General Manager

Managers make decisions. They make a lot of decisions. They make decisions that affect productively, stability and profitability of their department and the organizations they represent. Good managers are good decision makers. The following are a few common interview questions designed to test a candidates ability to make decisions.

► What is the process you typically follow to make a decision about a plan of action?

► When given two or three equally viable paths to achieve an object, how do you decide which path to follow?

► Please explain the process you used to select the college you attended.

► What is your process or methodology for making important decision?

► When faced with several options, none of which is sufficient to accomplish your goal, how do you decide with option to pursue?

► When is it important to make a decision quickly? When should you take time to make a decision?

► Have you ever delayed any decision-making? What were the consequences for your company?

► Do you make decisions on your own without input from others? When do you seek advice from others when making decisions?

Leadership is unquestionably one of the top skills hiring managers are looking for in management job candidates. Leadership entails much more than just managing people. It encapsulates the ability to effectively communicate vision, motivate and empower, delegate responsibility, make tough decisions, turn vision into reality and guide employees through change. Below are several leadership related questions you can expect to see in your next management interview.

► Describe an example of how you've demonstrated leadership in a previous job.

► What specific strategies have you used to lead a team?

► What are the key attributes of a successful leader?

► How would past coworkers and team members rate your leadership skills? What would they say about your leadership style?

► What factors do you consider when faced with tough decisions?

► How do you make a decision when important facts are unavailable?

► What methods do you utilize to resolve problems?

► Provide examples of creative solutions you relied on to solve major problems.

► Explain how you've delegated responsibilities and coordinated tasks during previous projects.

► Explain how you've adapted to project changes in the past.

► What skills and knowledge do you still need to develop? Explain what you've done to increase your business knowledge and skills.

► How do you manage large workloads? What do you do to prioritize daily responsibilities?

► Explain how you've dealt with past failures.

► How do you determine what colleagues should have key project roles?

► How would you describe your leadership style?

► Describe a time you led by example.

► What's your approach to delegating employees? How do you ensure that tasks are carried out to completion?

► Describe someone you coached or mentored. 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.

► Talk about a successful work project involving multiple teams. What was your role in facilitating the project? What was the result?

► Have you ever had to execute a project with a small budget, or a lack of resources? How did you address these issues?

► Tell me about a time when your team was struggling to meet business goals. What happened? What did you do about it?

► Talk about a successful work project. What was your goal? What was the result?

► What changes did you make that resulted in increasing productivity, improving efficiency, or lowering costs?

► Walk us through a typical day at your last position. How do you prioritize your tasks?

► What are some industry trends that have an impact on your role as a manager?

► Why are you interested in our company? What is the relationship between this job and your career goals?

Customer Service Based Interview Questions:

► Give me an example of the type of work experience you have had on a day-to-day basis with the public.

► What has been your most rewarding experience dealing with the public/customers?

► What "new way of doing things" did you introduce in your last job in dealing with the public?

► What typical kinds of customer dissatisfaction were inherent in your last job? How did you deal with this?

► What types of things were you able to do to help in alleviating this customer dissatisfaction?

► Give me an example of a time when you were able to help an angry customer with a problem.

► How do you define great customer service?

► What would others say about how you handle customers? Would they want you to wait on them? Did anyone ever ask for you?

► What kind of recommendation would your previous supervisor give you regarding your customer relations skills?

► Do you like working with the general public? Would you prefer to work alone?

► Give me an example when you were praised for your people skills in a past job.

► You have an angry customer that comes up to you. His/her past dealing with the department has been negative. This time he/she is going to get it done right. He/she demands you put him/her on top priority basis. Your department is now running a major project for your supervisor and can't accommodate this customer. How would you handle the customer?

Able to Handle Pressure Based Interview Questions:

► Describe a situation where you were under a great deal of pressure. How did you handle it?

► We have a real pressure-cooker position here. (Explain why) Have you had a position that relates to this situation? How did you handle the pressure?

► Constant pressure gets to all of us after a long period of time. Describe an incident where you did not handle pressure well.

► Did your position have cyclical periods when you were extremely busy and then dead periods? How long did they last? What was it like during both periods of time?

► What flusters you when a deadline is near?

► If I called your supervisor, what would he/she say about your ability to handle pressure? What would he/she say you needed to improve on?

Able to Supervise Employees Based Interview Questions:

► How many people have you supervised at one time? How many were Part-time? Full-time? How long were you their supervisor?

