Icebreaker Questions

Explanation: Icebreaker questions are great to use in the beginning of the interview to...break the ice. It helps the candidate warm up because it's typically easier for the candidate to talk about themself. It's kinda like doing a light jog and dynamic stretches before starting a hard workout.

1. How did you hear about this role?
2. Why are you interested in this role?
3. How familiar are you with our company?
4. Describe your ideal role, responsibilities, and work environment.
5. What characteristics do you think are important to be successful in this role?
6. What is your understanding of the job and the expectations of the job?
7. What keeps you excited and engaged at work?
8. What is your proudest professional accomplishment?
9. What would you do during the first few weeks on the job to set yourself up for success?
10. What hesitations do you have about the role?
11. From what you’ve gathered so far during the interview process, what excites you about this position?
12. Considering what you know about this role, what would you like to achieve within the first 90 days on the job? First year?
13. What are your short-term (1-2 years) and long-term (5-10 years) career goals?
14. Ask followup questions based on previous interview notes.

Work Experience Questions

Explanation: Work Experience questions can give you more information about the candidate's qualifications and if what you have to offer matches what they're looking for.

1. Briefly walk me through your work experience.
2. Share with me your experience with ____.
3. What were some of your responsibilities at your last job?
4. What was your reason for leaving your last job?
5. What did you learn from your last job?
6. What was your biggest accomplishment at this job?
7. Is there anything in particular you would like to highlight about your work experience?

Miscellaneous Questions

Explanation: Miscellaneous questions can help tie up any loose ends.

1. What are your salary expectations for this position? (Typically asked by recruiter/hiring manager)
2. If you were offered this position, when would you be able to start? (Typically asked by recruiter/hiring manager)
3. Are you interviewing with any other companies at the moment? If so, how far are you in the process? (Typically asked by recruiter/hiring manager)
4. If I were to contact your previous supervisors or peers, what would be 3 things they would say about your work performance and why?
5. We’re always striving to be a great place to work. What can you bring to the table to contribute to this company goal?
6. Why do you think you would be the best candidate for this role?
7. Do you have any questions or additional information you would like to share regarding your qualifications?

Analytical Thinking

What this looks like

• Follows a systematic approach to problem solving and has an understanding of complex issues
• Knows which resources to use to obtain the most current and accurate data
• Identifies the cause-effect relationships and understands the ‘why’ behind each result
• Studies abnormal findings and outliers, and investigates further where warranted
• Interprets data, predicts future business impacts through what-if analysis, and draws conclusions for stakeholders

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time you didn’t have all the information you needed to make an informed decision. How did you resolve the issue?
2. Can you share with me your experience analyzing data? What have you analyzed and what did you do with that information?
3. What metrics do you track on a regular basis (e.g. conversion rates, number of new customers, expenses)? What do you do with this information?
4. When have you used Microsoft Office? (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) What did you use these programs for?
5. Tell me about a time when you disagreed with a colleague or manager’s approach of solving a problem or troubleshooting an issue. What did you do?

Situational Questions

1. When going through reports or large sets of data, what questions do you ask yourself when you’re analyzing the data? Walk me through your thought process.
2. A colleague wants to solve a problem in a certain way, but another colleague has a very different approach in mind. They ask you to decide on the right approach. What do you do?
3. How do you organize large datasets?
4. What are some metrics that you or your team should track but currently do not track? How would you use these to make future decisions?
5. If you need to make a time-sensitive decision before having all the information, what would you do?
6. There is a more efficient and less resource-intensive solution to a problem that would be very helpful to you and your colleagues. You try to convince your manager, but they don’t seem to understand. What do you do?
7. There’s a mistake in a report or data set made by your colleague or manager, but it has already been sent out to stakeholders. How would you handle the situation?

Attention to Detail

What this looks like

• Accomplishes assignments with high level of accuracy and thoroughness, such as proofreading a presentation for grammatical errors before giving a presentation
• Asks questions to ensure they understand what’s being asked of them and what the goal of the assignment is

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time the details of something you were doing were especially important. How did you attend to them?
2. Describe the things you do to control errors in your work. (Tell me about the last time those methods helped you? What did you do?)
3. We all have had occasions in which we were working on something and overlooked a small detail. Describe a time that happened to you. (What caused this to happen? What was the result?)
4. Have you ever had to sacrifice quality just to meet a deadline?
5. Tell me about a time when you made an error and what you did to correct it

Situational Questions

1. How do you ensure quality when there are tight deadlines? (How do you ensure both quality and quantity?)
2. How do you organize and manage your daily to-do items?
3. Do you have a method for identifying errors?
4. Would you describe yourself as someone who cares more about the big picture or the details?
5. How do you focus when there are distractions?

Coaching & Developing Others

What this looks like

• Builds rapport with employees to better understand their career goals and takes steps to optimize the employee’s potential
• Exercises courage when providing timely feedback, mentorship, and coaching to help employees learn and grow
• Listens and asks questions to understand employee’s point of view
• Helps employees identify their strengths and areas of opportunity and visualize how they’re going to achieve their career goal

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Describe a time you were able to turn around an employee’s work performance through coaching and feedback. What did you do? What were the results?
2. Describe a time when an employee was having difficulty accepting or completing a task. How did you deal with the situation?
3. Tell me about an instance when an employee failed to complete a task to your satisfaction. What went wrong and how did you respond?
4. Describe a situation where you had difficulty training someone on a particular job function. How did you address the difficulties?
5. How have you involved direct reports in identifying performance goals and expectations? (Give me an example.)
6. Give me an example of feedback and assistance you provided about failed performance. (What did you do? How did you do it? What happened next?)
7. Oftentimes it seems our high performers don’t need developmental feedback. Tell me about your highest performer. (How frequently have you met to discuss his or her performance?)
8. Describe a time when you were disappointed in the way you handled a situation with your team or direct report.

