Interview and Team Building Questions

Asking Questions In Order to Build and Develop a Great Team

Interview and Team Building Questions

Whether you are interviewing for a job, needing to interview a potential team member, or wanting to build and empower your teams, asking great questions can help in these pursuits.

BEING INTERVIEWED FOR A JOB

  1. What am I going to learn?” (Ivy Ross)

  2. Are they going to use me for what I do best?" (Ivy Ross)

  3. What will the company look like in a year? From any and all perspectives — product, people, team, revenue? (Jason Lemkin)

  4. What do I need to accomplish in my first 90-120 days to be a success and have an impact?  (Jason Lemkin)

  5. What are some of your favorite things about working here?  (Self-Made Millionaire)

  6. How will you measure the success of the person in this position?”

  7. What are the biggest challenges the company is facing and how will this role help address them? (Self-Made Millionaire)

  8. What are some of the challenges you expect the person in this position to face?

  9. Thinking back to people you’ve seen do this work previously, what differentiated the ones who were good from the ones who were really great at it?

  10. How will my performance be measured so that I know I’m making progress towards these challenges? (Self-Made Millionaire)

  11. What’s your timeline for next steps?

  12. What does it mean to be a culture fit at your company? (Self-Made Millionaire)

  13. Answer the greatest weakness question in 3 steps (Self-Made Millionaire)

    1. Tell a story of something you aren’t very great at.

    2. Explain how you are working on it. 

    3. Share the results of you working to improve

  14. Negotiating salary: The 12 magic words? "If you can get me X, I'll accept the offer right away."

INTERVIEWING A NEW EMPLOYEE

  1. Has the candidate ever been accused of or perceived to use any type of abuse of power whether that be sexual abuse, leadership power manipulation, or controlling of others? If so please fully explain. 

  2. What did you learn during the pandemic of 2020? What skills did you add during the pandemic of 2020?‘ (Mark Cuban)

  3. Tell me about (fill in the blank). This is a great way to get a conversation started. If you ask a question, you might get a simple answer. That won’t happen with, “Tell me about your last job.”

  4. What have you been working on?

  5. How have you grown and what do you regularly do to keep on a growth path

  6. What makes life significant for you? Why does your work and life matter? 

  7. How do you plan to contribute beyond yourself? 

  8. What ignites passion and purpose in you? 

  9. How do you (or have you) ignite passion and purpose in others?

  10. At times your work load may feel unmanageable. Describe a time when you recognized that you were unable to meet multiple deadlines. What did you do about it?

  11. Tell us about an idea you started that involved collaboration with your colleagues that improved the business.

  12. When you had extra time available at your last job, describe ways you found to make your job more efficient.

  13. At times you may be asked to do many things at once. Tell me how you would decide what is most important and why.

  14. Tell me a time when you identified a problem with a process and what steps did you take to improve the problem?

  15. What processes or techniques have you learned to make a job easier, or to be more effective? What was your discovery process and how did you implement your idea?

  16. Give me an example of a new idea you suggested to your manager within the last six months. Describe steps you have taken to implement your idea.

  17. Tell me about a time when you went beyond your manager's expectations in order to get the job done.

  18. Tell me about a time when you identified a new, unusual or different approach for addressing a problem or task.

  19. Describe a project or idea (not necessarily your own) that was implemented, or carried out successfully primarily because of your efforts.

  20. How do you react when faced with many hurdles while trying to achieve a goal? How do you overcome the hurdles?

  21. Everyone has good days and bad days at work. Take your time and think back to a really good day you had and tell me why it was a good day.

  22. How do you maintain self-motivation when you experience a setback on the way to achieve your goal? How do you do it?

  23. If you find yourself working with a team that is not motivated, how do you keep yourself motivated and motivate others?

  24. Describe the work environment or culture in which you are most productive and happy.

  25. Tell me about the job position that satisfied you the most. How about the least? What made each one more or less satisfying to you?

  26. What goals, including career goals, have you set for your life?

  27. Describe for me a situation where you had a positive effect on someone. What did you do? How did the other person react? Why do you think what happened, happened?

  28. What is your preferred work style? Do you prefer working alone or as part of a team? What percentage of your time would you allocate to each, given the choice

  29. Describe the actions and behaviors of your current/former manager or supervisor that you respond to most effectively?

