Question
How do you gauge communication skills in an interview?
Answer
I find it far more useful to think in terms of thinking skills rather than comm. skills, but there are things to look out for that suggest a sophisticated communicator (which always arises from sophisticated thinking). It is very hard to fake these things below:
1. Referring back to something said more than 10 minutes ago in a relevant way: conversational memory shows an ability to maintain a sense of developing context as opposed to reacting only to the last question. But it takes skill to actually use older things in a relevant way. Hard to fake.
2. Ability to quote the other person exactly in a different relevant context. This is the core of strong LISTENING skills. If you use your interlocutor's own concepts and frames to influence him/her...shows sophistication. Look for phrases like "as you said, 'rabbits are more likely to use cellphones' so I'd apply the same principle here."
3. Separating a question. Try asking a deliberately ambiguous and confused question and see if the person takes the natural step of separating it into logical pieces. Key phrase, "I think there are 2 different issues here..."
4. Pauses and reframings: if the person sometimes says "give me a minute here to think" that's a good sign. If the person reframes something that's another good sign. For example if you ask about "what would your mobile strategy be?" and the person says "you can't think of mobile independently of a SaaS component" that's an example of a reframing. Both pauses and reframings reveal active thinking.
5. Basics of rhetoric: look for logos, ethos, pathos. Not just logos. Ask a question with an implied moral dimension (in s/w, open source is a good topic) and see if a moral view is elegantly woven in. Ask a question about passion, competitiveness or compassion and collegiality. Look for appropriate emotional affect.
6. Test of understanding and clarification: if you ask a complex question and the person says "let me make sure I understand that" and restates your question accurately and hopefully better, that's a very good sign. But too much asking for clarification shows timidity and lack of imagination.
7. Consciously controlling the LENGTH of an answer either through qualifications like "well that's a long answer, but here's the short version..." or asking you to narrow the scope.
8. Testing for YOUR comprehension: "Did I answer your question?" This one can easily be faked though, since many have been coached to ask this, and it is possible to ask without thinking... so a more subtle way to get at this is to ask a question that needs a long answer and to look for intermediate checks. If you want to be manipulative, you can actually exhibit body language that shows impatience/boredom/"you're drifting" etc... if the person is paying attention and has confidence, they'll stop and ask "Looks like that's not quite what you were looking for...?" or something.
9. Ask a question you KNOW is outside their skill/knowledge. See if they are able to gracefully admit they don't know or whether they try to bluster through.
There are many more such signs... I could go on and on. That's where it gets to (as you rightly suspect) "intuition honed by experience" (see, I quoted you!) but if too much of this short list is surprising to YOU, then your own communication skills need work before you can test for them in others.
And yes... you can design an interview with all sorts of bait to test for all these things deliberately. You need to be a good actor. But if possible, just take the questions you already want to ask, and tweak them to also trigger these comm. behavior symptoms.
And make sure you ask for a writing sample. One way to do that indirectly is to ask a follow-up question or two on email.
One mistake to avoid: do NOT mistake extroversion, confident voice, clear enunciation and bubbly enthusiasm for communication skills. People who show these traits all the time typically can't think at all. Truly strong communicators will modulate their confidence based on actual knowledge, exhibit doubt when faced with complexity, and not bluster. They'll hem and haw on occasion, think out loud, backtrack etc. etc. Look for "live thinking on display" rather than a polished "performance."
1. Referring back to something said more than 10 minutes ago in a relevant way: conversational memory shows an ability to maintain a sense of developing context as opposed to reacting only to the last question. But it takes skill to actually use older things in a relevant way. Hard to fake.
2. Ability to quote the other person exactly in a different relevant context. This is the core of strong LISTENING skills. If you use your interlocutor's own concepts and frames to influence him/her...shows sophistication. Look for phrases like "as you said, 'rabbits are more likely to use cellphones' so I'd apply the same principle here."
3. Separating a question. Try asking a deliberately ambiguous and confused question and see if the person takes the natural step of separating it into logical pieces. Key phrase, "I think there are 2 different issues here..."
4. Pauses and reframings: if the person sometimes says "give me a minute here to think" that's a good sign. If the person reframes something that's another good sign. For example if you ask about "what would your mobile strategy be?" and the person says "you can't think of mobile independently of a SaaS component" that's an example of a reframing. Both pauses and reframings reveal active thinking.
5. Basics of rhetoric: look for logos, ethos, pathos. Not just logos. Ask a question with an implied moral dimension (in s/w, open source is a good topic) and see if a moral view is elegantly woven in. Ask a question about passion, competitiveness or compassion and collegiality. Look for appropriate emotional affect.
6. Test of understanding and clarification: if you ask a complex question and the person says "let me make sure I understand that" and restates your question accurately and hopefully better, that's a very good sign. But too much asking for clarification shows timidity and lack of imagination.
7. Consciously controlling the LENGTH of an answer either through qualifications like "well that's a long answer, but here's the short version..." or asking you to narrow the scope.
8. Testing for YOUR comprehension: "Did I answer your question?" This one can easily be faked though, since many have been coached to ask this, and it is possible to ask without thinking... so a more subtle way to get at this is to ask a question that needs a long answer and to look for intermediate checks. If you want to be manipulative, you can actually exhibit body language that shows impatience/boredom/"you're drifting" etc... if the person is paying attention and has confidence, they'll stop and ask "Looks like that's not quite what you were looking for...?" or something.
9. Ask a question you KNOW is outside their skill/knowledge. See if they are able to gracefully admit they don't know or whether they try to bluster through.
There are many more such signs... I could go on and on. That's where it gets to (as you rightly suspect) "intuition honed by experience" (see, I quoted you!) but if too much of this short list is surprising to YOU, then your own communication skills need work before you can test for them in others.
And yes... you can design an interview with all sorts of bait to test for all these things deliberately. You need to be a good actor. But if possible, just take the questions you already want to ask, and tweak them to also trigger these comm. behavior symptoms.
And make sure you ask for a writing sample. One way to do that indirectly is to ask a follow-up question or two on email.
One mistake to avoid: do NOT mistake extroversion, confident voice, clear enunciation and bubbly enthusiasm for communication skills. People who show these traits all the time typically can't think at all. Truly strong communicators will modulate their confidence based on actual knowledge, exhibit doubt when faced with complexity, and not bluster. They'll hem and haw on occasion, think out loud, backtrack etc. etc. Look for "live thinking on display" rather than a polished "performance."