How do I use silence in an interview?

Hi, I’m Donna, and although this is Monday’s 52 top tip, I’m actually recording this from Saturday. I’m at the Hilton in Birmingham where we’ve just finished an entrepreneur’s day and I had an exhibition stand. So I thought it made quite a good backdrop for today, which is the 10 of diamonds, and it’s all about silence. 

This is, again, this is linking to the theme of last week, which was recruitment. They say silence is golden and in an interview situation, that can certainly be the case. Ask a question and then wait. Don’t be worried about the silence of 60 seconds. You’ll either get an answer or you won’t. But what you’ll be able to do is see how the candidate copes under pressure. Don’t prompt them, don’t provide them with the answer. Just wait. 

The candidate may give you an answer or they may just turn around and say oh I’m sorry, I don’t know. But if they actually are using that time to think about an answer and come out with a really good, cohesive response to your question, that can be a lot more powerful. It shows you that they’re considered, they just don’t blurt out the first thing that comes to mind.