Manager Interview Questions and Answers

Video : Manager Interview Questions - IT, Sales, Marketing, HR Manager etc.

1. What is your style of management?

Your management style comes from your personality and is a good indicator of how you would gel with the company's style or help to improve it.

A bad manager can harm the whole department more than the whole team can do it together.

Your management style includes almost everything about you - your way of dealing with the situations, communication, way of motivating your team, disciplining them, delegating the tasks etc.

The management style that changes with the situation is called as Situational or Dynamic style.

A sample answer to this question can be something like,

"Well, I would call the style of management I follow as "situational" because I truly believe that the way one size doesn't fit all, one technique or manner doesn't work in all the situations. I'm a highly disciplined and result oriented person so yes, I believe in processes and measure the outcome but I like to give a free hand to the people working with me. Without compromising on the quality and values, I like it when they solve the problems with their own innovative approaches.

Also, I believe in keeping things simple and easy & this is what I try to bring with me to work as well. I always motivate my team members to practice fitness and enjoy their life while being committed to their goals."

2. How would your employees describe the culture in your department?

With this question, the purpose is to see, how important is the idea of having a work culture to you? Or is this something absolutely alien to you.

The work culture in a department flows from top to bottom.

When something is important to you as the manager, you find the ways to establish it. That is what the interviewer is trying to find out here.

The way you have a culture in your family, you have a work culture in your department too.

So, even if this is your first interview for a managerial position, prepare yourself to answer this question. Make a list of things that are important to you as a manager and why.

For example you can talk about things like:

Mutual respect, cordial relationship, punctuality, integrity, learn new things, open discussion etc.

An additional tip - Make yourself aware of the core values of the company you are interviewing at and align your answer with them.

3. How do you delegate the tasks to your team?

One of the very important qualities of a successful manager is their ability to delegate and monitor the tasks. This allows them more time to focus on things that really require their attention and at the same time they strengthen both the organization as well as the individuals of that team.

But there are some managers who are not very comfortable with the idea of delegating.

The reasons could be numerous like - they feel that no on one can do a job better than them or someone will eat up their credit or someone else will become better than them etc.

A manager who is not able to delegate or doesn't want to delegate is a roadblock to the success of an organization and any signs of this are red flags for the interviewer.

A good way to answer this question can be something like,

"As a Manager, I keep a track of my daily activities. This helps me to identify any time-consuming tasks that I can delegate. Once I have identified the task, I try to figure out the right person to do the job based on their skills, interest and level of motivation.

When delegating, it is very important to give out very clear instructions, so that the other person clearly knows what is expected out of them.

During appraisal meetings, I keep my team members informed about the type of tasks they'll be required to handle in due course of time. This allows them the time to upgrade their skills, which becomes a part of their performance goals and I make myself equally responsible to ensure that they are able to attain this goal.

And, once I have delegated a task, I prefer to let them take the lead and don't like to micromanage. However, I'm always available for a feedback, mentoring and support. With time, I have learnt that it is very important to be patient with the people because their ways may differ from you."

With responsibility is required the authority. So, whenever you give someone a responsibility, give them the required authority too.

Some managers even tell their team members, "if you see a new project coming which you are interested in taking up, approach me with a proposal and ask for it." This helps them to decide immediately.

4. How do you motivate your team?

When you are managing a team, at times you motivate the people in a group while at others you motivate them individually depending on their specific nature and problems.

Motivating others is more of an art than science because while trying to motivate people, you try to tap into a particular emotion and deal with it. And, one of the biggest factors that can be trusted upon is "Communication"

It has been found that, an individual's motivation is closely related to their manager's perception about their ability to perform. Now, being aware of this, you definitely want to send them the right vibes, if you have decided to assign them a particular task.

Some of the techniques that have been found to work are:

i.) Simple ways - At times a simple thank you or pat on the back is sufficient while at others you can motivate your people by giving them more responsibility and trusting them. Even a simple mention on office intranet or in the newsletter can be a big boost to the morale of employees.

ii.) Recognition and reward on a public platform in a timely manner is a big morale booster. Here you have to be careful that while recognizing the efforts of one person you don't land up demotivating others.  

iii.) Other rewards like gift vouchers, lunch coupons, nomination to special conferences or personal development programs are also helpful.

iv.) Clear progression plan in terms of goals, project milestones, career etc. have a tremendous effect because they let the employees have a clear sight of what they are trying to achieve. These work as the fuel for them to propel themselves in the required direction.

v.) Regular employee conferences that help them feel to be a team and discuss the problem & solutions,

vi.) Regular performance review meetings where they can also discuss things that might be bothering them at an individual level

vii.) Feeling of being a team and cordial relationship with each other

viii.) Empower them with skills, knowledge and enough freedom to work on their own without micromanaging them. Once they have achieved something, let them own their work.

ix.) Push them out of their comfort zone, challenge them in their role and make them achieve something bigger