Situational Questions

1. What are your core values as a manager? How would you describe the ideal environment for your team and 1:1 relationship with your direct report? (How will you know you have been successful as a manager?)
2. Are you more effective as a leader in a group or one on one basis?
3. How would you go about recognizing an employee’s success?
4. How would you encourage the development of your employees?
5. How would you go about building unity among a team who disagrees?
6. How would you deliver bad news to your team (e.g. not meeting goals, departure of a direct report)?
7. How would you rally your team in difficult projects/ tasks?
8. In a few words, how would former employees describe your leadership style?
9. You heard from a direct report that two other employees are having a conflict, which is affecting the morale of the entire team. What would you do?
10. How would you delegate responsibilities to your team? (An employee expresses strong interest in a certain area they are not currently well-versed in. Currently, the employee is the top performer in a different area. How would you approach this?)

Communication Skills

What this looks like

• Writes and speaks clearly and concisely within all communication channels i.e., in person, email, phone, Slack, web conference, etc.
• Fosters two-way communication — ensures the receiver received the message the way it intended to be, while ensuring the sender also feels heard and understood
• Actively listens to others and seeks to understand without interrupting the speaker
• Maintains professionalism in all communication channels and strives to enhance relationships rather than create tension
• Is aware of the different behavioral and communication styles in the workplace (including verbal and non-verbal cues) and adjusts appropriately

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Share with me a time you had to actively listen to the other party’s feelings and needs in order to effectively resolve a conflict. How did you communicate with this person? What did you say or do?
2. What have you done in your past experience to create a positive environment for the entire organization?
3. When a new initiative or strategy is launched, people need to know about it. Describe a recent communication plan you put together for a new strategy or initiative.
4. Describe a time you had to convince a constituent group on a new approach to solving the same problem.
5. Tell me how you have developed your personal communication style. How would you describe it and how did you learn this approach? How do you evaluate its effectiveness?
6. Give me an example of a time where you were not listened to or communicated with effectively? What happened, how did you address it and what were the results?
7. Describe a time when you had to explain a particularly complex problem to a manager unfamiliar with the technology or system.
8. We have all experienced miscommunication at one time or another. 9. Tell me about a time when you failed to accurately convey a message to someone else and it caused a problem. What did you learn from that experience?
9. Tell me about a time when you misunderstood someone else. What happened and what did you learn?

Situational Questions

1. What are some things you think are important to communicate to your manager at work?
2. How would you go about training a new employee on a work process or procedure? How do you ensure he/she understands, retains and applies what they learned?
3. What does “strong communication skills” look like to you?
4. You need information from a senior director and have reached out twice. However, you haven’t received a response. What would you do?
5. Are your communication skills stronger in writing or verbally?

Conflict Resolution

What this looks like

• Seeks to resolve conflict versus winning them and focuses on maintaining and strengthening relationships with those involved
• Works well with others to tactfully resolve disagreements and strives to reach consensus before escalating to a third party (if necessary)
• Maintains composure under pressure and stress, and diffuses high-tension situations comfortably
• Recognizes differences in other’s behavioral and communication styles and adapts accordingly

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Give me an example of a time when you had to deal with a difficult colleague or manager. How did you handle the situation?
2. Describe a time when you strongly disagreed with your colleague’s recommendation or suggestion. What was the situation? What did you say or do?
3. Think about a situation in which you disagreed with the direction or idea that your manager suggested. How did you handle the situation?
4. Tell me about a time you had to be careful about what you said in order to address a concern effectively.
5. We have all made mistakes, and it can be difficult to own up to them. Describe a time when you admitted to making a mistake. What happened and how did you resolve the situation?
6. Describe a time you had to facilitate conflict resolution between two people or two groups of people and still remained objective. What happened and how did you handle the situation?
7. Often when people have big personality differences they experience conflict. Describe a personality conflict you had with someone else. What was the situation and how did you resolve it?

Situational Questions

1. Share with me a time a peer/colleague approached you about a problem they had with another coworker. How would you handle that situation?
2. How would you deal with different opinions when working on a team project?
3. If a colleague doesn’t do his/ her fair share of the job and it slows down the process, how would you handle the situation?
4. As a manager, how would you deal with your employees who disagree?
5. How would you handle a situation with a vendor/ client/ customer who is extremely upset?

Continuous Learning & Improvement

What this looks like

• Embodies a growth-mindset and continuously strives to improve on and learn new skills to develop oneself professionally and personally
• Takes ownership of their own development and seeks opportunities to build knowledge and become more effective by attending training courses, conferences, seminars, etc.
• Recognizes their strengths and areas of opportunities, but also proactively solicits feedback from managers and peers to identify for further improvement
• Asks questions when they don’t understand certain directions, projects, etc.

