I’ll be interviewing for a position within my company, to lead a team I used to be a part of. It’s been known that this position would open up for quite some time, so I’ve been preparing for months by keeping in contact with the leaders of that department, asking for feedback, asking what they are looking for, and centering my personal development around what they’ve said. I’ll bring a nice-yet-simple packet to the interview to demonstrate what I’ve been doing to prepare. Part of what I’d like to do to prepare is sit with each of the current team members and get their thoughts about the management change, what challenges they face, what motivates them, etc., and incorporate that into the interview. I figure this would help in two ways… one, if I do get the job, the team would appreciate that I sought their feedback, and two, it will show initiative to the interviewers. Especially if I can tie what I learn from them into a real, actual plan for how I could help lead the team. My question is, if you were one of the current team members, what would you think of this? What would you like to be asked? Some background: all current team members aren’t candidates for the position (experience /age/not interested), and I know each team member well and have a great relationship with all of them. Another point to note is the job is being posted both externally and internally.
@Drz, Some thoughts for you before you decide what and how much to incorporate in your interview from the feedback you obtain from the ‘to be team member’ persons as the ‘to be the leader of the team’…
management change
When interview is open for both external and internal candidates your exposition based on the feedbacks received may (just ‘may’) turn out to be a bit tricky issue depending on who all are sitting on the other side and how is your gist going to affect each one. Your findings may include some point(s) which implies the changes sought are crucial and somewhat compelling but either delayed or ignored due to some hidden personality or organisational issues. In any complex organisation there are always some changes ( crying to be carried out) become evident when such exploratory efforts are made which in most cases are already known to a section of the management. Often this knowledge is kept off the record from the employees for various reasons specially when it involves influential senior individual or company practices established for long time or high cost (not necessarily in terms of $$) of implementing the change etc. So, you need to be extra cautious in ensuring that any sensitive finding is not raised in the interview by you. Remember if you don’t touch upon such issues you don’t lose anything but in case you ruffle any feathers you get negative credit for your truthfulness. This becomes more significant when you consider the fact that outsiders too will be competing for the post who all will have either none or only positive aspects to discuss about the organisation. So, though the idea is good you have to be really thorough about each point that you may decide to present before them and ignore any finding (however strategic or key change it may be) that may sound disapproving or may be damaging your personal cause. Don’t get reduced to a ‘spokes-person’ for your team for no reasons.
what challenges they face
Here again, if one seriously (and minutely) analyses the root of the challenges, substantial number of “challenges” the employees face in any organisation have more to do with their own ‘expectations’ (though at first sight it seems to be due to the organisational practices or norms) and ‘personal deficiencies (which they ignore due to self-interest) in carrying out the assigned tasks efficiently as per the organisation’s standards or benchmarks. In some cases such challenges are process / facilities or even rewards based emerging purely from comparison of what they get to know from employees of other organisation without being fully aware of the context or environment in which such issues are tackled differently in the other organisation. You may find some of these challenges indefensible or even busted when faced with reasoning from the other side of the table. So, be highly selective in presenting your findings (even if suppressing some findings may actually seem like distorting the overall views!). If your conscience does not allow it you may state what you have done and say, “some of the findings are… and I am preparing a formal presentation to discuss in detail later “or something like that and if necessary forget about it later.
what motivates them
These may help you to a great extent as it would reflect your ‘leadership’ trait and give a reason to them for preferring an internal candidate if there is a tie between you and some external candidate. But in terms of what motivates them if there is anything which relates even remotely to your role / position you will have to go prepared with realistic solution to the question, “What would you do to/ How would you provide for …(the thing which motivate them)?” Needless to say, the answer may not be as easy as it may seem since you will have to keep in mind organisational interest/ limitations and cumulative needs that may arise due to your suggestion.
Another aspect is that the to-be-your-team-members may respond differently depending on whether you tell them the purpose of seeking their feedback. Secondly, I hope you will not expose yourself (if selected to lead the team) to too many demands or expectations from the team members since if they give you the feedback now they would certainly expect some of these to be attended to. Finally, do it in not too irascible way without conveying even remotely that you feel you stand very high chance of getting selected (as in your post) since at the moment you have only 50% chance of getting it. Having great relationship with all of them as equal and as the team leader are two different things altogether. From my experience I know of a few cases where an excellent team member liked by all somehow failed to be equally excellent team-leader (in one case he had to be asked to resign after three months due to inter team conflict even though he was the most popular member of the team before the situation changed after he became the team-leader). I am not stating this to discourage you but to prepare you better from all angles. So, prepare equally well to beat the outsiders who do not know anything about the team or organisation but also highlighting in the interview how will the company gain by selecting you as an insider.
mygos, thank you for your detailed response. To highlight one of your many excellent points, I will definitely keep in mind your observations regarding internal vs. external candidates and how that interacts with change.
I would still appreciate hearing from any others as well.