Interview for the position of head of a telecommunications company. Interview - how to avoid mistakes. The ability to see the end goal

23.10.2019

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Work is a fundamental aspect of every person's life. All people want to achieve more, move up career ladder and occupy leadership positions. But there are few people who are aware of how to pass an interview for leadership position. Interviewing for a managerial position is a more complex process than hiring an ordinary employee. The manager must perform as well as possible during the interview. It is necessary to demonstrate all the skills inherent in a real leader.

A leadership position is a great responsibility. A manager must not only be the most knowledgeable and productive person in his field, but also be a true leader. What are the leadership skills? After reading the article, you will understand what character qualities a leader should have and how to demonstrate them in an interview.

An ordinary person will not be accepted for a leadership position. The person applying for this position must be the best.

However, do not forget that during the interview they choose not only you, but also you.

It's worth starting with compliance simple rules etiquette and behavior that will distinguish a true leader from an ordinary person.

Politeness. Talk to the person interviewing you politely, but not as if your fate depends on him. Speak openly and honestly. Give the impression of being a serious person.

Self-confidence. Remember that you also choose your place of work. Analyze everything you see and ask yourself if this job is right for you.

Awareness. Before you go for an interview, try to find out how you can more information about the company you want to work for. Be sure to check out their recent activities. Thanks to this, you can easily answer the question of why you chose this organization.

Deep knowledge in your field. Don't be afraid to show off your knowledge. In an interview, you need to prove that you have a good understanding of your field, not just a superficial one.

Components of a Leader

Now it’s worth paying attention to the character qualities that a real leader should have. These components include:

Proactivity.
Ability to see final goal.
Ability to manage time and use it wisely.
A type of thinking focused on mutually beneficial relationships between employees and managers.
Ability to work in a team and lead people.

Now, let's look at each quality separately.

Proactivity

Many people have never heard of this word and do not understand its meaning.

Proactivity is a person’s ability to see and solve problems where no one sees him. Such a person does not pay attention to distractions on the way to his goal.

It is very important to show at the interview that you are a goal-oriented person who is able to see solutions to complex problems.

A proactive person takes the initiative into his own hands, rather than waiting for someone else to do it for him. It will demonstrate at the interview that you are capable of taking matters into your own hands.

The ability to see the end goal

What is the difference between an ordinary person and a leader? A common person does something without knowing where it will lead him. A leader knows why he is doing his work and where it will lead him.

The leader's task is to lead the team to the final goal, without going astray and without being distracted by extraneous factors. Show in the interview that you can do this. Propose a solution to a problem as a goal for your work in this company. State what you think needs to be done to solve the problem.

Ability to manage time and use it wisely

The list of powers and responsibilities of a manager is greater than that of an ordinary employee, which means that he must manage to do more during the day.

A true leader must be able to structure his day in such a way that he has enough time for everything.

No one will hire a person who does not know how to manage his time to a leadership position, because this means that he will be late for meetings and meetings, not submit work on time, and thereby reduce the productivity of the company.

A type of thinking aimed at mutually beneficial relationships between employees and managers

An ordinary employee thinks at work about his benefits: how not to get fired from work and get a bonus. A true leader must think not only about his own benefit, but also the benefit of his employees.

Before the interview, think about how you could improve the atmosphere within the team, unite it and increase the efficiency of teamwork. You can offer to conduct trainings, joint games and meetings where everyone can express what they are dissatisfied with.

This way, the person who hires you will see that you care not only about yourself, but also about the people who work in this organization.

Ability to work in a team and lead people

Every company wants to see a leader who can rally the team and lead them. One person cannot do all the work; great projects are the result of the work of the whole team. That is why a leader must respect every person in his team.

The leader must also have public speaking skills. IN different organizations there are hard times. A person who can convince people not to despair and work for the sake of the company is worth a lot. Showcase your speaking skills and you will gain more respect in the eyes of your future employer.

So, getting an interview is not difficult if you have leadership skills and understand why you need the job.

Video on the topic of the article:

We will tell you how to conduct a successful interview with a future manager, and provide tools for all levels of the interview. Bonus - trick questions to assess management competencies. TOP 7 most popular interview questions.

From this article you will learn:

Useful materials on the topic:

How to screen candidates for management positions

A successful interview for a manager position has its own specifics and features. The purpose of such an interview is to evaluate the candidate’s leadership experience, his achievements and competence as a manager.

Such tasks determine a special format for an interview for a manager position: the interlocutors here communicate as equals.

HR interviewers should:

Good to know organizational structure companies;
have an idea of the state of affairs in the company;
have reliable information about why there is a need for a new leader.

