How Do You Demonstrate Leadership in an Interview?

Hiring managers have a responsibility to interview effectively, to find the best candidate for the job. Given our topic this month on Core Competencies, I want to continue to discuss leadership for the next couple of days. One of the questions rolling around my head today is “how do you demonstrate leadership in an interview?” How do I help you prepare effectively enough that you feel some level of comfort walking into a job interview and discussing your strength in leadership. Can you do that if given an oportunity right now to interview for your dream job?

Hiring managers must understand your leadership style based on the answers you give in an interview. So your preparation will be critical to your success to navigate the turbulent waters of an interview. You have to be able to tell a compelling story that demonstrates your strength as a leader.

Hiring managers must know that you will make a good fit into their organization if an offer is extended. You get to help them make that decision, based on how well you are able to convey who you are and what you wil bring to the table, to their organization.

I found an article, Leadership Job Interview Questions on About.com. Take a look at these questions. They will help you prepare for your interview. Sit down with each question and answer the question on paper. Tell your story. Know your story so that it flows naturally when speaking to the hiring manager during the interview.

• Give me an example of a time when you played a leadership role in an event, an activity, a department or work unit, or a project. Describe how you led the efforts. Tell me how people responded to your leadership.
• If I were to ask your reporting staff or your peers to comment about your leadership style, your leadership strengths, and your leadership weaknesses, how would they respond? What would this discussion tell me about you as a leader?
• Tell me about a time when you created agreement and shared purpose from a situation in which all parties originally differed in opinion, approach, and objectives.
• As a leader within an organization, you must often build support for goals and projects from people who do not report to you and over whom you have no authority. Tell me about a situation in which you demonstrated that you can build the needed support.
• What are the three most important values you demonstrate as a leader? Tell me a story that demonstrates each of these leadership values in practice within your workplace.

The value of these questions is that it gives you as the job seeker, insight into the interview. It gives you potential question that may come your way. And even if they don’t ask these exact questions, there will be a questions that can act as a reasonable facisimile of these questions, and you will have stories, answers prepared. Look for opportunities to tell your stories throughout the interview. This is what I call an offensive plan. Offense in any game I know, is what wins games. All games. It works in the hiring process as well.