Interview question what kind of manager are you

You can apply qualities that are the opposite of what they used in their management style. Once you've assessed the qualities your managers had, you can think about the skills you currently have that make you a good manager.

If you've worked in previous leadership positions and gained skills or knowledge that may help your employees succeed, you can use those to describe what makes you a good manager. List these qualities in your head before or during the interview and try to mention them when answering this question.

Before describing your management style, you can briefly explain what qualities you believe a good manager holds. This can help employers understand what management skills you think are beneficial and inform them that these are the skills you have as a manager. Once you have defined what a good manager is, you can discuss what your management style is and how you apply these skills to your management style.

Now you can talk about the specific management style you believe you possess. Common management styles you can mention in your interview include:. This management style involves pushing employees to achieve their maximum potential. Managers using this style are constantly encouraging their employees to build upon their skills and develop new ones.

They are constantly innovating and solving any employee problems to help them achieve. Visionary leaders develop a vision for their employees to follow and encourage them to meet the goals of that vision.

Once they communicate these goals, they let their team accomplish these tasks on their own. They will often monitor and check in on employees to answer any questions or provide additional guidance if needed. These managers understand and value the ideas of their employees.

They often allow their team members to have a strong voice when making important decisions in the department to ensure the employees that their opinions are valuable. This also encourages the team to work harder on projects as they have a voice in choosing the overall goal they are working toward. Also referred to as servant leadership, this management style relies on encouraging, motivating and supporting team members. These managers often put their employees and their needs before projects or tasks.

They work to build a relationship with employees which can motivate them to deliver valuable results. Laissez-faire managers let their employees make a majority of their own decisions and allow them to work on projects with little to no supervision. These managers often believe their employees work best individually and will assist if it's requested.

After describing the management style you have, you can briefly explain an instance where you used this management style with an employee. This helps give employers more of an idea of when you have applied these styles and if the outcome was positive.

It also allows them to better picture you applying these management styles toward their own employees. You can describe this using one or two sentences and expand upon the story if the interviewer requests additional information. You can use the examples below to help form your own answer to this question based on the type of management style you follow. I'm always working to push myself out of my comfort level and I enjoy doing the same with my employees. They are often capable of achieving many challenging obstacles, so I use my transformational management style to help guide them through this challenging task when needed.

Management is about getting a job done and being effective in handling those people responsible for doing the work. Remember to not simply focus on yourself, but to demonstrate how you get the best out of people — the ability to both drive and encourage others, as well as being able to rein in staff when need be.

Explaining the role of management may seem unnecessary, but defining the purpose will help to clarify the type of manager that you are. If you see yourself as part of the team, make sure you describe how that works.

Weak managers may find that their status is undermined if they try to be one of the team, so demonstrate your strength.

It might be that you are always willing to roll up your sleeves and get involved when things get tough, but have the ability to also step away to examine why things might be going wrong for one particular team member. Are you open to new ideas from your team? Listening and compassion are both important aspects of management. Think about how you deal with staff that have experienced problems and have approached you for help. Businesses have to be adaptable in order to be competitive.

You can either say that you will alter your management style according to the project or team you lead, or even the atmosphere in the workplace see sample answer no. You will face questions about prioritization, dealing with pressure, dealing with ambiguity , and other tricky scenarios that happen in the workplace.

If you want to make sure that you stand out with your answers and outclass your competitors, have a look at our Interview Success Package. Thank you for checking it out! But if you manage a team of workers who care only about their paycheck , and have no loyalty to their employer, an iron fist can still be the best management style.

In places like construction site, assembly line, or even in some classrooms with many disruptive students , it is the only way to maintain at least some order , and to achieve at least decent results.

If you are just starting your professional career in management, applying for your first managerial or supervisory position, you should be willing to learn from the others—including your subordinates. Confidence is important, but humility can win you more points in the interviews. Ensure the hiring managers that you are humble enough to learn from anyone in the company, and want to be extremely receptive to feedback from your subordinates. At the end of the day, it may be your only chance to win their trust and respect.

Because if you came as a new young force to the company, and started to boss your people right from the start, you would not get far as a manager…. Ready to answer this one? I hope so! Check also 7 sample answers to other tricky interview questions :. Privacy Policy. How would you describe your management style? Interview questions answered. Instead of bossing people, and trying to show them the right direction each day, I prefer to show them a vision, the final goal. I aim for a big vision, and everyone should understand what role they play in attaining the goals.

It should also be intellectually challenging, something that induces creative thinking. And then I let my people a free hand, because I have a great team of designers and engineers in my current job. And in my experience, the only management style that works on a construction site is authoritative leadership.