Several years ago, Derek Brinkerhoff of RTI participated in a career conference I facilitated for Duke University in Washington, DC.
Mr. Brinkerhoff gave a bit of advice to students that has stuck with me ever since. It’s become a tip I give to all of my clients when they are conducting interviews of any kind.
This clever question gets to the heart of job satisfaction, Mr. Brinkerhoff said, because it probes underlying human desires to be autonomous and to be useful:
“In this role, can you do what makes sense?”
If you ask this question, you will be able to tell immediately by the respondent’s facial expression and body language (not to mention his or her words) if the person is satisfied at work.
If the respondent looks thoughtful and happy, and says, “Hmmm, yes, I really can do what makes sense in my job,” then you know the organization is well-managed, relatively free from corruption, and that there is strong and respectful communication between divisions.
If a person looks taken aback or disgruntled, hedges, or gives you too much or not enough information, you’ve got an immediate clue that there are organizational barriers that the respondent finds frustrating in some way.
If so, you might be able to probe a bit to understand more, or you might find out all you need to know from this one question.
Since nothing is perfect, you might fairly expect a mixed response from most people.
What is key is knowing that, if there are areas of frustration in the unit or in the role, stakeholders have open communication around the topic, and that there is active interest in improving processes if possible.
