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  • Interview Coaching
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Category : Interviewing for Executives

Home /  Interviewing for Executives
 
Women in Leadership, Interviewing for Executives, Competency Questions

Competency questions on Leadership

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 20, 2023
  • competency questions

Competency questions on Leadership

As a leader, your impact on an organisation is profound. You inspire your team to achieve exceptional results. You encourage high performers to find better way of doing things and have difficult conversations with those who aren’t hitting the mark. You live the values of the company and lead from the front.

In any interview setting, you’ll be asked behavioural questions to get a sense of your leadership style. The hiring manager will need to see your alignment to their corporate culture and values. Putting the wrong leader in place has a ripple effect and can cost a company dearly.

What do companies expect when asking behavioural questions on leadership?

The hiring manager needs to get inside your head to understand the tools you use to lead teams in achieving exceptional results.

When framing your answer, consider showing evidence of the following:

  • Creating a culture of psychological safety where people can speak their views.
  • Living the values of company and leading from the front
  • Keeping up to date with best practices to transform the way the business operates. Leading through on this transformation change
  • Encouraging your team to innovate and challenge status quo
  • Achieving exceptional performance through empowerment, feedback and coaching
  • Embracing diversity in all its aspects

How can I answer a competency question on leadership?

When framing your question, it’s really useful to use the STAR technique. See my article on competency questions for guidelines

To give you an idea of what the answer could look like, and to help you come up with ideas, I’ve outlined an example below

Tell me about a time you showed your strong leadership skills

In my last company I was Country Manager. The number of new products we’d successfully launched had fallen over the previous 6 months and was badly impacting on profitability. My objective was to get to the root cause of this and turn the situation around.

The first thing I did was to engage with the Senior Management team to find out what was going on. It was really important for me to set the tone, to make sure everyone spoke candidly. I made sure everyone had a voice and each person’s view was respected and taken on board – every opinion was taken into account. It quickly became clear to me that the culture of our company was to punish mistakes, which was stifling innovation. I knew I had to change the culture.

Under my leadership the team came up with and led out on 3 initiatives including a cross functional initiative to solve customer problems and publish the results, regardless of the outcome. I introduced KPIs to measure innovation and introduced an award for managers who tried something bold and innovative even if it did not yield results. The lessons learnt were then publicised. A challenge for me throughout the process was to manage resistance from some functional heads to embracing the new “fail often, fail fast” culture. Through working closely with them, actively listening to their concerns and highlighting the benefits, I got their full support

Within 6 months I’d transformed the company culture through the initiatives I’d led out on. This fed directly through to bottom line results. The number of new products launched that year doubled contributing to a 10% increase in sales revenue.

Conclusion

Strong leadership is an essential quality in ensuring a company’s survival and ultimate long term success. Being able to demonstrate this skill effectively in an interview will give you the edge and ultimately put you in pole position for the role.

About the Author

Laura McGrath is a qualified executive coach, EMCC Certified with over 20 years’ experience in executive search and recruitment.  She’s the owner of Interview Techniques, a leading provider of interview and career coaching services and has been a guest lecturer with Trinity College Dublin and TU Dublin.  She’s given master interview classes with the Institute of Certified Public Accountants Ireland. For a consultation, please call 087 669 1192 or go to https://interviewtechniques.ie/contact/.

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Interviewing for Executives How to Stand Out
Women in Leadership, Interviewing for Executives

Interviewing for Executives – 5 tips to ensure you stand out

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 8, 2023
  • executive interview, leadership, senior management interviews

The interview process is a highly competitive one and like any elite sport the difference between winning and losing is marginal.  With this in mind, it’s useful to look at the characteristics shared by successful candidates.

They reposition themselves from job applicant to business partner:

When coaching clients, I always encourage them to understand the world from the interviewer’s perspective. I invite them to focus on what they need to be successful in their new role and explore how they can add value to their new employer. This injects pace and passion to the interview……

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Women in Leadership, Interviewing for Executives

15 smart question to ask the hiring manager at the end of an interview

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 4, 2023
  • interview questions, senior management interviews

What smart questions can I ask at the end of an interview?

People may forget what you say, but will never forget how you make them feel. This is particularly important at the end of a job interview. Asking thoughtful questions at the end of your meeting, can help you connect with the hiring manager on an emotional level and allow them see you in the role.

Based on recent research I’ve done with Chief People Officers, the following questions came up as those that most impressed when hiring top talent.

Questions on strategy/future direction

  • What are the biggest risks your company is facing, both internal and external? Which concerns you the most?
  • What changes would you like to make in the company/department to make it more successful?
  • How do you support future leaders’ development?

Questions on culture

  • What’s different about working here compared to anywhere else you’ve worked?
  • What do you love most about working here? What did you find most surprising about the culture when you first started?
  • When you’ve done your best work here, what about the culture has enabled you to do it?
  • What makes people stay at this company?

Questions on leadership style

  • How would your team describe you?
  • Can you tell me about someone you admire in the company and what qualities have made them successful?
  • What’s the toughest feedback you’ve received and what’s the toughest feedback you’ve given?
  • What have the past year’s exit interviews taught you?
  • What are the struggles your team currently faces?

