40+ interviewer questions grouped by competency, each with a reason it is worth asking and what a strong answer sounds like, plus a 1-to-5 scorecard. Built for small businesses hiring a manager without an HR department. Download as DOCX.
Hiring your first manager is the point where a small business stops being one person deciding everything, and it is the hire most owners are least prepared to interview for. A bad individual contributor produces bad work, which you can see and correct. A bad manager produces bad work from other people, which surfaces slowly, gets blamed on the team, and is usually only obvious after somebody good has quit.
The problem with most manager interview questions you can find is that they are written for the candidate. Search the phrase and you will mostly get guides teaching people how to answer, sample responses included. That is exactly why manager candidates interview so well. At FirstHR, we build for owners who make this hire themselves, so this page is written from the other side of the table: 40+ questions to ask, why each one is worth asking, and what a strong answer actually sounds like.
TL;DR
Interview a manager on five things: people leadership, coaching and development, handling underperformance, execution and decision making, and behavioral evidence. Ask for real past events rather than hypotheticals, follow every principle with give me an example from the last year, and score each competency 1 to 5 with a written line of evidence. Download 40+ questions and the scorecard as DOCX.
What to Assess in a Manager
Assess a manager on what happens to other people around them, not on their own record as a doer. The best individual contributor on a team is frequently a poor manager, because the skills barely overlap: one is about producing work and the other is about producing conditions in which other people produce work.
That distinction should shape every question. A candidate who describes what the team achieved is telling you about a team. A candidate who describes what they personally changed, and what happened to a named person afterward, is telling you about managing. The five competencies below are ordered by how much they predict success at a small company, where a manager has no other layer of management above or below them to compensate.
How Much of the Outcome the Manager Owns
Research from Gallup found that managers account for at least 70 percent of the variance in employee engagement scores across business units (Gallup). At a company of 500 a weak manager damages one team and the organization absorbs it. At a company of 25, a manager over six people shapes the working life of a quarter of your business, and there is nobody else to absorb it.
The Five Question Categories
The questions are grouped into five competencies plus a scorecard. A strong candidate performs across all five rather than only on the leadership and behavioral questions they are most rehearsed for, so take at least two questions from every set.
People Leadership
Have they actually managed?
Team size, cadence, goal setting, and what they changed in a team they inherited. The set that establishes whether there is real experience underneath the vocabulary.
Coaching and Development
Do people grow under them?
Whether they can name a person they developed and describe what they personally did. The most predictive capability and the one most interviews skip.
Underperformance
Will they act, or wait?
How fast they address a problem, what they actually said, and what they documented. The gap between noticing and speaking is the tell.
Execution and Decisions
Can they run without you?
Prioritizing under pressure, deciding without full information, and knowing which calls to escalate. This is what you are buying back your own hours with.
Behavioral and Situational
How do they really operate?
STAR questions on past behavior plus judgment scenarios. Past behavior predicts better than stated intent, so lead here and use scenarios as a supplement.
Scorecard and Red Flags
Score, do not guess
A 1-to-5 rubric with an evidence line per competency and a red flag checklist. The asset that turns a strong first impression into something you can check.
Weight the Sets to Why the Role Exists
If the role exists because you have run out of hours, weight execution and decision making, because what you are actually buying is autonomy. If it exists because a team is struggling, weight performance management and coaching. If the person will manage people who were their peers last month, weight the behavioral set and ask directly about holding a former peer to a standard.
40+ Questions and a Scorecard to Download
Download all six as a single Word document, or copy individual sets. Each set lists the questions, the reason each one earns its place, what a strong answer sounds like, and space for notes. The sixth file is the scorecard with a red flag checklist.
Download All Questions and the Scorecard
Five question sets by competency plus a 1-to-5 scoring rubric and red flag checklist. All in one DOCX.
These are printable kits rather than software. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR, so for now the sets here are built to be printed, written on during the conversation, and filed with the candidate record afterward.
Set 1: People Leadership and Team Management
Establishes whether there is real management experience under the vocabulary: how many people, what cadence, what they changed in a team they inherited, and where their own style falls short.
