5 Characteristics of the Best Interviewees

We have just finished our 2019 filming round and it was our best one yet. We met so many incredible people doing amazing work to help Pakistan’s most marginalised communities. We can’t wait to share each blog post and docuseries with you.

None of this would be possible without the time and generosity of our brilliant interviewees and we wanted to say a huge thank you to each of them.

We often hear people grumble about doing business in Pakistan, we suspect that is in part because of outdated norms of professional etiquette, but our interviewees come from a new generation of dynamic modern movers and shakers and we couldn't help but reflect on exactly what it was that made each of them a pleasure to work with.

Everyone values reliability. Whether it is a reliable restaurant serving consistently good food or a reliable airline getting you to your destination on time. A business that reliably delivers results is a sum of reliable individuals, and reliable individuals win results.

A cornerstone of reliability, often overlooked in Pakistan, is managing expectations. Our interviewees carefully managed their commitments and never over-promised, which meant we could rely on them before and after our meetings. Now we’re looking forward to a lasting collaboration.

Being punctual is a pillar of professionalism, it shows respect for somebody else’s schedule. When we organise our filming round, we have to squeeze in all our interviewees, meetings, editing meetings and social engagements within a short time frame of 10 days. I use my annual leave to come to Pakistan and my filming team block out time from their work schedule. Since we are only able to hold one filming round per year at the moment, our time is valuable and limited.

Being on time helps that you’re doing your best to help somebody else’s schedule to go smoothly. If and when somebody we were meeting was late it left me in fear of being late to the following meeting later on in the day.

There are instances where unforeseen circumstances cause people to be late. Lahore’s traffic is unpredictable, to say the least, and I was sadly too late to a meeting after Ferozepur Road was closed during the Royal Family’s visit. This was frustrating and particularly unpredictable. In those instances, we understand that the situation is out of one’s hand.

“One of the best paradoxes of leadership is a leader’s need to be both stubborn and open-minded. A leader must insist on sticking to the vision and stay on course to the destination. But he must be open-minded during the process.” – Simon Sinek

When we started this year’s filming around, we completely changed our filming strategy which meant more time was needed to film video and audio content. I spoke to each interviewee and asked them to be open-minded and patient with the filming process.

Now, this may seem like an obvious characteristic that was demonstrated in all our interviewees. Each person we selected is an expert in their field and has worked hard to determine the problem they are trying to solve, and the solutions they have identified.

The best interviewees have the ability to articulate complex ideas in the simplest of words. This is difficult, and one can be intelligent and incapable of doing this.

Our website is all about collating knowledge, and we look for individuals who can articulate that knowledge allowing its receiver to understand a complex idea immediately.

We are the decisions that we make. Each interviewee demonstrated that their success was based on a foundation of good decisions. Part of being able to make good decisions is prioritising and organising the decisions away from the inconsequential decisions.

All our interviewees were able to articulate the decisions they made which resulted in their professional success. Equally, our interviewees worked with us in making the best decisions for both teams to ensure that we produced superb content for the docu-series which would eventually be made.

So, here we are. These are the 5 characteristics of the best interviewees. If this describes you, or somebody you know, then please get in touch with us. We’d love to collaborate and magnify the profile of individuals or initiatives who are helping Pakistan’s most marginalised communities.