30 interview questions for managers and how to answer them

Applying for management role means you’re asking for a lot of responsibility. 

At any company, your role as a manager is to also act as a go-between, transporting messages and objectives between company leadership and teams. You need to transform organizational visions into results-driven work within your department and help your team members encourage organizational growth and change. 

Standing out from a list of applicants is crucial in your interview to prove that you can balance these responsibilities. That’s why hiring managers and recruiters take special care to find the proper candidate, seeking out people with the right mix of leadership skills, competency, and cultural fit. 

Prior to a job interview, a hiring manager reviews your resume and other relevant materials, like your LinkedIn profile and letter of interest. While written materials sketch an outline of your potential, the job interview is the place to judge whether you fit the job description, work environment, and company values. 

Even the most experienced manager should prepare for a job interview ahead of time. It prompts self-reflection, helps you identify key work experiences, and gives you the chance to workshop example answers. Responding on the fly could make you misrepresent yourself or lose out on opportunities to show off your most relevant strengths. 

If you’re applying to a managerial role, we have you covered. We’ve put together 20 common interview questions for managers with sample answers to help you stand out. And if you’re a hiring manager looking for the next manager to join your team, we have a list of 10 strategic interview questions to ask candidates to learn whether they’re the right leader for your organization.

3 tips to ace management position interview questions

Job interviews are more than just answering questions about your work experience and expertise. The key to management interview questions is aligning your value with the company’s vision and overarching goals. Flexing your interview skills isn’t just about showcasing what you bring to the table but how you seamlessly fit into the organization. 

Here are three tips to effectively respond to interview questions for a manager position.

1. Do your research

Managers are a direct reflection of the company culture. While a healthy work environment will encourage you to embrace your unique leadership style, hiring managers want culture fits and management skills that align with the company’s core values. 

Before your interview, conduct some research about the company. Check out their social media, company website, and other public materials, like an inspiring TED Talk with the CEO. The way a company articulates itself reflects how it operates internally. Pay attention to the terms they use in the job posting or on the company website, mission statements, and long-term visions. If the CEO mentions the importance of “resilience in the face of an ever-changing world,” emphasizing your adaptability to change will make you stand out from other candidates. 

This is also an opportunity to identify whether the company is a cultural fit for you. If your values misalign, it’s a sign to ask questions and pay careful attention to your interactions during the hiring process. 

2. Use the STAR method

The STAR interview method is a common technique for answering interview questions. STAR stands for situation, task, action, and result. It's a storytelling method to transform your answers into engaging narratives. To prepare for the interview, think of pivotal work experiences and recount them by: 

• Defining the situation 
• Identifying your role in solving the problem
• Explaining the action you took
• Closing with measurable results

Giving answers with a narrative arc will help hiring managers envision you in the role, making it clear how your know-how, expertise, and management style will be applied on the job. To nail your delivery, you can practice a mock interview with a trusted colleague, mentor, or career coach. 

3. Ask questions

It takes two to lead a successful interview. The job interview isn’t just an opportunity for a hiring manager to size you up. It’s also your chance to decide whether the job suits you. 

Asking a potential employer unique interview questions will help you clarify your biggest concerns. However, there are time constraints and other candidates to interview. Write down a list of your most pressing questions, like specificities about the job or opportunities for professional development within the company. Prioritize your questions by importance — this will help you ask pointed follow-up questions or use your time for questions at the end of the interview effectively. 

Additionally, being prepared with a list of questions is a good signal for a potential employer. It shows you’re engaged, thoughtful, and serious about the job.

20 common interview questions for a manager position

Every management role prompts a unique set of questions designed to understand your competencies, expertise, and personality. You can also count on questions that hit the foundations of good management, like your ability to solve problems, collaborate, and make decisions. 

To help you self-reflect and workshop your answers, here are several types of management interview questions and answers.

Questions about background and experience 

Most interviews start off with a “tell me about yourself” question. Interviewers want to know about your background and how you arrived at this point in your career. Plus, the information you choose to share reveals insights into your priorities and professional identity, like your desired career path and professional goals. Here are relevant questions an interviewer might ask to understand more about your background and work experience: 

1. How have your previous roles shaped your managerial style? 
2. Have you always identified as a leader?
3. What are your career goals for the next five years? 
4. What excites you the most about working in a management role? What excites you the least? 
5. Why do you want to take on a leadership role for our company? 

Questions about decision-making 

A manager’s decisions have the power to innovate or stagnate team dynamics, organizational success, and resource management. Understanding your problem-solving and critical thinking skills is crucial to hiring managers, helping them gauge if you’ll mitigate or exacerbate risk. 

Questions about your decision-making will likely be situational questions. You can prepare by reflecting on past challenges and important decisions. Here are some queries they might ask: 

1. Tell me about a challenging decision you had to make and the process behind it. 
2. Have you ever had to make a decision without all the necessary information? How did you handle the situation? 
3. How do you involve your team members in the decision-making process? 
4. Tell me about a time you made a decision that wasn’t popular with the majority of the team. How did you handle it? 
5. Do you welcome your direct reports to challenge your decisions or ask questions about how you reach conclusions? 

