Questions to Ask Future Direct Reports in an Interview
For anyone interviewing for a manager job who is about to meet the team they would lead, in the round where future direct reports get a look at their possible new boss. The questions start with what the team needs from its next manager, then cover the last manager, how the work runs now, what is getting in the way, how a new manager should start, and a few to close on. Each has a note on what a good or a worrying answer sounds like and what to do with it.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
What you need
What do you need most from whoever takes this job?
Why ask it
The central question of the round and a fair one to open on, because it says you came to hear what the job is before describing how you would do it. Replies tend to fall into protection (keep the noise out), direction (tell us what matters) and attention (notice the work). Repeat back what you heard, and resist promising it.
Think of the best manager you have had anywhere. What did they do that you still remember?
Why ask it
People can describe what they want here without criticizing anyone in the building. The stories are usually small: a manager who remembered a detail, or who said no on someone's behalf. Small is the point, because it shows what counts as good to this group.
How much do you want a manager in the detail of your work, and how much do you want to be left to it?
Why ask it
Expect different answers from different people, and say out loud that you noticed. A newer person asking for more contact and a veteran asking for room are both reasonable. A whole team saying 'just leave us alone' usually has a story behind it, so ask for the story.
What would you want a manager to take off your plate?
Why ask it
Replies are concrete: chasing another department for answers, the vendor calls, the schedule nobody wants to draw up. Together they make a ready list of early, visible things a new manager could do. If the list runs long, ask each person for the single item they would choose.
What should a new manager here never do?
Why ask it
Asked with a smile, this gets the team's rules in its own words: do not change the schedule without asking, do not present our work as yours, do not copy the director on everything. Read each rule as a report of something that once happened.
What would you want a manager to say on the team's behalf to the people above?
Why ask it
It asks what the team believes leadership has wrong about it. A specific reply, such as a staffing request or a deadline that was never realistic, can be checked with the hiring manager before you accept. Say you would look into it. Do not say you would win it.
When one of you does good work, how do you like it to be noticed?
Why ask it
Some people want it said in the team meeting and some would rather have a quiet word, and a group asked this way will often sort itself into the two camps for you. If the reply is 'it mostly is not', that is one of the easier things for a new manager to change. Leave pay and bonuses out of it: the team does not set them, and it is not what the question is for.
What would each of you like to learn or take on in the next year?
Why ask it
Strangers rarely ask this, and the replies show who is ambitious, who is content and who has stopped expecting anything. If nobody has one, ask whether anyone has moved up or across from this team. How training is approved and paid for differs by employer, so ask how it works there.
When something goes wrong on the team, what do you want your manager to do first?
Why ask it
'Help fix it, then talk about it' is the common wish. Pay attention to any story that comes with it: a team that was once blamed in public will tell you so here, sideways, and will watch how a new manager handles the first bad day.
Last manager
What did the last person in this job do that the team would hate to lose?
Why ask it
Begin the subject here and not with complaints: it is easier to answer in front of colleagues, and it shows which habits have become expectations. Whatever they name, a weekly note or a manager who took the blame when leadership was unhappy, the next manager gets measured against it in the first month.
Where did the team have to make up for something the last manager did not do?
Why ask it
Put this way it asks about gaps and not about a person, so people can answer without feeling disloyal. Slow decisions, missing feedback and no voice higher up are the usual answers. Do not join in the criticism. 'That is useful to know' is enough.
How did you usually find out about decisions that affected you?
Why ask it
'In the team meeting, before it was final' is the good version. 'From another department' or 'once it had already happened' means trust in the seat is low, and a new manager would spend months telling people early before anyone believed it would continue.
What were one-on-ones like before: regular, useful, or the first thing to get canceled?
Why ask it
If there is a laugh, the laugh is the answer. Meetings that kept being canceled told people where they ranked, and simply holding them would be the cheapest promise a new manager could keep. If they were good, ask what made the half hour worth it.
When the team was asked for more than it could do, what did the last manager do about it?
Why ask it
Underneath, this asks whether the manager stood between the team and the pressure. You will hear 'pushed back', 'passed it straight on' or 'did it themselves at night'. Each sets a different expectation, and the third is one you may not want to inherit.
How did feedback reach you: in the moment, at review time, or not at all?
Why ask it
Colleagues on one team often answer differently, which usually means the manager gave feedback to some people and avoided it with others. Notice who says 'not at all'. That can be the strongest person in the room, left alone because nothing was wrong.
What did the last manager change that worked, and what change did not stick?