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time you received constructive feedback from your manager? What was the feedback, and what did you do with the information?
2. Tell me about a time you improved a process at work. Walk me through the initial process and why you thought it wasn’t working well. What steps did you take to improve the process? What was the end result?
3. Tell me about a time at work when you went against the grain or the way it’s “always been done.” Why did you decide not to do it the same way it’s always been done?
4. Tell me about a time where you felt defeated (you felt overwhelmed, your project wasn’t progressing as planned, your ideas were dismissed, etc.) How did you respond to the challenge?
5. Tell me about a time you decided to hone a certain skill set. What made you want to improve?

Situational Questions

1. What do you do to continuously improve your skills? What are some learning and development opportunities you have undertaken?
2. We all have room to improve. What do you feel is your area of opportunity?
3. If you could create a training program or workshop for your team, what would it be and why?
4. If you could attend any training program or workshop, what would it be and why?
5. What is the most memorable piece of advice you received from a training program or workshop?

Critical Thinking

What this looks like

• Asks questions and analyzes facts or problem in a clear and rational manner in order to make well-informed decisions
• Engages in a disciplined thought process with high emotional perception in order to identify and synthesize information
• Does not rely on emotional reasoning, make assumptions, or jump to conclusions in order to make decisions

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time you were approaching a deadline but were short of resources (time, money, staff, etc.). What happened and how did you handle the situation?
2. Tell me about a time you helped the company increase sales or save costs. Walk me through your thought process on how you achieved this task.
3. Tell me about a time you came up with a new and/or creative approach to solve a problem. What was the problem and what steps did you take to resolve it?
4. Tell me about a time you encountered a problem at work (i.e. losing sales, a bottleneck in the process, etc.). What happened and what steps did you take to resolve the issue? What was the end result?
5. Tell me about a time when you thought you had made a well-informed decision but it didn’t turn out the way you expected it to.

Situational Questions

1. Your teammate presents inaccurate information during a presentation with many senior directors in attendance. How would you handle this situation?
2. Your teammate makes frequent mistakes but neither acknowledges them nor makes any effort to correct them. How would you approach this situation?
3. What could you do to improve your critical thinking skills?
4. Think about a current pain point/ challenge in your role. How would you solve this problem? (How would you avoid this problem in the future?)
5. Think about a commonplace pain point/ challenge in your field/ industry (i.e. data security, privacy, HR). If your manager gives you 6 months and an endless budget to fix it, what’d be your creative solution?

Customer-Centric

What this looks like

• Strives for exceptional customer service in all interactions and “does whatever it takes” (within reason) to make the customer happy
• Builds rapport and establishes strong relationships with customers to understand their needs and foster brand loyalty
• Acts with urgency, empathy and patience when actively listening to customer concerns
• Is knowledgeable about the company’s/team’s products and services and educates the customer on best options for them
• Uses good judgment to balance between satisfying the customers and understanding the impact to the company
• Seeks out customer feedback to improve the user experience

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Providing excellent customer service is a cornerstone of our business. In your recent past experience, can you give me an example of how you have provided incredible service to an internal or external customer?
2. Can you give me a recent example of a customer complaint that you experienced and how you resolved it?
3. Tell me about a time you went above and beyond your job expectations to deliver excellent service to internal or external customers.
4. Tell me about a time you had to handle an angry or upset customer. What happened and how did you handle the situation?
5. Think of a time when you had to handle an unreasonable request from an internal or external customer. What did you do?
6. Describe a situation where you asked/ involved others to help solve an internal/external customer’s problem. What was the problem and how did involving others help or not help?
7. What system have you used to keep external/internal customers informed of the status of their project? (Give me an example of when you used this system.)

Situational Questions

1. Why do you think customer service is so important in your role/ at our company? How does poor customer service affect our company?
2. What are some companies that you think practice excellent client service? Why?
3. How would this new role help meet the needs of its customers?
4. How would you define a company that’s customer-centric?
5. If there were back-end problems with your product or service and you had to respond to clients’ complaints without having all the answers, how would you approach this situation?

Dealing with Ambiguity/Flexibility

What this looks like

• Strives for exceptional customer service in all interactions and “does whatever it takes” (within reason) to make the customer happy
• Builds rapport and establishes strong relationships with customers to understand their needs and foster brand

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. What have you done to accept and embrace change in the workplace?
2. Tell me about a time you were stressed or felt burnout due to change or ambiguity at work. How did you handle the situation?
3. Tell me about a time that you had to be flexible at work because of a change in plans. What happened and how did you handle the situation?
4. Tell me about a situation in which you had to adjust quickly to a change in organizational, departmental, or team priorities. How did the change affect you?
5. Describe a time when you were given new responsibilities. What adjustments did you have to make and how long did it take you to become proficient?
6. Tell me about a time you came up with a new and/or creative approach to solve a problem. What was the problem and what steps did you take to resolve it?
7. In your past experience at any of your companies, what have you done differently than your predecessors? Why?
8. Tell me about a time you were approaching a deadline but were short of resources (time, money, staff, etc.). What happened and how did you handle the situation?
9. When experimenting with new ways of doing things, we aren’t always successful. Can you tell me about a time when you proposed a new idea that didn’t work?
10. Describe a time when you lacked adequate tools or resources to complete a task on schedule and what actions you took to address the problem.
11. Tell me about a time at work when you thought, “There’s got to be a better way to do this,” and then you found one. How did you improve the situation?
12. Describe a time when you were asked to perform a task or spearhead an initiative that went against your values or you felt it wasn’t going to work. (Perhaps it seemed pointless to you) What did you do? What was the outcome?
13. Tell me about a time you were given a task or project with little or unclear direction. What was the project, how did you handle it, and what was the result?
14. Tell me about a meeting you had to lead on an unpopular topic. How did you deal with any objections that were raised?

