Questions to Ask a Potential Manager in an Interview
Interview questions to ask a potential manager, meaning the person you would report to and not the recruiter or the panel. The questions to ask when interviewing a potential new boss change with the round, so the list is grouped. The opening group suits a first meeting with any manager. After it come the role and the team, how this manager runs things when work goes well and when it goes wrong, then reviews, growth and hours, and a few to close on. The last group turns the table: interview questions to ask manager candidates when the hire is yours to make, whether or not they have managed before.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
Start here
How would you describe your management style, and would your team describe it the same way?
Why ask it
Most managers reach for a label such as hands-off or supportive, and the label alone tells you little. The second half is where it gets useful: someone who can say what their team would add or correct has been told, and listened. Ask for one example from the past month.
Why is this role open: is it new, or did someone leave it?
Why ask it
A new post, a promotion, a resignation and a dismissal are four different jobs to walk into. If the last person left within a year, ask what the manager would do differently this time, and notice whether the answer is about that person or about the role.
What would the first ninety days look like, and what would tell you it was going well?
Why ask it
A manager who has thought about the role can name a first project and a visible outcome. A vague answer about getting up to speed often means the work has not been scoped and you will spend your first month inventing it.
Would we have a regular one to one, and how do you like to use that time?
Why ask it
Listen for whose meeting it is. A weekly half hour of status reporting is a different arrangement from one where you bring the questions and they bring the context. Then ask what happens to it in a busy week, because a meeting that is first to be cancelled has told you its rank.
How do you give feedback, and how soon would I hear if something I did missed the mark?
Why ask it
The answer to hope for is a habit: a word straight after the meeting, comments on the draft, a standing slot in the weekly catch-up. If all you hear is that their door is always open, expect to find out at review time. The test is whether they can name something they raised with a person within a week of it happening.
What part of this job turns out to be harder than the description makes it sound?
Why ask it
Every job has one: a difficult stakeholder, a fragile system, a reporting line that makes no sense. A manager who names it without being pushed is being straight with you. An answer of 'nothing, really' is worth a second attempt: which part do new people tend to underestimate?
Role and team
What are your priorities for the team this year, and where does this role sit among them?
Why ask it
A job tied to the first or second priority tends to get budget, attention and cover when money is tight. One the manager has to stop and place may have been approved for a plan that has since changed, so find out which goal the hire was signed off against.
How will my work be judged: against targets, against other people, or on your own read of it?
Why ask it
All three exist, sometimes in the same company, and each rewards different behaviour. Targets reward delivery, ranking rewards being seen, and a manager's own read rewards keeping them informed. What the last person in the seat was measured on is the honest version of the answer.
Can you walk me through a normal week in this job, starting on Monday?
Why ask it
Going day by day gets you the standing meetings, the deadlines that come round and the hours that are your own. A manager who can only recite responsibilities may not be close to the work, and that matters when they are the one judging it.
How much of my week would be planned work, and how much would be reacting to whatever arrives?
Why ask it
Ask for a rough split. If the role sits near customers or incidents and you are told the work is almost all planned, ask what happened the last time something broke on a Friday afternoon.
How does work reach your team: from you, from other departments, or straight from customers?
Why ask it
This tells you who can put something on your list. Teams that take requests from anywhere spend a lot of energy on triage, and you want to know whether that filtering is the manager's job or yours.
How does onboarding work on your team, and who would I learn the job from?
Why ask it
A named person and a plan for the first week mean someone has cleared time for you. Being told you will pick it up as you go can suit a senior hire and be rough on anyone changing field. Ask how the newest person on the team spent their first two weeks.
How many people report to you, and how long have they been on the team?
Why ask it
With twelve direct reports there is not much of a manager's attention to go round, and with three you will be seen a great deal. If everyone arrived in the last year, the follow-up is whether the team grew or people left.
Who is on the team at the moment, and what is each person best at?
Why ask it
Listen for whether you get people or adjectives. A manager who can tell you who has been there longest, who is still new and who everyone goes to when something breaks knows the team. 'Collaborative and driven' could be said of any group by someone who has never met it.
