Interviews are a fascinating process. It's through oodles of interviews and interviewing over a decade that I learned there are two types of people in business. There are those who believe business is about family, nurturing and encouraging and there are those who are dickheads.
Oh, and the best dickhead line you'll ever hear is "I'm willing to take tough choices" or "make hard decisions" which almost always translates to ... "I'll fire everyone and burn the company before I cut my bonus"
To be clear, you should NEVER be willing to make the hard choices. You should fight against it with every fibre. You should sacrifice your own comforts to save your troops.
Which leads us to the only real "hard choice" ... what are you willing to personally sacrifice to protect others? The answer to that question will tell you how much of a family you are or whether you're on the other side of the equation.
Every employee that I've ever let go has not been a failure of them, it has always been a failure of me - my failure in hiring, nurturing, supporting, understanding, strategy, direction, guidance, political capital and in leadership. You won't learn if you don't own it.
