Written by Sandor Kovacs: CEO and Co-Founder of DorWay™
If we want to improve employee engagement and start building trust in the workplace, there’s one thing we need to fix first: how we hire. That means rethinking the entire process—starting with the interview questions we ask, how we ask them, and what we’re truly looking for.
Are we conducting an alignment interview—focused on shared values, capacity, and culture fit? Or are we just racing to plug in the next available problem-solver because we’re stretched thin?
Hire for character. Build for culture. It’s not just a mantra. It’s the difference between a disengaged employee and a strategic team member who takes ownership and moves your organization forward.
Look beyond the resume.I hear it all the time: “That’s obvious.”
But if it’s so obvious, why are companies still drowning in the costs of employee disengagement? Why is it draining billions in lost productivity, stalled initiatives, and toxic culture cycles?
Because what’s obvious isn’t always practiced—and what’s practiced isn’t always strategic.
After more than three decades in leadership development and executive coaching, I’ve been part of hundreds of hiring decisions. I’ve seen where company culture breaks down—and it starts right in the interview room.
In this article, I’ll share why employee engagement continues to be a massive challenge; and how to turn that around. You’ll also get the 6 best interview questions to ask right now if you’re serious about hiring for culture, alignment, and strategic ownership.
Strategic Ownership: The Trait Most Leaders Overlook
Most companies hire for what someone can do. They rarely hire for who that person is willing to become. That’s why they end up with busy managers, low-trust teams, and company cultures that quietly corrode from the inside out.
Some leaders have quietly normalized employee disengagement. “It is what it is,” they say.
But the data tells a different—and more urgent—story.
According to Gallup’s 2025 State of the Workplace report, global employee engagement just dropped from 23% to 21%. This is only the second time it’s declined since 2009. And it’s a warning sign.
Organizations are losing their ability to ask the right questions, retain real talent, and lead with meaning. What’s all this actually telling you about how leaders interview, hire, train, and hold people accountable?
Is your organization fueling this employee engagement statistic or fixing it?
It gets worse: Manager engagement fell from 30% to 27%, costing an estimated $438 billion in lost productivity.
If your managers are disengaged, what do you think their teams are learning from them? What kind of work culture are they modeling?
When trust breaks down, bottlenecks form. Performance drops. Top talent walks. And your organization becomes a place where people are just getting through the day—not growing, not leading, not creating.
That’s not value based leadership. That’s damage control.
In the U.S., employee engagement is now at a 10-year low, with 3.2 million fewer employees feeling enthusiastic about their work. If engagement is enthusiasm in action, are your people showing up engaged in what is possible or just showing up?
Only 37% of employees strongly agree they are treated with respect, a return to record lows. If respect is absent, how long do you think performance and trust will stay intact?
So, employee disengagement isn’t a serious problem? Some managers think that they can fix it with your usual interview questions. But consider this:
Gallup also found that 42% of employee turnover is preventable. And yet most organizations fail to address it.
That means 4 out of every 10 roles you hire could have stayed—with the right culture, alignment, and ownership.
If nearly half of your people leaving is preventable, what conversations are you not having?
I ask these questions because at DorWay™, we don’t just look at these statistics. We build systems to change these numbers—through alignment interviews, strategic ownership, and value-based leadership that engages people from day one.
Let’s look at what that takes.
Why Culture Fit Matters More Than Resume Fit
In a previous article, we dismantled the myth that busyness is a badge of leadership. It’s not. It’s a smokescreen—often hiding the absence of systems, strategic thinking, and capacity building.
Because real value isn’t about being the busiest person in the room. It’s about being the person who builds what scales—even when you’re not in the room.
That’s exactly why hiring for culture must come before hiring for productivity. When you’re asking interview questions, what you want is alignment—not just activity.
Look for people who protect their calendars, negotiate their “no’s” and own their words. People who manage their capacity and think critically about what truly moves the needle
Those are the employees, managers, and future leaders who will build trust in the workplace and foster cultures of ownership—not overwhelm.
Why Employee Engagement Matters More Now Than Ever
When Gallup reports that employee engagement is plunging—especially among managers—they’re sounding the alarm on a hiring system that’s fundamentally flawed.
When the Gallup report talks about engagement plunging—especially among managers—what they’re describing is a hiring system that’s fundamentally flawed. It’s the byproduct of organizations that hired for what people could do, but not for who they were committed to being. They recruited performers addicted to busyness, who measured worth by how slammed their calendars were.
They failed to screen for people who could own outcomes, think ahead, and lead with integrity under pressure. They didn’t ask alignment interview questions. They didn’t measure strategic ownership.
The result?
They got managers who never learned how to build capacity. Leaders who can’t hold alignment under stress. And cultures where trust slowly drains away because no one ever demanded anything different.
If you don’t change how you hire, this is where it leads:
- Disengagement
- Attrition
- Low-trust environments
- High-drama teams
- Cultures that mistake activity for leadership
Want to stop that? Start by changing how you interview. Because the best way to build culture is before someone even joins your team.