What does the strongest person on your team do that you wish everyone did?
Why ask it
Whatever they name is the unwritten job description. If it is speed, long hours or never needing help, that is what gets rewarded here, whatever the values page says. Hold it up against how you like to work.
Has anyone left the team in the past year, and where did they go?
Why ask it
People leave good teams too, for promotions, moves and study. What matters is whether the manager knows where they went and can talk about them without an edge. Several departures all put down to poor fit have one thing in common, and it is the person telling you.
Which other teams would I depend on most, and how is that relationship at the moment?
Why ask it
A good deal of everyday frustration sits at the joins between teams: the handover that arrives late, the approval that takes a week. A plain account of one strained relationship is more useful than being told everyone collaborates well. You also want the name of the person to call when that team is slow.
What is the biggest problem the team is dealing with right now?
Why ask it
A current problem is easy to check, because the team will name the same one if you ask them. Find out how long it has been going on and what has been tried. Anything older than a year has become part of the job, however it is described to you.
What is coming in the next six months that will make this job harder?
Why ask it
A reorganisation, a migration, a launch or a budget review can shape your first year more than anything in the job description. If the manager names one, ask which part of it would land on this role. Being told that nothing at all is coming is a reason to put the same question to someone on the team.
How does the team stay in touch day to day: meetings, chat, a shared board?
Why ask it
This is what your days would sound like. Three standing meetings before noon and a channel that expects instant replies leave little unbroken time, whatever the job title promises. A good follow-up is which meeting they would cancel if they could.
How they manage
How do you prefer to be kept up to date between one to ones?
Why ask it
This is your first look at their appetite for detail. Someone who wants a written note every Friday and someone who wants to be pulled in only when something is stuck will each be annoyed by the other's habits.
Once you have delegated something, how closely do you stay involved?
Why ask it
Nobody admits to micromanaging, so ask about a real handover: what they wanted to see, and how often. Looking at a draft at the halfway point is ordinary care. Rewriting the final version the night before it is due tells you where the work really gets decided.
Which decisions can you make yourself, and which have to go further up?
Why ask it
A manager with little authority cannot protect your priorities, approve a tool, or move your salary. Better to know the boundary now than to discover it during your first real disagreement with another team.
Which calls would be mine to make without checking with you first?
Why ask it
This shapes how the job feels more than the title does. Ask for two examples at the level you would be working: a spend, a reply to a customer, a change of approach. If each one needs a sign-off, expect to spend a lot of time waiting.
When everything lands at once, how do you decide what the team drops?
Why ask it
Workload is where a manager earns the title. A good answer includes a time they told someone senior no, or moved a date. If nothing is ever dropped, the difference is being made up in the team's evenings.
How do you handle it when someone on your team is struggling with their work?
Why ask it
You are asking what happens on your worst month. Concrete answers involve reduced scope, pairing, or a change of assignment. Answers that go straight to performance processes tell you the sequence starts with documentation.
How much say does the team get in decisions about how it works?
Why ask it
Ask about the last change to the team's tools, rota or process and how it was decided. Being consulted before a decision and being informed after it are different things, and plenty of managers use the same word for both. Being asked and then overruled with a reason is still a fair way to be managed.
When did someone on your team last tell you that you were wrong, and what came of it?
Why ask it
If nothing comes to mind, that is the answer on how safe disagreement is here. A real story has the person, the point they made and what the manager changed afterwards. Listen to the tone as well: respect counts, and a joke at that person's expense does not.
What happens on your team when someone makes a mistake that costs time or money?
Why ask it
Ask for a real one. You are listening for what happened to the person and what happened to the process, in that order. Teams that punish mistakes get very good at hiding them, and a new hire is the last to learn where they are.
When two people on your team are at odds, do you step in or leave them to sort it out?
Why ask it
Some managers step in early, some wait for it to settle, and some move one of the pair. Any of these can be right, but waiting means you would be dealing with a difficult colleague largely alone. Ask how the last such case ended.