People Leadership and Team Management Questions
MANAGER INTERVIEW: PEOPLE LEADERSHIP AND TEAM MANAGEMENT
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: __
HOW TO USE THIS SET
Ask six to eight of these questions, in the same order, of every candidate for
the role. After each answer, ask for one concrete example from the last year.
That single follow-up separates a candidate who has managed from one who has
read about managing.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
1. How many people have you managed directly, and what did they do?
(Why ask: sets the scale of real experience before anything else. A candidate
who has led a project team has not necessarily managed anyone.)
2. Describe the team you inherited most recently. What was working and what
was not, and what did you change in the first ninety days?
3. How do you set goals for an individual versus the team, and how often do
you revisit them?
4. Walk me through your one-on-one cadence. How long, how often, and who
sets the agenda?
5. Tell me about a decision you made that your team disagreed with. How did
you handle it?
6. What does a manager owe their team that is easy to skip when busy?
7. How do you decide what to hand off and what to keep doing yourself?
8. How would the people who reported to you describe your management style,
and where would they say you fall short?
WHAT A STRONG ANSWER SOUNDS LIKE
Specific people, specific timelines, specific changes. A strong candidate can
name the cadence they ran, describe what a one-on-one actually covered, and
say plainly where their style does not work. Weak answers stay at the level of
philosophy: open door, lead by example, treat people as adults. Those are
positions, not evidence.
NOTES
__
__
Set 2: Coaching and Developing People
The most predictive capability at a small company and the one most interviews skip because it feels soft. A manager who develops people compounds; one who does not caps everyone under them.
Coaching and Developing People Questions
MANAGER INTERVIEW: COACHING AND DEVELOPING PEOPLE
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: __
WHY THIS SET MATTERS
Development is the capability most predictive of a good manager at a small
company and the one most often skipped in interviews because it feels soft. A
manager who develops people compounds. A manager who does not puts a permanent
ceiling on everyone reporting to them.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
1. Tell me about someone you developed. What were they like when you started
and what changed?
(Why ask: forces a real person and a real trajectory. Vague answers here are
the single most common warning sign.)
2. How do you figure out what is actually holding a specific person back?
3. Tell me about someone you promoted or recommended for a bigger role. How
did you know they were ready?
4. Give me an example of feedback you gave that did not land. What did you do
next?
5. Tell me about someone you invested in who did not work out. What did you
misjudge?
6. How do you develop people when there is no budget for training and no
obvious next rung on the ladder?
7. How do you decide whether someone is coachable before you spend months
trying?
8. What is the last thing someone on your team taught you?
WHAT A STRONG ANSWER SOUNDS LIKE
A strong candidate names people, describes the starting weakness concretely,
explains what they personally did, and knows where the person ended up. They
distinguish a coaching failure from a fit problem and take responsibility for
the first. Weak answers describe outcomes with no account of the manager’s own
actions, or claim every investment paid off.
NOTES
__
__
Still Using Spreadsheets for Onboarding?
Automate documents, training assignments, task management, and track onboarding progress in real time.
Set 3: Underperformance and Difficult Conversations
Tests whether the candidate acts within a reasonable window, says the hard thing clearly, and writes it down. The gap between noticing a problem and raising it is the most honest number in the interview.
Underperformance and Difficult Conversations Questions
MANAGER INTERVIEW: UNDERPERFORMANCE AND DIFFICULT CONVERSATIONS
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: __
WHY THIS SET MATTERS
Every manager faces this and most avoid it longer than they should. You are not
testing whether the candidate enjoys conflict. You are testing whether they act
within a reasonable window, say the hard thing clearly, and document it.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
1. Describe a performance problem you had to address with someone who
reported to you. Walk me through what happened.
(Follow up on timing: how long between noticing and speaking? Three weeks is
normal. Six months means the pattern will repeat on your team.)
2. What exactly did you say in that conversation, and how did they react?
3. Tell me about a conflict between two people on your team. What did you do?
4. Have you ever had to let someone go? Walk me through how you handled it,
including what you documented.
5. How do you tell the difference between a skill problem, a motivation
problem, and a fit problem?
6. Tell me about a time you got a performance situation wrong.
7. How do you handle someone who does good work but damages the team around
them?
8. What do you write down during a performance conversation, and where does
it end up?
(Why ask: documentation is the part that protects the business, and a
manager who has never written anything down has never been through a
contested exit.)
