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. I have collected these questions from various sources and have given credit, as much as I can remember..

BEING INTERVIEWED FOR A JOB (Asking question questions in an interview communicates to your potential, future employer that you are engaging and a critical thinker. Now practice this art to make it become a reality. Devour their website so that you know it better than they do. That will help you generate great questions based on what they ask of you. In addition, I would also go through what questions an employer might ask you. See “Interviewing a New Employee” below.)

  1. When asked, “Tell me about yourself.”

    1. Don’t tell random things about yourself. Instead, share three strong qualifications about yourself that align with this job. Then share 1 thing that excited you about this job. 

  2. 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 your working to improve

  3. Do you have any questions? Always have a few questions. Pick from the following:

    1. Team/Culture/Work Environment (Select the best one or two)

      1. What made each of you want to work here and to stay?

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

      3. Describe the culture of this organization.

      4. Please describe the team that I will be working with in this role.

    2. Expectations (Select the best one or two)

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

      2. What advice would you give to the successful candidate who wants to excel in this role?

      3. How Would you measure success in this role?

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

      5. What is the one thing I can do in this role that will most help me succeed the most?

      6. 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?

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

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

    3. The Future & Challenges

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

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

      3. What do you foresee the company [church] to look like in a year? From any and all perspectives — product, people, team, revenue? (Jason Lemkin)

      4. What are the plans for the company over the next 5-10 years?

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

    1. If they ask, “What do you need to work here,” respond with, “I would like to hear what you would offer for this position first, given the fact that you have met and learned about me from the interview process.” [NEVER GO FIRST. If you give the salary for what you need, and it is $10,000 less than what they would have offered, they will take your offer every time.

    2. If they offer a figure that is below what you need and/or were expecting/hoping for this position, pause for 3-5 seconds, then say, “How can I do that?” [You may feel you need to say, “I need to think that figure over to see if it’s even possible,”]

  5. At the end:

    1. What are the next steps of this interview process and when can I contact you to get the results of my interview? [That way you are sitting around anxiously waiting for a phone call or an email.]

    2. What’s your timeline for next steps?

INTERVIEWING A NEW EMPLOYEE

  1. Understanding the candidate

    1. 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.”

    2. Take a few minutes to think about something that you are an absolute expert in, and it doesn’t matter what it is—It could be how to play the French horn or how to play poker—and explain it to me. (Chamath Palihapitiya)

    3. What have you been working on?

    4. What ignites passion and purpose in you? 

    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. 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?

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

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

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

    11. 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)

  2. Character and Ethics

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

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

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

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

  3. Determining work ethic and execution as an employee

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

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

    3. How would/do you handle/respond to a rude or demanding individual? [This question demonstrates the candidate’s customer service philosophy which is needed in any public-serving role and how they emotionally regulate.] (Leslie Strasta)

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

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

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

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

    8. Tell me a time when you identified a problem with a process and what steps you took to improve the problem.

    9. 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?

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

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

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

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

    14. 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)

  4. Culture and Team Minded

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

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

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

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

    5. 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?

    6. 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

    7. 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)

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

  5. Digging Deeper

    1. I hate surprises. Tell me something now that might go wrong so that I’m not surprised when it happens. (Simon Sinek)

    2. If we had to let you go in the first 60 days what would that reason be? 

    3. Have you 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. 

Questions 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?

  3. Determining Reality

    1. On a scale from 1 (poor) to 10 (fantastic), describe ______________ (e.g., the health of this organization) and what makes you say that? (Get everyone in the room to give their number and their reason.)

    2. What would this organization look like if it were one number lower that what you just gave? (Get everyone in the room to give their number and their reason.)

    3. What would organization look and be like if you were able to give it two numbers higher?

    4. Clarifying Questions

      1. So, what is going well? Let’s keep that up.

      2. What’s not working? (How can we stop or overall them?)

      3. What new ideas or initiatives do we need to brainstorm to move the organization to a higher number? (When people give ideas, follow each up with, “Great, what else?”)

REFERENCE QUESTIONS

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