How do you recognise good work, and who else gets to hear about it?
Why ask it
A thank-you in private is pleasant and invisible. Credit given in front of the manager's own boss is the kind that counts when pay and promotion are decided. Ask when they last put someone else's name on work shown to senior people.
What kind of person does not do well working for you?
Why ask it
A sharper version of the management style question, because the answer has to rule someone out: people who need a lot of structure, say, or people who want to be left alone. Check whichever they name against yourself, honestly. 'I can work with anyone' is not an answer, so ask who they have found hardest to manage.
What would you want me to bring to you early, rather than trying to solve on my own?
Why ask it
New hires get this wrong in both directions: sitting on a problem for a week, or asking about things they were hired to decide. Someone who can give an example of each has thought about how they like to be worked with. A shrug means you will find the line by crossing it.
Who do you report to, and what have they asked you to deliver this year?
Why ask it
Pressure travels downhill, so your manager's targets become your week. If their own boss is new, or the goals changed last quarter, expect the team's direction to move too. Open contempt for the level above is a warning, because the team ends up caught in the middle.
How long have you been managing people, and how long have you led this team?
Why ask it
A first-time manager can be excellent and will be learning on you. A long-serving one has habits that are unlikely to move. Neither counts against them, and the answer tells you whether to expect a role still being shaped or one with settled rules.
Growth and hours
How do performance reviews work on your team, and how do they feed into pay?
Why ask it
Review cycles and pay rules differ from one employer to the next, so ask how it works here: how often, who else has a say, and whether a strong review moves salary or only a rating. Vagueness about the process can mean the manager has little say in it, which is worth knowing before you count on them to argue your case. Exact figures are for the recruiter or the offer stage.
Who was the last person on your team to be promoted, and what got them there?
Why ask it
Promotion talk is cheap until you ask for a name and a date. Listen to what it took: a bigger project, a vacancy opening up, a year of the manager making the case. Where nobody has moved up in a long while, the cause may be the people or the number of places, and only one of those is yours to change.
How do you help people on your team develop, and is there time or budget set aside for it?
Why ask it
Training budgets vary a great deal by employer, so ask what exists here and who approves it. More telling than the money is whether anyone has drawn on it: a course taken, a conference attended, a project handed over as a stretch. An unspent budget usually means the work never lets up.
If I do this job well for two years, what could come next?
Why ask it
You are asking whether the role leads somewhere or is the destination. Some jobs have a clear next rung, some widen in scope, and some stay as they are until a person above leaves. Each is liveable as long as you know which one you are accepting.
What do you expect around hours, and what is your view on messages in the evening or at weekends?
Why ask it
Ask about their own habits too, since a manager who sends messages at eleven at night sets a norm whether or not they intend to. What matters is whether a reply is expected before morning.
How do you handle time-off requests when the team is behind?
Why ask it
Leave allowances differ by country and employer, so the policy itself is one for the recruiter. What the manager controls is whether people feel able to use it when the team is behind. Ask when someone last took two weeks in a row, and who covered for them.
How does your team handle remote days and flexible hours, and how much of that is your call?
Why ask it
Company policy sets the outer limit and the manager decides how it feels inside it. Ask what the team does in practice, and whether an arrangement made with this manager would outlast them. If it matters to you, ask whether it can go in the offer in writing.
To close
What keeps you here, and what would you fix first if it were up to you?
Why ask it
Managers tend to answer the first half from a script and the second half off it, so weigh the second. A change they have already pushed for shows what they are willing to spend effort on. 'Nothing, really' from someone several years in is hard to credit.
Where do you see your own job going in the next year or two?
Why ask it
You are choosing a manager as much as a job, and managers move on. Nobody announces a plan to leave in an interview, but talk of a wider remit, a reorganisation or a new project hints at how long this reporting line will last. When it sounds short, the colleagues you would work beside start to matter more than the boss.
Is there anything in my background that makes you unsure I could do this job?
