Top 20 Leadership Interview Questions and Answers:

1. Tell me/us about the time you demonstrated leadership skills at work?
Draw references from previous work experiences where you took the initiative to lay out a
successful strategy for a project, how you delegated tasks to your team members according to
their strengths to maximize the outcome, organized the entire presentation with collaborative
efforts, and delivered results.

2. What is your leadership style?

Even if you have never spearheaded a project, it is best not to be straightforward about this with
your interviewer. Match your thinking patterns and behavioral approaches with a leadership
style that defines you. Think about real and imagined situations in workplace scenarios, and
come up with a befitting answer.

3. Which supporting skills do you think are more important for a leader?
Think about the personal qualities that encouraged, inspired, and engaged your teammates to
perform better in the past. Empathy, respect, trustworthiness, effective communication, and
good problem-solving abilities are required to be a good team leader.
4. How do you manage a conflict situation?
Conflict of interests or ideas is inevitable in the workplace. Give real-life examples when you
encountered warring team members, kept your calm, listened with intent to understand
individual perspectives, and offered dispassionate suggestions for desirable results.

5. What was the hardest decision you have taken as a leader? What helped you to prompt the
best course of action?
If there was ever a time in your career where you were at crossroads, explain to them about it
and justify your reason for choosing a decision you thought was most suitable at the time.

6. How do you ensure your team delivers quality work within the specified timeframe and
budget?
Pick up instances from your career where you steered a project successfully. You can go ahead
and explain how you outlined the project scope, created realistic targets, broke up the project
into workable plans, set expectations, and built accountability within your team. Then, talk about
the results — how your team met the target and achieved results without compromising quality
scores. This is also a good time to talk about client appreciation.
7. How do you motivate an under-performing team member?
Under-performers usually suffer from many mental blocks and professional challenges that stop
them from giving their best. As a leader, tell your interviewer how you would address these
underlying issues by designing solid plans for your employees to train them on effective self-
management to attain their full potential.

8. Tell me/us about your approach to delegation?

To handle this question the best way, you can begin by sharing your understanding of how vital
it is for leaders to train their eyes and mind to choose the best fit for task delegation. It would
help if you also talked about the importance of providing relevant instructions, resources, and
training to the concerned group and positive feedback to boost employee morale.

9. Can you describe a time when you led by example?

You can refer to incidents when you worked diligently along with your team members to get a
task completed within a tight deadline. Or you may talk of other similar events where you led
and inspired them to complete work under unfavorable circumstances.
10. Have you ever served in a mentor role?
You can think about the opportunities you got in your career to wear the mentor’s mantle to
guide, train, and connect your mentee with a world of possibilities through a working network.

11. How do you monitor a team’s performance?

Besides keeping a close eye on your team’s performance, you can also mention technological
tools that help your team to track their performance. It’s a great idea to tell them how you
compare your observations with theirs and follow up with action plans for those in need.

12. How would you boost a sagging team’s morale?

Team members can be easily distracted and demoralized on flimsy grounds. Explain to your
interviewer how you would keep the lines of communication open and transparent, fill gaps in
communication, offer employee recognition, and have trained managers on the team to oversee
other details to maximize team productivity and prevent sagging morale.
13. How do you respond to ideas/suggestions from team members?
A competent leader has an open mind and is receptive to constructive feedback from their
employees. Tell your interviewer how you believe in the power of collaboration, and share
instances where you achieved positive results because of it.

14. Who do you look up to as an ideal leader, and why?

You can name any person from your life/work sphere who has positively impacted you with their
subtle teachings and exemplary leadership qualities.

15. How do you respond to criticism at the workplace?

Emotional detachment is the key to success in any work sphere. You can explain why you
choose to ignore negative comments but welcome constructive criticism that fosters
professional growth.
16. What steps do you take to measure your performance at work?
Explain the measures you take to evaluate your growth each day, like keeping a checklist,
seeking feedback, rating your performance, taking refresher courses on critical skills for a
leader, and staying relevant to your position with changing times.

17. How do you evaluate the capabilities of a new team member?

Go on to explain how you will get copies of job descriptions, learn about employee roles,
performance rated by the outgoing manager, and targets achieved in their capacity (and
collectively as a unit), to help you evaluate a new team.

18. How can you contribute to a positive work culture?

Explain the importance of providing a safe and secure working environment for employees to
thrive. The strategies to achieve this could include setting attainable goals, providing a flexible
work practice, keeping the lines of communication transparent and accessible, offering positive
reinforcements, and helping your team maintain good work-life balance. All of these practices
contribute to a positive work culture.
19. If you suddenly become short-staffed before a deadline, how will you manage the
deliverables without compromising their quality and timeframe?
Explain to your interviewer how you will immediately communicate the unforeseen departure to
the rest of the employees in the team. What steps you would take to encourage the team to
push limits to meet the deadline, coming up with smart plans and short-cuts. At the same time,
how would you prevent resentment and low morale among those who are having to pull the
extra weight? Talk about how you would negotiate compensation for them or make them feel
valued for the additional efforts.

