Top 10 Questions to Spot a REAL Manager

Trusting someone to take on new management responsibilities is not something to be taken lightly – it can be risky, or worthwhile. You will soon put the fate of a team, a major program, or a strategy in their hands and the impact they will have – negative or positive – will no longer affect only themselves.

When recruiting a manager, how do you make sure you are reducing the margin of error as much as you can? Whether the person you are interviewing has a track record in team management or not, here are 10 questions to cover the basics of a good manager in the making.

1. Is the future manager able to demonstrate an actionable strategic vision?

Managing is a clear mix of leadership, vision for a team, and operational execution. Clarity of strategic objectives and means to get to a destination are essential. A manager’s role is not to go into every single detail but rather to leave team members to execute by themselves according to the agreed upon plan. Make sure your future managers, in their past / current positions, grasp both the helicopter view and also how to zero in on objectives factually.

2. Does the future manager demonstrate leadership?

Managing and leading are not quite the same thing – but the first does not go without the other. Leadership skills can be found outside the management realm; and it is up to your candidate to use concrete examples or related situations in which he/she was able to demonstrate such qualities (convincing the C-suite; managing a project in a matrix organization; delegating in a transversal project, etc.).

3. Does he/she have legitimacy in his/her area of expertise?

A manager builds trust in his/her team by providing substantial added value. This can only be achieved by a consistent track record of individual performance & results on the manager’s part. This does not mean he/she needs to be a specialist or expert in every area he/she manages – simply that he/she will be able to provide a relevant input. Though it is often not enough, make sure your candidate is an A-player in his/her own field and he/she will be one step closer to being a respected manager.

4. Is he/she “fact-oriented”?

A manager needs to have trust in his team and vice versa. But a good part of the challenge will also be to keep track of what happens on his perimeter, meaning being able to define ambitious but realistic and clear objectives (individual and team), to provide constant constructive feedback to contribute to the team members’ growth, as well as, when needed, to be ready to make “tough calls” without emotions getting in the way – beware of candidates who describe their experiences in emotional terms.

5. Does he/she have a good grasp of what he/she is stepping into?

A good manager will ask appropriate questions: the requirements and expectations on a particular position are a given. But his/her curiosity and interpersonal sharpness will determine whether or not he/she is able to anticipate on the organizational culture, the kind of professionals / profiles who fit in such a culture, or the constraints and resources associated with the position.

6. Does he/she have the people skills necessary?

Here we dig into the hard stuff: managing a team = managing people. And empathy is a key factor in managing people who are dissimilar from yourself. A manager in the making will be able to interact with people who disagree with him/her to eventually get them to concur with him/her. Additionally he/she will take an educational approach; a good way to assess this is to ask him/her to explain a complex or technical project in simple terms to a non-expert or someone outside his/her field (ie you).

7. Does he / she have what it takes to be a “make do” manager?

Managing can be an ungrateful position. You need to take ownership of your projects while trusting your team enough with their own specific responsibilities & tasks. Someone who is too detail-oriented during an interview, unable to synthesize or simply not flexible enough might not be the optimal choice. A good manager is someone who knows how to teach, how to delegate, how to “make do” instead of doing it for his team.

8. Is he/she a solution provider?

A manager-to-be will be the one looking for solutions instead of focusing on problems; the one proactive enough to do without being asked; the one that demonstrates ingenuity by proposing rather than negating; and also the one that values his teammates’ ideas.

9. Will he/she be able to operate outside his/her comfort zone?

As we have said, managing can be an ungrateful position as you need to oscillate between taking the blame / shielding your team and sharing the accolades. More and more global companies are restructuring in favor of matrix organizations or transversal projects; and are looking for people who can handle just that level of complexity. A good manager is now someone who can step beyond hierarchical patterns and is willing to take on a more “hands on” approach – even if not required as such in the original job description.

10. Can he/she handle conflict and ambiguity and always act as his/her management filter?

Top management or even whole organizations can sometimes cultivate a culture of ambiguity (around the governance / decision making process…); a good manager will have the flexibility necessary to deal with this – and will ideally, during interviews, provide concrete examples of how he has solved conflict situations in the past.

And let’s not forget one of the toughest parts of being a manager: being the upper management’s filter. A good manager needs to know how to shield his team from unrelated issues while conveying the key messages to keep everyone aligned on the objective and working towards the right target.

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