Workplace Multiplier by Tola Akinsulire

May 12, 2026

Welcome to the Workplace Multiplier newsletter. Published Monday to Friday, equipping you to achieve your professional goals faster and without burnout or overwhelm.

The question that exposes every hiring mistake

Howdy

A senior leader recently asked me to assess candidates the company was recruiting.

I had met all of them. My read differed from the panel's…but it matched exactly what the leader had already sensed and could not quite name.

The panel was listening for polish.

Diction. Poise. Well-framed answers. Confident delivery.

The problem is that polish is coachable. You can teach someone to sound right quickly.

You cannot teach them to think clearly under pressure.

And when you hire the polished candidate who cannot think, you own that decision. Your team carries it. The project that needed the right person in that seat pays the price.

The candidate you passed over…quieter, rougher around the edges, less immediately impressive?

They are building somewhere else now.

When I assessed those candidates, I was not listening for how they sounded.

I was watching whether I could trust how they thought.

Do they ask clarifying questions before performing an answer? Do they separate signal from noise when the brief is messy? When challenged, do they respond with logic or with volume?

Do they know…and own…what they do not know?

Those are not soft signals. That is the job.

A candidate who trusts their thinking does not need polish to protect them. A candidate who does not trust their thinking will use polish to hide it.

Most panels cannot always tell the difference. That is not a criticism. It is a design flaw in how most interviews are run.

One question cuts through it:

If I stripped out the polish and only kept the thinking, would I still hire this person?

If you are positioning yourself for the next level, turn that question on yourself:

If I stripped out the polish and only kept the thinking, would I still hire myself?

If your answer changes, you have your next development priority…not another communication skills course, but the harder work: building the kind of clarity in your thinking that does not need packaging to land.

That is what separates people who rise because they are ready from people who rise because they interviewed well.

The difference shows up eventually. Make sure it shows up in your favour.

Keep winning at work and in life,

Tola Akinsulire

Your Strategic Workplace Mentor