Why ask it
It takes some nerve, and it is the only way to answer a doubt before it goes into their notes. Reply briefly, with one example, then stop. Arguing the point at length tends to confirm the worry.
Could I speak with one or two people who report to you before I decide?
Why ask it
Some hiring processes do not allow it, so a no is not always the manager's own. What you can read is the reaction: a quick yes with two names, or a reason why it would be easier once you have signed. When the call does happen, the question to bring is what a hard week on the team looks like.
What happens after today, and who besides you has a say in the decision?
Why ask it
Leave knowing how many rounds remain, who else weighs in and roughly when, so you know when a follow-up is reasonable. If the manager gives you a date, whether they keep to it is a small early sample of how they treat commitments.
Manager candidates
What is the largest team you have led, and did you build it or inherit it?
Why ask it
The first thing to settle when you are interviewing someone for a manager's job, because every later answer depends on it. Hiring eight people from scratch and taking over eight who miss their old boss are different skills, so know which one your vacancy calls for. If the candidate has not managed yet, lean on the next two questions.
Why do you want to manage people, and what would you miss about doing the work yourself?
Why ask it
Worth asking anyone, and essential for a candidate stepping up for the first time. More pay and the next rung are honest reasons, though they say nothing about the work, which is largely other people's problems. Someone who can name what they would give up, such as their own projects or being the expert in the room, has thought the trade through.
Tell me about a time you led people who did not report to you. How did you get things done?
Why ask it
For a first-time manager this is the nearest thing to a track record: a project group, a shift, a volunteer committee. Listen for how they got people to act with no authority to insist. Persuading, trading favours and going over someone's head are three different instincts, and a title tends to amplify whichever one they have.
What did the people who reported to you find hardest about having you as their manager?
Why ask it
The stock question about management style gets a stock answer, and this version makes a candidate repeat criticism they have heard. No answer suggests nobody on the team felt able to say it. When you take references, put the same question to a former report and compare.
How do you find out what each person on a team wants from their work?
Why ask it
The stock version asks how they motivate a team, and it gets pizza and praise. This one needs individuals: the report who wanted harder problems, the one who needed to finish at four for the school run. Ask what they did differently for each once they knew.
How did you set goals for your last team, and how did people know where they stood?
Why ask it
You want the mechanics: who wrote the goals, how often anyone looked at them, what happened when one was plainly going to be missed. Goals set in January and reopened in December is a common and honest answer. Give credit to a candidate who admits it and says what they changed.
Tell me about someone on your team who was underperforming. What did you do, and how did it end?
Why ask it
This is the centre of the job and the answer candidates have rehearsed least. Listen for how early they spoke to the person and how plainly. A story that jumps from noticing the problem to a formal process has skipped the months where managing should have happened.
Tell me about a person you managed who went on to a bigger job. What was your part in it?
Why ask it
Managers who develop people can name names, and usually several. Notice whether the candidate takes the credit or describes what they gave: a project, an introduction, a hard conversation at the right moment. Years of managing with no example to offer is its own answer.
How do you decide what to hand to your team and what to keep for yourself?
Why ask it
Newly promoted managers often hold on to the work they were best at, which leaves the team underused and the manager swamped. Ask for something they found hard to let go of and what happened once they did. You learn whether you are hiring a manager or an expert with a team attached.
Describe a falling-out between two of your reports. At what point did you get involved?
Why ask it
Timing is what to listen for. A candidate who waited will say the pair sorted it out themselves, so ask what it cost the rest of the team in the meantime. One who talked to each person alone, then both together, and can tell you what was agreed has handled it rather than watched it.
Tell me about a decision your team disliked. How did you bring them round, or did you?
Why ask it
Every manager has to carry out a call their people did not want. The honest account includes someone who never came round and what the candidate did about it. A candidate whose teams always agreed has either dodged hard decisions or stopped hearing objections.
When did you last disagree with your own boss, and what did you do about it?
Why ask it
This person will sit between you and a team, so you need to know how they push back. The version to hope for is direct, private and then finished. Be wary of anyone who took the disagreement to their team before taking it to the boss.