Situational Questions

1. If you started your role and was provided no training, what would you do to ensure you succeed in the job?
2. Before attempting to solve an organizational problem, what factors do you consider to prepare for the discussion?
3. How would you adapt to changes you have no control over?
4. How do you usually approach unfamiliar tasks and projects?
5. When you have to learn and take on multiple new responsibilities at work, what would you do to speed up the learning process?

Decision-Making

What this looks like

• Identifies the problem or area of opportunity, reflects on possible solutions with input from respective stakeholders, and evaluates the pros and cons for each possible solution before implementing the most logical and rational plan of action
• Tracks business metrics and analyzes the progress and impact in order to determine whether the current plan of action needs to be modified

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Describe a complicated problem you have had to deal with on your job. (How did you identify or gain a better understanding of the problem?)
2. Describe a time when you weighed the pros and cons of a situation and decided not to take action, even though you were under pressure to do so.
3. Tell me about a time when you had to make a mission-critical decision on a project. (What criteria did you use? How did you gather the data you needed and how did you interpret and weigh it? What was the outcome?)
4. Tell me about a time you made a decision at work that resulted in an unfavorable outcome. What happened and what did you learn from the experience?
5. Describe a time you made an unpopular decision. How did you handle the feedback? How would you have handled the situation differently?

Situational Questions

1. Let’s say that there are many solutions to tackle the problem at hand. How do you decide? Walk me through your thought process.
2. What would be considered a “good” decision? What’s your criteria?
3. What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to decision making?
4. How do you assess the pros and cons before making a decision?
5. How do you analyze the progress and impact of your decision? What do you do if it’s not working out?

Delegation

What this looks like

• Relies on others to perform tasks as appropriate
• Clearly communicates expectations in a positive manner while ensuring the employee has the understanding, skills, and resources to successfully perform such task
• Observes, follows up periodically, and provides feedback to ensure completion of tasks without micromanaging the employee or process
• Empowers others to complete assignments within parameters

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Delegation can be difficult for many people. Tell me about a time when you reluctantly let go of a responsibility that was yours. Did you also delegate the authority to make decisions?
2. Give me an example of a time when you delegated a responsibility to someone and it didn’t work out. What went wrong?
3. Tell me about a time when you delegated a major responsibility to someone else and it went smoothly. What factors contributed to the success?
4. Describe a situation in which you assigned a complex task to a relatively inexperienced person. How did you ensure that progress was being made?
5. Give me an example of a time in which a task that you assigned was not completed on time and you didn’t find out until the deadline had arrived. What went wrong and what actions did you take afterwards?
6. Tell me about a long-term assignment or project of one of your subordinates/teams. How did you monitor the progress?

Situational Questions

1. How would you handle multiple tasks that all have an imminent deadline?
2. As a manager, how do you know when it’s time to delegate work to employees and who should get what?
3. If there is a new hire who needs constant check-ins and reminders regarding assignments, how would you handle the situation?
4. As a manager, what is your preferred method of supervision regarding delegated tasks? Are you a macro or micro manager?
5. Are there situations when you would never delegate a task? What task would you never delegate?

Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Belonging

What this looks like

• Identifies areas of opportunity and recommends strategies that will further the organization’s DEI initiatives by taking into account input from various stakeholders and affinity groups
• Demonstrates commitment to contributing to an inclusive working environment and valuing diversity and equity
• Researches and identifies external trends in similar organizations as relevant datapoints

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. What have you done in your experience to create a culture of inclusion and belonging on your team?
2. Tell me about a time when members of your team had difficulty adapting to the differences (professional, cultural, demographic, etc.) of others on the team. How did you handle the situation?
3. What have you done to further your knowledge or understanding about diversity or anti-racism? How have you applied your learning?
4. Share with me your experience with anti-racism work. What was your role? What were the results?
5. Tell me about a time you advocated for diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

Situational Questions

1. How would you handle a situation where a colleague was being culturally insensitive, sexist, racist, or homophobic?
2. What does diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging mean to you and why is it important in the workplace?
3. How would you contribute to this organization or team’s efforts to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion?
4. Have your thoughts about diversity, equity and inclusion changed over time? If so, in what way?
5. In your role, what do you anticipate will be the challenges when working on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues?
6. For individuals who don’t have a strong understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusion, how would you advocate for these initiatives?

Financial Acumen

What this looks like

1. Understands financial performance metrics s related to organizational goals, stakeholders, cash flow, profitability and understands implications of decisions
2. Understands financial statements and how to use financial statement analysis tools
3. Allocates fixed expenses toward predetermined areas of need and keeps flexible expenses for unanticipated needs

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. What financial reports have you created to manage your organization’s goals and objectives? How have you used these reports?
2. Describe a time when you effectively used financial data to diagnose a business problem.
3. Walk me through how you have ensured your organization’s priorities were appropriately reflected in your budget? How did you determine what was the priority? What was the impact of your decisions? Looking back, would you have done anything differently?
4. Tell me about a time when you needed to analyze financial information to identify trends and underlying issues. How did you organize the information? What conclusions did you draw?
5. Describe a time when you used financial data (including budgets, income and expenses) and an understanding of your organization’s needs to determine the optimum allocation of resources. What was the impact on your decisions? Looking back, would you have done anything differently?
6. Tell me about a time your funds were cut short or were substantially lower than you had budgeted for. What did you do to make ends meet? What was the end result?
7. Tell me about your experience fundraising for the organization (i.e. membership campaigns, donor relations, gift campaigns, writing grants, etc).
8. Tell me about a time you or the board were not happy about the financial performance of your organization. Walk me through what happened. How did you resolve the issue and what were the end results?
9. Tell me about a recent round of budgeting in which you had to adjust your initial budget recommendations down to meet organizational goals. What factors did you consider? How did you use financial data to make decisions?