How many levels of interviews do you need to conduct?

Level 1. Assessment common features personalities

Interview questions for a leadership position at this level check personal information about the candidate, identify the characteristics of his behavior, and the ability to understand the emotions of other people ().

Tools:

A behavioral interview allows you to find out the necessary biographical information about a candidate and track his behavior, sincerity, and reaction to unexpected questions.

Thomas test. Assessing ways to respond to conflict

3 tests that will help assess a candidate’s personality

Level 2. Assessment of communication competencies

The requirements for the communication skills of an applicant for a leadership position differ from the requirements for an ordinary candidate.

Based on your answers during an interview for a leadership position, evaluate how convincing the candidate is in his statements, whether he has verbal influence skills, and whether he adapts to the expectations of the interviewer.

Tools:

The test “Diagnostics of communicative and organizational tendencies” will help you

Level 3. Assessment of analytical abilities

At this level, HR receives answers to the following questions:

What does the candidate rely on when making decisions: logic or intuition?
What type of thinking does the applicant have - tactical or strategic?
How quickly does he analyze and interpret information?

Tools

A situational interview will help assess your analytical skills for an interview with the director. Such an interview involves presenting the candidate with a work task or situation that he must solve. The level of effectiveness in completing the problem posed will allow you to determine your professional and analytical abilities. Such interviews are conducted using pre-prepared or template cases. The following test will help you make a forecast of a manager’s behavior.

Blake-Mouton test. Manager behavior analysis

Level 4.Teamwork Skills Assessment

At this level, HR determines the applicant’s preferred methods of motivation, management styles, and work methods.

Questions during an interview for a manager position at this level help to find out whether the candidate is able to delegate authority and work consistently with the team? What will he do if his subordinates do not share the methods he has chosen?

To assess teamwork skills, ask the following questions:

1. Ask the applicant to talk about the project he has implemented. Evaluate how the person worked, whether he believed in what he was doing, how he overcame difficulties. Ask about the result and how the applicant predicted it, what facts and figures he relied on. This will show whether he is able to see the future.

2. Offer to recall a situation when the applicant did not achieve the desired result.

Discuss not only the situation in which the person did not achieve the goal, but also the details: how exactly he did it, in what ways he solved the problem, how he dealt with his emotions and how he evaluates the actions of his colleagues. This way you will understand whether the applicant is able to work in stressful situation and can he build effective interpersonal relationships in a team.

Is the candidate capable of becoming a team leader? Determine with test "Diagnostics of leadership abilities of Zharikov and Krushelnitsky"

Reference. As a rule, applicants for the position of manager undergo a security check. This was reported by 81% of candidates for the position of top manager during a survey conducted by the website hh.ru.

A Few Trick Questions to Assess Management Competencies

Question 1. What do you do to make your department work effectively?

From the answer you will learn how a person organizes work, whether he knows how to manage employees and processes. Ask the applicant how his functionality differs from the tasks of his subordinates. This way you will find out whether the manager understands what the management cycle is.

Question 2: What do you teach your team?

In the response, the applicant will show whether he matches yours corporate culture and knows how to develop subordinates. Find out how the person assessed the results of the training. A weak candidate rarely conducts master classes or does not develop staff at all.

Question 3. How do you feel about changing technologies?

From the answer, conclude who is in front of you - a conservative or an innovator. Find out which companies are more comfortable for a person to work in - those where business processes are streamlined and rarely change, or those where the situation is dynamic.

Interview questions for a management position

2. Questions about leadership qualities. A manager is a leader; during an interview you will certainly be asked about how you see a successful and effective leader and what professional skills and personal qualities do you have as a leader.

The main thing is not to over-praise yourself and maintain a balance between personal qualities and the skills of an effective leader. Try to avoid hackneyed qualities such as determination, determination, and an analytical mind.

3. Questions about achievements and results. Select the most significant and meaningful achievements in your career. When mentioning specific achievements, be guided by facts, supported by numbers. When talking about your results, use combinations more often: “my team managed to achieve this,” “we worked together,” etc. This way you can emphasize your role in the team’s work and your ability to work in a team.

4. Questions about future success in this position. A very frequently asked question during an interview: “What do you think is necessary for successful work in this position? Be sure to read the text of the vacancy and the employer’s requirements for a candidate for this position.
By combining this knowledge with your professional and personal qualities, you will be able to answer this question successfully.

5. Questions about goal setting. Questions aimed at finding out how much you can set goals for yourself and your subordinates and achieve the necessary results. Here, the employer often asks the following question: “You need to increase sales in one week (fulfill the plan, deliver the project), what will you do, where will you start?”

