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To create a fair and just climate for your team, commit to doing the following consistently and visibly.

1. Express your sincere concern for your employees when you share decisions that affect them.
2. Show your compassion for any unfavorable circumstances that will result from a decision.
3. Check in with your staff regarding their reactions to decisions that affect them.

When difficult decisions must be made, you should show your genuine concern and emotional investment in the experience of those affected by each decision. Leaders who show concern for the impact of decisions on their employees quickly become the ones everyone wants to work with. Managers who care about the experience of their employees are the managers people will want to have on their side not only when things get tricky but also on a daily basis.

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The Top 5 Job Interview Questions You Need to Be Ready For

One of the best ways to find interviewing success is through preparation. It's as simple as that.

Having a good answer to these questions can dramatically boost your chances of landing the job.

There's a set of five questions you'll commonly hear in interviews. You may not always hear all five, but you usually will get some of these questions.

If you have a really strong answer to these questions, it can dramatically boost your chances of doing well in the interview and landing the job.

Here are the top 5:

1. Why do you want this job?

Are you motivated by the company's mission? Are you excited about their vision? Do you feel like you could help them grow exponentially?
Don't give a fluff answer here. Show depth, thoughtfulness, and passion.
Most importantly, be authentic.

Here are some possibilities you can explore:

1. You believe in the mission.
2. You believe you can make a huge impact.
3. You believe you'll be able to grow and learn in the role.
You get the idea. Understand your why.

2. What motivates you?

I ask this question to try to find out what people really care about.
Are your motivations driven by...
1. ...financial goals?
2. ...career growth?
3. ...personal development?
4. ...work environment and culture?

The list goes on and on.

3. How would you make an impact at the company?

If you've done your research on the company, its product and services, and the role you're interviewing for, you should be able to articulate how you'll make an impact on the company.
For example:
1. Sales: "Here's my 90-day plan for how I'd help grow sales by 50%."
2. Engineering: "Here's a presentation on how I'd help deploy innovative new features. I came up with a new feature that we can implement in the app that could increase user acquisition by 25%."

3. Marketing: "I've created a content-marketing strategy that could help increase inbound leads by 33%."

4. How do you handle adversity?

What often differentiates a great hire from a good hire are a positive attitude and perseverance.
Practice sharing a great story on how you overcame adversity.
Think of a challenging situation you had at work and learn to tell the story of how you rose to the occasion.

5. What are your questions?

This part is critical.

Remember, an interview is also a chance for you to interview the company. Make sure you have a list of questions prepared for them to show you're genuinely interested in the role and have done the research in advance as well.

Here are some examples:

1. "What is leadership like at the company?" This will give you a sense for the values and culture of the company, since it often proliferates from the top down.
2. "How well is the company doing?" Ask about revenue, profitability, and year-over-year growth.
The exception to this is if it's a public company. If it is, look up the financial statements in advance.
3. "What career growth opportunities do you see for this role?" This shows you're ambitious and want to grow with the company.

Why The Hiring Manager Threw Out Your Résumé

So often it seems like when you submit a résumé to a company, either via email or an online application, it's like sending it into a black hole.

You apply, and you get a response 30 seconds later saying, "Thanks for applying," and that's that. You never hear anything again.

What's happening? You worked so hard to make a good first impression—but maybe you're doing all the wrong things.
Your résumé is getting thrown out and here's why.

You Applied for a Job You're Not Even Remotely Qualified For:

We all complain about online application processes that are tedious and annoying, but that doesn't stop people from applying for jobs they aren't qualified for.

Sure, there are some times you should apply for a job that is a stretch, but a small stretch and not something you would never be considered for.

It's not harmless either. If you apply for jobs you're not qualified for at a company; the recruiter won't consider you for jobs you are qualified for.

He'll know you don't want this job, you just want a job. Don't waste your time.

Your Résumé Is in the Wrong Format:

I'm not talking about using bullet points or not. I'm talking about instructions that say to submit as a PDF and you go ahead and send in an Ms Word document.

It's a little thing, but résumés are entered into systems and if you send it in the wrong format, that requires the recruiter to change it to the proper format, well, forget that.

Your Résumé Focuses on Style Rather Than Substance:

You've probably seen cool designer résumés on the internet, and I don't deny that some of them look super awesome.

However, résumés are functional documents. Most recruiters spend less than a minute before deciding whether to pursue you further or hit delete.

They aren't interested in trying to decipher a résumé written in a spiral or trying to put together your career progression from an infographic.

The right format for a résumé is a reverse historical explanation of your accomplishments at each job. Dates and titles and company names are important. Make it readable, but not fancy.
You Didn't Proofread

Most people will ignore a single typo, or maybe a comma splice. After all, most recruiters and hiring managers don't know how to diagram sentences any more than you do.

But, when you have terrible grammar, and misspellings, and you use "their" when you mean "there" it shows you're sloppy. No one wants to hire someone sloppy.

Have someone proofread your résumé first and run it through a grammar checker to catch the little things. It's worth the time.

