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Answering Behavioral Interview Questions: Leadership

Part of our ongoing series to help you answer common behavioral interview questions.

Tell Me About Your Leadership Skills

Behavioral interview questions are standard now for companies in all industries — especially Fortune 500 companies.

These behavioral questions (“Tell me about a time…”) probe for examples of how candidates have demonstrated desired competencies in the past.

Of the many competencies that come up in behavioral interviews, leadership ability is one of the most common (I would rank it as #2 most popular after the teamwork question). In fact, I know of one highly-regarded company that bases their entire interview process on leadership behavioral questions — for positions at all levels within the organization.

You might think that leadership questions are only relevant for management positions, but that’s a common misconception. Most companies are looking for people with leadership potential even when hiring for entry-level positions.

I recommend that every job seeker prepare at least one example of a leadership experience and get comfortable speaking about it in an interview situation.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be an on-the-job leadership role. Recent grads can speak about leadership experience gained through volunteering, hobbies, clubs, and academic projects.

What Do They Mean By Leadership?

One of the challenges is that the term “leadership” means different things to different people. What exactly are “leadership skills”?

Well, in the basic dictionary sense, “leadership” just means leading a group of people or an organization. However, most people see true leadership as something that goes beyond just managing people and projects.

There are countless books and articles about leadership and countless definitions. Here are some of the competencies typically considered “leadership skills”:
taking initiative, communicating a vision, translating vision into reality, inspiring others, making tough decisions, motivating others, empowering others, developing others. (Check out these “100 Best Quotes on Leadership” from Kevin Cruse at Forbes.com for more perspectives on the qualities of a leader).

Behavioral Questions About Leadership

When it comes to the job interview, most hiring managers are looking for the type of leadership skills required to run a team, department or organization (now or in the future).

Let’s take a look at some of the most popular behavioral questions about leadership ability:

• Tell me about a time when you demonstrated leadership skills.

• Tell me about a time that you took the lead on a difficult project.

• When have you delegated effectively?

• Describe a time when you led by example.

• Who have you coached or mentored to achieve success?

• Tell me about a time that you led an important meeting.

There are plenty of other variations on this theme.

Before we give you the step-by-step approach to answering leadership questions like a rock star, here’s a quick refresher on behavioral interview questions in general.

Behavioral Interviewing Refresher

Behavioral interview questions ask for examples of how a candidate has demonstrated specific competencies in the past (the questions usually begin with “Tell me about a time…” or “Give me an example of…”).

The idea is that understanding past job performance is the best way to predict future job performance

Read our Behavioral Interview Questions 101 Guide for more.

Why Interviewers Ask About Leadership

For the interviewer, the goal is to find out if the candidate has true leadership potential.

For more senior-level roles (any position with direct reports), it’s important to communicate your ability to jump in and assume a leadership role immediately. The best way to do this is to demonstrate that you’ve done it successfully in the past.

For other roles, the leadership challenge may be to lead and motivate people who DON’T report to you. For example, any project management role or position that requires gaining cooperation and/or buy-in from other departments.

For other positions (even entry-level jobs), companies ask about leadership because they want to hire people with leadership potential — individuals who can grow with the company and have superstar potential.

Most companies want to hire the best of the best. Your interviewer wants to know if you have what it takes to help lead the organization into the future.

In most job interviews, you will be competing against many qualified candidates. Most of them can do the job. However, to get hired in a competitive job market, it is essential to be more than qualified. You want to show that you are a leader, a superstar, an influencer.

How to Answer Behavioral Questions About Leadership

This type of question can seem daunting. It requires a bit of bragging and many of us are not comfortable with “selling” ourselves.

If you’re too humble when talking about your leadership experience or potential, you risk selling yourself short.

This is why it’s so important to prepare a great leadership interview story in advance using the STAR format.

The goal is not to script out an answer word-for-word. The STAR format allows you to structure the general shape of your response by jotting down bullets for each of the key aspects of the story. Check out Big Interview for more guidance on structuring great STAR stories — and an Answer Builder tool that you can use to make the process much easier.

Sample Answer — “Tell Me About a Time You Had to Lead and Motivate People.”

Here’s an overview of how to use the STAR format specifically to present a leadership experience:

S/T (Situation/Task)

— Briefly describe the project or situation. Give just enough history and/or background to provide context.

Example Situation/Task Bullets

• When I was at ABC Company, we went through some company-wide lay-offs.
• The team of five that remained in the department had to absorb the duties of the two that left.
• As a result, people were overworked and morale suffered.
• At the same time, more mistakes were being made because attention was so scattered.
• As the manager, it was my job to get performance back on track.

Why We Like Them

With these bullets, the candidate quickly paints a picture of the challenge faced. She had to motivate a team of people who were stressed out, negative, and overworked. This scenario obviously required strong leadership skills.

Tip: Avoid the temptation to get bogged down in too much detail. You don’t need to fill the interviewer in on the reasons for the lay-offs, exactly how individual team members responded, or exactly what mistakes were being made.

A (Approach)

— Talk about the key actions that you took. When telling a leadership story, make sure that you convey specifically how you stepped up as a leader. What actions did you take and why? How did your actions demonstrate leadership?

Example Approach Bullets

• I scheduled a meeting of the full team to discuss strategies.
• I communicated my appreciation for all of their hard work during a challenging time for the company.
• I asked for their assistance in identifying ways for us all to be more efficient –including me!
• I made it clear that this was a brainstorming meeting to come up with options — that no idea was stupid and that it was a safe environment for making suggestions.
• We spent an hour capturing ideas on a white board, then voted on the five with the most potential. I then assigned each person to do more research on how we might implement one of the ideas.

Why We Like Them

She gives us a step-by-step breakdown of her leadership strategy. She empowered her people to help solve the problem, she opened herself up to constructive feedback, and she made everyone feel valued and heard.

Tip: Remember that managing a team doesn’t necessarily make you a great leader. It’s important to choose a story that demonstrates true leadership — stepping up to guide or motivate or take initiative, ideally in challenging circumstances.

R (Results)

— A strong STAR interview story always includes a happy ending. Wrap up your example by describing the positive outcome(s) of your action. Quantifiable results are particularly impressive (boosted sales by 32%, saved the organization $19K), but anecdotal results also can work well (My client was delighted and sang my praises to my manager, my VP loved our creative approach and promoted me).

Example Results Bullets

• First of all, the team responded very positively to this approach. They loved the idea of being empowered to help find a solution. Instead of complaining, they channeled their energy in a more productive way once they knew that they would be heard.
• Right off the bat, we came up with two ideas that could be implemented quickly and save us a lot of time.
• One idea was to eliminate a weekly report. This freed up 8 hours each week — including two hours of my time and three hours for my top account manager.
• Another was to train Penny, our administrative assistant, to take on some of the tasks that were burdening our account managers.
• We also decided to incorporate brainstorming and idea evaluation into our staff meetings each month.
• We are now more efficient and morale is way up.
• My boss even asked me to help him roll this process out to the other departments in our division.

Why We Like Them

This is a great happy ending. The candidate covers a number of positive outcomes:

• Increasing morale by empowering the team members

• Improving efficiency and saving 8+ hours per week

• Impressing the big boss so much that he wants other departments to follow the candidate’s approach

Tip: It’s nice to have some specific numbers (freeing up 8+ hours per week), but the anecdotal results are equally impressive in this example. The fact that the candidate’s boss “stole” the idea for other departments shows it was a real success.