Why ask it
A history of changes that faded tells you how the team will receive new ones: politely, and then they will wait. Ask why the one that lasted did. The reason, often that the team helped design it, is a method you can borrow.
Why is the job open, as you understand it?
Why ask it
You will already have the official version from the hiring manager, so ask the team gently and compare. Matching accounts are reassuring. If the room goes quiet or clearly does not know, do not press in a group, and raise it with the hiring manager afterward.
The work now
What is each of you working on right now, and what is taking most of your time?
Why ask it
An easy one for a stiff room, because everyone can answer it and nobody has to judge anything. Listen for whether the two halves match: a team whose hours go somewhere other than its main project is telling you what the manager's job really is. Jot a name beside each project, because you will want to use them later in the round.
What is working well here that a new manager should leave alone, even if it looks odd from outside?
Why ask it
Asking what works before asking what is broken tells the team you are not arriving with a broom. Most teams have an arrangement that makes no sense on paper, a shared spreadsheet or a swap of duties, and hearing about it now saves a new manager from 'fixing' it in week two. If nothing comes to mind, the routines may have belonged to the last manager and nobody would miss them.
How does work reach the team at the moment, and who decides who picks it up?
Why ask it
With the manager's seat empty or about to change, the answer shows who has been doing the assigning. 'We sort it out between us' can describe a team that runs itself well or one where the most willing person takes everything. Ask which, lightly.
Which decisions do you make yourselves today, and which ones wait for a manager?
Why ask it
This is the line you would inherit. People who can describe it clearly have usually been trusted with real decisions and will notice if a new manager pulls them back. A long list of things waiting for a signature means a backlog is sitting there for whoever takes the job.
What is the team expected to get done this year, and how did you hear about it?
Why ask it
A team that can say it in a sentence and name the meeting where it was told has been kept in the loop. Glances around the table, or a different goal from each person, mean that setting direction is part of the job on offer. Hold the answer against what the job posting says the team is for.
Who has been doing the manager's part of the job while the seat is open?
Why ask it
Someone has been approving time off, answering the director and settling arguments. That person may be relieved to hand it back or may have wanted the job, and either way theirs is the name to remember. If the current manager is still in place, ask what they will stay involved in after the handover.
How do you know, week to week, whether the team is doing well?
Why ask it
A good answer points at something you could see: a number, a board, a customer who stopped calling. 'Nobody complains' means the team has been working without feedback, and supplying it would be one of the first jobs for a new manager.
Which piece of the team's work would you want a new manager to understand first?
Why ask it
The answer is where the team's pride sits, and often where it feels overlooked. Ask whoever names it to walk you through it for two minutes. People remember a candidate who was curious about their work before talking about plans.
With no manager in the room, how does a disagreement between two of you get settled?
Why ask it
Watch who answers and who they glance at first. Arguing it out and moving on is a healthy sign. If one voice always wins, or everything used to be sent upward, the team will expect a new manager to referee from the first week.
In the way
What slows the team down most in an ordinary week?
Why ask it
The best answers are dull: a slow approval, a tool that crashes, another team that does not reply. Dull problems can be fixed by a manager with a little authority, so find out before you accept whether that authority comes with the job.
If a new manager could fix only one thing in the first three months, which should it be?
Why ask it
Forcing a single choice shows whether the team agrees with itself. One shared answer is a mandate. Five different ones mean the first task is getting the team to settle its own priorities, which is slower work than fixing a thing.
What have you raised before that nothing came of?
Why ask it
Old unanswered requests are the cheapest goodwill on offer to a new manager, and collecting them again and then doing nothing is the quickest way to lose it. Write the list down. Ask who each one was raised with, since that shows whether the block was the manager or someone higher.
Who outside the team do you spend the most time waiting for?
Why ask it
Much of a manager's work happens across a boundary, and this names the boundary. Find out whether the last manager had a working relationship with that group. If there was none, building it would fall to you, and you could ask to meet its lead before deciding.
Is the team the right size for what it is asked to do?
Why ask it
Almost every team says no, so the follow-up carries the information: what gets dropped or done late because of it. Where people have been covering an empty seat for months, ask the hiring manager whether it will be filled, and by when, before you say yes.
What are you asked to do that you think nobody would miss?
Why ask it
Status updates no one opens and meetings held out of habit come out here. Stopping one costs nothing and is noticed at once. Find out who asked for it before you make any plans, because some of these belong to the person you would report to.
How have the past few months been for the team: steady, stretched or worn out?
