Sample Leadership Interview Questions and Answers

By the time you’re ready for a leadership position, you’ve undoubtedly had several job interviews. You must have performed well in those interviews to get where you are. This time, you’ll find a different vibe, and many leadership interview questions may be new to you.

You can expect interview questions for leadership positions to center around your ability to inspire and influence others, your project management track record, and your communication and decision-making skills.

Let’s look at what you can expect in a leadership interview, basic guidelines for how to answer interview questions about leadership, and some sample leadership interview questions and answers.

When Do You Need to Prepare for Leadership Interview Questions?

When a company is considering you for a promotion to a new position as a team leader, supervisor, or other management job, of course, you’ll need to prepare answers to interview questions about the leadership skills you have. But interview questions about leadership can pop up in your very first interview. That’s because employers want to assess if you’re suited for a future leadership role and how quickly you might be ready for one.

According to a report by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median length of time an employee will stay in a job is 4.4 years. Employees aged 25 to 34 stay in positions for just 2.8 years. To counter this, employers look for team members with leadership skills, even if they’re not applying to a leadership position. The common belief is since most people change jobs for better opportunities, the sooner they can identify and put someone in a leadership role, the longer they will stay. Employees with leadership skills are believed to be loyal, have high morale, and have fewer absences.

What Are Some Common Leadership Positions?

If you’re applying to one of these leadership positions, you’ll need to prepare strong responses to questions about your leadership skills:

• Assistant manager jobs
• Manager jobs
• Branch manager jobs
• Contract administrator jobs
• Engineering manager jobs
• Marketing director jobs
• Operations manager jobs
• Project manager jobs
• Product manager jobs
• Sales manager jobs

General Guidelines for Answering Leadership Interview Questions

Before we jump into showing you some common leadership interview questions and answers to prepare for, here are some tips to keep in mind for all interviews, especially those assessing your leadership skills.

1. Avoid Cliché Answers and Buzzwords

Interview questions for leaders will undoubtedly include the dreaded “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” question. Just make sure you don’t say, “My biggest weakness is that I work too much.” Instead, be upfront and let the job description guide you in forming a response. Also, avoid using the latest buzzwords.

2. Give Real-Life Examples

Be prepared to answer situational, hypothetical, and leadership behavioral interview questions. Take note of the interview questions for leaders’ behavior we use as examples below and practice answering them with stories from your past job or life experiences.

3. Work Leadership Skills Into Your Answers

Your interviewer will look for your leadership skills. Whenever you can, work into your answers how you’ve demonstrated these skills in the past:

• Behavioral Leadership: Give examples of how you’ve influenced the behavior or decisions of other team members.
• Project Leadership: Don't take all the credit when describing one of your projects. Instead, focus on how you led project team members to complete tasks.
• Decision-making: Work in examples of times you had to make tough decisions or when conditions were not ideal.
• Communication Skills: Your entire interview will test your communication skills. That’s why it’s a good idea to practice potential leadership interview questions and your answers so you can speak with ease.

7 Common Leadership Interview Questions

1. Walk Me Through a Project You Led and What Made It Successful.
2. Tell Me About a Decision That Was Difficult To Make. Did You Consult With Anyone?
3. Can You Tell Me About a Time When You Demonstrated Leadership Skills?
4. How Would You Increase Communication Across Departments?
5. How Do You Establish Priorities for Yourself and the People You Supervise?
6. Do You Have a Mentor, and When Was the Last Time You Met Them for Advice and Why?
7. Share Your Leadership Philosophy.

Question #1: Walk Me Through a Project You Led and What Made It Successful.

This leadership behavioral interview question assesses your organizational skills, ability to delegate tasks, and wisdom in leading a team.

• Briefly describe the reason for the project and the desired outcome.
• Talk about the team members and how you identified their strengths and delegated tasks to them.
• Report on the result.

How you could answer:

“At Company One, each department issued its own annual report. Condensing 12 months of goals, activity, results, and budgets into a few pages is a substantial task. That’s when it’s crucial you know each team member’s strengths.

We met and brainstormed what needed to be in the report and a theme. Person One was great at numbers, so they got the financial piece. Person Two was the most organized, so they made the list of all the significant projects we’d done and worked with Person Three, who was our best writer. We recruited Person Four from the graphics department to help with the design. We completed the project a couple of days before our deadline and received an award for best department report.”

Question #2: Tell Me About a Decision That Was Difficult to Make. Did You Consult With Anyone?

Your interviewer will ask leadership interview questions to learn how you make decisions and if you work with team members and management before making a significant decision.

