Interviewing for a management position? Be ready to tackle those typical interview questions for managers. Even if you’ve never been in a managerial role before, you’ll want to clearly demonstrate to the recruiters your leadership skills and philosophy.
This article will reveal 10 management interview questions you should reflect on and be prepared to answer during the hiring process (in addition to other common interview questions, of course).
Your prospective employers might not ask every one of these, but preparing to answer them will surely help you gain clarity on your strengths and the way you approach management and leadership—so you can communicate your capabilities with ease no matter what question you’re answering.
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Before we get to the common questions for management interviews, let’s start with a few things you should know going in.
Don't underestimate the power of telling a good story to show your talent as a potential manager or leader through action.
Even if you haven’t been a manager before, you’ve still demonstrated leadership in many situations. For instance, training others, managing projects, motivating colleagues, contributing ideas, thinking strategically, and holding others accountable.
Take some time to reflect on your work experience and jot down significant moments when you led. These are the basis for your stories, which should reveal one or all of the following:
Consider what skills are required for the job you’re interviewing for and especially focus on the stories that show you developing or using these skills. Lay out your stories in a coherent way by defining the problem, explaining how you arrived at a solution, and describing how you implemented it.
Once you’ve collected a handful of tales, you’ll be able to easily modify them to answer different interview questions in a way that demonstrates your management and leadership chops. Remember that management across most functions and roles largely involves prioritizing and delegating, time management, problem-solving, and organization. Be sure to showcase those skills in your stories.
Even if a company is extremely focused on having their managers drive the productivity of their staff to “hit the numbers,” you’ll still need soft skills—such as emotional intelligence or interpersonal skills—to manage and inspire your team to get there. Empathy and sensitivity are increasingly valued workplace traits. Show your capacity for them.
Thorough preparation will help you feel confident and confidence will help the interviewers see you as a leader. But be careful not to over-rehearse exactly how you will tell your stories.
You shouldn’t present as overly polished in your interview, says Alli Polin, a leadership expert and Founder of Break the Frame Consulting. “The company wants to understand your philosophy and leadership style—not answers learned by rote,” Polin says.
A hiring team is looking for managers and leaders who are relatable and can think on their feet. Rehearsed speeches can come across as inauthentic.
In addition to developing their interpersonal skills, managers must be familiar with DEI principles, resources, and why they matter in the workplace. Be sure to go over these and be prepared to speak about diversity, equity, and inclusion in an interview.
Besides general talking points, such as “Walk me through your resume” and “Tell me your biggest weakness,” manager interview questions usually revolve around your leadership style and skills.
Here are 10 questions for managers you might be asked—and sample answers to help you ace your interview:
When asking this question, interviewers are looking for your knowledge of people and project management as well as communication skills. It should be easy for you to think of the most impactful project you led to answer this question, but a story will truly demonstrate your abilities.
Saying something like, “We had a goal to acquire 3,000 new customers by March and we hit it,” reveals a great win, but no leadership skills. Your answer needs to spell out what you specifically did to influence the successful outcome. The more specifics you include, the better able the interviewer will be able to see your talent and impact.
I was recently in charge of designing a marketing strategy for a premium version of our top-selling hiking shoes for new and existing customers on a short timeline. I led the team through several brainstorming sessions on potential campaigns. Since we were on a tight schedule, I laid out the exact type of ideas we were looking for ahead of the meetings and kept a close eye on the clock to make sure the discussions stayed on topic.
We came up with three campaigns we wanted to pursue, then laid out each step of all three to really break them down and see if we could implement the work on time. It became clear that if we wanted high-quality execution, we could either hire temporary people or implement two of our three ideas by the deadline. It was tough, but I chose to only focus on two with the existing team rather than risking not finding the right people to help us on short notice.
To me, quality always wins over quantity. I consulted with the project manager and the team to determine who was in charge of and responsible for each part of the campaigns. Together we developed key performance indicators (KPIs), such as how many customers we wanted to reach and how many interactions would lead to direct sales. Additionally, each team member came up with two personal goals, such as: ‘to reach out to colleagues more for input’ and ‘to slow down when I’m rushing so I don’t make a mistake.’
Lastly, we agreed that if someone was falling short of their deadlines, they needed to let the rest of the team know through our project management software and we could discuss the best way to proceed from there. Because we were all so clear on what needed to be done, who was doing what, and where they were in the process, we managed to accomplish our first set of goals ahead of schedule and the campaign ultimately exceeded our original sales goal by over 10%.
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