What interview questions could I use to elicit information about an applicant's character, courage and vision? How important are these traits to an organization?

The phrasing of your question shows you know the importance of looking beyond the obvious when screening candidates for your organization. You pose an interesting challenge -- obtaining an accurate measure of personality traits without the aid of established tests.

The personality traits you mention -- character, courage and vision -- are critical in any organization hoping to compete and last in its industry. Unfortunately, they are also difficult to measure. Depending on subjective impressions and "gut feelings" are, of course, notoriously unreliable and often legally indefensible. Poorly designed or inappropriate interview questions may do more harm than good. The challenge becomes designing good, structured interview questions that induce the applicant to provide you with examples of behavior demonstrating the presence or absence of these traits. Add to that, the difficulty in measuring the degree of character, courage or vision one brings to the job.

Now the good news...

Questions that explore specific examples of job-related past behavior provide the best predictors of future behavior. For example, you might ask an applicant to describe a time when he or she was forced to bend company policy in order to meet an important objective or ask the applicant to tell you about a time when she or he was leading a group that did not perform well. What actions were taken to improve the group's performance; what could have been done differently? This type of structure in your interview can be very effective in offering insight into a candidate's typical behavior patterns. These patterns are indicators of the traits behind them. Your first task should be defining character, courage or vision. You can't measure it if you don't know what it looks like. If you can describe the behaviors one would expect to see from an employee with a high degree of character, you're on your way. These behaviors become the measuring sticks of your interviewers.

Research conducted and reviewed by Michael Harris, Michael Campion and others indicates that questions which ask applicants what they would say and do in hypothetical situations are also valid ways of assessing some psychological characteristics. This method allows the applicant to discuss intentions. Success with this method, however, is more dependent on the use of trained expert interviewers. We agree with Drs. Harris and Campion in endorsing the use of past behaviors as indicators of future success.