11 Interview Questions You Should Be Asking Training Managers + Leadership Development Candidates
4 MINUTE READ
Hiring someone in Leadership Development or Training? This is sometimes misunderstood as a fluffly role that does not have technical skills - wrong! Check out our top 11 questions we always ask to understand if your next Training hire will impact your bottom line.
11 Interview Questions You Should Be Asking Training Managers + Leadership Development Candidates
1. In your current / previous role, how was your success measured?
What KPI's where used to measure success at their previous company? Ask the candidate to speak to how they would measure the transfer of knowledge.
2. Working with operations (ie: retail stores, branches etc) from a Head Office perspective - what has been your experience? What worked well? What have been your biggest learnings?
Does this person understand the essential skill of being able to enroll and onboard the stores? Do they know how to speak the same language and understand their end user? Do they know how to align with the Operations folks and keep momentum of training programs during a roll out? To ensure it's success? Do they listen? Make recommendations, Align? This question right here, is make or break.
3. Tell me about your leadership style?
Here I am listening for how the individual works, what style suits them, if I were to hire them, how would I ensure they felt heard and valued?
4. What leadership style works for you?
Are they adaptable? Do they need a lot of direction and hand holding? Does my company have the ability to support this person?
5. How would you describe the difference between functional training & transformational leadership development?
If you are only going to ask one question from this list - let it be this one.
This is going to be the difference between optimal company performance and is the true benefit of investing in Leadership Development. If you are not serving your leaders and future leaders in their own personal transformation - you are not in the game of why L & D matters and impacts businesses. #truth
Transformational Leadership Development - Simply put, this is how they respond to the world around them.
Functional Training - This is your technical skills and abilities (how does one operate the POS machine, how do you order restock etc)
6. What is your auditing process around functional training?
Do they know what the best companies in the world are doing in L&D? Are they clear on the companies objectives and goals with L&D?
7. Have you had any experience with competency based training?
This will show you if they can clearly articulate a program for the individuals at your organization.
8. What leadership development courses/programs have you participated in?
How invested are they in their own continued transformation? What do they read, are they truly passionate about this area?
9. How do you keep up with new trends and innovation in Training & Development?
What blogs, podcasts, books are they reading to keep abreast with the latest and greatest?
10. How do you get feedback on your programs?
How are they eliciting feedback? Surveys, focus groups? What are they doing with that information and data? Is it being fed back in to the programming to constantly improve and update it?
11. Have you ever introduced a new technology to facilitate training?
If your company is newer to L&D - there will most likely be a technology introduced in this space - you are going to want this person to have experience with this or you will be spending this persons salary and then some in consulting dollars.
The companies that I have worked with that nail this position are miles ahead of their compeition. Coincidence? I think not.
Your Time Is Now. ™
ElevenEleven Talent Collective