If you are preparing for a senior position interview that means you have been interviewed successfully in the past. However, despite your expertise in acing interviews, it will still be helpful to prepare in advance and review some of the typical interview questions and how to answer them.

Managers play an integral role in ensuring the company achieves its goals regarding performance and growth. Their responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• planning the operations to facilitate the achievement of goals of the organization.
• Organizing and implementing the required strategies to ensure productivity.
• Directing by providing employees with relevant guidelines, resources, training, guidance, leadership and support.
• Monitor to ensure that the policies implemented are working towards achieving the set objectives.
• Evaluating the success of the objectives, the strategies, resource and employee allocation using valid, reliable measures.

What questions should I expect during the interview?

When recruiting for senior positions, hiring managers look for experienced candidates who possess an in-depth comprehension of the industry and the business objectives. Recruiters aim to test the candidate’s knowledge as well as seek out soft skills and traits that are vital to senior level positions.

Therefore, during the interview for a management position the questions asked will focus on determining your experience level, your management style, what you’ve accomplished in your past roles and the expectations you have for future positions. The hiring team will ask questions to determine how well you will fit into the organization and how effective you’ll be in that role.

While crafting your answers, focus on providing specific, quantifiable examples from your previous work experience. However, if you’re interviewing for a trainee management role, you may not be expected to have a lot of related work experience, but the recruiter will be more interested in determining whether you can lead groups, delegate tasks and perform other related duties. You can provide examples from school activities that demonstrate how you’re qualified.

Sample interview questions for managers

Most interview questions for managerial positions focus on two distinctive aspects – whether the candidate is capable of achieving results and how well you can deal with people. Managers are expected to set the tone for the team and ensure that you share the organization’s values, goals and culture to be able to lead effectively. Below are some common managerial interview questions.

1. What strategies would you use to motivate and inspire your team?
2. What is your management style?
3. Describe your most significant accomplishment and failure, if any, in your previous role?
4. Describe a situation where you had to make a difficult decision
5. What approach do you use when it comes to delegating work? How do you ensure that tasks are completed?
6. How do you deal with pressure or stressful situations?
7. Where do you see yourself in the next X years?
8. How would you inform a colleague that he/she was underperforming?
9. Describe a project that you successfully managed, the challenges you faced and how you overcame them?
10. What significant problems and challenges did you encounter in your most recent role? How did you handle them?
11. Describe how you managed a problem employee/team member?
12. How long have you been a manager and how many people have you managed?
13. How would you describe the most important contributions of a manager in the workplace?
14. What is your decision-making process?
15. How would you handle a project that was running over budget?

General interview tips for managerial positions

a) Interviewing tips (for hiring managers)

• When interviewing candidates for managerial positions ask them to describe their previous work experience and provide specific examples. This will allow you, the recruiter, to understand their management style and determine if they’re the ideal candidate for your company.
• Ensure that the candidate you select shares the same goals with regards to your company’s plans, It’s best to consider managers as long-term partners of the company.
• Keep a lookout on candidates who illustrate creativity and innovativeness. The new hire can provide practical and new perspectives to help improve the company’s performance.
• Refrain from rejecting candidates who lack relevant experience in the field. Instead provide further tests to gauge their understanding of basic terms, concept and their willingness to learn.

b) Interview tips for candidates

Prepare in advance
Ensure that you have adequate time to prepare for the interview by reviewing common interview questions. Remember, recruiters, want to determine whether you have encountered challenges or problems in the past and how you handled them, your long-term goals for your career and if you’ll be the ideal fit for the role. Also be ready for some curveball questions. Managers are expected to be able to think on their feet and remain calm even in difficult situations.

Demonstrate your management skills during the interview
Ask for clarification when needed, stay positive and concentrate on the challenge-the interview, and look for opportunities to demonstrate your qualifications and successes.

What to Avoid: Mistakes candidates make during interviews

While predicting the outcome of interviews is a daunting task for all the parties involved, there are certain aspects recruiters consider when interviewing candidates. These include:

Not providing solid answers to interview questions
Hiring managers will reject candidates who fail to provide precise responses during interviews. Therefore, candidates need to focus on articulating answers with relevant examples that can demonstrate how your skills, accomplishments and qualifications are related to the position.
A general rule of thumb to follow when answering these questions is using the star technique and provide answers that illustrate a situation, task, action and the result. This will help you give the recruiters a clear insight of your qualifications and determine whether you are the perfect fit for the job.

Speaking poorly about former employer or colleagues
Avoid bringing up topics about wrongful termination, financial struggles or horrible bosses, stay on course-focus on why you are interviewing for the role. Focus on convincing the hiring manager how and why you are the ideal candidate for the position. Consider focusing on your successes and the positive aspects of your former job.

Providing unrealistic answers
Everyone wants to make an impression and land the job. Therefore, to be in a good position, enter the interview room well-prepared. Go through interview questions and articulate how you would answer them. Review the job requirements as stated in the job description and consider formulating your answers based on these. Try as much as possible to be realistic and illustrate how you qualify for this job by using relevant examples.

Assigning blame
Interviewing for senior positions means having the capability to be accountable for your actions. Demonstrating your inability to be responsible by assigning blame to colleagues or lack of resources is not the best way to go.

Lack of interest and inflexibility
Team motivation starts with the manager. The candidate should demonstrate his/her interest to inspire other team members to be more productive towards achieving or even surpassing the goals of the organization. They need to be passionate about the role and interests of the organization. Also, a good manager should be able to promote team spirit and accept new ideas. Therefore, when crafting your answers focus on demonstrating your collaboration skills and openness to new ideas.