Situational Questions

1. Share with me about your overall experience with financial statements, budgets and projections.
2. How do you approach budgeting and forecasting?
3. How would you foster an environment that encourages fiscal responsibility?
4. Assume that you started your role 1 week ago, and you’ve been approached with a new project plan for your team in regard to forecasting. How would you go about this situation?
5. What are some companies in the same industry that will likely have high profit margins? What are they doing that others aren’t? What are some of their good practices that our organization should emulate?

Influencing Others

What this looks like

• Builds credibility and is the go-to person that others look to for guidance and expert advice
• Motivates colleagues to support their initiatives and adopt their ideas without necessarily telling them what to do
• Confidently communicates their vision and goals while considering the needs of others
• Listens, asks questions and shows interest in others

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Share with me a time you motivated your team to drive the mission forward. What did you say or do? What was their reaction? What were the results?
2. Tell me about a time you had to persuade management or leadership to buy-in to an idea or proposal you had.
3. Describe a situation in which you had to convince a peer or subordinate to accept a decision that they were resisting. What was the result?
4. Tell me about a time when you had to inspire an unmotivated employee. What techniques did you use? Were you successful?
5. What was one of the best ideas you ever sold to a manager, team leader, peer or client? What was your approach?
6. What was one of the best ideas you tried but could not sell to a manager, team leader, peer or client? What did you learn from the experience?
7. Give me an example of a time when you influenced others to carry out a function or process in a new and different way. How did you enlist their cooperation?

Situational-Based Questions

• Would you consider yourself to be an influencer/ leader or a follower?
• What types of people would you have a difficult time persuading or getting along with?
• Do you have a skill or method that you use to persuade leadership or clients?
• How would you rate your influencing skills?
• What are some of the challenges you face when trying to get buy-in?

Innovation

What this looks like

• Continuously questions how to improve the product, service, and/or process and finds creative ways to increase profitability, productivity, and decrease expense
• Is up-to-date with trends and best practices and implements ideas to bring the team towards higher profit/revenue growth opportunities or better service for internal and external customers
• Is full of energy/passion, carries a positive attitude and remains optimistic about achieving possibilities, and sees failures as growth opportunities
• Takes calculated risks, executes, and achieves results even with limited resources — reduces risks and maximizes returns
• Has pride and takes ownership of growing their organization as if it was their business

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time when you were stuck on a particularly difficult problem and came up with a creative solution. What happened and what was the end result?
2. Can you give me an example of how you resolved a problem by thinking outside the box?
3. What is the most creative idea or project you have generated in your current role? How was it received?
4. Tell me about a time when your previous organization changed their process or standard because of your suggestions.
5. Tell me about a time when your previous organization rejected your suggestions.

Situational-Based Questions

1. What is an idea you recently suggested or an idea that you would suggest to someone? What was or would be the idea? What prompted the idea?
2. You pitched a great idea to your team, and they are very excited. You pitch it to the leadership team, but many are not convinced. What would you do?
3. In what ways have you encouraged your work team to be more creative and innovative?
4. If you had 1 month and a $10,000 to implement any of your ideas, what would it be?
5. How do you approach innovation? Walk me through your process.

Managing Change

What this looks like

• Demonstrates ability to be flexible and adaptable in new and ambiguous environments while maintaining positivity and optimism; is comfortable with uncertainty and risk
• Strives for a growth mindset, is resourceful and maintains productivity when making decisions without knowing all the details
• Understands continuous improvement and innovation are needed to stay relevant and competitive
• Implements changes and rallies others onboard

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a recent time when you thought, “There’s got to be a better way,” and then you found one.
2. Describe a time when you initiated a process change that had a big impact on the daily work activities of others. What impact did this new process have on work outcomes (e.g., productivity, quality, cost, efficiency, morale)?
3. Any new initiative involves change, and many people are uncomfortable with change. Tell me about a time when you helped people feel comfortable with a new business strategy.
4. Sometimes we strive to improve quality, efficiency or profitability, but aren’t successful. Tell me about a time you initiated a change to improve the organization, but the change did not have the intended impact. Why wasn’t the intended result achieved?
5. What systems have you put in place to recognize or reward staff members who suggest or make effective changes?

Situational-Based Questions

1. Describe the methods you’ve used to ensure that a particular change was being implemented as intended. Which methods were effective and which were not?
2. Walk me through your thought process for managing change.
3. Why do people resist change? When would you be opposed to change?
4. Do you usually measure the impact that change has on X (e.g. sales, productivity of the team)? How would you measure it?
5. What are the largest obstacles to change?