You Use Fancy-Shmancy language:

Of course you want to show you're brilliant. That's the purpose of the document. You don't do this by using words normal people don't use.

You do this by talking about the great things you've accomplished. Use plain language and be clear about what you've accomplished.

You Lied:

Here's the thing: recruiters see a ton of résumés. Most of the time, they can spot an exaggeration from a mile away. An outright lie? Busted.

They won't bother to email you and tell you that they think you're lying; you'll just get silently rejected. Yes, talk about your successes and not your failures, but be honest.

If you've been unemployed, don't say you were a consultant unless you actually had some clients and did real work.

You Are Annoying:

Your friend, and maybe even your significant other, told you to be proactive and to "call the recruiter to let him know you're interested in the job."

That might have been great advice in 1983, but it's terrible advice for today. Let me give you a tip: the recruiter knows you are interested in the job because you applied.

He doesn't need you to call and tell him. He’ll contact you if he's interested. Most recruiters are super busy and are juggling numerous positions and a zillion candidates.

He doesn't have time to speak to everyone. Once you've had an interview, then you can follow up, but until then, don't annoy the recruiter, or you'll be eliminated from consideration.

You Tried to Be Creative (In a Bad Way):

Please don't send a shoe with a note saying, "I just want to get my foot in the door." In Nigeria, pictures are not appropriate. They are in many other countries, but not even in the United States.

Don't send the recruiter flowers or a pizza or even chocolate. Yes, people will remember you, but not in a good way.

You Included Inappropriate Information:

What is inappropriate information? Ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, and anything else controversial.

Now that controversial thing is sometimes necessary if you held a job at a controversial organization, but that is the exception, not the rule.

Don't put your membership of ethnic group or anything of the like. Don't mention that you practice a specific religion, or that you have three adorable children.

Your résumé is about your work skills, not anything else.
If you have any of these things on your résumé get rid of them. Don't waste your time applying for jobs before you fix everything up.

Here’s What You Should Actually Be Asking At The End Of A Job Interview

Almost every interview ends with “What questions do you have for me?” By now, you know you need to ask questions. But which ones are the most beneficial for you to ask?

Asking the right questions not only makes you look good, but it can also make it easier for you to spot red flags when it comes to the job you’re interviewing for.

Try asking these three questions after every interview you have. By doing so, you always get a better feel of both the company and what it’d be like to take on the role you’re hustling for.

1.”What strengths do I need in order to be successful in this position?”

This is my favorite question to ask. It’s so telling, and it has saved me. A person will either list qualities you’ve covered and give you some reassurance that the interview is going well, or he or she will list a strength he or she thinks you might not have.

Your interviewer has a picture in his or her mind of the person he or she wants to hire. If he or she names a strength you haven’t addressed, you can follow up with, “I’m really glad to hear you say this position requires (this trait). I feel like I’ve really developed that skill by …”

2. “Is this a new position, or would I be filling someone else’s shoes?”

Your interviewer will answer this question in one of the following ways. Each answer provides you with things to consider.

If It’s A New Position:

A new position makes you the guinea pig. The company may not know exactly what it wants you to do, and it probably doesn’t have a true bearing on what a realistic workload is.

It’s worth asking who would manage you and what departments you’d work with. Being the new employee everyone dumps the tasks he or she doesn’t like on isn’t fun. I’d also recommend following up by asking what your first few weeks of work will look like. This will give you an idea of what kinds of projects the company has in mind for you, and the scope of those projects.

If You’d Be Filling The Role Of Someone Who Got Promoted Internally:

This is generally a good sign: Upward mobility not only means there are opportunities for growth, but it also means that the person you’d be replacing was happy enough to stick around.

Follow up with whether or not you’d be working with your replacement. Someone who has already had your job is more likely to manage you well.

If You’d Be Replacing Someone Who Moved On To Another Opportunity:

Tread with caution here: This can mean whoever you’re replacing was miserable enough to jump ship.

There are legitimate reasons why one would leave a job. These include career goals, more pay, commute time, etc.

But this could also be a sign of a toxic workplace or manager. Ultimately, this person left.

Does your interviewer deliver this news with positive things to say about the former co-worker? Or does he or she keep the description short?

If it feels like there may be something he or she isn’t telling you, it’s probably not a good sign.

3. “What do you like about working here?”

It’s highly unlikely your interviewer will say anything negative here. (If he or she does, I suggest you run.)

But this opens the door for you to read between the lines. Does your interviewer gush about the workplace, or does he or she stick to a specific job opportunity or the mission statement of the company?

I usually take note if my interviewer says that he or she “learned a lot.” This isn’t always a good thing. Trust your gut.

Interviewing is a two-way street. It’s so important to take advantage of the only time you truly have control over the conversation.

There are too many people who landed what they thought were their dream jobs, only to discover a few weeks in that their workplaces weren’t all they were cracked up to be.

Read your interviewers reviews with a grain of salt. Instead, ask questions in order to get to know your potential co-workers. It’ll pay off.