Explaining Your Leadership Approach and Practices for Running a Team

The interviewer wants to understand your approach to managing a team. Describe it, using examples from your own experience. ```hint Show it in action Name the two or three principles you actually work by, and for each one have ready a moment where applying it changed what the team did. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Do you mean people who report to me directly, or the cross-functional group of engineers, designers and analysts I lead without formal authority? - Should I describe how I run the team day to day, or focus on a specific situation, such as a team that was struggling? - Should I cover how my approach changes when the team works across several time zones? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A few clear management principles, and how the candidate adapts them to the team and to each person - Concrete mechanisms for setting goals and ownership, and for surfacing progress, risks and blockers - How the candidate develops people, gives feedback and handles performance problems - How disagreement is resolved and how the team is represented to leadership and partners - Evidence from real situations, including a mistake and what changed afterwards ### Follow-up Questions - Tell me about a time someone on your team was struggling. What did you do, and how did it end? - How do you get engineers or designers who do not report to you to commit to a priority they disagree with? - How would your approach change if the team doubled in size?