Managing Diversity/Anti-Racism Work

What this looks like

• Creates a team culture of psychological safety where employees can fully contribute, be their authentic selves, and feel a sense of belonging
• Maintains fairness and consistency when hiring, promoting, and measuring performance
• Acknowledges biases and different views of reality based on our privileges and how we can use them to become better allies
• Understands how gender and racial biases manifest in the workplace and take actions to counteract those impacts

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Share with me your experience with anti-racism work.
2. Please share an instance when you have demonstrated leadership or commitment to equity in your work.
3. What specific experiences have you had in anti-racism work? What role have you taken in addressing those concerns?
4. What is the most challenging situation dealing with diversity that you have faced and how did you handle it?
5. Have you ever realized you had said or done something at work that may have been offensive to the other person? How did you respond to that realization, and what was the outcome?
6. Tell me about a time when someone pointed out to you a way in which something you did or said could be construed as racist or offensive to another. What did that feel like and how did you respond?
7. In your past experiences where you have identified a need for broader representation in any place within your organization (for example, increasing black representation on the engineering team); how have you approached this and what were the results?

Situational-Based Questions

1. What does it mean for you to have a commitment to diversity? How have you demonstrated that commitment, and how would you see yourself demonstrating it here?
2. What does leveraging diversity mean to you? Describe specific examples of how you have applied that concept in the workplace. (How would you apply that concept here?)
3. How would you handle a situation where an employee was being culturally insensitive, sexist, racist, or homophobic to another employee?
4. What does diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging mean to you and why is it important in the workplace?
5. How would you contribute to this organization or team’s efforts to enhance diversity, equity and inclusion?
6. Have your thoughts about diversity, equity and inclusion changed over time? If so, in what way?
7. In your role, what do you anticipate will be the challenges when working on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues?
8. For individuals who don’t have a strong understanding of the importance of diversity and inclusion, how would you advocate for these initiatives?

Managing Stress/Time Management

What this looks like

• Allocates time accordingly to respective assignments and projects by planning in-advance in order to maximize efficiency
• Adopts tools for time management, such as time blocking or writing action items in agenda, in order to increase productivity and reduce distractions
• Finds ways to keep stress under control or finds preventive measures from stress building up (i.e. informing manager of the workload before getting overwhelmed, delegating tasks, asking for help, having a 30 minute or 1 hour lunch break without any work-related interruptions)

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time you felt stress or burnout in your past role. What happened and how did you resolve that situation?
2. Tell me about a time you prevented a situation from getting too stressful to manage?
3. Tell me about a time you had multiple tasks at the same time. How did you organize yourself to produce quality work under tight deadlines?
4. What’s the most stressful situation you’ve had at work? How did you handle it?
5. Tell me about a time you missed a deadline at work. What was the situation and what did you learn from it?
6. Tell me about a time you had to juggle competing priorities/projects. What was the situation and what steps did you take to handle the situation? What was the end result?
7. Tell me about a time you missed a deadline at work. What was the situation and what did you learn from it?
8. How do you keep meetings on track? Tell me about a specific meeting in which you used this strategy.
9. Sometimes we are faced with unreasonable deadlines on our projects. Tell me about an important project you were working on that had an unreasonable deadline. How did you react?
10. Tell me about a cross-functional task force/project/committee/ team you led. How did you understand and balance the varying needs of each of the functions?

Situational-Based Questions

1. How do you stay organized and ensure you get things done? What is your system to stay organized?
2. How do you prioritize your tasks? How do you know what to work on first, second, third, etc.?
3. Your manager asks you to prepare a presentation by the end of the week. You are already covering for a colleague who is out on vacation and you have another project, which you were hoping to finish by the end of the week. What do you do?
4. What are the most stressful aspects in your current role? What do you anticipate would be the most stressful aspects in this role?
5. Everyone reacts differently to tight deadlines or an overwhelming amount of workload. How do you handle stressful situations?

Negotiation

What this looks like

• Thinks clearly under pressure and uncertainty and is not afraid to express one’s thoughts verbally when appropriate
• Listens carefully to the other party, thinks about possible areas of compromise and agreement, and persuades the other party on areas that aren’t compromisable
• Knows the subject matter being negotiated and prepares in advance with respective stakeholders on key objectives and terms that are and aren’t compromisable

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Give me an example of how you negotiated with others to reach an agreement.
2. What negotiation successes are you most proud of? Why?
3. Give me an example of a win-win proposal you negotiated.
4. Sometimes, there’s just no room to compromise when working on an important project. Give me an example of a project you worked on in which you had to make non-negotiable demands of others. What happened? How did they respond?
5. We’ve all experienced important negotiations that have failed. Give me an example of an important negotiation in which you were involved that failed. What went wrong? What did you learn from the experience?
6. Walk me through a negotiation of which you are particularly proud. What was your role? What type of preparation did you do? How was that data used?

Situational-Based Questions

1. Let’s assume that you are at a deadlock in negotiations right now. What do you do?
2. What’s your definition of having a successful negotiation?
3. Do you plan for negotiations such as setting goals in advance? How flexible/ inflexible are those pre-determined goals and objectives?
4. How would you describe your negotiation style? How would your counterpart describe your negotiation style?
5. Do you think BATNA (best alternative to a negotiated agreement) is helpful in negotiations?