Why ask it
Say it plainly and wait. 'Worn out', said in front of a stranger, means the first quarter is about easing the load and not about launching anything. Answers that differ a lot from person to person suggest the work is unevenly shared.
Has anyone left the team in the past year, and what might have kept them?
Why ask it
The second half is the manager's version of the question: it asks what the job costs people, not for gossip about who went. 'A better offer' tells you little, while 'she asked for a different schedule for a year' tells you what the next manager will be asked for. Do not press for names, and if the room tightens, move on.
What changes are coming that the team is uneasy about?
Why ask it
A reorganization, a new system or an office move may already be decided, with the new manager expected to carry it out. Hearing it from the team first lets you ask the hiring manager directly. Learning after you start that 'you will be bringing that in' is the outcome to avoid.
Starting out
How would you want a new manager to spend the first month here?
Why ask it
Most teams say some version of 'watch before you change anything'. Ask what the watching should include: sitting in on calls, working a shift, reading the backlog. That detail becomes a plan you can repeat to the hiring manager in the next round.
What would a new manager have to do to earn this team's trust?
Why ask it
Teams tend to answer with actions: do what you said you would, bring bad news early, learn the work before judging it. Each one usually has a story behind it of a promise kept or broken. Skip the reply that you already do all of that, and ask which one matters most and why.
What should a new manager ask each of you in a first one-on-one?
Why ask it
The team writes the first-week agenda for you. 'Ask what I do all day' and 'ask what I was promised' are small disclosures in themselves, so write them down beside the name of whoever said them. Asking it also tells the room that a new manager would meet people singly before deciding anything.
How has the team taken to new managers in the past?
Why ask it
A group on its third manager in a few years has learned to wait people out, and will say so with a joke. Take the joke seriously. Note how many managers they mention and how long each stayed, because a team that has seen short tenures will hold back until a new manager has outlasted them.
Six months in, what would tell you the right person got the job?
Why ask it
Set this beside what the hiring manager called success. When the team says 'we stopped working weekends' and the boss says 'output is up', you have found the tension the job sits in. Better to see it now than at a first review.
How does the team like to be asked for its opinion: in a meeting, in writing, or one at a time?
Why ask it
The quiet people in the room are answering by not answering. If anyone says 'one at a time', believe them, and treat it as a reason to request individual conversations before or after an offer. Consulting only in meetings gets a manager the same two voices.
Is there anything about the way the job was described to me that you would correct?
Why ask it
First say in one sentence how the role was put to you. 'That sounds right' means the team has been kept informed. A surprised look at 'full say over hiring' tells you more than any reply, and it goes back to the hiring manager as a question.
Closing
What would worry you most about a new manager arriving?
Why ask it
Save it until the room has warmed up. With an outside hire the worry is usually change for its own sake or a boss who does not know the work, and with a colleague stepping up it is favorites and old friendships. Do not defend yourself: name the worry you heard, say one thing you would do about it, and leave it there.
Where would someone with my background need the most help from this team?
Why ask it
It invites the team's doubts about you in a form people can voice politely. 'You have not worked with our customers' or 'you have never covered a night shift' is a reservation you can now answer once, briefly, with what you would do to learn it. It also says you expect to depend on them, which is true of any manager who did not come up through this team's work.
Is there anything about how I would manage that you want to ask me?
Why ask it
The round exists so the team can judge its possible boss, and some panels are too polite to do it. Handing over the floor shows you expect to be questioned by the people you would manage. Keep each reply short and attach an example. A philosophy of leadership can wait.
What keeps each of you here?
Why ask it
People leave the room having said something they like about the place, which is a kind way to finish. You also get the list of things a new manager must not break: the flexible hours, the colleagues, the kind of work. Thin answers are worth weighing with everything else you heard.
What have I not asked that a good manager for this team would want to know?
Why ask it
Leave a real pause after it. The thing someone has been waiting to say often comes out now, addressed to the table more than to you. Whatever it is, thank them and write it down where they can see you doing it.
If an offer came, would some of you be willing to talk again before I decided?
Why ask it
A group setting cannot hold every conversation, and this leaves the door open for the ones it cannot. Whether candidates may contact the team directly differs by employer, so make the request through the recruiter or the hiring manager and do not collect phone numbers in the room. Ask it last and lightly, so nobody feels signed up for anything.
How to handle the round with the team you would manage
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Before the round
Find out who will be in the room, and who leads
Ask the recruiter or the hiring manager how many people you will meet, what each one does, whether the team will question you first, and whether the outgoing manager or the hiring manager will sit in. A team speaks differently with its boss present, so if someone senior is there, keep to What you need and The work now and save Last manager for a round without them.
