How to Describe Your Leadership Style in an Interview
Interviewers want to know whether your leadership style will fit in with the organization's needs. They may have teams that work well with one type of leadership style or that require a completely different style of leadership than previous supervisors. Your ability to be flexible to the changing needs of each team you manage is important to convey in your interview.
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Instructions
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Find out as much as you can before and during the interview about the type of leadership the organization needs. You may be able to learn this when the employer describes the job or the people with whom you may be working. Reading any available news stories about the department you would be working in can also give you clues as to how well its teams are doing or about the firing of any ineffective managers.
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Mold your answers, without lying, to fit the organization's leadership needs. Provide examples of situations in which you have demonstrated the type of leadership it is looking for.
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State that you can assess the needs of a group and adapt your leadership style to suit it. Provide specific examples of times when you have done that. Talk about the ways in which you have motivated teams and individuals with different needs in the past.
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Avoid coming across as the leader that everyone loves but who does not provide discipline to a group when necessary. You will have had some hard choices to make as a group leader in the past. Be prepared at the interview to talk about how you handled them.
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Incorporate leadership skills, such as demonstrating integrity and the ability to motivate, communicate, implement ideas, innovate and persevere into your answers. State that you help others see the need to act and to do so in a certain way.
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