Performance Management

What this looks like

• Works with employees to set and achieve performance goals aligned to the company’s business goals and objectives
• Provides ongoing, honest and actionable feedback to help individuals correct behaviors and know where they stand
• Sets SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Aligned, Relevant, Time-bound)
• Listens and asks questions to understand employee’s point of view and provide coaching for further growth and development
• Rewards and recognizes employees and team in a fair and prompt manner

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time you had to resolve a conflict between two employees. What was the situation and what steps did you take to resolve it?
2. Describe a time when you had to deal with confidential or sensitive information about an employee or the company. How did you ensure its confidentiality?
3. Tell me about a time when you provided honest feedback to individuals but they did not take it well. What did you do?
4. Tell me about a time when you found performance management to be very rewarding or extremely difficult.
5. Tell me about a time when an employee disagreed with your appraisal of their performance. What did they do? What did you do? What was the outcome?

Situational-Based Questions

1. What do you do to ensure your employees are doing their best work?
2. How do you recognize employees who are performing highly? How do you approach employees who are performing poorly?
3. How often do you have check-ins with your direct reports? Have you been satisfied with the cadence of your check-ins?
4. What made you decide you wanted to become a manager?
5. How do you ensure you’re providing consistent information to everyone on your team, such as ensuring everyone is aware of all the work rules and policies?
6. Does your organization require you to use certain competencies or do you choose the competencies that will be evaluated? What are your thoughts on your organizations’ performance management review process? (If you could change it, what would you change?)

Presentation & Public Speaking

What this looks like

• Structures the presentation (including the agenda, goals and objectives) in a clear, concise and organized manner to optimize audience engagement and understanding of the presentation material
• Tailors each presentation to the target audience, and anticipates and addresses their needs and concerns with ease
• Shows confidence, poise, and expertise when speaking in front of a group of people through the effective use of body language and voice i.e., eye contact, hand gestures, word choice, tone of voice, etc.
• Uses a dynamic variety of resources to complement the presentation i.e., slides, visual aids, questions to the audience, etc.

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time when you had to prepare a formal presentation. How did you organize the information?
2. Tell me about a time when you were apprehensive about giving a presentation. Why were you apprehensive? How did you handle the situation?
3. Tell me about a time when a member from the audience asked a difficult question and how you responded to it.
4. Tell me about your best formal presentation. What was the subject? Audience? What feedback did you receive? Why do you think it was your best?
5. Tell me about the most important presentation you had to make. How did you prepare and how did it go?
6. Share with me a time you had to present in front of a board. How did you prepare for the presentation? How did it go? What were the end results?
7. Describe a time when you had to announce bad news to your team.

Situational-Based Questions

1. How do you modify your presentations for different audiences? (e.g. people with and without technical backgrounds)
2. How do you prepare before delivering a presentation?
3. What has been your experience with public speaking in front of small and large audiences?
4. What do you enjoy or hate about public speaking?
5. Regarding public speaking or delivering presentations, what is a specific area you wish you could become more confident in?

Project Management

What this looks like

• Plans, executes, monitors, and controls projects from start to finish while ensuring high quality of deliverables
• Manages an efficient and transparent process with identified goals, objectives, responsibilities and milestones
• Coordinates available resources, stays within allocated budget, manages risks appropriately and meets target deadlines
• Remains in constant communication with key stakeholders to report on progress, obtain feedback, and ensure project deliverables are on track and aligns with business goals
• Gets things done by managing relationships with project stakeholders, team members, subject matter experts

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Describe a time when you lacked adequate tools or resources to complete a project on schedule and what actions you took to address the problem.
2. Tell me about one project you’ve worked on that you’re particularly proud of. What makes that project stand out from the rest?
3. Share with me one of the best projects or initiatives you executed. What happened and what contributed to that success?
4. Tell me about a project when you realized that it was going off-track or it was behind schedule. How did you know? What did you do?
5. Tell me about a project when you made a big mistake.

Situational-Based Questions

1. As a project manager, what do you see as your role in the company?
2. What is the most challenging project you’ve managed? What happened and what was the result?
3. If a project that you were working on ran into unexpected challenges and the schedule has been delayed, what would you do to get it back on track?
4. How would coworkers describe your leadership and communication style?
5. How do you delegate tasks? Are there certain tools you use to plan the project and monitor its progress?

Relationship Building

What this looks like

• Demonstrates empathy, respect and genuine concern for others
• Understands relationships are long-term investments and not short-lived gestures for immediate gain
• Easily gains trust and support from people at all levels across the organization
• Is team-oriented and can quickly find common ground to solve problems together

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. What have you done in your past experience to strengthen your relationships with your colleagues and key stakeholders?
2. Share with me about a work relationship where you didn’t see eye-to-eye with the other person. What did you do to work with this person?
3. Tell me about a time when you had difficulty bringing a person along to see your vision for the organization. [Perhaps they were resistant or lacked belief or did not support your ideas]. Were you able to move them into the supporter camp? If not, why not? If so, what do you attribute that to?
4. Provide an example of a time where you felt you were not supported by your leaders, staff, community or organization. How did that turn out?
5. What have you done in your past experience to establish trust and rapport with all your stakeholders even though each group’s priorities may conflict at times?
6. Tell me about a time at work when you objectively considered others’ ideas, even when they conflicted with yours.
7. Give me an example of a time you went the extra mile for your colleagues or team. What happened and why did you feel it was important to act the way you did?
8. Tell me about a time when you had difficulty working with a peer or someone outside your group to accomplish a task. Did you achieve your goals? If so, how? If not, why not?
9. Describe an instance when you had to make a sacrifice to help someone else accomplish an important goal.
10. Describe a situation in which you worked with people from several organizations to develop a tool or process that you would all use. (What sacrifices and compromises were made? How did you convince others to agree with you on some points?)

