Preparing to interview for a management position is exciting. However, it can also be a bit challenging. It’s hard to anticipate what a hiring manager may ask. As a result, you may overlook a critical potential question, leaving you unprepared when your interview day arrives.
Luckily, it is possible to cover more of your bases. If you want to make sure you are as prepared as possible, here are a few real interview questions you need to be ready to answer.
Can You Describe Your Leadership Style?
Once you hit the management ranks, this question is almost guaranteed to come up during every interview. It lets the hiring manager learn more about how you approach overseeing a team, allowing them to determine if your style aligns with the company culture, existing team dynamic, and operational preferences.
Tell Me About a Project Where You Stepped Up as a Leader
If you’re interviewing for an entry-level management role, the hiring manager usually understands that you may have limited supervisory experience based on your past positions. However, they still want to gauge your leadership capabilities. As a result, they’ll ask about projects you oversaw, allowing them to see how you approach guiding a team.
Can You Tell Me About a Time You Had to Make a Tough Choice? How Did You Go About It?
Managers commonly have to make tough decisions. They might have to decide how to navigate a budget cut, whether to fire a poor-performing team member, or the next steps after a project fails.
With this question, the hiring manager wants to learn more about how you handle difficult decisions. Along with wanting insights into your thought processes, they also want to see if you use specific resources along the way, giving them a clearer picture of your whole approach.
What’s Your Approach to Delegating Tasks?
Delegation is a critical part of the management equation. Hiring managers want to see how you determine what way is best for distributing responsibilities among team members. That way, they can learn more about how you decide which tasks should go where and how you inform team members about new responsibilities and shifting expectations resulting from alterations in their workload.
What’s Your Approach to Feedback? How Do You Keep Team Members Accountable?
Feedback and accountability are both vital if employees and teams are going to excel. Hiring managers want to know how you ensure that feedback is delivered in an appropriate and timely manner, as well as any other steps you take to promote and maintain accountability.
What Steps Do You Take to Cultivate an Inclusive Environment?
Diversity and inclusion are essential to companies of all sizes. With this question, the hiring manager wants to see how you actively work to make your team a welcoming place for professionals from all walks of life.
Ultimately, all of the interview questions can come if you’re a candidate for a management position, so it’s best to be ready to answer them. If you’d like to learn more about how you can prepare for job search success, the team at The Advance Group wants to hear from you. Contact us today.
