Common Leadership Interview Questions

Are you giving an interview for the position that requires you to have a leadership role? If this is the case, you will have to demonstrate your leadership skills through your answers in reply to interviewers’ questions.

Even if you have not applied for a leadership role, you may have to face questions related to leadership qualities. Leadership does not only mean that you have to manage others but also to set an example for your colleagues.

The interviewers prefer candidates who could motivate their team members to do their job efficiently. In other words, a leader extracts the best out of the people.

Therefore, you have to prepare for leadership-based questions. If you prepare in advance, you will be able to give all the answers confidently in front of the interviewer or the interviewing panel.

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How to Answer Leadership Interview Questions?

Prepare for the question by keeping in view the leadership skills that are of fundamental importance to the position. Read the job requirements and the criteria for candidates closely. When you have an idea as to what tasks you will perform, you will be in a better position to answer.

Also, you can analyze the basic characteristics of a leader such as conflict resolution skills, team-building skills, strong planning skills and others. When you have some essential expertise in mind, recall to your memory the situations when you have demonstrated these skills.

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You may not necessarily have to quote the example of management roles in an organization. You can give examples of the situation from your real life. For example, you can quote an example of the time when you have led a team for completing the college project.

Think of the time when you did any volunteer work, and you have shown leadership skills.

Come up with the STAR Interview Technique

During the interview, you may come across the behavioural interview questions. The purpose of these questions is to assess you based on your past work experience or your qualification. While answering such questions, use the STAR interview response strategy.

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S-Situation: Elaborate on the perspective of the situation. What was your role in that particular situation?

T-Task: What task did you perform in that situation? If you were talking in the context of a particular problem, elaborate what was it was?

A-Action: what was your action in that situation or which particular skill you used to solve the problem?

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R-Result: What was the result of that particular situation? Did you succeed in completing the task effectively, or did you manage to solve the problem?

STAR Example Question and Answer

Please provide an example of the situation when you had to work as a leader.

I worked as a Sales Assistant at my last job. The overall sales of my company were not up to the mark since the previous quarter. Company’s sales manager expressed concerns over this situation.

He asked all the salespeople to put forward some suggestions for improvement in the sales number. I planned a solution to the ongoing problem and gave a presentation about it.

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I suggested some changes to the sales training method. The sales manager appreciated my viewpoint and placed me as a supervisor of the task force to implement the solution. I supervised the team of five members, and we managed to develop and implement a new training strategy.

Resultantly, this solution improved our sales team’s skills and boosted their morale. Eventually, we overachieved our sales target for the next quarter.

Our manager acknowledged my efforts and said you supervised the team very well. He further said, due to the initiative that you took, the company has performed exceedingly well.

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The sales figure for that quarter compensated the shortfall for the previous two quarters. I worked hard to get the results, and I expertly communicated my plans to my team members. We all worked as a team; we shared our ideas.

The above example is a demonstration of leadership and problem-solving skills.

Frequently Asked Leadership Questions

Following is the list of frequently asked leadership questions.

• How can you utilize your previous experience to work well in this role?
• What were your duties or job description in your existing or last job?
• Who was your ideal manager, and what did you learn from them?
• What are your expectations of the manager?
• What are your views about working for your manager?
• If you were aware that your manager was wrong about something, how you dealt with this situation?

For the leadership role, the interviewers would ask you more questions to assess your confidence and skills.

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• What skills can you use for this organization?
• Why should the company select you?
• How can you significantly contribute to this organization?
• Why do you think you are suitable for this position?
• What are your previous manager’s views about you? If the company asks them about you, what will be their reply?

Questions About Self-Knowledge

• How do you gauge success?
• What is your major weakness?
• What are your major strengths or positive points?
• How do you cope with pressure or stress?
• What is the primary motivational factor you?
• In your opinion, what are the toughest decisions to make?
• Do people criticize you? If so, what do they specifically criticize?
• Do you like to be part of a team or work on your own?

Questions Related to Career and Salary Expectations 

• Why do you want to work for this particular company?
• What was your salary in your last job?
• What are your expectations in your next job? What is the essential aspect for you?
• What is your objective for the next five or ten years?
• What is your plan to pursue your goals?

Read More: Best Questions to Ask in a College Admission Interview

Final Word

Remember, all of the above questions are not related to leadership. However, it is better that you answer these questions in a manner that demonstrates your skills as a leader. These questions will provide you with the opportunity to make an impression on the hiring manager.