Are you a leader, or a manager? Can you describe your leadership style? These are no easy questions, and I could confront you with even more difficult ones. Because leadership is a highly sought-after skill on the employment market, and your interviewers will test it while meeting you. This is the case even when your future job doesn’t really entails leading or managing someone. But why, and how? I will explain it all on the following lines, and I will give you some great sample answers as well. Before doing it, however, let’s start with a picture.
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The Basics
- Most common interview questions belonging to this area: What is your leadership style? Are you a leader, or a follower? Do you consider yourself a leader?
- Less common questions belonging to the area: Are you a leader, a manager, or a boss? What does leadership mean to you? Tell me about a time when as a leader you had to deal with a poor performer on a team. Give me an example of your leadership.
- Out of 10 random jobs, in how many cases will this area be tested during the hiring process: 6/10. We know different levels of leadership. The most obvious one, on the top of any organization. Then the one on managerial or supervisory level (leading one or more employees who work under you). But there is also personal leadership, which means the way you are able to lead yourself in the job, especially when it comes to organizing your schedule effectively and meeting your goals, even when the conditions aren’t ideal. It explains why questions about leadership are more common as one would suspect. Needless to say, when applying for any managerial role, you will always face at least one question about leadership.
- Difficulty: 4/5. Questions about leadership are fairly difficult. One can make several mistakes while answering them (I will explain the mistakes later). What’s more, many times we simply do not have a good situation to talk about, or aren’t even sure about our leadership skills. But as with any other of the 25 question areas we discuss here on DifferentInterview.com, you will learn how to deal with these challenges.
- Main goals of the hiring managers with questions belonging to this area: Assessing your level of leadership and understanding your leadership style.
- Your main goals with answers to questions belonging to this area: Convincing the hiring managers of your leadership skills. Showing the right attitude to managing and leading others at work. In some cases convincing them that you actually aren’t a leader (more on this in sample answers).
7 sample answers
Sample answer no. 1: Experienced manager talking about their successes as a leader:
In my last job in marketing I managed to lead a team of four different personalities, each of them with their own talents and weaknesses, to deliver results in seven marketing campaigns. Each of them with results clients expected, or even better, and I believe that people in my team thrived under my leadership. Of course, we had conflicts and things didn’t always go according to the plan. But such issues belong to every team, I managed to address them, and we eventually always delivered on clients’ expectations. In my opinion, this experience demonstrates my leadership qualities, and I am ready to prove them in the job with you.
- Quick thing to notice about this answer: Practical examples and stories are the best way to demonstrate your leadership. To make this answer even better and more credible, however, the applicant should add more numbers and details either of the campaigns, or of the people they led, the challenges they faces as a leader of a team, and how they dealt with them.
Sample answer no. 2: Applying for your first managerial role:
I consider myself a leader, though I have not yet had a chance to prove it, since this is my first ever job application for any managerial role. But I learned in my other jobs, as well as at school, that I can make people interested in a vision, and motivate them to cooperate together. What’s more, I find it easy to connect with almost everyone, which is, I believe, an important quality of every leader. To sum it up, I have a leadership potential, and hope to get a chance to realize it in your company.
- Quick thing to notice about this answer: Notice how the applicant names specific qualities they believe to help them successfully lead others (“…I can make people interested in a vision, and motivate them to cooperate together…I find it easy to connect with almost everyone”). That’s definitely much better than simply saying “I am a great leader” or something similar. Try be specific in your answers.
Sample answer no. 3: Applying for a routine job in restaurant, where actually they do not look for leaders:
I’m not a leader, and I also do not dream of becoming one. I prefer taking orders to giving them, and it is one of the reasons why I apply for the job with your restaurant. I know you have processes in place for everything, and managers present on each shift. For my personality and preferences it is an ideal combination. I do not aspire to be someone I am not. And I believe my personality is a good fit for the position you advertise.
- Quick thing to notice about this answer: The fact that they ask about your leadership qualities doesn’t always mean that they are looking for leaders. The very opposite can be true, and they may use the question just to trick you (not with bad intentions though, it is simply a part of the selection process to include also questions that may trick some applicants). It is important to always think about the job you are applying for, and whether emphasis on leadership makes sense or not. Of course, even with jobs where they are looking for “followers” and people who are easy to lead, you can mention the personal level of leadership (being able to follow a schedule, make basic decisions, meet deadlines, all of that without an intervention of a manager). This is something the applicant did not do in their answer, and they could improve on it.
Sample answer no. 4: Applying for a leadership role with no previous managerial experience:
It is too early to judge my qualities in this department, since the scope of responsibilities I had in my only former job did not allow me to demonstrate my leadership. But I believe to have what it takes to attract others to my vision, to connect with them, to help them grow, and to lead them. And of course to go by an example, address conflicts and challenges, and simply do everything a good leader does. I hope to get a chance to prove my words in your company.
- Quick thing to notice about this answer: The applicant named a lot of abilities that characterize a good leader (“going by example, attracting others to a vision, helping people to grow, addressing conflicts effectively, etc”). This is a decent way of dealing with this question when you do not have any practical stories of leadership to share with the interviewers.