Who was the best hire you ever made, and which one did not work out?
Why ask it
Managers are judged for years on who they bring in, so ask for both ends. The good hire shows what they look for. The poor one shows whether they can say what they missed, or whether the fault was all the other person's.
If you got this job, what would you change in your first month and what would you leave alone?
Why ask it
A list of changes with nothing on the leave-alone side means the plan was written before they met your team. Stronger candidates say who they would talk to first and what they would ask. Be wary of promises to fix things they have not yet seen.
Which part of managing people do you find hardest, and what do you do about it?
Why ask it
Everyone who has done the job has an answer: firing, favourites, saying no to good people. A named weakness with a workaround, such as a script for difficult conversations or a peer who checks their decisions, is worth more than a claim to enjoy all of it.
Using these questions in a real interview
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
How to ask without souring the room
Pick four or five, not the whole list
The slot for your own questions is often short, ten minutes or so at the end. The Start here group holds the ones that suit a first meeting with any manager. Beyond those, choose what you cannot find out any other way, such as how disagreement goes, and save logistics for the recruiter.
Spread the groups across the rounds
Role and team belongs to the first conversation, while you are both still describing the job. How they manage needs some rapport, so it suits a second meeting or a longer slot. Growth and hours can wait until they have shown they want you, and To close fits the last five minutes of any round.
Attach the question to something they said
Following up on a detail from earlier in the conversation reads as interest, while a list read from a notebook reads as an audit. The same question lands very differently in the two forms.
Ask the manager for the last time it happened
'How do you support development?' invites a rehearsed answer. 'Who was the last person on your team to be promoted?' has a name or it does not. Turn any question you care about into its most recent instance.
What to ask the manager before joining
Some questions are too delicate for an early round and belong to the offer stage. Once there is an offer on the table you can reasonably ask about pay bands, ask for a flexible arrangement in writing, or ask to speak with the team. You are no longer competing when you ask, and the answers help you decide whether to sign.
Checking the answers against reality
Ask two people the same question
Put the same question about priorities or workload to the manager and to a future peer. Where the two answers diverge is usually the part of the job the manager does not see.
Watch how they treat the interview itself
A late start, a phone on the table, no plan for the hour: one of these on one day proves little, since interviewers have bad weeks too. The same thing in two meetings is a fair sample of how your one to ones might go.
Notice what they ask you
A manager who probes how you handle a stuck project or an unhappy colleague is thinking about the real work. One who only walks your resume from top to bottom has not prepared, which is worth factoring in.
What to be wary of
Team described as a family
It is usually said warmly, and it can also mean blurred boundaries: leave that is hard to take, social events that are not really optional, reluctance to talk straight about performance. Ask what it looks like in a normal week.
Everything is a priority
If the manager cannot say what they would drop when the quarter goes badly, the answer is nothing, and the overflow lands on the team. Ask them to rank two things they mentioned.
No account of anything going wrong
A manager who cannot name a project that failed or a decision they regret may be new to the job, or may be performing for you. On its own that is no reason to walk away. It is a reason to talk to the team.
Pressure to decide immediately
Reasonable deadlines exist, but a manager who discourages you from speaking to anyone or from taking a few days is managing your information rather than making a case. Note it as a preview.
If you are the one hiring
Ask for what happened
The last group holds the questions to ask a management candidate in an interview, and most of them ask for an episode: a person, a decision, an outcome. If a candidate answers with what they generally do, ask once more for the specific case, and make a note if none arrives.
If the candidate has never managed
Questions about past teams assume there was one. For someone stepping up, lean on the two near the top of the group, about why they want the job and about leading people who did not report to them, and accept examples from projects, shifts or volunteer work.
Put the same questions to every candidate
Comparing managers is hard enough without each one having been asked something different. Choose five or six, keep the wording, and write down what was said and what you concluded as two separate things.
Give the team a say
The people who would report to this manager notice things you will not. If your process allows it, give two of them time with the finalists, and ask afterwards what they would want to know more about.