You are now seeing just how much is happening in the interview process. It is important that you continuously draw your thoughts together as you go through the interview to properly respond and direct your questions.

What is your first impression of the candidate?

You should be observing the candidate's behavior from the moment you meet. Use the Four Tens prompts to think what is creating that initial impression. You know from your own experience as a candidate at interviews how to create a good first impression. Now you are the interviewer; how does the candidate present himself or herself? Have they made a special effort for you? Does the amount of effort taken equate to their interest in the job? Do you immediately feel inclined to trust this person to do their best for you? Be alert to these feelings and seek to understand their causation during the interview.

Bear in mind the job requirements. Not every job requires face-to-face interaction. If you are interviewing for a salesperson who visits potential clients, then the Four Tens are essential, whereas a friendly manner may be sufficient for a telesales person.

However, you need to be alert to bias here. Columbia University reports that one third more female musicians are appointed if the auditions are done from behind a screen so the panel cannot see the musician. Racial bias effects are greater and justified by doubts about qualifications and communication difficulty.

Be aware of your first impressions and potential bias. It is your job to find a good candidate, and bias reduces the available pool of talent and is usually illegal and irresponsible.

You may have heard interviewers say something like "I knew she was right for us the moment I saw her," or, "I could tell he was one of us instantly." That is because the interviewer was positively affected by the candidate's first impression. This is usually because the candidate is similar in some way to the interviewer. Equally, interviewers adopt negative first impressions when the candidate resembles someone they don't like.

Managers, experienced and inexperienced, make this mistake, but we can make sure you do not. You will be alert to the possibility and are going to choose the best candidate on the basis of their answers to the questions.

If you are aware of your own feelings toward the candidate, you can avoid this mistake. Now you have three things to do at once! You have to manage the interview, observe the candidate, and be aware of yourself too.

To enhance your skills, you are going to learn about two methods to structure your observations. The first is neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), which has developed models (Bandler, Grinder, and others) of how a person's thinking style affects their eye movements.

Secondly, we explore the use of body mirroring as a communication channel.

Eye cues need to be used with conversational clues to make a reliable judgment. Eye cues alone are not reliable evidence and, in any case, eye movement patterns can change with cultural differences.

Eye cues suggest preferred thinking and sensory styles. As an example, a person with a preferred visual style is less likely to be suitable for a telephone-based job. If you, as an interviewer, observe a sensory style that is inappropriate to the job, then you need to explore this in more detail. You will do this through the interview questions.

The eye cues that follow are for right-handed individuals. In your observations of the candidate, do you think they are right- or left-handed? Which hand do they use for writing or holding papers? Which is their active hand?

To understand why this can be important, we need to go back 2,000 years to the Latin language.

The Latin for left-handed is sinister, while for right-handed it is dexter. Approximately 10 percent of people are left-handed, and research suggests their brains are different and their manual skill is above the average. Yet, right-handed people are dexterous!

You will see in the eye cues why left-handed people were felt to be odd. Left-handers look left and right when right-handers look right and left.

The first two eye cues are looking up and to the left or right. A right-handed person looking up and to the right is probably imagining a scene, while looking up and left suggests a remembered scene. If you ask the candidate to describe a time they demonstrated a skill and they look up and to their right, this suggests they are imagining it not remembering it. How would you score a candidate who has to imagine the answer to your question? A left-handed person will usually send this misleading eye cue. They appear deceitful.

Don't make that mistake; be aware of the candidate's handedness:

The first eye cue suggests the person is making a picture in their mind and may be accompanied by a statement such as "I can see myself doing that". This form of imagery is a constructed image as opposed to a memory, and the person may appear in the image themselves.

If you have asked the candidate whether they can see themselves in the new job, this would be a good sign they are imagining the scene. It could also suggest a creative mind with an ability to construct pictures of how things could be done. In your questioning, you need to look for confirmation of what the eye cues are signaling:

This eye position suggests the person is recalling a real image. A typical comment would be "I see what you mean," or, "I see how that could work." A candidate showing this eye cue is likely to be telling the truth. You will need to make an assessment of the truthfulness from the words alone first. If you feel the words are false and contradict the eye cue it is possible the candidate is trying to mislead you. Not to worry, as only the most accomplished actor would be able to make a false impression through a complete interview. Careful observation will allow you to decide on a candidate's truthfulness.

"The eyes ahead defocused look" could be either type of visual sensory preference. You should be able to determine which one it is by listening carefully as described previously. Be careful when questioning people displaying this eye cue. They may not hear what you say! Let them come back to focusing on you before asking more questions. People who drift off into this inner contemplation for more than a second or two may not fit your skill specification. You wouldn't hire a cabdriver who had this tendency!

The next three eye positions all relate to a preference for audio communication. You must talk to this person to communicate instead of "showing" them a picture or letting them "feel" their way into a situation.