► Did you have the sole responsibility of hiring/firing these people? Did your supervisor have any say in who was hired/fired?

► Give me an example of a time when you handled an employee grievance that resulted in better working relationships.

► Give me an example of a time when you handled a grievance that did not result in better working relationships. What would you have done differently?

► What have you done to motivate your employees? Were they motivated? Give me a time when they were or were not.

► What kind of management style do you take with your employees? How do you treat your employees? How do you resolve discipline problems?

► What would your employees say about you as a manager? Were you an example of what you expected from others?

► How did you elicit cooperation from your employees? Give me an example of a time when an employee would not do what was asked. How did you handle this?

► What is required of a good leader? Which of these skills are you better at? What skills would your supervisor say that you would need to improve upon to be a better leader/supervisor?

Accurate Based Interview Questions:

► Have you ever worked for a supervisor that demanded accuracy of you? What activities required accuracy?

► Suppose we called your supervisor and asked "Is (name) accurate in what he/she does?" What would your supervisor say?

► When it comes to accuracy, what do you need to improve on?

► Could you give me an example of the type of work you did on a day-to-day basis that required accuracy?

► Are you strongest in the areas of accuracy or speed? Why? Working on what?

► Did the pressure of your past job lend itself to a mistake environment?

► In some positions it is very easy to make errors. What do you do to control errors?

Dependable Based Interview Questions:

► When we call your supervisor, what will he/she tell us about your ability to be dependable?

► When the workday starts are you the first one there?

► How would you define a dependable employee? Are you known as a dependable individual? Why?

► Describe how you have organized yourself in your present job so that you could create a dependable atmosphere with your clients/customers.

► When we check for references what will your supervisor tell us about the number of days you were absent last year?

► During a typical month, how many days are you be late to work?

Detail Oriented Based Interview Questions:

► Give me an example of the deadlines that needed to be met in your last job. How did you make sure things got done?

► Give me an example of a time when you thought you had "it all nailed down" but a detail you missed fell through the cracks. What happened?

► Give an example of the most detail-oriented positions you have had.

► Describe a situation where you had to multi task. How did you handle it?

► How do you keep track of duties that must get done concurrently?

It's important for a manager to be productive. However, it's much more important for a manager's team to be productive. Managers are motivators. Managers must have the energy, attitude and people skills to motivate their team members to maximize productivity. If a manager knows how to make decisions and knows how to delegate, but isn't a good motivator, they'll still be an ineffective manager. The questions below are often used by hiring managers to test a candidate's ability to motiviate.

► What is motivation?

► Share a work related experience that demonstrates your ability to encourage and motivate another person.

► Pretend you were the recipient of a coveted award three years from now. What is the reward? Why did you receive it?

► Describe time when you and your team were lacking moral and explain what you did to raise spirits?

► How do you make employees feel valued?

► What will you do to retain valued employees?

► What non-monetary factors to you feel help motivate employees?

► What kind of work culture do you think increase moral and employee motivation level?

► What type of incentives or rewards work best for motivating team members?

► Describe a time when you successfully motivated an employee who didn't want to take on a new assignment.

Competency Based Question for GM:

► What do you do on an ongoing basis to keep your professional skills up to date?

► Indicate some of the significant development efforts you have undergone in the last few years.

► What do you see as the key competencies needed in your current assignment and how have you gone about developing these?

Respect For Sacred Resources Based Question for GM:

► What type of budgetary responsibility do you carry in your current assignment? How well have you kept within that budget?

► Have you had significant experience with cost reduction efforts? Tell us about an experience.

► Can you share an experience of how you have maximized the benefit produced from limited resources you were given to work with?

Integrity Based Question for GM:

► Tell us what you do to ensure that you meet the work commitments you make to others?

► Tell us about an experience where you had to confront someone or give candid feedback?

► How did you do it? What did you say?

Teamwork Based Question for GM:

► What are some of the things you are doing to ensure the effectiveness of the team you are leading?

► Have you been on a dysfunctional team? What did you do as a team member or team leader to address the problems?

► Tell us about a time where you disagreed with the objectives or direction of a team you were on. How did you handle this?

Exceeding Customer Expectations Based Question for GM:

► What types of efforts are you making to serve your customers and to exceed customer expectations?

► How are you gathering feedback from your customers and how do you use this feedback?

► Tell us about a time where you wowed a customer.

Respect For Others Based Question for GM:

► How do you currently encourage people on your team to express their ideas and opinions? Can you give an example?

► How do you handle disagreement? Give us an example.

