feel more at home there.

 Where Do You See Yourself In 5 Years?

This question should really answer two concerns for any employer – (a) is the candidate likely to stick around in employment long enough for me to recoup my initial investments in them? (b) is our organisation in the picture of his/her future, and if not, what shall we do? As an employer, you have the unique advantage of knowing what the organisation’s plan for the future are, where you are heading, how you want to get there etc.; the candidate doesn’t. For this reason, it is easier for you to take whatever the candidate says and assess whether his/her plans for the next 5 years fall close or at least parallel to those of the organisation. What you shouldn’t attempt to do is to employ a candidate and then get him/her (by whatever means) to readjust their future plans to fit the direction of the organisation simply because s/he has passed on all the other interview questions except this one; or merely because you have taken to liking him/her. Don’t do it.

 What Has Been Your Most Recent Achievement And When Was It?

Achievers (if they ever become achievers) live literally on achievements no matter how small or big. That’s how you tell the difference between those who merely claim to be achievers and those who are actual achievers – the latter always have something to back it. There’s another angle to it – whether small or big, achievers still recognize what an achievement is. Non-achievers on the other hand, even when they do achieve, don’t recognize it as such. Every organisation sets out to be successful; to accumulate achievements. If such an organisation is intent on continuing in its success, it will do the wise thing of making successes or achievements part of its culture. What you want in a candidate is someone, who also has a well-developed or even budding personal culture of achievements and successes, no matter how small. Following on, if you recruit a candidate who cannot identify his own personal achievements (even though they may have a few) – you can be sure they may find it hard identifying with team or organisational successes.

What Was The Last Thing You Failed In And How Did You Take It?

Fact about business is that things don’t always go as planned – not always. Unfortunately however, not everybody can deal with failure. And for people like that, it not only takes a long while to shake off the failure and move on to the next stage (mind you, business doesn’t sit and wait for you to recover), it is also contagious. With this question, you can attempt to peek into the candidate’s tendency towards failure – do they learn their lesson from the failure, dust themselves and face the next music or do they lie there in the mud of failure, throw a tantrum and pull everybody else with them into the mud? It will also give you some insight into the candidate’s attitude to risk. Is s/he a risk taker at all? S/he doesn’t need to be the type who is happy taking all the risk in the world (that in itself is very dangerous) but they must be at least appear to be willing to take some risk – if not, you can be sure s/he is not the kind of candidate you should expect to help the organisation find, explore or try new opportunities – remember, opportunities in business have to be sought for and it takes some minimum risk of wanting to get out of one’s comfort zone in search of new ways of doing things.

Conclusion

It will be hypocrisy on my part to claim that these questions are full-prof to land the best and most excellent candidates 100% every time. None such exists. But I am certain that helping you understand why you should ask such questions helps get the best out of an interview process. All the best with your next interview.