Roughly how much prep work do you put in when you’re interviewing for a leadership role at a new company?

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VP of Engineering in Consumer Goods2 months ago

For a leadership role we are often looking for characteristics as much as skills and industry knowledge. Do the research to understand the company and the industry. Have some questions and ideas related to this information. Follow that up with learning as much about the culture and leadership style as you can find publicly (not always easy). 

Director of Engineering2 months ago

As much as I would seek from a candidate applying for a same position at the company I’m working for.

Being coherent will give you the knowledge you are looking for by receiving and giving.

CEO in Software3 months ago

One way to answer this is to work back from your objectives. For example, I was tutored that the best management consultants don't have the best answers but the best questions. I find that holds true when I interview people. There's nothing like a good penetrating question to illustrate better that the candidate is looking inside my operation and their potential future role.
Accordingly, how much research does it take on the industry, organization, department, and role to determine the questions you genuinely want answered and show depth? 
For example, for any leadership role, a generic question is, 'What do you need the right candidate to do? Would I be taking over an operation that's working well in business-as-usual state and you need that maintaining, not disrupting, with general improvements? Or is this about a turnaround, where you would need me to stabilize the operation, then grow it? Or is this about taking a generally good operation and shifting it to support changes in the business strategy?"
I hope that helps.

1 Reply
no title3 months ago

I agree with Michael.  When taking a leadership role we should be darn sure that role aligns with our goals in life and career.  If there is actual opportunity in a leadership role, it will necessarily include challenges and long hours.  I shouldn't have to say this, but it is a terrible idea to take a leadership role because of either title or money.<br><br>Now, as to how much time I'd spend, what other answer is there than "it depends"?  Typically I exhaust the internet and my network completely and often am left with many questions.  But it is also true that this might be significantly difficult with a particularly large or highly exposed company.  In that case I'd recommend talking to people until a consistent pattern emerges.

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