Many managers, when they say that they will set a goal for employees, monitor the completion of tasks and motivate employees, forget to tell them that in order to achieve a goal, they also need tools to achieve this goal. Remember this!

6. Questions about personnel management. There can be a lot of questions on this topic. For example, some of them: “What ways to motivate employees do you know and use?” "How will you keep an employee from quitting"? Every leader should know the answer to these questions.

7. Questions assessing ability to act. The meaning of these questions is as follows: Your actions at past jobs show what can be expected from you in the future. Think about the answers to questions about how you acted when certain problematic situations or conflicts arose.

8. Questions about the level of professional development. Questions aimed at identifying the candidate’s need for promotion professional level. Questions during an interview for a leadership position may be about trainings and seminars that the candidate may have attended. Or about reading professional literature or other interesting sources of advanced training.

9. Questions about mistakes and failures. The purpose of such questions is to identify whether you are ready to admit your mistakes and failures, from which no one is immune. If you are asked about the biggest failure in your professional activity, tell us about your biggest failure and the lessons you learned from it. Never deny, do not say that you have never had failures or mistakes.

10. Questions about income level. Avoid answering this question directly. The most the best option in this case it will be: “I am sure that your company offers decent wages. But the main thing for me is not the salary, but the opportunity to contribute to the development of your company.”

If you are nevertheless asked to clarify the level of income for which you are applying, name the salary range acceptable to you, based on your expectations and information about wages similar positions in the labor market.

Good afternoon, dear friend!

There are things that most job seekers don't even know about. Today your humble servant will sit on the other side of the “barricades”. To your usual place, opposite the applicant. This will make it easier to answer the question “ How to properly pass an interview for a leadership position?

It would be more accurate to talk about one tool that is used by experienced, competent recruiters. Sometimes you'll come across some like this :)

This method is reading the candidate's metaprograms.

These are mental models, filters through which a person passes information and draws conclusions. They determine his thinking and behavior.

Everyone knows the example of a glass that is half full of water. One person thinks it is half full, another thinks it is half empty. They have different poles of metaprograms.

The idea is that managers have certain preferences in the meta-program profile. My task as a recruiter is to determine this profile and compare it with the optimal one for the position for which the candidate is applying.

I do this: I invite the interlocutor to talk about himself and record the meta-programs for constructing his phrases.

Then I ask and also watch his speech. After the conversation I draw conclusions.

Now let's talk more about meta-programs. There are many of them, but we will look at 4 of the most important.

You don't need to delve too deeply into this topic. Just understand the meaning and relationships of the poles of the meta-program in order to try to monitor your speech.

1. Type of motivation: desire/avoidance

For a person, the main incentives are either achievements or avoidance of problems.

“People who are achievers” pay more attention to their goals. They face problems with an open visor, considering them an inevitable companion and even an assistant in their work.

Those who are prone to avoidance focus their main efforts on avoiding problems and punishment.

The question might be: “Describe your ideal place to work.” Or similar.

The first type will say: work with interesting, complex tasks, the prospect of professional growth.

Second: working with clear indicators, criteria for reward and punishment, in a non-conflict team.

The first one uses “leadership verbs” in his speech. I organize, I delegate, I motivate.

The second prefers careful formulations, such phrases as “I had to do...”, “I had to...”.

For most leadership positions, an achievement-oriented profile is preferred.

The ratio of the poles of this meta-program is 8 to 2. That is, in 8 cases out of 10 I would like to record behavior characteristic of a person of “achievement”.

This does not mean that it is time for a leader with a prevailing avoidance motivation to shed his career. Such people can perform well in positions related to control and auditing. They are usually attentive to details.

2. Type of reference: internal/external

It shows whether a person is more focused on his own or someone else’s opinion when making a decision. What is more important to him?

People with internal reference usually decide for themselves what to do, based on their experience and intuition. “I decided to do this:...”

Managers with predominant internal reference good at positions of TOP managers, project managers, creative areas of work.

At predominant external reference, the manager relies more on the opinions of colleagues, management, and some statistical data. “Based on the analysis, I proposed... Executive Director supported me.”

People with a predominance of external reference are more suitable for working with clients, as well as for positions that require high executive discipline.

Answers: “Experience suggested”, “I just see it this way...” are recorded in the internal reference.

For most positions in my “talmud” preferred pole ratio internal/external reference 6 to 4.

Your task is to determine what type of reference is preferable for the position for which you are applying and build your examples and phrases from this.

3. Focus in work: process/result

A question like this is asked: “What do you enjoy most about your job...?”

A process-oriented person primarily describes the process itself. In his speech, the lion's share is occupied by verbs of the imperfect form - organized, analyzed. Or nouns: provision, attraction, etc.