20. How can your presence add value to the company?

To answer this question adequately, you need to have a clear understanding of the job role,
what skills the recruiters have outlined in the job description, and what are the company’s
missions and goals. With the knowledge of these key things, you can build yourself up as the
ideal candidate through this answer. Go on to describe how you can apply your experience,
expertise and skills from your present role as a team leader to fulfill what the hiring company
needs. In short, your answer should cover the company’s requirements and how your
capabilities and qualifications uniquely position you to meet them.
Our Readers Also Asked:
1. Why should we hire you as team leader?
When this question shows up, you need to show the interviewer why you would be a good fit for
the role they are looking for and the leadership skills you possess. Show traits that make you a
good team leader such as multitasking, being a team player, being understanding and
considerate, leading by example, etc.

2. How do you introduce yourself to a team leader interview?

This interview is usually similar to other interviews. Be polite when you walk into the interview,
shake hands with the interviewer, answer all their questions using the STAR method. Thank
them for giving you their time and this opportunity and ask when you would possibly hear from
them.

3. What qualities should a team leader have?

Here are some important qualities that a team leader should have:
● Acknowledgment, appreciation and giving due credit
● Active listening
● Showing commitment
● Having a clear vision
● Investing in the team's future
● Acting with integrity
● Acting objectively
● Motivating others
4. What questions are asked in a leadership interview?
Here are some common questions that are often asked during a leadership interview:
● Tell me about a time you improved your company performance in some way
● Tell me about a time you took the lead in a team project
● Tell me about a time you struggled with work-life balance

5. What are the 4 basic leadership styles?

Types of Leadership Styles
● Autocratic - Do as your told leadership, comes from a single figure.
● Democratic - Also known as participative leadership which includes involving all your
team members to help make a decision.
● Laissez-faire - This type of leadership involves empowering your employees to be able
to complete their tasks without micro management.
● Transformational - This type of leadership requires offering a grand vision and rallying
your employees around it.
The STAR technique is often proposed as the best for aspirants preparing for leadership roles.
It is an acronym for:

S= Situation

T= Task

A= Action

R= Result

Here are the four leadership styles and some situations they are ideal for:
● Direct - This style is useful when one outsources work to freelancers and contractors,
giving them clear directions. You don’t need to go out of your way to offer support any
more than what they need in order to deliver what’s expected of them.
● Coach – When you lead as a coach, you must articulate the team vision to your
subordinates and motivate them to believe in their endeavor wholeheartedly and bring
goals to fruition.
● Support - You must be flexible and open-minded to listen to ideas, and encourage
suggestions for collaborative teamwork and collective growth. Make each member feel
empowered as a contributing partner. As a supportive leader, you play the role of a
facilitator but retain the final say.
● Delegate - This is the style adopted when you fully entrust responsibilities to individual
team members for their experience and maturity. The delegating style of leadership is
most often seen in teams comprising senior executives or managers.

If you’ve applied for a leadership position, these are the five leadership skills that the recruiters
might be looking for in you:
1. Self-development: Good leaders are learners for life. To engage team members and
inspire them to maximize their potential, leaders must lead by example. They must
schedule self-development activities in their timeline, chasing growth with persistence.
2. Team development: Leaders must ensure a safe working environment where they can
partner with their team members to ensure a consolidated team growth and achievement
of goals. Management at the micro-level enables macro development.
3. Strategic management skills: Leaders are required to manage conflicts with their
strategic thinking abilities. They take critical long-term decisions and have a broad
perspective to exceed their clients’ expectations while achieving team/company goals
with finesse and exactitude.
4. Professional ethics: Good leaders are good role models as they set the bar high for their
team members with their sound value system. They familiarize themselves with the
ethical diktats of their organization to avert violations.
 5. Creativity: Aspiring leaders must prioritize working on their innovative skills in a highly-
competitive world. Leaders are expected to push the envelope in bringing fresh, original
ideas to salvage a business process from hitting a dead end. Often, they bear the onus
of replacing outdated operational models with relevant and improvised ones.

Importance of 30–60–90 Day Plan:

• It shows great understanding of the role.
• It shows enthusiasm and job-readiness.
• It shows a good work ethic.
• It portrays an invaluable hire that will go ‘above and beyond’ the call of duty.

30 DAYS- UNDERSTAND:
The first 30 days is to get acquainted with the new role. The objective is to understand the team,
company, products/services, customers etc.

60 DAYS- EVALUATE
The next 30 days [60 Days] is to evaluate current processes and procedures, identify strength
and weaknesses of team members/stakeholders and determine how best to allocate resources
for optimum impact. [SWOT Analysis]

90 DAYS- OPTIMIZE
The last 30 days [90 Days], at this stage the candidate is well-grounded in the role and could
identify gaps and areas of improvement. This is the time to launch and implement ideas that will
address critical issues.
Remember, the Plan has to be SMART.
S- Specific M- Measurable A- Achievable R- Relevant T- Time Bound.