Situational-Based Questions

1. Walk me through the different relationships and stakeholders you have worked with in your previous role.
2. What partnerships have you developed that you are particularly proud of and what was the business impact as a result of these partnerships?
3. What aspects of the way you operate at work have created a positive impact and/or impression on others? Please provide examples.
4. What do you consider to be a key ingredient in building a strong relationship with a colleague or direct report?
5. How do you approach building new relationships? Give me a few examples.

Servant Leadership

What this looks like

• Uses persuasion and strong communication skills to build consensus within the team and motivate action toward a common goal
• Recognizes one’s own areas for improvement and works on improving them; leads by example and sets the right example for the team
• Considers the employees’ needs and encourages them to seek learning and development opportunities by providing mentorship or connecting them to mentors who are a good fit

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. How have you set your staff members up for success and ensure your organization is effective even without your presence?
2. Share with me your proudest moment developing a staff member. How did you develop this individual? What were the end results?
3. Have you asked your direct reports or peers to provide you with feedback on your leadership impact? What feedback did you receive?
4. Tell me about a time you coached an employee who did not improve. Why do you think it was unsuccessful? Would you have done anything differently?
5. Share with me a time you had missed an opportunity to deliver constructive feedback to a direct report. What happened and what did you learn from that experience?

Situational-Based Questions

1. How have you evolved and grown as a leader?
2. Should you be offered this position, what do you believe will be the most rewarding part of this position for you?
3. Describe your leadership style. What is it like to work for you?
4. When is it most difficult for you to be a servant leader as opposed to a more authoritative leader who is in control?
5. What is the hardest aspect of building and maintaining a tight-knit community?

Strategy & Execution

What this looks like

• Ensures all stakeholders align on the strategic plan and communicates strategy execution to employees by sharing context for what it is and a common understanding of why it’s important
• Does not fear adjusting strategy execution as new situations and opportunities arise
• Uses data, metrics and/or key performance indicators (KPIs) to make informed business decisions and observe areas for improvement

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. What factors do you consider when developing a strategic direction for your organization? Tell me about a strategy you created based on those factors. (Factors should include things such as mission, organizational goals and objectives, costs, benefits, risks, timing, buy-in, etc.)
2. When setting your organization’s strategic direction, you need to understand key economic, social, and other trends. Tell me about a time when you needed to consider these trends as you set the strategy. How did you use the information?
3. Describe the last time you evaluated your organization’s performance against your business strategy. What did you look for? What actions did you take after your discovery?
4. During the year, environment, social and economic changes can make a business strategy obsolete. Give me a recent example of when you had to make a midyear correction because of such factors.
5. Competing strategic priorities in an organization can be a major obstacle to success. Describe a time when you had to remove obstacles for your strategy to be a success.
6. When launching new strategies or initiatives, we often ask people to do things they have not done before. Have you ever had to develop people to drive a new strategy? What happened and what were the end results?
7. Tell me about one of the most innovative strategies or methods you have used to implement organizational initiatives.
8. Tell me about a time when you had to translate the organization’s vision into a practical action plan.
9. Not every new strategy delivers its intended results. Can you think of a time when a strategy you implemented did not meet its goals? Why didn’t it? What lessons did you learn?
10. When setting a strategy, we set timeline and milestone objectives. Can you think of a time when timelines or objectives needed to be changed in the middle of a project? How did you adjust to the new circumstances?
11. Share with me one of the best projects or initiatives you executed. What happened and what contributed to that success?
12. Tell me about a time you were juggling several different priorities under a tight deadline? How did you ensure you accomplished what you needed to?

Situational-Based Questions

1. Major initiatives include many phases in the project rollout. How have you managed and measured your team’s progress to ensure that an initiative was on track to meet its objectives?
2. What strategies have you employed to make sure that a major new directive was carried out successfully? Give me examples of a strategy that worked and one that didn’t. Why did it/did it not work?
3. What was the most significant change you brought about in your organization? What approach did you use to create commitment to the change?
4. How do/ would you help a board decide which of many possible strategies are most likely to bring success? Give me a recent example of how you helped your board prioritize various strategies.
5. You are in a situation where you must leverage your staff to accomplish a goal. How would you get your team to achieve the desired results?

Teamwork & Collaboration

What this looks like

• Willingly works with others and strives towards a common goal for the team’s collective success
• Considers best interest of the collective team above interest of self
• Shares thoughts and ideas, as well as, listens to others points of view (and actively solicits others opinions)
• Gives equal weight to others’ needs and concerns when suggesting alternatives and making decisions
• Recognizes and treats all managers and colleagues with kindness and respect (even in times of conflict)
• Gives credit where credit is due

Behavioral-Based Questions

1. Tell me about a time you were on a successful team at work. In your view, what made the team successful?
2. Describe a disappointing team experience. What could have been done to make it a better experience?
3. Tell me about a time when you had to work with a colleague you didn’t get along with. How did you handle the situation?
4. Tell me about a project you worked on where the team or you thought someone was a stand-out team player. What did they do or what kind of traits did they have that have that made them stand-out to you?
5. Tell me about a project where you would have preferred to work on a team instead of independently or vice versa.

Situational-Based Questions

1. What would you do if a colleague wasn’t doing his/her fair share of the job?
2. Do you like to work independently or with a team? Why?
3. How are you a team player?
4. How would your teammates describe your role as a team member?
5. How would you improve your teamwork skills?