The person of “results” uses verbs of the perfect form: built, organized, accomplished. They are also called “leadership” verbs.

An attraction to the process is not a disadvantage, but for a manager, what is primarily important is effective work. We talked about this in the article

That's why The preferred ratio of process/result poles, for most positions, is 3 to 7.

4. Level of activity: activity/reflexivity (passivity)

Here, I think, it is clear without detailed comments.

The question could be: Describe your first day at work?

Active in his speech uses the first person in active voice. “I do, I propose, I begin.”

Reflexive people prefer plural: “We do, we offer.” Uses phrases such as “We must do”, “They will tell us”, impersonal forms such as “It will be done”.

For a manager, the preferred ratio of activity/reflexivity poles is 8 to 2.

Much depends on the position you are applying for. Based on this, select examples and how you will answer the questions.

But still. The manager must have leadership qualities. You will never go wrong if you build your image as a leader on a leadership basis.

In the meta-programs we are talking about today, the leadership poles are aspiration, internal reference, result, activity. Start from this.

In the story about his professional experience, place more emphasis on rather than solving current problems. Choose relevant examples.
In your speech, try to use less cautious phrases: “It seems to me,” “As if,” “Probably.” They conflict with the image of the leader.
Try to use the particle “not” less. It is not perceived by our subconscious. For example, many people hear “not difficult” as “difficult”.
Eliminate words with a strong negative meaning from your speech: Horror, trouble, nightmare, etc. They create unnecessary tension.
Use more “leadership verbs.”

For example

It may not work out right away, because it is very difficult to consciously control your speech. But with training and practice, you will eventually learn to structure your speech in the right way. And broadcast the image of a manager-leader not only to pass an interview, but also in everyday work.

Paying attention to the construction of your speech is important not only for an interview. Gradually yours will change too. internal installations towards leadership behavior.

Thank you for your interest in the article. I would appreciate your comment (at the bottom of the page).

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Have a nice day and good mood!

The purpose of each interview is to identify positive and negative qualities applicant and decide whether to hire him or not. An interview with a candidate for a leadership position can be quite specific. In this case, it is necessary to determine not only professional quality new employee, but also the level of competence in the field of personnel management. Therefore, an interview for a managerial position is quite difficult.

Questions that may be asked to a future manager during an interview may cover various aspects, not only long-term thinking and organizational characteristics. First of all, you should define parameters such as:

leadership skills;
level of influence on other people;
way of thinking;
strategic planning skills;
effectiveness.

First of all, personnel officers touch upon the topic of the prospects for this position, explaining not only the functions of the manager, but also general direction company activities. At this stage, applicants are encouraged to ask more questions to determine whether the position is right for them.

It is very important that during the interview the HR employee notes such basic qualities as:

communication skills;
confidence;
the ability to analyze one’s own activities;
the ability to introduce innovations that are positive for the company’s activities;
ability and desire to maintain a positive attitude among subordinates.

In addition, the future manager, whose task is to determine the applicant’s ability to think creatively. As a result of the interview, the personnel officer should see in the applicant for the position of manager a person focused on achieving a positive result.

The most common questions

An interview for a management position includes a number of typical questions that applicants are most often asked. First of all, the task of personnel officers is to determine the level of competence of the new manager. The applicant must talk about his past activities, as well as demonstrate his ability to change his profile and apply skills in another field of activity.

The leadership qualities of a manager are important. You need to show your ability to manage staff, talk about your merits, and not over-praise yourself.

The main indicator of skills is the result of past activities. Therefore, all statements should be supported by specific figures and facts. It is recommended to constantly emphasize that high level results were achieved thanks to teamwork and team cohesion.

To answer the question of how the applicant plans to achieve success in new position, it is necessary to familiarize yourself in detail with the requirements for the vacancy in advance. After analyzing the information, an experienced manager is able to outline at least an approximate direction for the company's development.

One of the key topics that will have to be discussed during the interview is employee management. In particular, the applicant will be asked about methods of motivating staff that he knows about and which he has used previously. This aspect should concern not only a certain period of time: an experienced manager should know how to further develop the system of relationships between employees and how to strengthen motivation.

It’s natural to ask questions about the candidate’s past failures. vacant place. In this case, you need to talk not only about mistakes and errors, but also inform the HR department about how the problems were resolved. As for personnel development, in almost all cases it is necessary to insist on the need to conduct trainings, seminars, and various training sessions aimed at increasing the level of qualifications of employees.

Based on the answers and information provided, HR department employees sum up the results, taking into account possible actions leader in the future. Therefore, every question, especially such an important one, should be thought about very carefully.