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Sample Behavioral Interview Questions : Leadership

Leadership

Given below are some sample behavioral questions and answers on leadership which will help you display your leadership and team player abilities in front of the interviewer. Along with these, our sample behavioral interview questions on personality and sample behavioral interview questions on motivation, in our next entries, will also help you display your leadership abilities to win your job.

1. What steps would you take to motivate all team members and keep their morale high?

   Ans: Sample Answer: "I think it is very important to develop a sense of respect towards all the team members. You should also let them know that they are as important to the team as anyone else. They should be encouraged to try new and innovative ways to get a task done and should be credited for every good accomplishment. This will keep them all motivated and keep their morale high."

2. What type of leadership can lead to success of any team and why?

   Ans: Sample Answer: "I think Participative leadership is the best model to follow in any team or organization. It seeks participation from all the members and keeps them thinking of new ideas to achieve better results. It also gives the members a sense of responsibility and enhances their self-esteem which will eventually lead to team success."

3. How do you appreciate any special achievement by a team member? Do you praise them publicly?

   Ans: Sample Answer: "It is very important to praise team members who perform exceptionally well. It is usually done during the team meetings that the special feat is talked about and I urge rest of the team members to congratulate their colleague. It gives the team member recognition and motivation to perform better in the future."

4. What is the importance of team building? What are the kinds of team building activities that you indulge into?

   Ans: Sample Answer: "Team building is very important. A closely knit team will perform in a well-organized and cooperative way and will excel in the tasks at hand. For team building I encourage members to assist each other in doing their jobs and help the weaker members in any challenges they might face. We also have small celebrations whenever we achieve our targets and go for occasional outings."

5. Do you think competition within the team is important? If yes, how do you encourage it?

   Ans: Sample Answer: "Competition within or outside the team is essential, as long as it is healthy. It brings out the desire to perform better than others and lead to improved outcomes. To encourage competition there are various company policies for awards and recognition. We also give out certificates and gifts to the best performing members within the team, something that I have always found encouraging as company policies have a broader perspective, but recognizing small achievements within the team is very important."

6. When a team you are leading does exceptionally well do you give credit to the team? And how is it when the team fails?

   Ans: It is important that the applicant understands the importance of teamwork and benefits of giving credit to the team when a task is completed exceptionally. He should elaborate the hard work put in by the team to achieve it. He should show the "we did it" attitude. In times of failure he should be courageous to take the responsibility with assurance to not repeat the same in future. He should be able to show how he could inspire the team and boost their morale to do better.

7. Was there a situation where you got a task done which others were having difficulty doing?

   Ans: Candidate should be able to highlight that he is a go-getter and lead by example. If he can underscore the fact that he was able to accomplish something that other could not, it shows leadership qualities and ability to inspire others to follow him in getting difficult tasks completed.

8. Was there a time when you had to coach a colleague? How worthy was it professionally and personally?

   Ans: The applicant's answer must show his enthusiasm to help co-workers as their personal development can only lead to achievement of the ultimate objective of the team or organization. It should state that the candidate does not wait for orders to help out others and he can go out of the way for the team he is involved in. It also is a boost to the self-esteem if you coach someone and the other person gets the point and starts performing better.

9. What steps would you take to transform a poorly performing team member into an efficient one?

   Ans: Sample Answer: "The answer is simple, but the process is complex. You have to project to the team member that you are far more capable and you can do much better than what you are performing. This make the person to push towards the performance that is projected. He strives hard and eventually become an efficient performer. I had learned this from one of my teachers in high school."

Given above were sample questions that would highlight the candidate's leadership skills in the interview. We have also provided some sample behavioral interview questions on planning and organization in one of our ne