► Tell us your experience in working with others of diverse background from yours. How you handle differences that come from different backgrounds?

Innovation Based Question for GM:

► Tell us about an innovation that you've introduced in your work area.

► What have you done to introduce change or redefine the way work gets done in your area?

► What continuous improvement methodologies are you familiar with? Tell us about your experience.

Accountability Based Question for GM:

► What kind of system or method are you currently using for reporting progress on your work?

► What kind of metrics or measure do you currently use to measure the work in your area?

► How do you follow through on projects that you delegate to others? Can you give an example?

Managers aren't expected to do it all themselves, but they are expected to get it all done. To accomplish this, managers have to be able to delegate -- and delegate effectively. In order to be an effective management candidate you must demonstrate to the interviewer -- through your answers -- that you can assign duties to team members. The following are a few common interview questions designed to test a candidates ability to delegate.

► What method do you employ for delegating tasks to your team members?

► How do you ensure that taks are successfully completed? Are there any steps you take?

► What type of instructions do you provide your staff when you decide to delegate?

► Are there times when you shouldn't delegate?

► What should you assume about a team member if you want to delegate successfully?

► Tell me about an important task or assignment that you delegated?

► Is there a difference between assignment and delegation?

► What types of tasks can be delegated? What types cannot?

► How do you decide which tasks to delegate to which employees?

Teamwork is at the center of corporate management today. If you can't manage a team, you aren't an effective manager. Corporations are seeking managers who can effectively manage teams of professionals with diverse skills sets and personalities. As such, interviewers will ask numerous questions to job candidates being considered for positions where teamwork is vital. The following are common teamwork related questions hiring managers often ask during the interview process.

► Tell me about a team project you successfully managed.

► What is your philosophy for delegating responsibilities?

► In your experience, what makes a successful team?

► Have you ever managed a team where there was a strong disagreement between team members? How did you handle it?

► What is your strategy for resolving disagreements?

► What is your methodology for team building? How do you select team members?

► What strategies would you use to motivate your team?

► How would you describe your team management style?

► Share a rewarding team experience.

► How do you empower team members you oversee?

► Why should I hire you as team leader?

Communication is the number one tool managers use to manage. Effective managers are effective communicators. Poor communicators make ineffective managers. Be prepare to answer several questions designed to test your communication skills and ability. The questions below are often used by hiring managers to test a management candidate's ability to communicate effectively.

► How do you communicate expectations to team members?

► How do you communicate to an employees that he or she is not meeting expectations?

► What is your preferred communication style?

► Decribe five things about communication within a team that must be present in order to have a productive environment.

► On a scale from 1 to 10, with 10 representing excellent, please rate your communication skills. Provide me 3 examples from previous work experiences that show the number your selected is accurate.

► Explain how you develop relationships with managers, clients, and other colleagues.

► Explain in detail steps and actions you've taken to build relationships with new clients.

► What types of people are difficult to persuade? How do you motivate others?

► There are only a limited number of opportunities for advancement with my current employer. Which is why I'm keen on working for a larger corporation like yours where I believe there are more possibilities to show what I'm capable of.

► I'd like to work for a company where I feel I can make a real difference.

► A common way to reply to this is to research the company before hand, find something unique about them and then give that as your answer. For instance they may have opened up a new store or launched a new product.

► Give examples of positive things you have heard about them and say you want to be associated with a reputable brand.

► You believe their work environment is more fun, energetic and rewarding.

► My main reason is financial, my complimentary reasons are the opportunity to work for a market leader and also future promotion.

► After researching your company I have discovered that it is a industry leader and has a excellent reputation. I was also greatly impressed by your companies mission statement, values and culture. I feel strongly that yours is a organization that I would like to work for and be associated with.

► I feel that your vacancy ideally fits my work experience, skills and qualifications. Therefore I will be able to make a significant contribution to your business as well as fulfill my potential.

► I believe your company will help me to develop my career in the direction I want it to go.

I do not believe that my career history is an accurate reflection of my character or abilities. Stability is important to me and I am anxious to work long term for one company. Although my CV shows that I have worked for a five different companies over a short period of time, the reason for this was that I had a elderly and frail relative to look after during this period.

Say that previous job roles failed to challenge you.

State that you current desire is to find long term employment and then give a reason for this i.e. your recently bought a house, just got married or are in a new committed long term relationship etc.

Mention and highlight any jobs you have held for long periods.

Point out the duties in the job you are applying for and state that these are the challenges you have been looking for.