An organisation is only as good as its workers – and that is especially true when it comes to its leaders. Strong leaders can motivate a workforce, help create something better than the sum of its parts, and provide the support workers need to stay productive and happy while also developing them into future leaders.
While good leaders can result in positive outcomes for an organisation, bad leaders can have the opposite effect, making it difficult for employers to retain staff and meet their long-term goals and objectives. That’s why filling leadership roles with the best candidates is so important.
In this article, we’ll explore why leadership matters so much in hiring before exploring the best interview questions to ask about leadership so you can identify and onboard the best leaders.
Why leadership matters in hiring
Finding good staff to fill roles is hard enough for many employers, which is even more pronounced when it comes to finding candidates with leadership abilities. By finding and onboarding leaders with comprehensive management skills, organisations can leverage significant benefits, including:
Increase productivity: Leaders play a key role in getting teams to work together and motivating employees, which drives productivity.
Improved decision-making: Without leaders, the big decisions don’t get made – or they get made badly.
Enhanced adaptability: The world of work is changing, so organisations need to be light on their toes and ready to adapt, which is where leaders play a crucial part in driving change.
Essential leadership skills
Effective leaders often have their own leadership style, but there are some basic leadership skills that most will possess. These are the skills you want to be on the lookout for when filling leadership positions or identifying potential future leaders.
Communication: Great leaders inspire others with their communication skills, whether that’s through giving speeches to large groups of employees or carefully considered one-to-one discussions.
Emotional intelligence: A bad boss does not think about or recognise emotions in others, while a great boss is aware of how others around them are feeling.
Team building: An effective leader should, in most cases, have the type of personality that brings people together and encourages teamwork and collaboration.
Conflict resolution: When conflict arises at work, it is a leader’s responsibility to help resolve it in a way that keeps everyone happy.
Strategic thinking: Leadership is about more than just the normal day-to-day, as great leaders always have one eye on the future.
Top leadership interview questions
Having examined the importance of great leaders, the big question remains – how do you find them during the recruitment process? The answer lies in utilising interview questions on leadership that make it possible to identify candidates with the skills and experience necessary to be an effective leader.
We have outlined some examples of common leadership interview questions you can utilise to onboard the leaders your organisation needs.
1. Describe a situation where you had to lead a team through a difficult challenge.
Whether your organisation’s industry or sector, there are always going to be difficult situations and challenges to overcome. That’s where you need leaders who can weather the storm and guide the team through.
This question is designed to find out if the candidate has what it takes to face up to challenges and carry their team through. It’s also a good way to assess their problem-solving and creative thinking skills, as well as find out how they perform under pressure.
Follow-up questions to consider:
There are several questions you might want to follow up with, especially if the candidate leaves some important gaps in their answer. These include:
– What specific steps did you take to address the challenge?
– How did you keep the team motivated during this time?
– What was the outcome, and what did you learn from the experience?
2. How would you ensure effective communication within your team?
No matter what other qualities a team leader has, if they cannot communicate well with their team, they are likely to struggle. Leadership revolves around active listening, processing information, and the ability to delegate tasks to teams or individual team members. These questions will test whether the candidate has a communication style that serves them well.
It’s also a question that shows whether they have the communication skills you’re looking for. If they answer you clearly and competently, they likely have strong open communication skills. However, if they struggle to produce a satisfactory answer, it tells you something potentially important about their suitability for the role.
Follow-up questions to consider:
If there are any gaps or remaining doubts, you could follow up by asking:
– Can you describe a time when communication within your team broke down? How did you address it?
– How do you ensure remote or distributed team members stay connected?
– What role does feedback play in your communication strategy?
3. What is your approach to decision-making?
Leadership is ultimately about making decisions. Managers are responsible for assessing the circumstances a team finds itself in and taking the sometimes tough decisions that not everybody is going to like.
Asking a candidate how they approach making a decision will give you insight into the factors they take into account and how much conviction and confidence they have in what they decide. It can also provide insights into whether they are the type of person to take responsibility for their decisions and the outcomes that follow.
