City Manager

☛ Imagine you’re assigned an important task but your team members keep interrupting you with questions. How do you complete the task, and how do you respond to your team?

☛ Tell me about a time you had to deal with a team member who constantly opposed your ideas. How did you handle it?

☛ Describe a time when your team managed to achieve ambitious goals you set. How did you support and motivate them?

☛ Describe a project you successfully managed end-to-end. What challenges did you face and what did you do to overcome them?

☛ What’s your approach to delegating work to employees? How do you ensure that tasks are completed?

☛ Describe a time you mentored someone. How did they grow? What were they doing initially, and what are they doing now?

☛ How would you tell a colleague that he/she was underperforming?

☛ Talk about the time you led an important meeting. How did you prepare for it?

I prefer to delegate tasks based on the aptitude of each team member for the task at hand. Prior to delegation, I like to sit down with my team and discuss the project. We break it down and determine exactly what needs to get done and who is the best person for each task. I review each assignment personally and make sure that the individual it’s assigned to has the level of knowledge and skills to complete the task in the time required. A few years ago I was brought in to replace a project manager in a store that was, for lack of a better word, failing. The sales team was unmotivated, the customer complaints were a mile long, and the entire store was dirty and disorganized. We closed shop for 24-hours so I could sit down with the entire team and discuss what was going on. Within an hour of talking to the employees, I discovered that the previous manager had spent their time pitting team members against each other, scheduled work hours and tasks based on who they personally liked, not what the employees had actually been hired to do, and had made working there miserable for most of the employees. We completely restructured the entire team based on what each person’s strengths and skills were. We also spent the rest of the day cleaning and reorganizing the store. The next day we opened with everyone in their new roles and with new tasks assigned. Within a week we were doing better numbers than had been done the month prior, and within six months the store had become one of the top performing stores in the area. It made me feel so good knowing that I had helped turn the store around and all it had taken was actually listening to what the employees had to say and delegating them tasks and responsibilities based on their skills and strengths.

I find a lot of value in setting goals, outlining the steps required to achieve those goals, and then completing those steps. This not only allows me to break down the big picture into easily actionable parts, but also gives me a good overall idea of what needs to be accomplished. Each box I check off on my list of tasks is a small success on the way to the larger finished project. I was tasked with leading a team of seven employees last year. We had been assigned the massive task of reorganizing a technical manual library that hadn’t been updated in years. It was an overwhelming task overall, but by breaking it down aisle by aisle, and even shelf by shelf, we were able to take what felt like a monster project and turn it into easy to accomplish tasks. I also included rewards and incentives for completing sections to keep us going. Not only were we able to finish by the deadline, but by adding the fun and challenge elements to the project, we remained motivated and weren’t burned out at the end, in itself a major success.

Not only will you need to make difficult decisions, but as a manager, you will also have a lot of pressure on you to perform, as well as stressful situations to deal with. An interviewer will ask this question to understand how you cope with stressful situations and pressure.

In your answer, demonstrate how you can deal with pressure and stress in a positive way. Talk through some of the steps you take to help manage stress, such as deep breathing, getting organised with a to-do list or clearing your head with a quick walk. It’s also important to explain any techniques you use to ensure stressful situations occur less frequently in the future. Don’t forget to share an example too of when you have dealt with a stressful situation effectively in your most recent job.

This question allows an interviewer to find out more about what you did well at your previous job and how you deal with difficult situations.

When discussing your biggest accomplishment, try to relate your example back to the role you’re currently interviewing for. To do this, you could take a look at the job description and see if there are any skills that you can mention when explaining your example.

No one likes to discuss their failures, but it’s a popular question that interviewers like to use, to see how you react. Be honest, but at the same time, you may want to pick a relatively small failure, as you still want to be employable. Don’t blame others for what went wrong and ensure you explain how you solved the problem and what you learnt from the situation.

To me, you can’t be a good leader if you’re not willing to also do the work. While I set tasks for my team, I always make sure they’re not tasks I myself wouldn’t be willing to do. I was supervising a shop that was responsible for cleaning and testing float monitors used in storage tanks when we got a call from a business that had several of our products in a sewage tank. The sensors weren’t reading properly, and he was concerned. We did some research and realized the sensors were due to be replaced. It was a miserable task, but someone had to do it. On top of that, we were short staffed in the shop which meant that the team doing the task would be down one man and it would take two days instead of one. Rather than make the employees suffer any longer than they had to, I cleared my schedule, threw on a hazmat suit, and joined them in the tank. We were able to get the whole task done in one day and the client was satisfied. After the work was done the two employees each approached me individually and expressed how grateful they were to have me in there helping them out and that it made them really respect me as a leader and teammate.

When making professional decisions, I like to keep in mind the good of the company before I consider personal feelings. A few years ago, I was in a situation where I was responsible for hiring a new team member for a large project we were working on. I had managed to narrow the selection down to two candidates; a new hire who was perfect for the job and another, established employee who was not quite the right fit for the position but whom I considered a personal friend. While I would have loved to hire my friend, it wouldn’t have been the right choice for the company, so I hired the new employee. When my friend asked me why I had made that decision, I explained it to him. We discussed other opportunities that he would be a better fit for. At the time it wasn’t an easy decision, but it was the right one and one I would make again.

This is not asking if you are a neat and tidy person. Rather, interviewers include this question among their normal manager interview questions to see how you prioritize your time and which tools you use to help you along the way.

Walk through your typical manager’s work day with your interviewer, stepping through your smart daily routine while explaining how unforeseen circumstances are handled before things spin out of control. Emphasizing your ability to multitask and pivot between changing priorities is a nice touch, as well. Use examples that show off your flexibility. You can share your specific methods, for example, but also how you change your approach depending on the situation at hand.

Nobody likes firing people, but there are times and situations when it just has to happen. One summer I was working as a supervisor for a local pool. We had a lifeguard who was consistently late to the job. As his supervisor, it fell to me to talk to him about this situation. I pulled him aside on three occasions and spoke with him about why he was late and how that was a violation of the company policy and how the fourth time would be grounds for his dismissal. I made sure to keep the HR team involved with every step and properly document each meeting. Unfortunately, he was tardy a fourth time and I had to let him know that he was being terminated. It wasn’t an easy task, but it had to be done.

This is one of the most common manager interview questions. As a leader, your team looks to you set the tone of morale and motivation. Interviewers seek the following in your answer:

☛ A description of your communication style

☛ Examples of specific things you do to empower your employees

☛ An explanation of how you take time to get to know your employees (so that you understand what motivates them on an individual level)

In your answer, give specific examples of ways that you provided positive reinforcement to your team, encouraged them to take the initiative, and understood each person’s strengths. Also, take care to explain how you’ve shown recognition to employees who meet or exceed expectations.