8 Essential Interview Questions CEOs Swear By

1. Why Do You Really Want to Work Here Specifically?

• 1.1. What have you learned about our company beyond what you’ve read on the website?
• 1.2. What do you think you might be able to do that’s different from what we’re already doing?
• 1.3. Why is our company and this job the right next step in your professional and personal journey?

2. What Makes You Tick?

• 2.1. What shapes you as a leader and colleague?
• 2.2. What do you enjoy the most and the least in your current job?
• 2.3. How do you define professional fulfilment?

3. How Is Your Accountability and Determination?

• 3.1. What’s a hard problem you’ve faced, and how did you handle it?
• 3.2. What leadership muscles did you build or strengthen during the intense period of disruption caused by the pandemic?
• 3.3. How have you led change in previous roles?

4. How Hungry Are You to Learn and Build New Skills?

• 4.1. What idea, challenge, or question has captured your interest and is driving you to learn more about it now?
• 4.2. If your core expertise is your “major,” what is your professional “minor”? What interests you and why?
• 4.3. How do you want to be better at your job over the next two years? What will you do to achieve that?

5. Are You a Team Player?

• 5.1. What is your playbook for influencing people who don’t report to you?
• 5.2. What was the best and worst team you’ve worked on? What were the dynamics of each of them?
• 5.3 How do you deal with difficult interpersonal issues at work?

6. Are You Self-Aware?

• 6.1. What’s the most surprising negative feedback you’ve received, and what did you do about it?
• 6.2. What are your triggers, and how do you manage them?
• 6.3. How do you challenge your own assumptions?

7. Will You Thrive in Our Organization?

• 7.1. What did you like the most and least about previous organizational cultures where you worked?
• 7.2. How did you “merge into traffic” with a new organizational culture when you changed jobs in the past?
• 7.3. What are the lasting fingerprints you’ve left in previous companies where you’ve worked?

8. How Are Your Leadership Capabilities?

• 8.1. When you start with a new team, what do you tell the people are the three most important values to you as a leader, and why those values are important to you?
• 8.2. When you mentor and coach people, what are the most common themes that come up in those conversations?
• 8.3. How do you ensure that your teams operate like true teams?

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