Use this bank to probe a candidate’s end‑to‑end people leadership—hiring, onboarding, expectations, coaching, performance, growth, inclusion, and resilience. Each section includes prompts and cues for strong answers.

Management Philosophy & Role

• What is the job of a manager in your view?
  Good answers: Outcomes through others; clarity, coaching, accountability, and system design over heroics.
• How do you balance results and behaviors?
  Good answers: Clear standards for both; “no brilliant jerks”; ties to promotion/recognition.
• Describe your operating cadence.
  Good answers: Weekly 1:1s, WBRs, goal refresh, retros, decision logs.
• What did you change about your management style recently?
  Good answers: Evidence‑based adjustment, stakeholder feedback, measurable impact.

Hiring & Onboarding

• How do you define and assess for “culture add”?
  Good answers: Structured rubrics, diverse panels, behavior evidence, calibration; avoids cloning.
• Walk me through a high‑signal interview loop you built.
  Good answers: Competencies, mapped questions, scorecards, training, and QA.
• What’s your 30‑60‑90 onboarding plan?
  Good answers: Docs, buddy, early wins, feedback loops, clear “definition of done.”
• How do you reduce time‑to‑productivity?
  Good answers: Playbooks, shadowing, sample projects, and checkpoints.

Expectations, Goals & Alignment

• How do you set clear expectations?
  Good answers: Role scorecards, OKRs/KPIs, examples of “good,” and artifacts shared.
• Tell me about resetting goals mid‑cycle without hurting trust.
  Good answers: Transparent rationale, change control, fair evaluation adjustments.
• How do you ensure line‑of‑sight from individual work to company goals?
  Good answers: Cascaded goals, weekly priorities, and narrative connection.
• What is your cadence for progress reviews?
  Good answers: Weekly or biweekly, documented updates, risk/ask/next steps.

Coaching, Feedback & Development

• Walk me through your 1:1 structure.
  Good answers: Agenda, growth, obstacles, commitments; notes with owners/dates.
• Describe a tough feedback conversation that led to growth.
  Good answers: Behavior‑impact framing, examples, practice plan, measurable change.
• How do you build a growth plan?
  Good answers: Skill matrix, targeted reps/projects, mentors, check‑ins.
• How do you coach different profiles (new grad vs. senior)?
  Good answers: Tailored autonomy, scaffolding, and stretch scope.

Performance Management & Reviews

• What rating system and calibration process do you prefer?
  Good answers: Defined anchors, evidence packets, cross‑team calibration.
• How do you mitigate bias in evaluations?
  Good answers: Rater training, structured examples, cohort audits, appeals path.
• What’s your review writing checklist?
  Good answers: Specific outcomes, behaviors, links to artifacts, growth next steps.
• How do you avoid surprises at review time?
  Good answers: Continuous feedback, mid‑cycle syncs, documented expectations.

Underperformance & Tough Calls

• How do you diagnose underperformance?
  Good answers: Skill vs. will vs. context; evidence; plan with milestones.
• Walk me through a humane, compliant PIP you led.
  Good answers: Specific goals, supports, timeline, check‑ins, outcomes.
• How do you protect team morale during a PIP?
  Good answers: Confidentiality, clarity on standards, focus on team goals.
• Describe a time you made a difficult staffing decision.
  Good answers: Transparent reasoning, fair process, lessons captured.

Delegation, Ownership & Empowerment

• What do you delegate and what do you keep?
  Good answers: Delegate repeatable/stretch tasks; keep strategic/people topics; clear briefs.
• How do you grow decision‑makers?
  Good answers: Decision rights (DACI/RACI), reversible calls, post‑decision reviews.
• Tell me about pushing authority down successfully.
  Good answers: Guardrails, coaching, improved speed/quality.
• How do you respond when delegated work misses the mark?
  Good answers: Feedback on outcomes/process, clarify expectations, adjust scope.