Hiring for High Performance and High Alignment from Day One
At DorWay™, we don’t teach leaders how to hire based only on skills or talent. We teach them to hire for something far more powerful: alignment, integrity, and strategic ownership.
Here are the core questions they need answered in the interview process:
- High Performance: Can they execute, deliver, think critically, and drive measurable outcomes?
- High Alignment: Do they act with integrity, communicate with transparency, listen actively, and build trust in the workplace—not just through what they do, but how they relate?
Technical skills can be taught. But alignment, how someone operates, listens, collaborates, and manages agreements, requires a different level of willingness and character.
And character can’t be trained the same way software skills can.
With decades of experience sitting in interviews, often shadow-coaching leaders to observe how they actually engage with candidates. I really think I’ve seen and heard it all.
So many intelligent, right-minded managers stick to safe questions about experience and credentials. They avoid the best interview questions—the ones that reveal ownership, mindset, and values.
Why? Sometimes it’s discomfort. Sometimes it’s fear of scaring away a qualified candidate (especially in hard-to-hire regions).
But here’s the truth: You get what you interview for. And once hired, you are accountable for leading that person toward success.
So, ask the questions that matter. Then pay attention—not just to what they say, but how they say it.
6 Interview Questions for Hiring Alignment Over Activity
Strong leaders know how to hire not just for skill—but for character, ownership, and strategic alignment. It’s the foundation of hiring for culture.
But how do you actually do that in practice? What makes an alignment interview truly revealing?
After decades of coaching executives and sitting in on interviews, these are the 6 best interview questions I’ve heard leaders ask—questions that cut through resumes and expose real value based leadership potential.
1. Tell me about a time you broke your word at work. What happened, and how did you handle it?
This question reveals a candidate’s relationship with integrity and accountability. Listen closely: Do they dodge blame or take full ownership? Do they use language that speaks to ownership or excuses?
2. When was the last time someone gave you direct, uncomfortable feedback, and how did you respond?
This question tests coachability and emotional intelligence. Do they get defensive? Or do they reflect and recalibrate? Their response will show you if they’re aligned with value based leadership.
3. What’s a conflict you created or escalated and what would you do differently now?
This is one of the most revealing interview questions for any leadership role. You’re listening for emotional regulation and maturity under pressure. Blame is a red flag. Accountability? That’s leadership gold.
4. How do you want people to experience you when you walk into a room? How do you think they currently experience you?
This question uncovers self-awareness, humility, and impact on workplace culture. Vague answers = limited reflection. Clear, intentional answers = someone who’s already thinking like a leader.
5. What’s something you used to tolerate in your leadership that you no longer accept?
This is a power question. It signals personal evolution and rising standards.
What you’re looking for is simple: Growth you can trust.
6. What’s a way you’ve made someone else better recently without needing credit for it?
If you’re hiring for culture and strategic ownership, this is your signal question. It shows if a candidate builds others, not just results. Do they invest in team success—or just pad their own resume?
Here at DorWay™, we say:
“You don’t just get what you tolerate. You get what you interviewed for.”
If you want to build a team of strategic thinkers—people who lead with integrity, build capacity, and elevate culture—these six questions are where to start.
They don’t just help you hire better. They help you hire for the future.
The Alignment Interview: How to Hire for Culture Fit
The employee engagement crisis Gallup highlights isn’t abstract. It’s the compounded outcome of thousands of hiring decisions that prioritized skill over alignment, busyness over ownership, and short-term metrics over long-term trust.
If you want to change that trajectory, start here:
Be unreasonable in your standards.
Hire people who protect their calendars—because they protect the integrity of their commitments. Hire people who will say no—and who will negotiate their no—because they’re serious about doing work that matters. Because they understand what it means to manage the integrity of their agreements, their projects, and what they’re accountable for.
Hire for strategic ownership, not just skill.
That’s how you create a culture of trust, capacity, and alignment that actually scales.
At DorWay™, we don’t teach leadership like a tactical checklist. We challenge how people see, think, speak, and act—so that leadership becomes an embodied self-expression. Like love. Like courage. Like accountability.
True value based leadership looks past a resume. It looks for how someone thinks—and how they own their word, their energy, and their impact.
That’s why hiring for culture fit, for accountability and integrity, is non-negotiable.
Not because circumstances disappear, but because who they’re being is unmoved by them. They take action anyway. Because that’s real leadership.
And it’s what this moment in business demands.
So, ask yourself:
Are you building a leadership culture based on alignment and transformation? Or are you quietly tolerating dysfunction and hoping it changes?
At DorWay™, our LEAP Evaluation™ has the questions to put you to the test. No scorecards. Just a deep, honest look at your relationship with your own leadership.
Others will stay stuck in management mode. You? You’ll start building a leadership culture—one aligned hire at a time.Because if you want to hire future leaders, you need to become the kind of leader who attracts them.