your top answers to interview questions for management position

[hatwoman]

I've got an interview tomorrow and am reasonably sure that the following questions will come up. any top tips?

• how will you deal with a situation where you disagree with someone you manage who has more expertise on a particular area than you do?

• how will you deal with a situation where the experts you manage (and maybe you) think x and y should be priorities but senior management (and maybe you) think a and b are?

• how will you deal with poor quality work?

your insights will be very much welcomed

1. the honest answer - I'd try to understand why I disagreed with them, if their expertise was bigger than mine. Did I think of some other aspect that they missed, eg something to do with business/personnel matters rather than technical things? or do we disagree about something that falls totally under their expertise? if the former, Id push my view, if the latter, Id probably defer to them. If possible, I would find out what other technical experts thought, to prevent the possibility of one expert trading on their expertise to bully the department (have seen that happening)

1. Id probably push what the senior management wanted, because technical experts can get carried away with engineering excellence. But I would evaluate their concerns carefully. For example, German companies rightly have an excellent reputation for technical excellence, precisely because engineers sometimes get their way, and push through the best solution instead of the quickest.

1. I would probably talk to the person to find out why the work is poor quality and then play it by ear. If the company doesnt have a policy to provide support for drugs and drink problems, maybe they should have one. If the person is going through a crisis like divorce, a sympathetic chat could have the desired effect, if they know that you understand, but that you are watching their performance. (harsh but realistic)

thanks nighty night. all interesting. I think my main answer to 1 will be that I doubt I will disagree as such - rather that I might find myself in a situation where the expert has failed to convince me. (and we're mainly talking about reports written for publication so if they fail to convince me they'll fail to convince our audience) In which case I will give them guidance as to what might convince me - in terms of evidence and analysis but ultimately if they don;t convince me they don;t get their way (but that last bit worded a bit better).

1. I would try and find out what we had in common and use this to develop an understanding of how to proceed. I'd also ask the person to explain things to me in a simple way so that I could learn to because that's part of everyone's job, to help others to be the best they can (and other trite management phrases).

1. In the nicest possible way, realise that they have different priorities and help them understand that it is a fiscal necessity to do some things, but that you do consider their ideas.

1. Avoid it where possible by addressing issues early and providing plenty of training and make sure employees are empowered and motivated to be the best they can.

You should read the book 'leading geeks' btw.

how will you deal with a situation where you disagree with someone you manage who has more expertise on a particular area than you do?

I'd listen to their pov and that of others in the team and once I'd taken all points of view into consideration I'd make my decision. As the manager I should be able to make decisions that not everyone agrees with because ultimately I will be responsible for the outcomes. I would explain my reasons and would expect my team to appreciate that sometimes we will disagree but we will do so calmly and with professionalism.

• how will you deal with a situation where the experts you manage (and maybe you) think x and y should be priorities but senior management (and maybe you) think a and b are?

An important part of a manager's job is to make sure the team understand the priorities of senior management and ensure that team priorities are the same. If as a team we thought a and b should be priorities then it would be reasonable to bring this up for discussion with senior management but ultimately, senior management may have access to other information which has helped them decide their priorities and so their priorities must take precedence.

• how will you deal with poor quality work?

It depends on the reason for the poor quality. I'd want to look at that first. i.e. was the task/objective specified inaccurately? Was the person empowered to perform the work and given the tools they needed? Did they have access to everything they needed to do it? Was the timing right - i.e. did they have enough time to do it and were the deadlines reasonable? Are they skilled enough to do it? Was there another reason for poor quality/underperformance? Does the person need training? Redirecting? Are they the right person for the job? Sometimes people just are in the wrong jobs and so you need to manage underperformance

And once I'd established that then I could pinpoint what had gone wrong and how it might need to be addressed differently next time.

hatwoman, thats a good point. But dont raise the bar of convincing you too high, will you. Technical people (Im one) get pretty disillusioned with managers if they feel they havent a chance of convincing them. Also, they are not that unrealistic - they may push a technical solution to management, but between themselves, they usually know whether it is realistic or not. (We love managers who can easily be blinded with technology so that we get our way, but we reserve our real respect for the ones who have technical knowhow themselves. "He used to be an engineer" is always a good start for a manager in any company Ive ever worked in.)

• how will you deal with a situation where you disagree with someone you manage who has more expertise on a particular area than you do?

• acknowledge their expertise and ask them to explain their thinking. Use that to have a discussion that allows you to show how and why you disagree and thereby reach compromise.

• how will you deal with a situation where the experts you manage (and maybe you) think x and y should be priorities but senior management (and maybe you) think a and b are?

• Hear out the experts and explain why snr mgt priorities are different. Be open to suggestions on how priorities a&b can be met without compromising x and y. Find a common ground between the two groups and use that as basis to work towards the goal I need to meet.

• how will you deal with poor quality work?

By setting clear expectations as work's assigned so that I can give specific feedback. Keep criticism constructive and non-emotional, about the work not the person and by agreeing clear timings and guidelines on work being redone.

these are great everyone. keep 'em coming! I think maybe "expert" is a bit misleading - they're not technical experts - rather they have a particular knowledge that I don;t have in quite so much detail - I'll gather some as I go along, but won;t have the time to gather quite the same level of knowlegde as them. I have been one of them in the past but with a different area of expertise. if that makes sense

sneaky evening bump. also does anyone have an opinion as to how frank I can be. It's internal and I have quite strong feelings about various problems. I know the problems are pretty bad. the interview panel knows they are. but just how upfront/outspoken can I be?

hmm. tricky. the safest thing might be to give your opinion if asked, but don't show any emotion.

they probably wont give you the job if they think you are too emotionally involved, or if your solutions radically differ from theirs.

On the other hand, you dont want to give the impression that you are indifferent to the company's future. Depends how well you know them, too.

How did it go Hatwoman? I thought of you today.

ahh - thanks for asking. It was kind of ok but kind of cringey. I was just coming to post about it actually - it was internal and I knew the panel really well - it's so humiliating. I was thinking about one particular answer where I just said nothing at all of any interest. instead of "how would you deal with..." questions - for which I was prepared, I got asked "give me an example where you dealt with...." and I was like a rabbit in headlights. If it had been external I;d just be writing it off to experience but because it was internal I'm always going to think about it when i see these people. heigh ho.

internal interviews are the worst. facing a group of people you know, ugh.

Oh shame hatwoman! Never mind. If you did a really crap interview could you ask them if you could try again, telling them you know you didn't give it your best shot? Or is that not the done thing? I would for an external role (and have done and have got a second chance)