interview questions and answers for management

There's no worse feeling than when you're in an interview and the interviewer asks you a question to which you don't know the answer. There’s no guarantee about what you’ll be asked, but there are a number of questions that come up again and again. If you have powerful answers to these, it will help you to make a big impact.

Here are some of the most common interview questions and suggestions on how to answer them.

• Tell me about yourself?
• What are your biggest strengths?
• Why did you leave your last job?
• What are your career goals?
• What do you think are some of the most common ways people fail at management?
• What do you think the fundamental purpose of a manger is? (You’re looking for someone who knows it’s about getting things done, not something touchy-feely.)
• What experience do you have in setting budgets?
• Why do you want to work here?
• What is your greatest weakness?
• What do co-workers say about you?
• Are you applying for other jobs?
• What do you know about our organization?
• What kind of salary are you looking for?
• What factors are crucial within an organization and must be present for you to work most effectively?
• What has been the most difficult decision you have had to make as a manager?
• What has been the most significant achievement in your career so far? What makes it significant?
• What information do you need before making a decision?
• What interests you most about this position?
• What is one thing that you have had difficulty over coming in your career, and how did you do that?
• What is some of the most useful criticism you’ve ever received? Why?
• What is the difference between being a leader and being a manager? Which do you prefer to be?
• What is your definition of failure?
• What is your definition of success?
• What is your philosophy about management?
• What major challenges and problems did you face? How did you handle them?
• What methods have you used to evaluate employee’s job performance?
• What methods have you used to prioritize work assignments?
• What process do you use to establish key performance objectives for your area of responsibility?
• What signs do you look for to identify excellence? Incompetence?
• What stresses you most as a manager? What strategies do you have for dealing with this?
• What systems have you developed and implemented to improve operating efficiency in your department?
• What techniques do you use to motivate your team? Give an example of situation where you have done this successfully.
• What was the most difficult management decision you’ve ever had to make?
• What was your biggest accomplishment / failure in this position?
• What were your responsibilities at your current (or last) positions?
• What were your starting and final levels of compensation?
• What will success look like for you this year? Why is that important? How hard will it be to get there?
• What’s a common misconception some people have about you?
• What’s an example of a goal you didn’t meet? How come? How did you respond to that?
• When delegating a recent assignment, describe how you showed your confidence in the person’s ability to do the job?
• Which term best describes you as a manager – a micromanager or a macromanager? Why does this approach work best for you?
• Who are your best people? What are you doing to retain them?
• Who was your best manager and who was the worst?
• An important element for effective team working is for the team to share a vision and goals. How do you try to achieve this with teams that you lead?
• As a manager or supervisor, one of your jobs is to provide direction and leadership for a work unit. Describe how you have accomplished this in the past.
• Describe a problem you recently experienced with an employee who reported to you, how did you solve it?
• Describe a situation where you have had to introduce significant change into the team or organization. How did you approach this?
• Describe a situation where you have had to manage people who disliked each other and where this had an impact on the work of the team. How did you manage this? What was the outcome?
• Describe a situation where your technical competence has been an important factor in achieving results.
• Describe a time when you have had to work on projects that had competing deadlines. How did you prioritize? What was the outcome?
• Describe a time where you have had to deal with a staff member who was resentful or hostile towards you. How did you handle this? What was the outcome?
• Describe a time you had to provide training or coaching to different staff members on the same tasks.
• Describe an important project that you have managed and explain how you managed your team to complete the project from start to finish.
• Do you consider yourself a risk taker or do you like to play it safe?
• Do you feel that you are an organized person?
• Even the best bosses generate complaints from their employees now and then. What complaints do you think the people you’ve managed would have about you?
• Give me a specific example of when you had to clearly communicate your expectations to a subordinate.
• Give me an example of when you had to provide feedback to a staff member who was performing poorly, how did you go about this and what was the outcome?
• Describe the exact responsibilities and activities over which you had oversight for these employees.
• Describe the work environment or culture and its management style in which you have experienced the most success.
• Describe three personal values that underpin your approach to leadership. Then for each of these provide an example of how these are applied in your work.
• Describe what you do to develop your people.
• Have you ever been given criticism that you disagreed with? What was it? How did you handle that?
• How do you evaluate success?
• How do you handle stress and pressure?
• How do you manage your time?
• How do you plan to achieve those goals?
• How do you react to problems?
• How do you determine realistic schedules for the project?
• Explain your methods for resource allocation.
• How do you manage suppliers?
• How do you inform all the stakeholders of
• the progress of the project on a regular
• basis?
• How do you monitor risks to t
• he project and mitigate them?
• What tools do you use to monitor and control projects?
• What project management methodolog
• ies are you most familiar with?
• What project software have you used?
• What change management pr
• ocesses have you used to ensure that change is
• introduced properly?
• How has your management philosophy evolved as you’ve gained more management experience?
• How many employees reported directly to you in your management job?
• How would the people around you describe you?
• changing and fast paced environment?
• What applicable attributes / experience do you have?
• What are the recent trends in management that you have come across?
• What are you looking for in your next job? What is important to you?
• What are your goals for the next five years / ten years?
• What are your salary expectations?
• What are your strengths as a manager? Weaknesses
• If the people who know you were asked why you should be hired, what would they say? Best Answers
• If you knew a manager is 100% wrong about something how would you handle it?
• Please summarize your management experience for us.
• Talk about the balance between not micromanaging but still being involved enough to be able to catch problems early on.
• Talk me through a short term plan you developed and implemented for your department.
• Tell me about a time you were managing a poor performer. How did you handle it and what was the outcome?
• Tell me about a tough decision you had to make recently at work , how did you go about making the decision?
• Tell me about an employee who became more successful as a result of your management.
• Tell me about the steps you took to establish rapport with a new staff member.
• Tell me about your most recent high-level hire. How did you go about searching for the person?
• Tell us about a goal or objective that you weren’t able to achieve. Why did this happen? How did you handle this situation?
• We are a fast moving company and things are always changing, how do you think you will fit in with our ever 
• How would you describe the bar for performance at ___ (or in the department you manage)?
• How would you describe your leadership style? Please provide an example of your leadership style in action.
• How would you describe your management style?
• How would you describe yourself as a manager? How do you think others would describe you?
• How would your co-workers describe you?
• How would your subordinates describe you?

As such, interviewers will ask numerous questions to job candidates being considered for positions where teamwork is vital to better comprehend whether they would fit well with the Vacancy.