Erin McGoff
speaker
84 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard May 2025
last heard May 2025
Erin McGoff’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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Appearances
The Jefferson Fisher Podcast · Erin McGoff: How to be Instantly More Confident at Work · 13 May 2025
podcast
yeah man can you believe they're still asking that question i i can't believe it i can't actually yeah well there's a there's a couple things so the first thing is to understand the question behind the question is what i say so when they're asking what is your greatest weakness they're not actually asking like about what your greatest weakness is like mine is ben and jerry's half baked ice cream like they're not really curious about that
What they're really asking is, what are your red flags? Are you going to reveal something to me that I might need to know?
Also, it's kind of a signal of how professional you are because if you're caught off guard by this question or if you answer it quote unquote wrong, it kind of signals to them that you don't like know that that was an interview question that people ask and you didn't know how to answer it. So it's kind of part of this hidden curriculum and secret language of work. So there's that.
So they're really asking like, how well can you professionally articulate yourself? So the question's about articulation. And then the second half of it is how to answer. And I always teach something called the 10-90 rule. So you should spend only 10% of your answer naming the weakness and then the remaining 90% talking about how you're working on it. So you're really talking about self-awareness.
I'm aware of this weakness within myself. Here's why it's important. And here's what I'm doing to address it. And you know what? It's really working out so far. And you don't want to name something like, you know, a lot of people will say, oh, well, I'm a perfectionist and you'll get an immediate eye roll. You don't want to name something that's a character trait.
Like you don't want to say like I'm a perfectionist or this is just the way that I am. You know, you want to name something kind of tangible that you're working on. And something else that's really important is that it needs to be real, but don't have it be directly hindering. Like it shouldn't hinder your ability to do the job, you know. So, you know, delegation is safe for a lot of people.
Not if you're a manager, don't say delegation. But, you know, something that I'm currently working to improve are my delegation skills. So each week I try to delegate one task and, you know, I keep a sticky note next to my laptop and it's really helping me remember that. Yeah.
Yeah, they're really looking because I'll post an example and people say, well, you shouldn't tell an employer that, you know, you're you don't have a sense of humor, that you're too blunt. And I'm like, well, that's kind of the point is that you tell them how you're working on it and how you're self-aware and how you understand. And also, you're not telling them a deal breaker.
You know, don't tell them you're working on your sense of humor if you're applying to be a comedy writer. You know, read the room.
How do you do this?
And you have kids.
Totally. Yeah. That's something else that I teach is just whenever you go into a job interview, you want to think of the desired, the desired results. So you want to think of what you want the recruiter to think after you're done answering and you just named it. You want the recruiter to think, oh, yeah, I struggle with that, too. That's fine. Like that's what you want them to think.
So you need to craft your answer in a way where like it's just something that they can say, oh, yeah, like that's that's not a deal breaker. That's fine. They're working on it.
It's such a great tip. You know, instead of saying, well, I think I'd be good at this. I'm confident I'd be good at this. Just throwing the word confident in there. Beautiful tip. Perfect tip.
Oh, that's really tough. You know, I think there's kind of two categories when it comes to passive aggressive people. There's one category where it's affecting you and your work and your ability to complete your duties and responsibilities. And then there's another category where they don't affect your work at all. It's just annoying.
And so my overarching advice when dealing with anybody difficult at work is just to not take it personally. I think it's hard when you're at work and somebody's giving you a little attitude and, you know, to get all festered and flustered and, you know, get mad at them. But, you know, don't get mad. Just get curious. You know, think about how. Like, why are they this way?
Why are they so miserable? And you talk a lot about passive aggressiveness. I want to hear your answer as well. But when people are passive aggressive, it's because they lack an ability to communicate like an adult and professionally. And I think there are some instances where actually passive aggressive behavior or passive behavior is okay.
Sometimes people might be trying to hint to you something. So something that I like to ask if you're not sure if somebody's being passive aggressive is, oh, did you mean that genuinely? Or were you trying to hint at something? Because you actually never know. Somebody might mean something really genuinely, but you're insecure about what's going on, so you're taking it in a passive-aggressive way.
Or they might be 100% just being a jerk and just being passive-aggressive. So when you ask them, hey, did you mean that genuinely or were you trying to hint at something? Then they either have to confront, no, I meant that genuinely, or they have to say, no, I was actually hinting at something.
Yeah, because they're defensive and they're insecure, and that's how they're communicating in a passive-aggressive manner. So if you fight fire with fire, yeah, it typically doesn't work out.
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