Get the official story first
Before you meet the team, ask the hiring manager why the job is open, how long it has been open and whether anyone inside applied. Then you are comparing accounts in this round, not hearing everything for the first time, and you will not ask a question that lands badly on someone sitting at the table.
Pick six to eight, not the whole list
These rounds often run thirty to forty-five minutes and the team has its own questions for you. Choose one or two from each group and open with the first question on the page, what the team needs most from whoever takes the job, so it cannot be squeezed out. If you only get the last ten minutes, three is plenty: that one, one from Last manager and one from In the way.
Remember who is judging whom
The team's impression usually goes back to the hiring manager, on a scorecard or over coffee, and how much it counts differs by employer. They are deciding whether they could work for you, and the questions you choose are a large part of the evidence. A candidate who asks about their work and listens tends to be described that way afterward.
If the team already knows you
A colleague going for the lead job cannot ask about the last manager as a stranger would, because everyone knows you were there. Say so: 'I have my own view of this, and I would like to hear yours.' Then ask what would have to change between you if you got the job, and keep in mind that someone at the table may have applied too.
Asking without sounding like the boss already
Say 'a new manager', not 'I will'
Most questions on this page are worded around 'whoever takes this job' or 'a new manager' for a reason. 'When I take over, what should I change?' assumes the offer and assumes change. 'What would you want a new manager to leave alone?' asks the same thing and leaves the team in the position of advising.
Ask about what works before what is broken
Inside each subject, start with the half that is easy to say in front of colleagues: what the last manager did that the team would hate to lose before what it had to make up for, what to leave alone before what to fix. A team that has just been asked what it would keep is far more willing to say what it would change. Going straight to problems sounds like an inspection.
Do not promise anything
When someone names a real grievance it is tempting to say you would sort it out. You do not yet know what authority, budget or history sits behind it. 'I have written that down and I would want to understand it properly' is honest, and it is also what a good manager would say in the first week.
Let the quiet ones in, without putting them on the spot
One or two people usually do most of the talking. Phrasing a question as 'what is each of you' or 'I would like to hear a couple of views on this' opens the door without naming anyone. If a person stays silent, leave them be, and ask afterward whether individual conversations are possible.
Stay out of criticism of the last manager
You need to know what went wrong, but agreeing that the predecessor was a poor manager tells the team how you might talk about them one day. Listen, thank them, and turn it forward: 'So what would the opposite of that look like?'
Reading the answers
Watch the room as well as the speaker
Who answers first, who gets looked at before anyone speaks and who stops talking when a certain subject comes up tell you about influence and tension on the team. None of it is proof of anything. It is a list of things to find out gently if you take the job.
Compare the team with the hiring manager
Put the team's answers on priorities, obstacles and what success would look like next to what the hiring manager told you. Agreement means the job is what it was described as. A wide gap is not a reason to walk away by itself, but it is the main thing to raise before you accept: the role would sit exactly in that gap.
A guarded team is an answer too
Short, careful replies can mean the team has been burned, that someone at the table wanted the job, or only that they are tired of interviewing. Do not push. Ask an easier question from The work now, and take the guardedness to the hiring manager as an open question about what has happened there.
Sort what you hear into three lists
Straight after the round, write down what the team wants kept, what it wants fixed and what it wants from a manager personally. Those three lists show whether this is a job you would want, and they are the material for your next conversation with the hiring manager.
Mistakes to avoid
Presenting your plan
A candidate who spends the round explaining what they will change has told the team they decided before listening. If you are asked for your approach, give it briefly with one example, then return to asking.
Interviewing them
Questions such as 'what are your strengths?' or 'where do you see yourself in five years?' turn the round into an assessment of people who did not apply for anything. Ask about the work, the team and what they need. Individual questions belong to one-on-ones after you start.
Asking the team what only the employer can answer
Pay bands, your budget, how much say you would have over hiring and the terms of the job are for the hiring manager or the recruiter. The team may not know, and may not be comfortable guessing in front of each other.
Fishing for names
Asking who the weak performer is, who applied for the job or who clashed with the last manager puts people in an impossible position and will be repeated after you leave. If it matters to your decision, put it to the hiring manager.
Leaving no time for their questions
The team came to find out what you would be like to work for. If your questions fill the whole slot, they leave with nothing to report. When the round is yours to run, stop with ten minutes to spare and hand the floor over, using one of the questions under Closing.