Questions on the role

  • What qualities did you most admire in the previous person who held the role? Has the emphasis now changed/ what new qualities are now important for you?
  • How do you see my role evolving as the company grows?
  • What key problems do you want me to solve in the first 6 months of joining?
  • Who are the key people I’ll need to know, to maximise my success?

By asking thoughtful and indeed challenging questions to the Hiring Manager at the end of a job interview, you’ll present yourself as strategically focused candidate who will be an asset to their leadership team.

About the Author

Laura McGrath is a qualified executive coach, EMCC Certified with over 20 years’ experience in executive search and recruitment.  She’s the owner of Interview Techniques, a leading provider of interview and career coaching services and has been a guest lecturer with Trinity College Dublin and TU Dublin.  She’s given master interview classes with Institute of Certified Public Accountants. For a consultation, please call 087 669 1192 or go to https://interviewtechniques.ie/contact/

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Promotional Interviews
Women in Leadership, Interviewing for Executives, Selected Interview Categories - From Virtual Interviews to Promotional Interviews

How to succeed in Promotional Interviews – 5 Tips

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 4, 2023
  • promotional interviews, internal interviews

Whilst promotional interviews share many of the same features as traditional interviews, you need to be aware of their subtle differences to ensure you avoid any potential pitfalls and that you maximise your performance.

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Questioning the Interviewer
Interviewing for Executives, Popular Interview Questions

What questions should you ask at the end of a job interview?

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 3, 2023

When asking employers for feedback as to how they selected their preferred candidate in a closely run interview contest, the answer often comes down to the quality of questions asked at the end of the interview.  Yet whilst preparing for such meetings, job-seekers often neglect spending time in selecting the most appropriate questions to ask.  

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Salary Negotiation
Women in Leadership, Interviewing for Executives, Popular Interview Questions, Re-energise your job search

Salary Negotiation when you get a job offer- 4 tips

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 3, 2023
  • Salary Negotiation

Negotiating salary is an exercise that many people find uncomfortable, even in a buoyant market.  It is worthwhile remembering that regardless of the economic climate, good candidates are always hard to find.  An employer is looking for a specific combination of qualities – relevant work experience, technical and IT skills, cultural fit, ability to fit in with the team – so when they identify their preferred candidate they are usually willing to negotiate on salary.  With this in mind, how can you increase your influence at the negotiating table?

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Second Interviews
Interviewing for Executives, Selected Interview Categories - From Virtual Interviews to Promotional Interviews

How to Succeed at Second Interviews

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 3, 2023

In our previous article we discussed the main reasons why people fail to secure a job offer and suggested focusing on three main areas to heighten chances of success.

In this article we will concentrate on guiding you through the second interview process.   As with the first interview, preparation is the key to success.  There are some subtle differences, however, between the first and second interview and it is worth highlighting these to help you in your preparation.

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Interview Questions on Communications Skills
Graduates, Women in Leadership, Interviewing for Executives, Popular Interview Questions, Competency Questions

Interview Questions and answers on Communication Skills and Dealing with Conflict

  • Laura-McGrath
  • October 2, 2023
  • conflict, influencing, competency questions, stakeholder management

Once an employer is satisfied that you can do the job, they will focus their attention on your communication skills.  Specifically they’ll want to know how you’ll interact with colleagues/ senior management /customers, how skilled you are at resolving conflict and how adept you are in the art of negotiation.  By anticipating questions that will be asked, you can prepare examples that show your competency in these areas and prove that you are a great fit for the role.

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Women in Leadership, Why wasn't I successful?, Interviewing for Executives

4 Tips to Succeed in Executive Interviews

  • Laura-McGrath
  • September 3, 2023
  • executive interviews, management interviews

What’s the biggest mistake we make in interviews?

Interviewing for the job we’re in, not the job we’re going for.

The easiest way to avoid falling into this trap is to approach the interview as you would any part of the business – strategically. Look for overlaps between your current role and the desired position, then show you’ve the abilities required to adapt to the higher level of responsibilities demanded.
Areas to look out for:

Stakeholder management:
Strategic input:
Emotional Intelligence:

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Interviewing for Executives, Re-energise your job search

Senior Management Interviews – What qualities do you need to show to get the job?

  • Laura-McGrath
  • September 2, 2023
  • interview tips, hybrid working, virtual interviews, working from home

Hybrid working has placed increasing demands on organisations; changing how we collaborate with colleagues and blurring the boundaries between work and home.
More than ever, employers are placing a premium on emotional intelligence in their selection process to ensure their teams have the inbuilt flexibility required to weather any unexpected storms, yet remain on course.
With this in mind, what are the three top qualities employers look for?

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RECENT TIPS

  • 5 Tips to excel in An Garda Síochána interviews October 23, 2023
  • Competency questions on Leadership October 20, 2023
  • Interviewing for Executives – 5 tips to ensure you stand out October 8, 2023

CATEGORIES

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  • Graduates
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  • Interviewing for Executives
  • An Garda Síochána interviews
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  • Selected Interview Categories – From Virtual Interviews to Promotional Interviews
  • Re-energise your job search
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RECENT TIPS

  • 5 Tips to excel in An Garda Síochána interviews October 23, 2023
  • Competency questions on Leadership October 20, 2023

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