At Wilshire we are continuing to engage more and more team members in the recruitment and selection processes for key positions throughout our Agencies. If you participate in one of the selection committee processes, here are a few tips to consider from Jeff Haden, a writer for Inc. This list first appeared on his LinkedIn page here.

Here are six of the most common — and how you can avoid them:

1. Assume shyness equals inability. Some people just don’t interview well. They’re nervous or shy and don’t make a great impression. An awkward interview does not mean a candidate can’t do the job, though. Great communication skills in no way signal broader expertise.

Do this: Be patient when candidates seem uncomfortable. Try to help them relax. You’re a leader: Your job is to get the best from people — even people you haven’t hired yet.

And if you find yourself holding a lot of interviews where the candidates are uncomfortable, take a step back and consider your approach. You might be the reason.

2. Expand on possibilities. Candidates sell themselves. Interviewers also often try to sell the candidate on the job. That’s understandable, especially when you love your company and without thinking describe things like potential new projects, enhanced employee benefit programs, or opportunities for promotion based on an anticipated expansion.

It’s great to be excited about your company, but a job candidate can easily translate “maybe” or “possibly” or “someday” into “guaranteed”…later resulting in a disgruntled employee who feels promises weren’t kept.

Do this: If you describe typical career paths, do so only in a general sense. Only share details on approved projects or efforts currently underway. You might be hiring with what you hope to need in mind, but make sure the candidate understands what the job currently entails.

And as a general rule, if you can’t promise… don’t bring it up.

3. Decide five or six “okays” equal “awesome!” It’s easy to automatically check off mental boxes during an interview: “Experience, OK; qualifications, OK; attention to detail, OK …” and before you know it decide an average candidate with no real negatives — and no outstanding qualifications, either — seems like a great candidate.

Do this: Remember that an absence of negatives does not equal a superlative. Look for excellent, not acceptable. Never settle for “good enough.” If good enough is all you can find in the candidates you have interviewed, keep looking.

4. Conduct a surprise group interview. Group interviews are an easy way for a number of interviewers to meet one candidate. That makes group interviews efficient for you, but for the candidate it’s stressful and intimidating — meaning you rarely will see the candidate at his or her best.

Plus it’s easy for interviewers to fall into the consensus trap where, during the group debriefing, everyone tends to drift towards having the same opinion.

Do this: Use group interviews only if the position requires working predominately within a team. In that case a group interview may provide a solid feel for the candidate’s suitability.

When you do conduct group interviews, tell the candidates ahead of time so they can prepare. It’s only fair — to them and to you. Otherwise stick to individual sessions.

5. Stick too closely to a script. You should ask a reasonably standard set of questions (at least for a particular job), but don’t get so focused asking your questions that you don’t listen to the answers. The best questions (here are four outstanding interview questions) naturally lead to follow-up questions. Since most candidates are prepared for an initial question, questions that drill deeper tend to reveal a lot more — both positive and negative.

Do this: Ask a question and listen closely. Take a moment to think about the answer, then follow up: Ask why. Ask when. Ask how a project turned out. Ask what made a position hard or made a working relationship difficult. Don’t be afraid to explore.

Not only will you get past the canned answers, you may also uncover great information the candidate would not have shared.

6. Take over. Some interviewers turn the session into a monologue. When you do that, most candidates are unlikely to interrupt or try to restore some sense of balance to the interview — after all, they want you to like them. If you get on your soapbox and fail to step off, thirty minutes later the interviewee walks away dazed and your hiring decision is based on whether the candidate was a good listener.

Do this: Make sure the candidate has a good feel for the position before the interview. Briefly discuss the company and the position in person. Then start asking questions and start listening.

The conversation should be 90 percent candidate and 10 percent you.

7. Fail to check with others. Everyone has had a great first date that was followed by a so-so second date and a terrible third date… only then to have a friend say, “What did you see in him in the first place? I could have told you about that guy…” Job candidates also give you their best: They’re up, they’re engaged, they’re on. But how do they act when they are not trying to impress you?

Do this: I call this the receptionist test. How candidates act when they’re not with you can indicate a lot. So ask: Find out how they treated the receptionist, what they did while they waited, how they interacted with other employees during the process… occasionally you will identify a disconnect between what the candidate presents and the real person inside.

A great lobby manner never outweighs poor qualifications, but a jerk in the lobby will almost always be a jerk on the job.

A Wilshire team member recommended Peter Bregman’s recent post on HBR. Here is an excerpt and link to read more.

This morning, like every morning, I sat cross-legged on a cushion on the floor, rested my hands on my knees, closed my eyes, and did nothing but breathe for 20 minutes.

People say the hardest part about meditating is finding the time to meditate. This makes sense: who these days has time to do nothing? It’s hard to justify.

Meditation brings many benefits: It refreshes us, helps us settle into what’s happening now, makes us wiser and gentler, helps us cope in a world that overloads us with information and communication, and more. But if you’re still looking for a business case to justify spending time meditating, try this one: Meditation makes you more productive.

How? By increasing your capacity to resist distracting urges.

Check out the complete article here on the HBR site.