Finding the best manager is crucial to the success of your team and your business. Manager interview questions are a vital part of that process. Here are the 20 best interview questions to ask candidates.
Interviewing for an agency manager position? This is your chance to land an exciting leadership role at the helm of a fast-paced, creative agency. But competition is fierce and nailing the interview is key.
This comprehensive guide will equip you with insider tips and proven strategies to ace your agency manager interview. We’ve compiled the most common questions recruiters ask, along with detailedsample answers.
Ready to get started? Let’s begin!
Why Do You Want This Role?
This open-ended question allows you to share your passion for the agency manager role. Convey why leading an agency aligns with your skills, interests and career goals
Emphasize your enthusiasm for the position. Talk about how your experience makes you the best person to lead the agency to success. Explain how you will use your skills in strategic planning, leading a team, and managing projects to get things done.
Sprinkle in specific examples that back up your claims. This question is your chance to make a strong first impression.
Sample Answer: As a passionate creative professional with over 7 years of experience, leading an agency has been a long-term career goal. What draws me to this role is the opportunity to blend strategic thinking with creative excellence to drive business results. With my background in managing cross-functional teams and developing integrated campaigns, I’m confident I can lead this agency to the next level of innovation and growth. This role perfectly aligns with my skills in client relations, project management and fostering a collaborative agency culture. If selected, I’m excited to share my expertise to mentor our creative talent while spearheading new initiatives to accelerate the agency’s success.
How Do You Handle Pressure?
Agency leadership comes with high stakes and tight deadlines. Interviewers want to know that you can stay calm and make good choices even when things get tough.
Discuss your strategies for managing stress. Share examples that prove you thrive under pressure. Demonstrate how you stay laser-focused on solutions and don’t get flustered easily. Convey your positive and proactive mindset.
Sample Answer: Having led high-intensity projects, I’m comfortable making critical decisions under tight timelines. My strategy is to always remain focused on solutions. When challenges arise, I take a step back, evaluate all options and create an action plan. For instance, when we risked missing a product launch deadline due to unexpected issues, I got the team together and we found workarounds within the hour. Rather than get stressed, I leverage my calm demeanor and experience to stabilize the situation. I firmly believe pressure makes diamonds. Some of our best work has been a result of rising to meet tight deadlines. With me at the helm, the agency will feel confident taking on bold challenges.
How Do You Handle Conflicts Between Team Members?
Agency managers need top-notch conflict resolution skills. Share how you facilitate open communication and tackle problems head-on. Discuss mediation strategies that diffuse tensions and restore team harmony. Demonstrate emotional intelligence and how you lead with empathy.
Sample Answer: Conflicts are inevitable in creative teams. My approach is to be direct yet diplomatic. I mediate one-on-one conversations where each person can share their perspective openly yet respectfully. I find understanding the root issues leads to optimal solutions. My priority is always preserving team chemistry. I leverage my emotional intelligence to make each side feel heard, conveying that compromise benefits all. My goal is for both parties to walk away feeling the conflict was handled fairly. This prevents lingering resentment. I’ve used this approach to resolve conflicts across agencies, safeguarding team morale and performance in high-pressure settings.
How Do You Motivate Your Team?
The ability to motivate teams is core to agency management. Discuss tactics you use to inspire peak performance. Share how you connect work to larger goals to boost engagement. Outline your strategies for recognition, career development and fostering team spirit. Convey your passion for mentoring talent.
Sample Answer: Motivating creative teams starts with connecting projects to our agency’s purpose. I ensure individuals see how their work contributes to the collective mission. Making clients and campaigns come alive also gives purpose-driven meaning to tasks. I leverage my natural optimism and enthusiasm to energize teams, while providing all the tools and support they need to excel. From celebrating wins to providing opportunities for growth, I take motivation seriously. I’m a firm believer that an inspired team is an unstoppable team. My goal is to help each person maximize their potential while feeling truly engaged and fulfilled in their work.
How Do You Handle an Unhappy Client?
Client issues are par for the course in agency management. Demonstrate empathy and conflict resolution savoir-faire. Highlight client retention strategies and your commitment to excellent service. Share how your emotional intelligence and communication skills transform dissatisfied clients into brand evangelists.
Sample Answer: No agency wants unhappy clients but defusing issues swiftly is my specialty. I start with active listening to fully understand their concerns. I express genuine regret for any disappointment and reassure them of our commitment to making things right. I then lay out solutions tailored to resolve their specific issues, often going above-and-beyond expectations. My goal is always to turn the situation into a success story and strengthen the partnership long-term. In my last role, my proactive management transformed numerous unhappy clients into vocal brand advocates who renewed their contracts year-after-year. I take immense pride in forging such trust and ensuring exemplary service.
How Do You Set Goals and Measure Success?
The ability to set strategic goals and metrics is imperative. Discuss how you establish KPIs aligned to agency objectives and client needs. Share how you track progress to maximize productivity and profitability. Demonstrate analytical thinking and business acumen. Convey your data-driven yet creative approach to goal setting and measurement.
