Management and supervision

What interviewers look for

• Results through others: examples where your team, not only you, improved a number.
• Clear delegation and follow-up: who does what by when, and how you check without doing the work yourself.
• Fairness and courage with performance: early feedback, written records, and the same rules for everyone, including relatives and friends.
• Numbers: KPIs, a simple budget, and reports to directors that say what happened, why, and what you will do.
• Judgement under constraints: power cuts, cash shortages, absent staff, security. They want a calm, practical order of priorities.

Questions they ask

1. 1“Describe your leadership style, with an example.”

   Why they ask: They do not want a label from a book. They check how you actually lead day to day, and whether your team would agree.

   How to answer

   • Describe what you do: short daily or weekly briefings, clear targets, coaching, being available.
   • Give one example with a result for the team.
   • Show that you adapt: more guidance for new staff, more freedom for experienced ones.

   I lead by making the target and each person's part very clear, and then coaching. At the branch I supervised, every morning we had a ten-minute meeting with yesterday's numbers and today's focus. New tellers got more support: I sat with them in their first week and checked their cash with them at the end of each day. Experienced staff got more freedom, and I asked them to train others. Over that year our queue complaints dropped, and two of my tellers were promoted.

2. 2“A good performer on your team has started coming late and missing targets. What do you do?”

   Why they ask: Performance management. They check that you talk early and privately, look for the cause, agree a plan, and follow the procedure if it continues.

   How to answer

   • Meet privately and early; describe the facts (dates, numbers), not the person.
   • Ask and listen: there may be a family, health or transport reason.
   • Agree clear steps and a review date, write them down, and involve HR if nothing improves.

   I would not wait for the month-end review. I would meet him privately and say what I have seen: late four times in two weeks, and sales down. Then I would ask what has changed. If it was, for example, a sick parent, I might agree a temporary shift change for a month. We would write down what we agreed and meet again in two weeks. If nothing improved and there was no good reason, I would follow the HR procedure, starting with a written warning.

3. 3“How do you delegate?”

   Why they ask: New managers often try to do everything themselves. They check that you trust your team, explain clearly and follow up.

   How to answer

   • Match the task to the person's skill and to how you want them to grow.
   • Explain the result wanted, the deadline and the limits of their authority.
   • Agree check-in points, and stay responsible for the outcome.

4. 4“How would you prepare a budget for your branch or department?”

   Why they ask: A basic finance check for managers. They want a method: last year's actual figures, planned changes, and monthly tracking of budget against actual.

   How to answer

   • Start from last year's actual costs and income, line by line.
   • Add planned changes (new staff, rent, targets) and explain each assumption.
   • Track budget against actual each month and explain any big variance to the directors.

5. 5“Two senior staff on your team are in open conflict, and it is affecting others. What do you do?”

   Why they ask: They check that you act early, stay neutral and focus on behaviour at work, without letting clan, family or friendship shape the decision.

   How to answer

   • Speak to each person separately to understand the issue.
   • Bring them together, agree the facts and the rules for working together.
   • Follow up, and use the formal HR process if the behaviour continues.

   First I would talk to each of them alone and ask what the problem is and what they need from the other person. Usually it is about work: who does what, or who gets credit for results. Then I would bring them together with clear ground rules, agree the facts and write down who owns which task. I would tell them that arguments in front of staff or customers must stop. I would check in the following week, and if it continued I would involve HR and follow the procedure.

6. 6“The power is off, the generator has failed and customers are queuing at the branch. What do you do?”

   Why they ask: Decision-making under constraints. They check your priorities: safety, cash and records, customers, and communication with head office.

   How to answer

   • Secure cash and systems first, and follow the branch's continuity procedure.
   • Tell customers honestly what is happening and offer options: wait, another branch, or a callback.
   • Call the technician, inform your manager or head office, and record the incident.

7. 7“How do you report to directors?”

   Why they ask: They check whether you can give a short, honest picture with numbers, including bad news, and propose actions.

   How to answer

   • Use a fixed format: key numbers against target, what went well, problems, actions, and decisions needed.
   • Bring bad news early, with a cause and a plan.
   • Keep it short: one page or a few slides, with details in an annex.

   Every month I sent a one-page report: our main KPIs against target, the cash position, staff changes and any incidents. Under that came three short parts: what went well, what went wrong and why, and what I needed from them. When we lost a big corporate client, I did not wait for the monthly report. I called the operations director the same day, explained what had happened, and sent a recovery plan two days later.

Example answers are in English, the language most panels use. Say it in your own words.

Topics to revise

• KPIs (key performance indicators)The few numbers that show whether a team is doing well: sales against target, customer complaints, queue time, cash differences, staff turnover. Expect: “Which KPIs would you track in this role?”
• DelegationGiving a task, and the authority to do it, to someone else while you stay accountable. Good delegation states the result, the deadline, the limits and when you will check.
• Performance appraisal and PIPAn appraisal reviews a person's work against agreed objectives, usually once or twice a year. A PIP (performance improvement plan) sets clear targets and support over a fixed period when performance is low.
• Giving feedback (SBI model)Situation, Behaviour, Impact: “In yesterday's meeting (situation), you interrupted the customer twice (behaviour), and she left upset (impact).” It keeps feedback factual, not personal.
• Budget vs actual and varianceComparing the money planned with what was really spent or earned each month. A variance is the difference; managers explain the big ones and act on them.
• Opex vs capexOperating expenses (opex) are regular running costs such as rent, salaries and fuel. Capital expenditure (capex) buys long-term assets such as a generator, vehicles or computers. They are budgeted and approved differently.
• Conflict resolutionSeparate meetings first, then a joint one. Agree the facts, focus on behaviour and work, not personality or background, write down what was agreed and follow up. Escalate to HR when needed.
• Prioritisation (urgent vs important)Urgent tasks need action now; important tasks shape results over time. A manager deals with the urgent without letting important work, such as coaching and planning, disappear.
• Business continuityA plan to keep essential services running during a disruption: power, network, cash shortage, security incident. The basic order: protect people, protect cash and data, inform, restore, record.
• Management reportingShort, regular reports to directors: KPIs against target, issues, risks and decisions needed. Bad news goes up early, with a plan attached.

Practical tasks you may get

1. 1Case study (30–60 minutes): a branch with falling sales and staff problems, and you write or present your first 90 days. Structure: what you would check first, three priorities, quick wins, and how you would measure progress.
2. 2In-tray exercise: ten emails and problems arrive at once (an absent staff member, a complaint, a director's request, a cash difference). Practise sorting them into urgent and important and writing one line of action for each.
3. 3Data task: a table of monthly figures for a branch or team, and you explain the trend and the variance. Practise reading budget against actual in Excel and saying what you would do about the biggest gap.
4. 4Role-play: a panellist plays a staff member who is underperforming or upset. Prepare an opening that states the facts, then questions, then an agreed plan.

Mistakes to avoid

• Saying “I” for everything. Managers are judged on what the team achieved: say “we” for results and “I” for your decisions.
• Describing yourself as very strict, or as everyone's friend. Panels want fair, consistent and clear.
• Waiting for the annual appraisal to raise a problem. Feedback should come the same week.
• Having no numbers: no KPIs, budget figures or before-and-after results from your team.
• Blaming former staff or bosses for every problem. Say what you found, what you did and the result.

Quick check

5 questions. Answer each one to see the explanation.