The best interview questions for people management skills
People management is a critical skill set to evaluate in interviews. Whether you’re hiring for a leadership role or an individual contributor position, the ability to collaborate, motivate, and resolve conflicts has a direct impact on team performance.
Strong people managers build trust, foster engagement, and help their colleagues achieve more than they could alone.
When looking for a new manager to join your team, you need to assess a specific set of skills. Along with many of the competencies an individual contributor needs, you should understand a potential manager's leadership skills and style, ability to develop talent, and experience navigating the challenges of people management.
This guide highlights the most effective interview questions for people management, along with tips to evaluate responses and ensure you’re identifying candidates who can lead and support others successfully.
Key takeaways
- People management skills don’t only matter for managers. They’re just as valuable in individual contributors who mentor peers, resolve conflicts, and foster collaboration.
- Assessing these skills in interviews strengthens teams long term, ensuring new hires can both perform their role and elevate those around them.
- Structured interview questions and consistent evaluation are essential for identifying true people management potential and reducing bias in hiring.
What are people management skills?
People management skills encompass the ability to organize, guide, and support individuals and teams so they can perform at their best. This includes communication, delegation, coaching, conflict resolution, performance management, and fostering a positive team culture.
Importantly, people management isn’t limited to formal managers. Great individual contributors can demonstrate these skills by mentoring peers, collaborating effectively, and taking ownership in team settings.
These capabilities signal not only effectiveness today, but also leadership potential for the future.
Why prioritize people management in candidate assessments?
Strong people management skills amplify the impact of any hire. Leaders with these skills drive engagement and retention, while individual contributors who can influence and support colleagues make the whole team stronger.
Even in non-management roles, candidates who show strong people management potential can step up during projects, mentor new team members, and help shape the culture.
That’s why forward-thinking recruiters and hiring managers assess for people management broadly. It ensures teams have both the skills and the interpersonal strength to succeed in the long run.
Interview questions for people management
These questions are designed to reveal how candidates lead, support, and collaborate with others. Use them to uncover whether a candidate has the skills to manage people today, or the potential to do so in the future.
- How would you describe your leadership style? How has it evolved over time?
- Can you tell me about a time you’ve had to deliver a difficult decision or bad news to your team?
- What’s the most helpful piece of feedback you’ve been given by a report? How did you adjust your management style as a result?
- Describe how you support your team's professional development.
- Can you tell me about a time you gave constructive feedback to a report?
- What methods do you use to measure and review your team’s performance?
- What would you consider the highest-performing team you’ve led? What made it so?
- What strategies do you use to motivate your team?
- Can you tell me about a time you led a team through a big change or transition?
- What is your experience with managing remote or distributed teams?
- How do you address and prevent burnout on your team?
- Can you give me an example of how you've navigated different personalities and work styles in your team?
Interviews questions to understand leadership style
A candidate's personal leadership approach is an important aspect of their broader management skills. You want to understand how they characterize their own leadership style and what influences have shaped it over time.
It's also helpful to dig into how they've sought out and responded to feedback on their leadership skills, and how they've contributed to the betterment of company culture.
Questions to ask
- How would you describe your leadership style? How has it evolved over time?
- Can you tell me about a time you’ve had to deliver a difficult decision or bad news to your team?
- What’s the most helpful piece of feedback you’ve been given by a report? How did you adjust your management style as a result?
What to look for in responses
The key here is to understand the candidate's capacity for self-reflection as it relates to their management style. Understand what principles and experiences have influenced their leadership approach.
It can help to dig into any forces that have changed their style over time, especially if they're a candidate for senior management and have been in a leadership role for some time.
Getting a sense for how the candidate solicits and responds to feedback from their reports is also a good way to understand how someone approaches management.
Do they have the requisite humility and self-awareness to know when they're receiving feedback that should be implemented? Similarly, do they know how to deliver tough news with empathy and conscientiousness?
These are all things you'll want to tease out with these questions.
Team development and performance management interview questions
Another central component of a management role is being able to develop reports and manage their performance effectively. Explore how the candidate grows team members, provides feedback, and measures performance.
It's also important to uncover how the candidate motivates their team, including their strategies for inspiring others and driving performance.
Questions to ask:
- Describe how you support your team's professional development.
- Can you tell me about a time you gave constructive feedback to a team member?
- What methods do you use to measure and review your team’s performance?
- What would you consider the highest-performing team you’ve led? What made it so?
- What strategies do you use to motivate your team?
What to look for in responses
The candidate should also be able to demonstrate concrete examples of how they've enabled reports to achieve professional growth and development. Getting a sense for how they manage and measure team performance is also important.
Try to understand how they've defined success in the past and what measures they've used to motivate and reward top performers, as well as provide support to an underperforming team member.
Team dynamics and managing challenges
Finally, it's important to understand how a manager handles team dynamics and challenging situations. You should seek to understand a candidate's experience with fostering team cohesion, leading through changes, and managing different personalities.
Questions to ask
- Can you give me an example of how you've navigated different personalities and work styles in your team?
- Can you tell me about a time you led a team through a big change or transition?
- What is your experience with managing remote or distributed teams?
- How do you address and prevent burnout on your team?
What to look for in responses
With this set of questions, you’re trying to get a sense for how the candidate deals with challenges as they relate to managing people. You want examples of how they've been able to bring together diverse teams or how they've dealt with a difficult team member.
Again, empathy and understanding are important characteristics to look out for here.
You also want to see that the candidate has been able to successfully lead teams through difficult or disruptive situations. How did they bring their team along with them during times of change? How did they maintain morale during tough times?
It's also important that managers know how to look after their team's wellbeing. Are they attuned to their reports' needs outside of just delivering work? And do they ensure team members have the support they need to thrive in the workplace?
Emphasize people management and leadership at all levels
People management skills are too important to overlook, regardless of the role. By asking structured interview questions, paying attention to how candidates describe collaboration and leadership, and evaluating consistently, you can identify individuals who elevate others as well as themselves.
Use the questions and tips in this guide to consistently assess people management skills, and you’ll build teams that are not only capable but also cohesive, resilient, and ready to grow.
