What do you do if you're asked to provide examples of your leadership abilities in an interview?

In my experience as an interviewer, I have observed candidates fabricating superhuman stories to showcase leadership skills. However, authenticity, transparency, and honesty matter more than exaggerated tales. It's okay not to have specific leadership examples. True leadership lies in everyday actions: how one communicates with stakeholders, supports team members in achieving their goals, and continues to learn and grow. These subtle yet impactful acts demonstrate genuine leadership qualities. By demonstrating authenticity and focusing on practical examples of leadership in action, candidates can present themselves more compellingly and earn the trust of interviewers.

When asked such question, It is important to showcase relevant experiences that highlight key skills and qualities. Choose examples that demonstrate your ability to inspire and motivate a team, make tough decisions under pressure, and achieve goals effectively. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to structure your responses clearly. Focus on how you communicated effectively, delegated tasks, resolved conflicts, and led by example. Highlight instances where you successfully led a team through challenges, achieved significant results, or implemented innovative solutions. Remember to tailor your examples to the specific job requirements and showcase how your leadership abilities align with the organization's goals and values.

In an interview, don't just list your job duties when asked about leadership. Go beyond managing teams, hitting targets or overseeing projects. Leadership is about influence and inspiring action. Share examples where you led without a title. Maybe you changed a colleague's viewpoint, united your team around a common goal, or influenced a decision outside your remit. True leaders don't need a title, just influence. Speak about influence, and you're speaking the language of leadership. This is how to ace the leadership question in an interview, and truly lead in the startup world.

If asked to provide examples of leadership abilities in an interview: Draw from Past Experiences: Share specific instances from previous roles where you successfully led teams, projects, or initiatives. Highlight Achievements: Describe the outcomes of your leadership, such as improved team performance, successful project completion, or innovation. Emphasize Skills and Qualities: Highlight key leadership skills and qualities demonstrated in these examples, such as communication, decision-making, problem-solving, and motivating others.

Here's how to reflect deeply and unearth compelling leadership narratives: Don't settle for generic examples. Instead, think about situations where you made a real difference. Did you spearhead a project that saved the company time or money? Did you mentor a colleague who went on to excel? Focus on moments where your leadership had a tangible impact. Simply stating you "led a team" isn't enough. dive into the "how" behind your leadership. Did you utilize clear goal setting and communication strategies? Did you foster collaboration to overcome a technical hurdle? Whenever possible, quantify the results of your leadership. Did your project increase efficiency by 20%? Did the mentee you coached achieve a significant promotion?

Customise your examples to align with the potential employer's environment, culture, and the specific challenges of the role you're applying for. If the company is a startup, emphasize your adaptability and innovative thinking. For roles in established companies, highlight your strategic planning and steady leadership in structured environments.

Structure your response using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to provide a clear and concise explanation of the leadership scenario. Describe the context or situation where your leadership skills were put to the test.

STAR method for job interviews in action: Situation: As the CEO of a tech startup, we faced a deadline to launch a new product. Task: I had to ensure seamless coordination among cross-functional teams, including developers, designers, and marketers, to meet the launch deadline. Action: I initiated daily meetings to align everyone on tasks and progress. Recognizing potential bottlenecks early, I restructured workflows, reallocating resources where needed. I also provided direction and support to team members for a collaborative environment. Result: Despite setbacks, we successfully launched the product on time. Our effort boosted team morale and also improved interdepartmental communication, laying a foundation for future successes.

Emphasize the positive impact of your leadership actions on the team or organization. Discuss how your leadership contributed to achieving goals, improving team performance, fostering collaboration, or resolving challenges.

Once you've identified strong leadership experiences, don't just wing it in the interview. Practice telling your stories concisely and articulately. The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) is a great framework to structure your responses.

Demonstrate how challenges have been instrumental in your growth as a leader. Discussing instances of failure or difficulty and how you learned from them can be incredibly powerful. It shows your capacity for self-reflection, resilience, and a proactive approach to personal and professional development.

Here's how to turn challenges into compelling stories that demonstrate your leadership potential: Briefly describe a past situation where your leadership was tested. This could be a project setback, a team conflict, or a period of low morale. Explain the steps you took to address the challenge. Did you implement new communication strategies? Did you delegate tasks differently? Did you seek additional training? Did you discover a new leadership style that resonated better with your team? Did you identify areas for personal growth? Connect your learnings to your current leadership approach. How did this experience shape your decision-making process? How do you apply these lessons in your day-to-day work?

Peer feedback is extremely powerful to learn more about your strengths and where you can grow, and leadership as a skill is not different. While it can be more abstract to discuss leadership skill levels with your peers as compared to technical skill levels, make it a habit to monitor where you can grow as a leader.

Your ability to communicate your leadership experiences confidently and coherently is crucial. Practice delivering your examples out loud, focusing on clear articulation, maintaining a narrative flow, and ensuring your key points are compelling and succinct. This preparation will help you to speak more naturally and confidently during the interview.

Select specific instances where you demonstrated key leadership skills, such as strategic thinking, conflict resolution, or motivating a team. Focus on challenges you overcame and the positive outcomes achieved. Structure your stories using the STAR method, Situation, Task, Action, Result. Briefly set the scene (Situation), define the challenge or task (Task), describe your specific actions (Action), and quantify the positive results (Result). This clarity showcases your problem-solving and leadership impact. Practice delivering your stories out loud. Record yourself (with permission) to identify areas for improvement.

One simple yet effective addition is to emphasize the collaborative aspect of your leadership. In my experience leading a project team, I highlighted how I fostered a collaborative environment where everyone's ideas were valued. During the interview, I mentioned instances where I encouraged team members to share their perspectives, leading to innovative solutions. By showcasing collaboration as a core component of my leadership style, I demonstrated my ability to leverage the collective intelligence of the team for success, which resonated positively with the interviewers.

I recommend to those I support through an interview cycle that they pick the 2-3 experiences they've had that they'll draw on to answer any question they get. This enables them to sort through a small portion of their experiences, vs panicking in the moment to try to pick out the best examples from everything they've ever done/accomplished. Highlighting a time when you demonstrated leadership includes articulating the situation, the actions you took, and the impact of those actions on the outcome--all in context of a situation where you were leading others to a better place and not the lone hero delivering the result.

- Cultivate team resilience and rely on each other - Foster accountability and reward accordingly - Encourage innovation and experimentation with any idea. - Practice empathy within and outside the team. - Promote meritocracy.

An interview is just as much of an interview for the employer as it is for the candidate, so always be prepared with examples of how you lead your team and showcase how you work, what's meaningful to you, and what plans you have for the future. Providing examples will build that trust with your potential new hire.

The STAR method typically used by many public bodies in the UK can be a good way of getting one's examples across in an interview: Situation: scene setting. Task: highlighting what needed to be done. Action: what you (the candidate) did. Result: how this was a success.

Understand that Leadership is something between a hard and a soft skill, sometimes even a hard skill. Treat it as such as come up with examples in that way.