Leadership

Companies work hard to hire people with high potential. Leadership ability is a key indicator of one’s potential. Thus, the interviewers are very keen to capture evidence about your leadership potential or lack thereof.

There are many dimensions of leadership. Also, the answer will be drastically different for a fresh grad and senior managers or executives.

Proud Leadership Experience

Questions: Tell me about a leadership experience that you are most proud of.

What is the interviewer looking for: Obviously, the expectation of leadership varies drastically based on your experience level. For a junior member, the interviewers will likely look for :

  • Demonstrate and drive accountability,
  • Take initiatives, and
  • Foster collaboration among team members.

For a more senior candidate, the interviewers will likely look for:

  • Establish vision,
  • Get buy-in across the organization,
  • Orchestrate the execution of a large-scale initiative, and
  • Drive changes

Best practice to answer: It is impossible for you to cover every dimension of leadership. Please select a story that can primarily highlight one aspect of leadership that you want the interviewer to take away. Your primary goal is for the interviewer to remember the initiatives you had undertaken, the magnitude of the accomplishment, and the most significant leadership dimension you had demonstrated. To make sure your message genuinely stands out, you can provide a brief at the end of the story.

You may want to tell different stories depending who is asking the question since a hiring manager or a teammate may appreciate different things. It is perfectly fine for you to use the same story, but may want to emphasize different elements based on what you know about the interviewer.

Please make sure to be specific about the details of the project and what you did for it to be successful. There are many factors that contribute to the success of an initiative. You want to make the interviewer believe your leadership has played a critical role in the success.

Common pitfalls:

  • Loopholes in your story. If things do not add up together, you will lose credibility and there is no way for you to get a high evaluation from the interviewer.
  • Lack of specific detail. Some stories may have happened many years ago and you no longer remember all the details. Please make sure look it up to get critical details including the numbers.
  • Try to cover everything. If you try to cover everything, the interviewer can easily read your intention and question the truthfulness.

Question variations:

  • Tell me a successful project that you were part of
  • Tell me an experience that you have driven a change successfully

Your Leadership Style?

What is the interviewer looking for: We all want to work with strong individuals, and most of us do not want to work with jerks no matter how strong this individual is. When an interviewer asks for this question, she is trying to understand:

  • What is your leadership style?
  • Will you be a good fit for the company?
  • Are you easy to work with?
  • Does she want you to be her teammate?

Best practice to answer: Be genuine. Share the true leadership traits that you have heard others describe you. Do not try to be someone you are not. Use some light-weight examples to support your statement, but do not go into too much detail. The interviewer is asking for others perception about you. Too many details imply, you are trying too hard. For example, if you say you bring positive energy and fun to the team, you can give examples on how many team events you organize, either ad-hoc or planned, but no need to go into specific detail for the events since they are not important for the question. Again, 3 is the magic number. Please pick up three things to describe your own leadership style. At the end, do a brief summary so that the interviewer has the best chance to capture and appreciate it.

Common pitfalls:

  • Too verbose, unnecessarily get into too much detail
  • Answering the question without examples. Do not be fooled by this question. It does not ask for examples specifically, but it does not mean the interviewer does not expect it from you.
  • Pick up controversial leadership dimension. Please note the interviewer is also assessing whether she wants to be your teammate.

Question variations:

  • What’s your leadership style?
  • Which leadership trait do you wish to have but you do not possess today?

Have you mentored someone?

What is the interviewer looking for: Life is full of give and take. When you mentor others, you are not only helping others, but also learn from them and improve yourself. How much you are willing to give has big impact on how far you can go with your career. For this question, the interviewer is looking for:

  • Your willingness to help people
  • How effective you are as a mentor or advisor

Best practice to answer: After you give a positive answer to the question, pick up one or two stories on what you did. Please make sure to cover enough detail. Are these people in your company or outside? Did you help them on the technical dimension or other aspects? What are the top advices you think worked really well for your mentees? What have you learned in this process? These are all great points to make.

Common pitfalls:

  • Simply answer “No”: In reality, you must have helped somebody, even if in your college. It does not have to be an official mentor-mentee relationship. Pick someone that you have provided meaningful help and improved her chance of success.

  • Lack of specifics. The interviewers may conclude that you have not really done it if you do not include specific examples.

  • Too much detail: The interviewer just wants to make sure. Too much detail will give him/her impression that you are not concise.

Question variations:

  • What is your view on mentorship?
  • How do you help your teammates when needed?