  30. What do you believe compromises the ethical workplace? (Schwantes)

  31. Describe how being an ethical individual contributor differs from being an ethical company. (Schwantes)

  32. If the situation called for it, would you ever lie for me? (Schwantes)

  33. Tell me about an instance that challenged you ethically. (Schwantes)

  34. What are the characteristics exhibited by the best boss you have ever had? (Schwantes)

  35. Tell me about a workplace conflict you were involved in, either with your peers or someone else in the company. How did you manage that conflict, and were you able to resolve it? (Schwantes)

  36. Describe the most challenging supervisor you've ever worked with. What was the most difficult thing about that relationship from your perspective, and how did you manage it? (Schwantes)

  37. What would a previous boss say is the area that you need to work on most? Have you taken steps to improve in this area, and if so, what have you tried to change? (Schwantes)

  38. Tell me about a day when everything went wrong. How did you handle it? (Schwantes)

  39. What type of working environment brings out your best performance? Your worst? (Schwantes)

  40. If business priorities change, describe how you would help your team understand and carry out the shifted goals.(Schwantes)

From Lencioni’s Hungry, Humble, Smart

Humble

  1. Describe your current team. What do you like and dislike?

  2. What are the most important accomplishments of your career

  3. What was the most embarrassing moment in your career? Or the biggest failure?

  4. How did you handle that embarrassment or failure?

  5. What is your greatest weakness?

  6. How do you handle apologies, either giving or accepting them?

  7. Can you tell me about someone who is better than you in an area that really matters to you?

Hungry

  1. What is the hardest you’ve ever worked on something in your life?

  2. What do you like to do when you’re not working?

  3. What was your work ethic like as a teenager?

  4. What kinds of hours do you generally work?

Smart

  1. Have you ever worked with a difficult colleague or boss? How did you handle the situation?

  2. How would you describe your personality?

  3. What do you do that others in your personal life might find annoying?

  4. What kind of people annoy you the most, and how do you deal with them?

  5. Would your former colleagues describe you as an empathic person? -OR Can you give an example of how you’ve demonstrated empathy to a teammate?

LEADING TEAMS

  1. Tell me one thing I don’t want to hear. (And then tell them I hear you and I need your help!) (Beth Comstock)

EMPOWERING OTHERS

  1. How are you doing?  (Nieuwhof)

  2. What can I do to help?  (reworked Nieuwhof question)

  3. What are you working on right now? (Nieuwhof)

  4. What obstacles are you facing? (Nieuwhof)

  5. What can I do to help you accomplish the goals we set? (reworked Nieuwhof question)

One On One Meeting - Allison Davis

Get a pulse check

  1. How are you feeling about your role?

  2. What is favorite thing about your work right now?

  3. How can I help you do more of that?

  4. What is your least favorite thing--and how is that affecting your performance?

  5. What areas of your job make you feel like you're stuck?

  6. If you could work on anything next month, what would it be?

  7. What would you like more feedback on?

Learn more about a project

  1. What do you think I should know about the project but might not?

  2. What aspect of this project has been particularly interesting?

  3. What has caused you the most frustration?

  4. What steps can I take to support your success on this project?

Address challenges

  1. What is the biggest challenge you're facing right now?

  2. What have you tried so far to address this issue?

  3. What ideas can you bring in from past successes?

  4. What haven't you attempted yet that you'd like to try?

  5. Are there any obstacles to that approach I can help you with?

Support career development

  1. What are some of the projects you're most proud of?

  2. What are two or three skills that would help you be more successful?

  3. What other roles/responsibilities would you like to explore?

  4. Improve future meetings

  5. What do you like about these one-on-one meetings?

  6. What would you like to see us change about these discussions?

CONSULTING

  1. What pre-happened? Premortem - "Imagine that we are a year into the future. We implemented the plan that now exists. The outcome was a disaster. Write a brief history of that disaster. "

  2. 5 Questions all organizations must answer

    1. What Is Our Mission?

    2. Who Is Our Customer?

    3. What Does the Customer Value?

    4. What Are Our Results?

    5. What Is Our Plan?

REFERENCE QUESTIONS

  1. What are the first words you think of when you think of _________________?