Motivation, Engagement & Well‑being

• How do you keep motivation high without burnout?
  Good answers: Autonomy, mastery, purpose; sustainable pace, recovery, fair load.
• What recognition systems do you run?
  Good answers: Public praise for collaboration/craft/learning; peer nominations; bias checks.
• How do you handle dips in morale?
  Good answers: Listen tours, root causes, quick wins, transparent plan.
• What’s your approach to time off and boundaries?
  Good answers: Leaders model behavior, coverage plans, quiet hours.

Team Dynamics, Trust & Psychological Safety

• How do you foster psychological safety?
  Good answers: Norms for dissent, inclusive facilitation, blameless retros.
• Describe a time you rebuilt trust after a miss.
  Good answers: Ownership, fix, safeguards, and consistent follow‑through.
• How do you handle conflict within the team?
  Good answers: Clear problem statement, interests vs. positions, facilitation, written agreement.
• What rituals keep the team connected?
  Good answers: Demos, show‑and‑tell, skip‑levels, retros with actions.

Communication & Meetings

• What makes your team meetings effective?
  Good answers: Agenda, roles, timeboxing, decisions/next steps, end early when done.
• How do you reduce communication debt?
  Good answers: Docs as source of truth, async updates, clear SLAs by channel.
• Describe a decision memo or update format you use.
  Good answers: BLUF, options/trade‑offs, risks, owners, timing.
• How do you manage up?
  Good answers: No‑surprise updates, crisp asks, alignment on priorities.

Remote/Hybrid & Inclusion

• How do you avoid proximity bias?
  Good answers: Outcome‑focused evaluation, rotating visibility, documentation.
• What are your response‑time norms and quiet hours?
  Good answers: SLAs by channel, escalation tags, coverage plans.
• How do you run inclusive hybrid meetings?
  Good answers: Remote‑first facilitation, pre‑reads, equal airtime, recorded recaps.
• What’s your approach to inclusive language and practices?
  Good answers: Style guides, training, audits of outcomes by cohort.

Change Management & Resilience

• Tell me about leading through a big change.
  Good answers: Clear narrative, two‑way comms, enablement, staged rollout, metrics.
• How do you handle repeated priority shifts?
  Good answers: Re‑plan cadence, protect focus, renegotiate scope, keep trust.
• What do you do after a failed initiative?
  Good answers: Blameless postmortem, action items, visible follow‑through.
• How do you maintain team resilience?
  Good answers: Capacity buffers, rotation on after‑hours, recovery rituals.

Metrics, Capacity & Operating System

• What metrics tell you your team is healthy?
  Good answers: Throughput, cycle time, on‑time delivery, morale signals, attrition/retention of top performers.
• How do you plan capacity and prevent overload?
  Good answers: Historical velocity, buffers, WIP limits, and trade‑off logs.
• Which rituals do you review/retire regularly?
  Good answers: Ritual audits with data; kill or redesign low‑ROI meetings.
• Show me your decision/commitment log.
  Good answers: Owners, dates, outcomes, and review points.

Ethics, Fairness & Risk

• How do you ensure fairness in opportunities and promotions?
  Good answers: Transparent criteria, evidence packets, calibration, audit by cohort.
• What’s your approach to sensitive issues (harassment, safety)?
  Good answers: Policy knowledge, swift escalation, confidentiality, support.
• How do you handle conflicts of interest?
  Good answers: Disclosure, recusal, independent review.
• Where do you draw boundaries to protect the team?
  Good answers: Clear priorities, realistic timelines, “no” with alternatives.

Case Study Exercises

• Team reset: Your team is missing deadlines and morale is low—draft a 60‑day turnaround plan.
• Hiring loop: Design a 4‑stage interview loop with rubrics for a critical role.
• Calibration: Two managers disagree on ratings—run a fair calibration and write the decision note.
• PIP: Create a humane 60‑day improvement plan with milestones and supports.
• Hybrid norms: Write a “how we work” doc for a distributed team across 3 time zones.

Tip: Strong people managers create clarity, grow others, make fair calls, and build systems where good behavior is easy and results compound.