• Describe the decision and the possible outcomes you considered.
• Discuss how you made the decision and who you asked for input. Highlight collaboration with other team members.
• Reveal the decision you made and how it was a success.

How you could answer:

“It was time to review supplier contracts. Although our pallet supplier had always given us great service, their price had increased considerably. Three of us gathered info and quotes from other suppliers—seven in all. We also asked the team in the warehouse what they thought was most important in deciding who to use. We narrowed it down to three companies, and each of us called a few of their customers.

Using the price, service, and reference information, we found our current supplier’s prices were not that far above their competitors, and it was worth it to get the excellent service they had always provided.”

Question #3: Can You Tell Me About a Time When You Demonstrated Leadership Skills?

Some leadership interview questions can apply to someone in a management position as well as someone an employer is considering promoting into leadership.

• Explain a challenge you faced.
• Describe how you worked with team members.
• Talk about the outcome.

How you could answer:

“One of the first times I was asked to manage a trade show event, I found that I was managing people. The team of seven included three people who had not worked on a trade show before. The first thing I did was pair up each new person with someone familiar with the show to be their guide and answer questions about how things worked. That enabled me to troubleshoot and keep things on time and within budget.

It worked out well. Things went smoothly, and the employees who mentored the new employees got leadership experience of their own.”

Question #4: How Would You Increase Communication Across Departments?

When departments communicate and work together, things get done quicker and without hassle. Department isolation is a common problem that adversely affects organizations. Listen for leadership interview questions about cross-functional communication and let the interviewer know it’s one of your skills.

• Don’t use the buzzword “siloing.” Instead, use conversational language like “isolation” and “lack of communication.”
• If you’ve had experience managing cross-department communication, describe the situation, your actions, and the outcome.
• If you haven’t had experience in this area, acknowledge the lack of communication and provide an example of how it could affect an organization. Then propose a solution to increase communication. Read up on what business consultants suggest.

How you could answer:

“It’s unproductive and hurts morale when departments don’t communicate, especially when they depend on each other to complete projects. Breaking the isolation needs to come from the top. When department managers agree to collaborate and communicate, team members follow suit.”

Question #5: How Do You Establish Priorities for Yourself and the People You Supervise?

One of your leadership interview questions will likely be about priorities. Leaders need to be organized, know how to prioritize multiple projects, and delegate effectively. Use your method or study project management models and pick one you identify with.

• Describe the criteria of that model.
• Explain how that model works.

How you could answer:

“Whether you’re prioritizing your own projects, or those of your department, you first need to organize, and have every project, its deadline, and its importance identified. Then you need to balance deadlines and importance in a matrix. Something with a tight deadline and high importance needs to be top priority. Conversely, a task with low importance and no specific deadline might be the easiest item on the list, but it needs to be at the bottom. You continue assigning deadlines and importance to each item until you have prioritized your list."

Question #6: Do You Have a Mentor, and When Was the Last Time You Met Them for Advice and Why?

Someone who has a good mentor is a better mentor. Leadership interview questions about mentors also gauge how well you take advice and whether you are ready to mentor someone.

• Talk about the importance of having a mentor.
• Briefly describe your mentor relationship, the last time you met and why, and their advice.
• State if you are currently mentoring anyone or that you are looking forward to being a mentor.

How you could answer:

“I met my mentor at an association meeting. They’ve been in this industry about 20 years. I have gotten so much from the relationship. We talk about successes and failures and what we learn from each. We last met a month ago to discuss my next career move. That’s how I decided to look for other opportunities. They helped me realize I had outgrown my current role, and although it's a great company, there is little room for me to grow. So here I am interviewing for a job with you. I hope to offer my experience and advice to my mentee once I settle in.”

Question #7: Share Your Leadership Philosophy.

This is a leadership-style interview question you can answer whether or not you’ve had experience managing a team.

• Read up on leadership roles and styles.
• Describe your style or that of someone you admire.
• Talk about why that philosophy or style works.

How you could answer:

“I believe the best leaders are coaches—in business and sports. A leader’s job is to support and guide the team. When you’re enthusiastic, your team will respond with enthusiasm. When you inspire rather than instruct, your team is inspired. The key to all of this is communication. You owe your team frequent, clear, and two-way communication.”

Answer This Question: Do You Want To Be a Leader?

Say yes by completing your Monster profile and uploading your resume. Then prepare to answer leadership interview questions. You’ll get the attention of recruiters and hiring managers looking for leaders like you! You’ll also get job postings and advice for your career as a leader sent straight to your inbox.