Ace Your Senior General Manager Interview: The Top Questions You Should Prepare For

Landing an interview for a senior general manager role is a major accomplishment. As a top-level executive position, competition is fierce. If you’ve scored an interview, you’ve likely impressed the hiring team with your experience and qualifications. Now it’s time to prepare for the actual interview questions.

The interviewers will want to assess your leadership abilities, problem-solving skills strategic thinking, and your ability to drive results. They’ll ask behavioral and situational questions to get a sense of how you operate and make decisions.

Here are some of the most common senior general manager interview questions, along with tips on how to do well on each one, to help you get ready for the big day:

Leadership Style and Philosophy

As a senior general manager, leadership capabilities are paramount. Expect interviewers to assess your leadership style and approach. Some questions to prepare for include:

• How would you describe your leadership style? Share key attributes of your approach like coaching/mentoring, democratic/collaborative, results-driven, etc. Provide examples of how your style has driven success.

• Describe a time you led by example. Share a story highlighting your commitment to modeling desired behaviors for your team. Discuss how you set the tone through your own actions.

• What’s your approach to delegating tasks and empowering employees? Discuss your philosophy on delegating Share how you assess team members’ strengths and align responsibilities Give an example of effective delegation,

• Is there a way you coach and mentor people on your team? Share some of the ways you’ve helped direct reports reach their full potential. Share a success story.

• How would you handle an underperforming employee? Discuss your performance management process. Explain how you’d have candid conversations to get underperformers back on track.

Operational Leadership and Judgment

Hiring managers will want examples of your leadership in action to assess your judgment, problem-solving, and ability to drive results:

• Talk about a time you led your team through a challenging situation. How did you overcome it? Share how you rallied your team through adversity. Discuss the situation, challenges, key actions you took, and the result.

• Tell me about a strategic business decision you made and the thought process behind it. Explain a key business decision, including the situation, your analysis, and why you made that choice. Share the ultimate business impact.

• Describe a time you had to weigh pros and cons to make a difficult decision. Discuss your analytical process for a tough call. Talk through the considerations, tradeoffs, and how you arrived at the best solution.

• Give me an example of when you had to solve a problem for which there was no precedent. What was the outcome? Share how you tackled an unprecedented challenge using critical thinking, resourcefulness, and creativity. Discuss the unique solution and results achieved.

• Tell me about a time you overcame resistance or opposition to implement a new initiative or process. Explain how you gained buy-in and overcame reluctance or resistance to change. Discuss your influencing approach.

Collaboration and Influencing Skills

Senior managers must collaborate with diverse stakeholders and influence action. Prepare for questions like:

• How would you go about building strong relationships with the other departments/teams you’d work with? Share methods and tactics you’d use to forge strong working relationships with peer departments and teams. Give examples from your experience.

• Tell me about a time you had to influence a team or individual to take action. How did you do it? Discuss a situation where you had to persuade others to get on board with a project, initiative, or change. Explain how you gained their buy-in and commitment.

• Describe a time you built cross-functional collaboration to drive success. Share an example of when you brought various groups/departments together to work toward a common goal. Discuss the approaches you used and the results achieved.

• Talk about a time you had to resolve a dispute between departments or team members. How did you handle it? Explain how you addressed and resolved a conflict situation. Discuss how you brought the parties together, managed personalities, and achieved resolution.

• How would you go about resolving collaboration issues between team members who are resistant to working together? Share tactics and techniques you’d use to improve team cohesion and get all members working well together. Give examples if possible.

Communication Skills

Communication is vital for senior managers. Be ready for questions assessing your communication capabilities:

• As a senior general manager, how would you communicate organizational priorities/changes to your team? Discuss the communication strategies and methods you’d use to clearly convey organizational goals and changes to your direct reports and broader team.

• Tell me about a time you had to deliver unpleasant news or information to your team. How did you handle it? Explain your approach to communicating news that may be disappointing or difficult to hear. Share how you delivered the news with transparency, empathy, and clarity.

• Describe a time when you had to relay complex information. How did you ensure understanding? Share how you communicated highly complex or technical information using various methods and techniques to ensure comprehension.

• Give me an example of when you had to be assertive with an employee. How did you approach the conversation? Discuss a time when you had to have a direct, assertive conversation with an employee. Explain how you shared your expectations firmly yet positively.

• Tell me about a successful presentation you delivered. What made it effective? Discuss a presentation you gave that achieved your desired objectives. Highlight factors like thorough preparation, audience engagement tactics, compelling delivery, and clear takeaways.

Motivating and Developing Your Team

As a senior leader, you’ll need to motivate your team to perform at their best. Prepare for questions about your management approach:

• How would you describe your approach to managing and motivating your team? Share philosophies and techniques you use to manage direct reports, provide direction, and motivate peak performance. Give examples.

• What methods do you use to develop your team members and help them reach their potential? Discuss techniques like coaching, mentoring, stretch assignments, training programs, and individual development plans you’ve used to grow team members’ capabilities and career trajectories.

• Give me an example of when you had to motivate a disengaged or underperforming employee. What was the outcome? Share how you worked to re-engage an employee who had become detached or was struggling. Explain how you provided support, motivation, and direction to get them re-energized and back on track.

• Tell me about a time you had to push back against unreasonable demands from upper management on your team. How did you handle this? Discuss how you shielded your team from extreme top-down pressure while still meeting business needs. Explain how you negotiated, educated leadership on realities, and compromised.

• How would you handle underperformance issues within your team? Share your process for addressing and rectifying persistent underperformance. Discuss performance reviews, development plans, candid conversations, and other methods you’d employ.

Strategic Planning and Analysis

As a senior general manager, you’ll be responsible for strategic planning and analysis. Prepare for questions testing your capabilities, such as:

• Walk me through your approach to developing a strategic plan for your business unit. What factors do you consider? Discuss your process for strategic planning including environmental scans, SWOT analyses, market research, growth opportunities, operational needs, financials, metrics, etc.

• How would you go about analyzing and improving business operations and processes? Explain methodologies like process mapping, root cause analysis, waste elimination, workflow optimization, etc. that you would use to analyze and streamline operations.

• What key performance indicators would you track to measure the success and health of your business unit? Why? Share the vital few KPIs you would monitor to gauge performance and progress against goals. Explain why each metric provides crucial insights.

• Tell me about a time you had to rapidly change direction in response to shifting market dynamics or competitive moves. What was the result? Demonstrate agility by discussing how you quickly shifted plans and resources when business conditions changed. Share the new strategy and end results.

• Describe a situation where company leadership asked you to reduce costs in your business unit. How did you approach this? Discuss your process for analyzing spend, identifying savings opportunities, and developing a cost reduction plan that met targets without negatively impacting quality or capabilities.

Leadership Values and Ethics

As an executive, your values matter. Be ready for questions on your leadership values:

• What would you say are your core leadership values? How do they shape your approach? Share 3-5 values central to your leadership style. Give examples of how each value positively influences your decisions and actions.

• How do you make sure you model ethical behavior as a leader? Share an example. Discuss how you consciously set the example of integrity through your words and actions. Share a story demonstrating your commitment to ethics.

• Tell me about a time when you had to represent an unpopular position to your team. What was the situation and how did you handle it? Demonstrate courage and willingness to have difficult conversations by discussing a time when you had to communicate an unpopular stance