Bridgeville, Penn.-based recruitment firm Development Dimensions International suggests job candidates ask potential supervisors the following questions before taking a job:
- When have you mentored someone on your team and how did you do it?
- When did a member of your team experience a successful result and what coaching did you provide?
- What techniques have you used to get your team to work together effectively?
- Can you tell me about a time when you’ve given someone positive feedback, and a time you’ve given someone negative feedback?
- If I had an opportunity to talk with a few of the people who report to you, what would they say your strengths are? Your weaknesses?
- What would your peers say are your strengths and weaknesses?
- When big changes occur in the organization, how have you communicated those changes and their impact to your team?
- How long have you been a “leader” and in what types of jobs/assignments?
- How have you helped someone achieve his or her professional goals?
- Tell me about a time you delegated an important project — how did you decide who to give it to and how did you follow up? What sort of decisions will be mine to make? Yours to make?