The CEO who transformed Coach into a luxury powerhouse shares the grueling interview process he uses to vet candidates

“To reduce my chances of failing at the critical task of hiring the right people, and increase my chances of succeeding in hiring great people, I’ve been refining my interviewing style,” Frankfurt wrote to Harvard Business Review last month. “I wanted to be more interactive so I could get a full view of the person.”

Frankfurt has spent almost all of his career at Coach, where he served as CEO for 29 of his 46 years at the ambitious brand. During those decades, he perfected his recruiting strategy and, with the best team at his side, scaled the business from generating just $6 million in annual revenue to a multi-billion dollar empire. He uses this playbook in his current role as CEO of investment firm Benvolio Group, which works with consumer brands like Veronica Beard, Body Armor and Bogg Bagg.

If a job candidate hopes to become one of Frankfurt’s direct reports, he or she must go through a comprehensive and carefully structured process. From start to finish, Frankfurt personally meets with each applicant, starting with an initial interview focusing on their background and work experience. The seasoned CEO asks questions ranging from where he grew up to the accomplishments that make him most proud. After about 15 to 20 minutes, he moves to the next stage of the interview.

The next stages of the interview: assessing the president’s emotional intelligence and testing 80 skills

The next stage of Frankfurt’s interview process is a bit unconventional: He asks job candidates to name a current or recent boss, and to rate their emotional intelligence (EQ) on a scale of 1 to 10. He said most will give their managers a 7, 8 or 9, and if they give a lower number, he will inquire further. Next, applicants are asked what their bosses would say about their strengths and growth opportunities.

“Many people don’t have the language or inclination to describe themselves in full dimension, so this angle will help you express yourself more accurately,” the former coach CEO continued. “It will also enforce a level of honesty, especially if you know your boss is a reference I might talk to.”

The third part of the interview stage is a self-assessment white paper covering over 80 unique skills. Frankfurt says they are abilities he acquired over his long career, including the ability to judge people, courage, curiosity, financial acumen, investigative skills, sense of style, street smarts, integrity and self-motivation. Prospective talent will give themselves a rating from 1 to 10 for each ability, and once the sheet is filled out, the executive will begin asking about the strengths that came up in the conversation.

“Both individually and collectively, your rankings will provide insight, telling me where to lean for more information and clarity,” Frankfurt explained. “I was looking for clusters of similarly categorized competencies – for outliers that might suggest concern, for dichotomies that revealed where I needed to investigate to get to a deeper truth.”

If a candidate for a job rates themselves as low in a skill, Frankfurt will inquire about how that ability can be improved on the job or compensated for by other employees. But in general, he said he was looking for red flags — any “deal breakers” and “areas of caution” that indicated they were not right for the role. The CEO admitted that he is still biased toward particularly charismatic and confident candidates, but this detailed strategy helps counter his personal bias. The three-step interview process is also an opportunity for Frankfurt to assess a potential employee’s self-awareness and growth potential.

“My immersive interviewing framework routinized my natural curiosity about people and helped me avoid the trap of making assumptions about skills and overlooking key weaknesses,” he said.

Other CEOs who swear by personality tests in hiring

Personality assessments in particular have become a staple for business leaders hiring for new roles. About 80% of it luck 500 companies use these tests to screen incoming top-level talent, according to a 2022 study from Ladders.

Julia Hartz, CEO of the $225 million ticketing company Eventbrite, uses the Hogan Method to evaluate how well her leadership style aligns with her direct reports and job candidates.

The Hogan Personality Test is a set of workplace-focused assessments used to predict job suitability, leadership potential, and risks of working under pressure. It typically includes three core scales: the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) for the “bright side” of daily behavior, the Hogan Development Survey (HDS) for the off-kilter “dark side” that can arise under stress, and the Motives, Values, and Preferences Inventory (MVPI) for basic motivations and cultural fit.

“The Hogan series is very in-depth, and it’s about how you react to some changing landscape,” Hartz said. luck Earlier this year. “Then I can draw a line between my Hogan test and the candidate’s Hogan test, and using AI can assess where it’s going to cause friction, and where are we not going to look great together?”

And Loren Castle, CEO of refrigerated cookie dough empire Sweet Loren’s, sorted out the good apples from the bunch by deploying a CliftonStrengths test. The assessment is a 30-minute test conducted by the American analytics company Gallup that analyzes unique skills, thinking styles, feelings and behaviors. I looked for some basic traits: positive attitude, passion, and teamwork skills.

“It’s hard to hire the right team. That’s the hardest part of this: really understanding what your culture is and attracting the best people,” Castle said. luck Earlier this year. “We’re really conscious now when we’re building teams.”