HANDY HINTS—RECRUITMENT INTERVIEWING AND NEGOTIATION

Recruitment, interviewing, and negotiation are subjects in their own right that have numerous elements and factors to consider to be conducted successfully. While there are no specific deceit clues that only occur during interviews and negotiation, this Handy Hints section deals with some techniques that assist in identifying deceit in these situations. While the job applicant and the negotiator may come to the table from differing perspectives and also have a different relationship with you—the former usually the lesser of the two—there are certain tactics applicable to both that may assist you in identifying deceit. For this reason, I’ve included them in this Handy Hints section. Remember to always apply the MAGIC Model.

Nervous is Normal: We have discussed several deceit clues, some of which become more prevalent when a person is nervous, such as dry lips, closed body posture, and deep swallowing. Under normal circumstances when these types of clues are revealed during the Guilt Questioning phase, they indicate deceit. The situation of the negotiator and the interviewee is slightly different, as both may commence their interaction with you already in a nervous state, and then relax as the process continues. As such, if you apply the MAGIC Model from the outset, your Control Questions may be asked of a nervous person, and you will observe this baseline behavior as being truthful. By the time you move to asking your Guilt Questions, the person may feel more comfortable in the environment and appear to be answering truthfully, when in fact the person is not. The best way to counteract this situation is to take your time. Acknowledge the person may be nervous, and allow some time to settle. There is plenty of time during negotiations and interviews to identify deceit, but to do so more accurately, it is critical to establish a reliable and truthful baseline. To help the person settle, ask simple questions or discuss matters off the topic you intend to ask—talk about the weather, traffic, or coffee. Once the person has settled, commence your Control Questions and establish a reliable baseline from which you may then identify deceit clues during the Guilt Questioning.

Setting the Environment: During interviews and negotiations, there are some environmental factors that you can utilize to your advantage that will assist you in identifying deceit. You may recall from earlier in the book that due to the Sympathetic Nervous Response (the “fight or flight” reaction), liars naturally want to move their bodies more, such as adjusting their seating position or moving their legs and tapping their fingers. Therefore, liars will attempt to control or hide these movements as a counter-strategy (Cognitive Response) to disguise guilt. This being the case, you can “counter this counter-strategy” by making it harder for them to hide guilty movements. The following are some simple and effective measures that make it more difficult to hide guilty movements: arranging for the other party to sit on a swivel chair; having their chair positioned slightly lower than yours; arranging the office so you can observe their lower body movements (remembering that less conductive channels are harder for liars to control—feet and toes fall into this category); and having items on the desk they may easily choose to pick up, such as a pen or eraser. All of these measures are aimed at providing them with as much freedom of movement as possible. This way when you are asking your Guilt Questions, such as, “Were you fired from your last job?” or, “Is that the highest offer your company can make?” and the person lies, the guilty movements will be amplified, making them easier for you to spot.

Text-bridging and Distraction: As mentioned earlier in the book, text-bridging is a process where a person simply “glosses over” parts of a story which, if told in more detail, would expose a lie. Sometimes during interviews and negotiations, text-bridging is followed directly by a distraction aimed at diverting a person’s attention away from the area that has been avoided by the deceiver. When an interviewee or negotiator does this, it indicates a weakness and is cause for further exploration of the details you may wish to explore more fully, because something is probably being hidden from you. It may be a gap in the person’s employment history, or in the case of a negotiator it may indicate a vulnerability in the capacity to deliver a certain outcome or timeframe.

An example: Applicant for Magee’s Gym.

Interviewer: “Could you please outline your recent work experience?”

Interviewee: “I worked for thirteen months at Woodgate’s Gym and Fitness Center, where I ran all the aerobic classes and circuit training for three days of the week. On the other days, I assisted with administration, so I have good experience in both areas of the business. After they closed the gym, I worked at Ashby’s Gym for a while, and now I’m really keen to get started at Magee’s Gym in any area you need help in—administration, instruction, personal training. I’m a very motivated person.”

Can you identify the area this person doesn’t want examined—where has the person text-bridged, and is there a subtle distraction? When you read the answer, you notice there is a great deal of detail around the applicant’s time at Woodgate’s Gym and Fitness Center, then the information becomes vague around Ashby’s Gym (text-bridge). Right after, the details increase again (the distraction) when the applicant speaks of the new job. I would advise the interviewer to ask more questions about Ashby’s Gym, or perhaps phone them for a reference.

A similar example can occur during a negotiation process, where the other party glosses over a particular aspect and/or attempts to distract you from some aspect of the deal, so be alert to these techniques—they’re a warning sign for you. Text-bridging and distraction alone don’t indicate deceit, but knowing what they are makes it easier to identify places where you should increase your focus.

Friendly, Friendly, Hard Technique: Asking the right questions during interviews and negotiations is one critical factor towards achieving a successful outcome. To assist in identifying deceit during these processes, a good technique is to ask a question that unexpectedly puts the other person on the spot. When this occurs, truthful people recover quickly; liars on the other hand will have that “deer caught in the headlights” look and leak deceit clues as they stumble with a verbal response—due to the sudden increase in cognitive load. To maximize the impact of these questions, timing becomes important. I employ a “friendly, friendly, hard” approach. This approach leads people down a “friendly” path, disarming them, and then all of a sudden the “hard” question is thrown at them. For truthful people, this is no problem, as they simply default back to truthful information they already have. For liars, they need to very quickly invent information that, due to the friendly path they have been walked down, they have not had time to prepare. This will cause the liar to leak more obvious deceit clues. For added impact, when you ask the hard question, lock your eyes directly onto the person it is aimed at.

An important thing to remember when you use this technique is to avoid asking a double-barrelled hard question; in other words, one that is made up of two parts. These types of questions give people a choice as to which part of the question they can answer, and with hard questions, you do not want to make this option available to them. An example of a doubled-barrelled question: “Is this your best price, and is the product good quality?” In response to this, the person can reply by talking about the quality of the product, but avoid answering a direct question about price.

“Friendly, Friendly, Hard” example:

Q: “If we agree to purchase these, you can deliver them on time?”

A: “Yes.”

Q: “You’ve been providing these for several years?”

A: “Yes.”

Q: “And there’s good after-sales service?”

A: “Yes.”

Q: “And your best price is $1200?”

A: “Yes.”

Q: “Why can’t you make the price cheaper?” (Single-barrel, hard question)

The final question will force the person to either answer truthfully, or quickly invent, reasons to substantiate the price. It may make honest people uncomfortable but they’ll recover quickly. For the liar, it will take some considerable mental effort and time to regain composure, and unless the person has practiced this lie often in the past, he or she will be swimming in deceit clues.

A Final Note: Regardless of whether you are interviewing a senior executive or a laborer, negotiating a deal on a washing machine or a multimillion-dollar contract, the successful detection of deceit can save you both money and heartache. As there are no specific deceit clues that only occur during interviews and negotiations, in order to safeguard your interests from deceit as often and effectively as possible, I recommend reading this entire book and then combining the suggestions in the Handy Hints pages with the process of the MAGIC Model.