Interviewing is an important part of the process of finding a reliable, trusted, and skilled member of staff. If we can think carefully about the interview questions for a line manager, then we can ask the kinds of questions where the answers provided will prove useful to the company.

A candidate should consider carefully what extra skills they need to have for the role on offer.

Below, we shall look at the different kinds of questions that might and should be asked to find out the required information from management candidates.

Getting the Conversation Going

A question must be asked initially that rather than mean a potential line manager will hesitate, gets them talking openly about themselves. That way something might be learned that might not otherwise have been known. You want to receive more than a few words as an answer, so interview nerves need to disappear early on to achieve that. People can be comfortable talking about hobbies because they believe that the answers are not going to impact their chance of being given the job so much as a question about work targets being achieved. 

To Discover Qualities

A manager must possess qualities that are going to allow them to take hold of a team and get the best out of them. It is not easy for a stranger coming in to gain respect straight away, as it often has to be earned, but a demonstration of skills early on will help.

Line managers need to demonstrate if they are to be accepted, that:

• They can maintain an air of authority.
• They can be professional. 
• They will have empathy for staff.

The above will all help with production levels and future results.

If you are reading this as a candidate, be aware that a common question that is asked is what a candidate thinks their biggest weakness is. We will swat up on our strengths and be able to demonstrate these with perfect examples, but how many of us give a thought to what we need to improve at when we are trying to sell ourselves at an interview?

A line manager should come over as someone good at arranging and coordinating, and there should always be a question asked which finds this out.

On Management Style

An interviewer will want to establish what style of management a candidate will be looking to bring to their company. This will need to be in line with a company’s thinking unless this new style is likely to produce much-needed results. It may depend on how effective a previous manager has been.

Different types of management styles include:

• Authoritative
• Paternalistic
• Persuasive

To have authority as a line manager is good to a point but it can be overpowering to staff that have not previously known it. On the other hand, certain individuals of staff may require more managing than others because perhaps they are more laid-back, and it is an attitude they bring to life in general when it is productivity that is sought.

A fatherly figure can be useful when there is staff to manage that need that extra encouragement and lack confidence. An authoritative approach may well scare them out of the building and be the last thing that they need.

There is nothing wrong with gentle persuasion when that is all that is needed and then more persuasion still when that is necessary. A manager who balances this right may well be the one that finds themselves more in demand.

Whatever style a candidate chooses to say they will use; it must be with an emphasis on motivating a team.

A manager that a company may want to avoid may intend to use a laissez-faire approach. This is where there is a policy of allowing things to take a natural course and not interfering when it is perhaps needed.

Dealing with Problems that Occur

Questions that address how a line manager would deal with problems are common at interviews to find out how someone can “think on their feet”. You are not literally on your feet at an interview, so this is metaphorically speaking, but an expression about being able to think quickly and make the right decision.

When everyone knows what questions are good to ask as an interviewer, or what they might expect as a candidate, it makes for a much more useful interview experience. A company can then find itself the best line manager among the candidate choices. Particularly with management jobs, the skills will be better demonstrated at interviews than what is displayed on a piece of paper that claims so many things it may not deliver.