Typical responses would be "I hear what you say," or, "I like the sound of that." People with this preference are not so good with visual information, but they are good at conversations with customers and colleagues. They are likely to be very comfortable using the telephone. All abilities are relative of course. You will need to explore through questions, the range of ability across each sensory style that is relevant to the job:

The last two eye cues indicate a physical, action-centered style. This style is about touch, physical feeling, and also emotion. Typically, this person will want, in fact need, to be in the center of the action dealing with physical things personally.

A person with this thinking style may say "I can grasp that idea," or, "That idea appeals to me."

You may want this person on the front desk dealing with people face to face and getting things moving. They would not be too comfortable on the telephone or dealing with visual data representations. Always use your questions to test the cues from the eyes. You would make a mistake if you put an action-centric person in a job requiring a lot of administration skills. If the eye cues suggest a tendency, then explore that fully with questions.

This style makes the person seem very confident, bold, and action-oriented. This may be the case, but check what the words say. Don't be overawed by these action power phrases! They are the easiest to learn! People who are confident and bold will have good answers to your questions that show their approach to life.

These eye cues may be fleeting, so you need to be very observant without staring and discomforting the candidate.

Don't forget to confirm your observation from the candidate's words. Don't be influenced by the words or the eye cues until you have decided they are honest.

Some candidates may exhibit more than one style of eye cue. They may be a rare, well balanced individual able to choose the most appropriate sensory style, like an accomplished actor. Alternatively, they may be faking eye cues to distract you. You will usually be discomforted by this as the answers and the eye cues will be mismatched. People are very sensitive to eye cues.

If the candidate is able enough to fake the eye cues, you should be able to detect this using the next observation technique.

The basic principle of body mirroring is that in conversation, people who like and agree with each other adopt broadly similar, but mirrored, body positions.

To an extent, body mirroring can steer a conversation, reinforce agreement, or display disagreement. You need to be aware of this non-verbal communication to assess and understand what is being communicated.

This is a very effective way of communicating rapport, trust, and friendliness. As the interviewer responsible for judging the candidate, you have to be aware of this communication channel to be able to assess the content. You will then be in a position to weigh the non-verbal communication along with the candidate's answers. You can then decide if it all makes sense as a whole or if there are follow up questions needed to probe more specific abilities and characteristics. It is worth repeating that a candidate with good rapport building skills will tend to score higher in the interview. I want you to be aware of this possibility and to assess the answers to the interview questions without the bias that good rapport engenders. Equally, bad rapport has a negative influence of which you should be aware.

Body mirroring is a powerful non-verbal communication. For example, people in conversation will adopt a mirrored bend of the head: one to the left and one to the right. Another example would be how you rest your hands: clasped on the desk, one in your lap, or whatever. The actual position does not matter; it is the mirroring action that speaks volumes.

Ask yourself if the candidate is actively managing the mirroring process. If you change your pose, does he or she quickly follow?

The candidate may become slightly uncomfortable during the interview. If so, what happens to the mirroring? A break in the mirroring signals disagreement. However, if the candidate is uncomfortable and mirrors the interviewer closely, that is unnatural. This would suggest the candidate is trying to manipulate the interview. As explained previously, people with good rapport building skills can get away with anything! President Clinton is a great example. He is revered by many despite his wayward behavior and impeachment over the Lewinsky affair.

However, you cannot take an observation of seemingly unnatural mirroring as proof of manipulation. Instead, this should alert the interviewers to this possibility and cause them to review their observations and assessment of the candidate's honesty. Ask yourself why the candidate is seemingly manipulating the panel. Is there something being hidden? Alternatively, is the candidate naturally open, friendly, and do they show interest in you? These are the building blocks of rapport. If the job you are filling needs these skills, you may just have found your ideal candidate!

Eye cues, body mirroring, appearance, and speech are what you must use to judge the candidate. You have to be aware of the non-verbal, as well as the verbal, communication to be able to weigh it all to be an effective judge.

Mistakes are possible though! Mostly, my managers recruited young people, and we had a well-proven interview, initial training, and probationary period before awarding a permanent contract (the local laws made this possible). A perfect new employee worked diligently until he was appointed to a permanent position. He immediately changed his behavior that day, complaining about instructions, refusing work, and seeking redress up the management hierarchy. We asked if he had a twin brother; the transformation was so complete. We then had to go through the disciplinary procedure to dismiss him.

You may make mistakes, but learn from them and remember that most people are honest. We have one final point to cover before moving on to the next chapter and the interview questions.

The candidate wants to make the best impression on you and be offered the job. Understand that this is a buying and selling process. You will need to have your eyes and ears wide open at the interview, absorbing every nuance of the candidate's words, body language, and behavior.

Thorough preparation is the only way to develop the competence that allows you to concentrate on the candidate rather than the interview process details.

To make sure you have completed every step, please work through the checklist in the following section. Identify anything you feel needs more work.

We have worked through a lot of material in this chapter. You can overcome much of your inexperience by carefully understanding and practicing what you have learned. You will be able to gain experience using these skills outside of the interview room. This will leave you as fully prepared as we can make you with these skills.

You need to be able to answer "yes" to the following questions:

If you can, you should now feel that you can start an interview and settle the candidate with confidence.