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In the modern organization,
the number of management positions is decreasing as many companies
eliminate millions of middle-management positions in favor of flatter and leaner
organizational structures. Additionally, with the fast-moving
trend toward the team environment coupled with the efforts to
move day-to-day decision making to the lowest possible rungs of
the organizational ladder, the fundamental role and mission
of management has shifted dramatically. So has the management
profile sought by most companies.
All of this translates into far stiffer competition for fewer
"' management positions, combined with tougher employment
"; interviews and tighter selection standards for management
candidates. The bottom line is that such candidates can now expect
a far more intense grilling during the interview process than
in the past. As a result, the following is a good, representative
sampling of questions that the management candidate can now
expect to encounter in the employment interview:
- What do you believe to be the characteristics of an
effective
manager?
- Which are the most important attributes?
- Why are they important?
- How would you describe your management philosophy?
- Describe
your management process-the process by which you manage others.
- With which of the following two management styles do you most
closely identify, and why?
- Controlling: Like to make most decisions personally and have
subordinates carry out specific directions.
- Participative: Like to involve others in the decision-making
process as much as possible, and provide only broad, strategic
direction to subordinates.
- How would your subordinates describe your
management style?
- In what areas would they be complimentary?
- In what areas would they suggest improvement?
- What has your
boss said about your management effectiveness during performance reviews?
- What does he or she consider to be your
management strengths?
- What areas have been suggested for improvement?
- What do you
feel are your strongest attributes as a manager?
- How could you improve your managerial effectiveness?
- What is
the proper role of a manager? Why?
- What is the difference between a manager and a leader?
- Are you more of a manager or more of a leader?
Explain your
answer.
- Describe your planning process as a manager.
- What techniques do you use to
motivate poor performers?
- Give me some real-life examples.
- What results did you get?
- How could these results have been improved?
- What is the toughest
management decision you have had to make?
- Why was it tough?
- What decision did you make?
- What was the outcome?
- Describe how you evaluate subordinate performance.
- What basis
is used for evaluation?
- What standards are used?
- How do you measure performance against these standards?
- How do you communicate this performance?
- Describe how you monitor
and control department operations.
- What performance benchmarks do you use?
- How do you monitor against these benchmarks?
- What controls do
you exercise?
- How effective is this process? Why?
- How could this process be improved?
- Describe your approach to employee development.
- How do you determine
development needs?
- How are these communicated?
- How is accountability assigned?
- What successes have you had?
- How could this process be improved?
- Describe your employee selection process.
- How do you define candidate qualifications?
- What is your approach
to interviewing?
- How do you go about final candidate selection?
- What evidence can you cite for selection
effectiveness?
- How could you improve this process?
- What measurable, tangible evidence can you provide of your managerial
effectiveness?
- How could you improve your managerial effectiveness?
- Why do
you believe that you are an effective manager?
The Classic Answers
As I have repeatedly emphasized, there is no absolute "right"
answer to the questions on management style that will work for
all interviews with all employers. If your goal is to be successful
in the interview, each answer will need to be tailored to the
management culture of the organization with which you will
be interviewing.
The following answers are therefore simply intended to stimulate
your thinking, and to provide a basic framework for developing
your own answers to this interview set:
1.
"I am a strong advocate of participative management. My management
style is based upon the belief that for any business to succeed
and realize its full potential, it must make use of its full
human resource capability. I see my greatest responsibility
being to develop and motivate my people to achieve the strategic
goals of the organization. By organizing my team around the
goals and giving them the support and resources they need, my
experience has shown that time and time again they will achieve
or exceed expectations."
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2.
"I think what my subordinates would tell you they most like about
my management style is my tendency to get out of their way when
they have something important to do. All kidding aside, I am
a firm believer in the power of team management and employee
empowerment. I've seen it work, and it's a powerful tool! I
believe my job, as a manager, is to point the way, provide the
resources and encouragement, and then stand back and get out
of the way.
It is surprising what empowered work teams can do if you only
give them the chance. For example, during the start-up of our
new finishing line, I managed an empowered work team, which
included future hourly operators, to both plan and start up
the manufacturing line. Astoundingly, we beat projected start-up
date by a full month and were running at machine design capacity
within eight months. As you know this is almost un heard
of!"
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3.
"My management planning process is extremely team-oriented. During the initial planning phase, I hold a
se ries
of team meetings with my group to get their ideas and recommendations
about key opportunities for improvement. I then facilitate
group meetings for the pur pose of selecting the most promising
opportunities. We then, as a group, establish specific goals,
priorities, and assign accountability. The team members then
have the responsibility to do the detailed planning and determine
how they are going to accomplish the objectives. These plans
then become the basis for our daily operation, and the benchmarks
by which we gauge our progress."
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4.
"As with most managers, the toughest decision I have
had to make was to fire someone I liked and who was trying
his hardest to bring his performance up to standard. Despite
a performance improvement plan and some real efforts at training
and development, we deter- mined that the job was simply beyond
his capability, and we arrived at the decision to let him go.
Fortunately, it had a good ending since, with our help, he
was able to land a job as an analyst with Cooper Bank and is
doing quite well. I know he's much happier in this job, and
he still stays in touch and stops by occasionally to say hello."
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5.
"Although I feel that I am a reasonably good manager, and I think
my subordinates would agree with that assessment, the one
area in which I believe there is room for some improvement is
my knowledge of financial analysis. Although I have strong mathematical
and accounting skills, I am still occasionally baffled by
some of the financial planning models used by our analysts.
I've resolved to do something about this, however, and have
enrolled in a financial analysis course for non- finance majors
at Baxter College for the fall term. I'm looking forward to
being a little less baffled."
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