Follow-up questions to consider:
Finding out about a candidate’s decision-making process is vital for hiring the right leadership candidate, so think about diving deeper into the issue with some of these follow-ups:
– Do you prefer a collaborative or individual approach to decision-making? Why?
– Can you give an example of a difficult decision you had to make? What factors influenced your choice?
– How do you handle the consequences of your decisions, especially if they don’t go as planned?
4. Describe a time when you successfully implemented a change within a team or organisation
The world of work is changing, whether it’s technological advancements with the rollout of artificial intelligence and automation or changes within the working culture with teams expecting more autonomy or flexibility, navigating those changes successfully requires strong leadership.
Ask a candidate to tell you about a time they implemented a big change to find out if they have what it takes to lead the transformations coming within your organisation. Be on the lookout for evidence of their ability to spot the need for change and how they overcome resistance and ensure smooth transitions.
Follow-up questions to consider:
To delve further into a candidate’s ability to implement changes, interviewers can follow up by asking:
– How did you communicate the change to your team or organisation?
– What challenges did you face and how did you overcome them?
– What was the impact of the change and how did you measure its success?
5. How would you look to develop and motivate your team?
Being a great leader isn’t just about showing a team the way forward. A big part is also spotting talent and potential before putting in the time and effort to create and nurture more leaders, essentially forming an important part of a succession planning strategy.
This question will provide a good indication of the type of leader a candidate is, whether they just want their team to follow their instructions or if they see a team as something that should be developed. Getting and keeping people motivated is also a big part of maintaining employee happiness and reducing the turnover of staff.
Follow-up questions to consider:
This is a good question to follow up on, as ultimately leaders need to oversee the teams that make your organisation a success. Here are some ideas for follow-up questions:
– What specific methods do you use to develop your team members’ skills?
– Can you describe a successful team-building initiative you’ve led?
– How do you identify and address underperformance within your team?
6. How do you handle conflicts within your team?
Progress and creative ideas can come from expressing and discussing conflicting ideas in the workplace, however, this must be carefully managed and resolved if healthy levels of friction are to be maintained. Too much conflict, or the wrong sort, and a team can quickly become toxic and unproductive.
Asking a candidate to explain how they handle conflicts will show you whether they have the conflict resolution skills required to mediate between team members and get the team moving in the right direction if a difficult situation arises.
Follow-up questions to consider:
Wherever possible, you’re going to want concrete examples of when a candidate has handled conflict and how that situation panned out. Use some of these questions to get to the bottom of it:
– Can you give an example of a conflict you successfully resolved within your team?
– What steps do you take to prevent conflicts from escalating?
– What role does communication play in your conflict resolution strategy?
7. How would you describe your leadership style?
This is a great question to ask in a leadership interview because it puts the candidate on the spot to show whether they have a good sense of themselves as a leader and their own strengths and weaknesses. It can help to showcase their self-awareness and the principles they follow when leading others at work.
It’s also important for you to find out whether a candidate’s leadership style ties in with the values and culture of your wider organisation and determine whether or not they are a good fit.
Follow-up questions to consider:
Depending on what you’re looking for in your leaders, you could follow up with questions to get clarity on the candidate’s leadership style. For example:
– How does your leadership style adapt to different team dynamics?
– Can you give an example of how your leadership style has contributed to a successful project or initiative?
– How do you balance authority and collaboration in your leadership approach?
Leadership plays a pivotal role in the success of any organisation. Effective leaders not only motivate their teams and drive productivity but also ensure sound decision-making and adaptability in a rapidly changing work environment. Identifying and hiring individuals with strong leadership skills is crucial, as they can profoundly influence the organisation’s ability to meet its long-term goals and retain talent.
Through well-crafted interview questions, employers can uncover the essential qualities of potential leaders, such as their communication prowess, emotional intelligence, strategic thinking, and conflict-resolution capabilities. By focusing on these attributes during the hiring process, organisations can secure leaders who will encourage a positive work culture, inspire their teams, and steer the organisation toward sustained success.