Sample answer no. 5: Talking about the personal level of leadership:
So far I am only the leader of my own life. But I believe it isn’t an easy feat to achieve nowadays, considering how everything around us tries to convince us of certain truth, how polarized the society is, and how hard it is for young people to earn a good salary, and to live on their own. But I did not let the situation to discourage me. Working on my education and skills, I gave myself the best possible chance, and now I can say that I decide about my day, and what I dedicate myself to. It is not a bad feeling to be honest. Having said that, I know I have to step up my leadership game to become a real asset for your organization.
- Quick thing to notice about this answer: While it is nice to be a leader of your own life, the answer is rather vague and lacks practical details. What’s more, it doesn’t make much sense in a job interview. Saying that “I decide about my day, and what I dedicate myself to” clearly indicates to the hiring managers that this person is more fitting for self-employment and entrepreneurship, and not for daily routines and rules of a typical employment.
Sample answer no. 6: To the question “Are you a leader, a manager, or a boss?”:
I try to combine it wisely at work. Sure enough, most often I try to be a leader. To empower people, to help them grow, to lead by example, to set the vision and overall direction for the team, and let the people some freedom to express themselves in a way they follow this direction and the vision. But in my managerial experience I also learned that one has to be a manager sometimes, clearly dedicating exact tasks, solving conflicts between people, or even micro-managing someone’s day. And, in some rare cases, it even makes sense bossing people around and almost create a dense atmosphere in an office for a day or two, for example when a critical deadline looms, or when we are about to be audited. To sum it, up, I believe I can be all three–leader, manager, and a boos, and I feel ready to handle each situation in the best possible way.
- Quick thing to notice about this one: An excellent and meaningful answer. Just make sure to be ready for follow-up questions with real situations from your previous jobs that demonstrate each of these abilities (leading, managing, bossing people).
Sample answer no. 7: To the question about your leadership style:
I would call myself a results-oriented leader. Because for me it matters the most to reach the goals, to achieve the desired results. And everything else depends on it. What I try to say here is that I may be a democratic leader when I have a team in place that achieves the best results under such leadership. And I may be rather authoritarian when such an approach brings the desired outcome. It always depends also on the people you lead, the goals you try to achieve. I believe to have a capacity to successfully apply various leadership styles at work, and also to choose the right one accordingly.
- Quick thing to notice about this answer: In literature, you can find many classifications of leadership styles. However, job interview is not a school exam. Think about what matters for the employer, and answer the question in this way. It is also always good to show that you do not have to cling to one leadership style only, but can successfully apply various styles in your work.
Advanced information
Mistakes people make while answering questions about leadership in the interviews
- Lack of examples when talking about your leadership. Leadership isn’t an easy quality to prove by words only. Of course, we will make our impression in the interview, and try to judge whether or not you’d make a good leader. But when directly asking about your leadership skills, or style, or qualities, you’re not going to convince us by simply saying that you can lead and manage people. That would be big mistake. We need examples, ideally real situations from your previous jobs. In the worst case possible you should clearly describe your leadership style, and name the exact abilities and principles that make from you a good leader.
- Thinking that company always looks for a leader when they inquire about leadership in an interview. We may ask about your leadership skills while not looking for a leader at all. On the contrary, we may be looking for a “perfect follower”, because we already have the leader on a team. Think carefully about the job you are trying to get, as well as whether there is any room for promotion down the road. It is a mistake supposing that we are searching a leader when we ask you a question about leadership. We may be, as well as not…
- Thinking that leadership refers only to other people. As I’ve already mentioned, we know various levels of leadership. Even if you haven’t led or managed anyone in your previous roles, you may have still had a job which required strong sense of personal leadership: discipline, meeting deadlines, finding inner motivation, overcoming challenges, and so on. Dismissing an idea that you are, or could be, a good leader, just because you never had someone working under you, is definitely a mistake.
Few points from the perspective of the hiring managers/interviewers
- Finding a good leader is hard for us. Bear with us and with our question regarding your leadership, including follow-up questions. Just as it is hard for a job candidate to convince the employer of their leadership skills, so it is for an interviewer to spot a natural leader, or at least a good one. We may need a longer interview, more questions, or even some tests to find it out.
- Be aware of over-confidence. There is a fine line between being self-confident in your abilities and decisions (in order to be able to lead others according to them), and being too confident and unable to accept any different opinions from the people you lead. Needless to say, if we get the impression that you cannot walk this fine line, we won’t hire you (unless you have a proven record of being successful as a leader in your previous roles).
7 keywords to remember when answering questions belonging to this area
- Practical examples, asking a question about leadership doesn’t necessarily mean they are looking for leaders, leading by example doesn’t always work, individual approach is the key, be ready for follow up questions, quantify and specify your leadership successes, everyone is a leader of their own life if of nothing else.
So that’s it! You’ve just covered area no. 11 out of 25 areas that cover 99% of questions you may ever get in the interviews. Just 14 areas left! Check the next one: Standing out, or go back to homepage for the full list of 25 areas and pick one you want to learn about and practice right now.
