Every recruiter has them. Many recruiters like to share them. Still others relish the disbelieving responses to war stories about the most incredible candidate interview gaffes.

We've all learned that sometimes fact is stranger than fiction and that even highly qualified candidates can be lousy interviewees. Sometimes, the candidate just doesn't understand that a first impression is a lasting impression. Other times, it's a lack of effort, a lack of focus or outright incompetency that does them in.

For all the strange-but-true candidate interview stories I've been told over the years, however, I haven't really heard much to explain what they mean, how they reconcile with one's views of leadership — and humanity for that matter — and their implications for what may appear to be the very best of candidate interviews.

In the case of the interview gone wrong, recruiters can quickly dismiss an individual's candidacy. But what about the executives who say all the right things during the interview, that is, except for just how lousy a leader they've been, the fact that they've taken all the credit for the work of others, or that they're considered a social pariah?

I'm reminded of the book Snakes in Suits, especially as I consider that while the worst interviewees are quickly exited from the candidate pool, there are other candidates — pretenders, phonies or outright fraudsters in suits — whose candidacy is only fast-tracked by their ability to hoodwink even experienced interviewers.

Sure, we can laugh, marvel even, at the grandest of candidate interview missteps. But don't we also owe it to our clients, employers and colleagues to ferret out the great interviewers who we'd likewise — all things considered — be wise to exclude from further employment consideration?

The older I get, the more I'm convinced that the interview process needs to be a process of discovering a candidate's true character, their real moral fiber, what's important to them, how they really live their lives, and whether they are an example to others.

If we check verified credentials, experience and role qualifications at the door for just a moment, let's probe to uncover whether the person we're interviewing is their real self, or a conjured image of the person they'd like to be, or the person they feel they need to emulate in order to land the job.

Let's also pause for a moment to consider that some of the best leadership candidates may not rank among the most memorable, top-shelf interviewers. Sometimes, that diamond in the rough can make all the difference.

I think I'm going to start asking executive recruiters about their very best interviews and interviewees and the things that got them to stop in their tracks — in a positive way — during an interview. After all, piling on the bad interviewees doesn't advance today's business agenda. Learning how to interview for character, and acknowledging that there are things to learn from probing deeper in the best interviews may help us make even smarter recruiting decisions in the future.

Joseph Daniel McCool
Joseph Daniel McCool is senior contributing editor with ExecuNet and principal of management recruiting/succession advisory firm The McCool Group. He is also the author of Deciding Who Leads: How Executive Recruiters Drive, Direct & Disrupt the Global Search for Leadership Talent, recognized widely as "one of the best business books of 2008," and its Brazilian Portuguese translation, Escolhendo Líderes, published in June 2010.

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