Are you prepared for questions on managing a team?

If you are looking for a new role with management responsibilities, especially managing a team are you fully prepared for what questions you may be asked with regards to this area of the role.  You may have managed a team previously or you may be looking for your first role looking after a team, whatever experience you have it is really important to prepare as much as possible for key questions you are likely to be asked in your interview.

I have managed a team before

If you have managed a team before you will have some great experience to draw upon, but the key is to have a good review of your experiences and remind yourself of some of the key learnings you have taken from that.  Some questions you may be asked are what was the most challenging situation you have had to deal with regarding a member of your team, there may be a follow up question around what you learnt from that situation and is there anything you started doing differently as a result of that experience.  Another question you may be asked is can you give me an example of when you have had a poor performing member of your team, how you manged them and turned their performance around?  Would you be able to answers these effectively? 

Thinking of answers on the spot can be a challenge for some people, but if you have given some thought to your past experiences and thought about what questions you would ask if you were interviewing someone for the role you have applied for then you will be able to prepare for those questions and have some great answers ready.

I have not managed a team before

You may have been a supervisor previously or helped cover a team whilst their manager was on holiday, if this is the case you can use these experiences to help you prepare some answers to possible questions.

If you do not have any experience you can draw upon what you have observed your manager and other managers doing, consider what you feel has been effective or not so effective.  Think about what you have learnt from them that you would utilise if you had a team.

The key question you will need a great answer to is why do you want a role where you have to manage a team?  The interviewer will need to feel confident that you are up to the task of managing a team if you have not done so before so putting some thought into the question will be crucial to you being success in an interview.

Whatever role you are applying for preparation is key, taking the time to think of the great experience you have and how this can be applied to the role you are interviewing for will be time well spent.