When it comes to talent engagement, we’re often drawn to potential – the glittering promises of what someone could become. We ask about future ambitions: “Where do you see yourself in five years?” “What do you think you’ll bring to the team?” But these hypothetical questions offer little more than a peek into someone’s imagination. They sketch an idealized future, untested by reality.
The real insights come from a person’s past. A track record tells the story of their decisions, challenges, and outcomes. It shows us how they’ve handled pressure, what drives them, and where their strengths truly lie. Promises can be enchanting, but patterns are revealing.
The Allure of Potential
Potential is seductive – it’s a vision of untapped greatness. But it’s also one of the most uncertain bets you can make. Engaging someone based purely on their future projections means investing in a promise that may or may not be fulfilled. The future, after all, is nothing more than a series of what-ifs.
When onboarding new talent, it’s easy to ask about future plans: “How would you approach this kind of project?” or “What’s your strategy for growth?” But these questions are speculative. No one knows how they’ll act when the pressure’s on, and visions of the future rarely hold up against real-world challenges.
It’s the past that matters. Ask how they navigated the last high-stakes situation. What was their instinct when faced with difficulty? What have they already accomplished? The answers to these questions are rooted in reality – they provide a glimpse into how someone operates when the stakes are real.
Revealing Patterns
In talent engagement, the past is a roadmap. But this isn’t about asking someone to recount their résumé; it’s about digging into specifics. You’re not just looking for what they’ve done – you’re looking for how and why they did it. The patterns in their behavior reveal far more than their promises about the future.
A question like, “Tell me about a time you solved a significant problem” might seem straightforward, but it becomes powerful with the right follow-ups. Don’t stop at the surface. How did they approach the problem? Did they take ownership or defer to others? What were the consequences of their actions? These details reveal how someone thinks, acts, and leads under pressure.
When I engage new talent, I’m less interested in their grand visions for the future. I want to know how they’ve already begun to make an impact. Have they challenged the status quo? When did they last step up in a difficult situation, and what did that look like? Their past offers the best insight into their potential.
Trust Built on Reality
Engaging talent is about building trust, and trust is built on consistency. If you base decisions on future promises, you’re building that trust on uncertain ground. But if you ground your engagement in a person’s past actions, you know exactly what you’re working with.
This is why asking about past experiences is so crucial. It forces candidates to reflect on real events, moments where their decisions had tangible consequences. They can’t rely on polished future promises or untested ambitions – they have to share how they behaved when it counted. This is where trust begins: with a shared understanding of how someone has navigated reality.
Ask Specific Questions
General questions won’t get you there. “Tell me about your last job” isn’t going to reveal much. You need context-rich, specific questions to uncover valuable insights. For example, “Tell me about the last time you disagreed with a manager. What was the situation, and how did you handle it?” or “Describe the last time you missed a deadline and how you recovered.”
These aren’t just interview questions – they’re windows into how someone operates. Specific questions force candidates to drop the rehearsed answers and reveal their decision-making process, their resilience, and their sense of ownership. What you’re really uncovering is their temperament, values, and emotional intelligence.
Through these stories, a narrative begins to form – a story of how they make decisions, handle stress, and take responsibility. You’re not searching for perfect answers; you’re searching for patterns of behavior that reflect how they navigate complexity. That’s where their true potential lies.
Hiring for Patterns, Not Potential
As leaders, we need to resist the urge to bet everything on future potential. Potential is important, but it’s uncertain. What’s reliable is the past – those patterns that show how someone has handled pressure, learned from failure, and made decisions when it truly mattered.
When building a team, I’m looking for people I can count on when things go sideways. And I don’t find that by asking about their five-year plan. I find it by uncovering stories of how they’ve responded to challenges in the past – those critical moments where their character was revealed.
Engaging talent isn’t just about skill evaluation – it’s about understanding who someone really is and how they’ve proven themselves. The future will always be a question mark, but the past is a roadmap that shows you what to expect. If you want to engage talent that you can trust to deliver, start by asking about what they’ve already done.