Questions about leadership

Leading a team to success requires you to walk a tightrope, balancing professionalism and authority with humility and personableness. A Gallup study found that a team's engagement is overwhelmingly determined by how they’re managed. 

Hiring managers know this and look for soft skills that will motivate and inspire, which in turn engages and retains employees. Highlighting approaches to conflict resolution, performance reviews, or communication skills will show hiring managers that you have the empathy and self-awareness to engage the teams you lead. These questions judge your propensity for leadership:

1. How would you describe your communication style?
2. How do you approach giving constructive feedback to team members, both positive and negative? 
3. How do you deal with performance issues? 
4. What’s your balance between being a leader and a team player?
5. Can you describe a specific example of making a decision that put the team’s needs before your own? 

Questions about management and strategic planning

The best managers do more than provide oversight. Even during hectic days (or months), effective managers strike a balance between daily objectives and broader business goals. Highlighting your ability to delegate tasks and align team efforts with specific examples can elevate your candidacy. Here are some questions to prepare:

1. How do you prioritize tasks for effective project management? What strategies do you use to ensure team members are clear on responsibilities?
2. Can you tell me about a time when a project didn’t go to plan? How did you get back on course?
3. How do you measure the success of a project beyond completing it on time? 
4. How do you align short-term project goals with a company’s long-term strategic objectives?
5. How do you decide what tasks to delegate and which to handle yourself? 

Sample answers

If you’re nervous about giving a bad interview, seeing examples of answers can inspire you and help ease your mind. Pay attention to structure and how measurable examples are used to highlight value. From there, mix and match your own responses. 

Here are a few sample manager interview questions and answers: 

• How do you decide what tasks to delegate tasks to your team members?

In my role as a [current position], I was in charge of [briefly explain most relevant job responsibility] and led a team of [number of team members and job roles].

Every project or task is different, and my approach is always to examine the scope of each project first. I start by weighing out urgency, complexity, and what skills are required. If I’m managing an urgent task or project, like [briefly describe a previous experience], I prefer a [describe approach] to ensure [describe the desired result]. For less timely tasks, like [briefly describe a previous experience], I like to [describe approach] to allow team members to [describe the desired result].

As a result of this strategy, we boosted [describe metric] by [percentage] during [time period], resulting in [describe outcome]. 

Why it works:

This answer uses specific past experiences and actionable strategies that help a hiring manager envision how you’ll show up in the new role. Providing varied examples for urgent and non-urgent tasks shows flexibility and strategic vision. 

• What excites you the most about working in a management role? What excites you the least? 

What excites me the most about working in a management role is the opportunity to [describe a core value, career vision, or personal philosophy]. In my previous role as [job position], I [describe how you applied your value or vision]. Seeing tangible results from [explain a specific approach or strategy you implemented] is always incredibly fulfilling and motivates me to continue to grow. 

What excites me the least about management is [mention a specific aspect of management you find less thrilling or a challenge you regularly face]. During my time at [another job role or specific professional situation], I was put in a situation where [describe the challenge] which [describe how it makes you feel]. Over time, I’ve developed strategies like [mention a strategy] to navigate these challenges effectively. 

Why it works:

This response effectively joins personal experiences and values into a professional context, allowing you to stand out with unique insights and experiences. Proposing a positive spin and approach to combat negative aspects of the job demonstrates resilience, adaptability, and a positive attitude.

10 essential questions for interviewers and hiring managers

If you’re the one conducting interviews, dozens of good questions for job candidates might come to mind as you scan through their credentials. To delve deeper than the qualifications on their resume (and respect time limitations), it’s essential to focus on questions that reflect foundational managerial qualities. 

Here are questions that reflect how a candidate will be resilient in the face of challenge, adapt to change, and commit to a growth mindset. These deep questions go beyond the surface level and may be most appropriate for a second-round interview to better understand a candidate’s ethos:

1. What professional challenge are you proud of overcoming, and how did you do it? 
2. Describe a time you disagreed with a superior or colleague. How did you approach the situation? 
3. Tell me about a specific time you received critical feedback. How did you respond, and what did you do with the feedback? 
4. How do you prioritize a task when everything seems like a priority? 
5. Tell me about a time you had to adapt fast to a change you weren’t anticipating. 
6. Describe a situation where you had to stand up for an unpopular decision or viewpoint. 
7. What’s something you’ve taught yourself in the past year? 
8. How do you handle stress and burnout? 
9. What motivates you to lead teams? 
10. What inspires you outside of work, and how does it influence your professional life?

Lead through your words

A job interview is your opportunity to make the managerial style you outlined on your resume come to life. You can’t predict every single question a hiring manager will ask you. But practicing common interview questions for managers inspires deeper self-confidence and more relevant answers, showing you have what it takes to manage a team for success.