In interview situations, you won’t just meet the HR manager – you’ll be invited to impress the team that you’ll be leading, who are ready to judge you at a moment’s notice. Answer these 5 interview questions cleverly, and you’ll definitely start off on the right foot.
If you’re looking to score points with your future team, choose your answers wisely. This guide will get you prepped.
Question 1: Describe the perfect boss!
This question gets right to the point: How does the candidate see themselves, what’s their leadership style? Does he delegate, give constructive feedback, give clear (and motivating) speeches? Or are they more into the top-down management style? This question is also designed to figure out if a candidate would speak poorly of other supervisors from their current or previous companies – a bad sign for the future!
Question 2: Explain a situation where you offered criticism. How did you handle it?
In order to lead a successful team, a manager must be skilled in the art of constructive criticism. No team is perfect, and something is bound to go wrong eventually, so managers will need to offer criticism sooner or later. But how feedback is handled can be a deciding factor in whether the employee takes it seriously, and feels valued and motivated, in spite of receiving criticism.
The answer to this question shows if the candidate can clearly identify glaring issues within their teams, and create structured goals, if they judge based on penalties and consequences, or avoid criticism altogether – an absolute no-go. What can a team really accomplish with a friendly, kind boss… that lets their team fail?
Question 3: What’s your strategy for the first 100 days on the job?
No one would dare answer that they plan on changing the entire company. But this can help to add more insight into their leadership style – would he first get to know all of the employees, create a defined and structured organization for internal processes, or look for quick and easy ways to change the whole corporate strategy?
Question 4: Why wouldn’t someone want to work with you?
The answer to this admittedly provocative question gives you an interesting perspective into the personality of the candidate, and above all else, their self-reflection – a necessary trait for all successful executives.
A boss can never do everything right, and they have to set priorities that help the whole company succeed, even if that makes them unpopular. This question illuminates how they approach these situations, and how they view these difficult decisions.
Question 5: Would you fit with our corporate culture?
Here you can quickly determine if a candidate keeps corporate culture in mind when it comes to managing, and how they integrate existing customs into their management style. Furthermore, do they support the goals of the department, and more importantly, the corporate strategy?
Can they identify with the values of the organization? This last question is assuredly the most important to learn more about the goals, values and personality of this potential new employee.