**Sample Answer: Setting actionable targets is how I lead agencies to success. My process involves meticulously evaluating business objectives, historical performances and client deliverables. In collaboration with department heads, I drill down into granular quarterly and monthly goals per team. We define quantitative and qualitative KPIs to benchmark progress. I instill a culture of analytics, tracking everything from campaign ROIs to client acquisition rates. This allows us to regularly compare target vs. actual performance and adjust strategies when needed. With my nimble and data-driven approach to goal-setting and measurement, I’m confident I can amplify this agency’s profitability and market share.
Where Do You See This Agency in 5 Years?
This question gauges your strategic vision. Share an exciting vision for where you’ll take this agency. Demonstrate that you think long-term and can lead the agency to new heights. Convey passion and optimism.
Sample Answer: In 5 years under my leadership, I envision this agency solidified as the premier marketing innovator in the region. We will achieve this by leveraging emerging technologies to spearhead original campaigns that captivate audiences and deliver phenomenal ROI. I plan to expand our creative teams, services and blue-chip client roster to match our ambitions. We will nurture a bold, experimental agency culture; embracing failure as a stepping stone to our next breakthrough innovation. I’m determined to cement this agency as a talent magnet, the kind of place that top professionals are proud to build their careers. My goal is to leave this agency stronger, more visionary and more fearless than ever before. The possibilities excite me immensely.
What Are Your Greatest Strengths?
This question allows you to highlight your most relevant hard and soft skills. Discuss strengths that align to the agency manager role like strategic thinking, multitasking, team leadership and communication. Provide examples demonstrating those strengths in action.
**Sample Answer: Some of my greatest strengths are strategic thinking, team leadership and relationship-building. I have a track record of leveraging data insights to develop high-impact strategic plans that yield phenomenal results. For instance, the optimized content strategy I created as Head of Digital Marketing led to a 37% increase in engagement. My natural ability to rally and motivate teams has helped build cohesive, high-performing cultures across several agencies. And throughout my career, I’ve forged invaluable connections across the industry which allow me to open doors and negotiate win-win partnerships on behalf of agencies. These strengths make me uniquely equipped to amplify this agency’s performance and stature.
How Do You Handle Working With Difficult Personalities?
Agencies brim with passionate personalities. Discuss your conflict management and communication skills. Share how you identify individual motivations to better collaborate with all work styles. Convey your professionalism and commitment to teamwork.
**Sample Answer: Navigating strong personalities comes with the territory in agency management. My approach is to identify each person’s unique communication style and motivation early on. I can then adapt my interactions accordingly to facilitate productive collaboration. Even when faced with difficult personalities, I focus on finding the common ground and demonstrating mutual benefit. My ability to remain professional in challenging interpersonal situations, steer conversations and reinforce team cohesion is a proven asset. At the end of the day, we all want to do our best work. My role is to create a supportive environment where that happens. I’m confident collaborating effectively is achievable with any personality type.
Where Do You See Yourself in 5 Years?
Like the agency vision question, this allows you to share your long-term career goals. Align your aspirations with
3 How Do You Handle Stress Personally?
Stress, like conflict amongst team members, is a normal part of business. The person who wins the management job should know this and have come up with their own ways to deal with and lessen stress.
In the moment, perhaps they breathe deeply or count to 10. In the long term, perhaps they meditate, or exercise, or unwind with a good book.
No matter what methods they use, the candidate for manager should be able to clearly explain how they deal with job stress without letting it get the best of them.
What Does Being A Manager Mean To You?
This manager interview question helps you understand how the candidate views their role as a manager.
If they only see it as a “give orders and demand results” job, they might not fully understand what your company needs from a manager.
Being part of a successful team means leading and following as necessary. An important part of a manager’s job is, of course, being able to help out in any way possible to make the business better.
If the candidate’s answer fits this team ideal, it can help you decide if they are the right manager for your business.
Take the time to really think about this question if you need to in order to fully understand how well the candidate knows what it means to be a manager.
Advertising Agency Manager interview questions
FAQ
What does an agency manager do?
What type of questions are asked in a manager interview?
What are your three weaknesses?
What questions should you ask a hiring manager during an interview?
During the interview, a hiring manager may ask this question to determine your ability to identify team members’ strengths and assign them tasks accordingly. In your response, show the interviewer how you recognize your team’s talents and assign tasks accordingly. Example: “I aim to identify my team members’ strengths first.
How do I prepare for a managerial job interview?
If you’re interviewing for a managerial position, consider reviewing potential interview questions to prepare. An interviewer may ask you various types of questions to learn more about how you might perform. Understanding what questions to expect can increase your chances of interviewing well and receiving an employment offer.
What questions should you ask a candidate for a job interview?
Experts have favored these questions to understand candidates’ thought processes, work ethics, values, motivations, and self-awareness. “I look for both – a strong skill set and a great attitude. So, I ask questions that help me unveil the candidate’s soft skills, mindset, and values.
Do you need a social media manager for your agency?
Social media is more than just posting about new blogs and mentioning people. You need a person who can keep abreast with the social trends, lead campaigns, understand your community, and use the data to build informed social media marketing strategies. Use the below-listed questions to find the right social media manager for your agency.
