'How might you have changed that situation?'

 2-time CEO always asks this question in interviews: It shows if candidates ‘just want to complain’

Story by Gili Malinsky, 2/27/2025

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/careersandeducation/2-time-ceo-always-asks-this-question-in-interviews-it-shows-if-candidates-just-want-to-complain/ar-AA1zVcDW

quotes:

Serial entrepreneur David Royce has been building companies for years. . . .

In his decades building businesses, Royce has identified some immediate red flags when interviewing job candidates. One is negative talk about former employers. 

"It's totally okay to have both positive and negative things" to say about them, he says. But if a candidate focuses mostly on the negative, "then the problem is likely" that person.

As such, Royce has a question he likes to ask people he's interviewing to suss out their disposition.

'How might you have changed that situation?' . . .

"Tell me about your previous employer," he says. "What are some things that they could do to improve?" . . .

For any pitfalls they mention, he asks, "how might you have changed that situation?" . . .

"Are they constructive in the way they critique," giving examples of how they would've or could've solved the problem, or do they "just want to complain about it?" . . . [and] drag down the morale of the whole team.

"The No. 1 thing that makes A players want to leave is B players and certainly C players," he says. People who aren't focused on producing and creating a positive environment can "spoil your culture and then potentially force out the best talent."

When choosing who to hire, "I want to make sure somebody is generally positive and looking for opportunities to or ways to improve," he says.