WHAT A STRONG ANSWER SOUNDS LIKE
Clear on the timeline, clear on what was actually said, and comfortable saying
it was uncomfortable. Describes a standard they set and what they did when it
was and was not met. Mentions writing things down. Weak answers are vague about
timing, blame the employee entirely, or jump straight to the termination with
nothing in between.
NOTES
__
__
Set 4: Execution, Priorities, and Decision Making
Whether they can run without you: prioritizing when everything is urgent, deciding without complete information, and knowing which calls to bring back to the owner.
Execution, Priorities, and Decision Making Questions
MANAGER INTERVIEW: EXECUTION, PRIORITIES, AND DECISION MAKING
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: __
WHY THIS SET MATTERS
At a small company a manager decides without the information, precedent, or
approval structure that exists at a larger one. What matters is whether they act
under ambiguity, own the result, and escalate the right things rather than
everything or nothing.
QUESTIONS TO ASK
1. Tell me about a decision you made without enough information. What did you
decide and how did it turn out?
(Why ask: separates people who can judge a decision by the reasoning
available at the time from people who only judge by the outcome.)
2. How do you decide what your team works on when everything is urgent?
3. Describe a process or system you built that outlasted you.
4. Tell me about a commitment your team missed. What did you do about it?
5. What decisions would you bring to me, and what would you just make?
6. How do you keep track of what your team is actually doing without
micromanaging?
7. Tell me about a time you pushed back on your own manager. What happened?
8. What would you want to know in your first two weeks here, and from whom?
WHAT A STRONG ANSWER SOUNDS LIKE
Describes the tradeoff clearly and separates a reasonable decision from a good
outcome, because those are different things. Has a real answer to what they
would escalate, which shows they have thought about the boundary of the job.
Weak answers only produce examples with happy endings, or describe escalating
everything, which answers a different question.
NOTES
__
__
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Five behavioral questions scored on the STAR pattern plus four judgment scenarios, including the two that reveal the most: a resignation you did not see coming, and disagreeing with the owner in front of the team.
Behavioral and Situational Questions
MANAGER INTERVIEW: BEHAVIORAL AND SITUATIONAL
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: __
HOW TO SCORE THESE
Use the STAR pattern: a strong answer gives a real Situation and Task, the
specific Action the candidate personally took, and a Result you can check.
Listen for the word "I" doing real work. A candidate who says "we" for every
action is describing a team they were near, not one they ran.
BEHAVIORAL QUESTIONS (PAST BEHAVIOR)
1. Tell me about the hardest management conversation you have ever had.
2. Describe a time you changed your mind after someone on your team pushed
back.
3. Tell me about a time you lost a good person. Why did they leave?
4. Give me an example of a time you had to hold a former peer to a standard.
5. Tell me about a mistake you made as a manager that cost the business.
SITUATIONAL QUESTIONS (JUDGMENT)
6. Two of your people want the same project. Only one can have it. What do
you do?
7. Your best performer tells you privately they are interviewing elsewhere.
What is your first move?
8. You inherit a team where nobody trusts the last manager. Where do you
start?
9. You disagree with a decision the owner has already announced. What do you
do in front of your team?
WHAT A STRONG ANSWER SOUNDS LIKE
On behavioral questions, a real situation with a named outcome and ownership of
the parts that went badly. On situational questions, a candidate who asks a
clarifying question before answering is usually a better bet than one who
answers instantly. Watch for anyone who has never lost a person, never made a
costly mistake, and never changed their mind.
NOTES
__
__
Set 6: Interview Scorecard and Red Flags
A 1-to-5 rubric with one evidence line per competency and a seven-point red flag checklist. If you cannot write the evidence, the score is a guess and belongs blank.
Manager Interview Scorecard (1 to 5 Rubric)
MANAGER INTERVIEW SCORECARD
Candidate: __
Interviewer: __
Date: __
Role: __
Score each area from 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent). Write one line of evidence from
the interview under each score. If you cannot write the evidence, the score is a
guess and should be left blank.
SCORING AREAS
People leadership and team management Score: [ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
Evidence: __
Coaching and developing people Score: [ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
Evidence: __
Underperformance and hard conversations Score: [ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
Fit for how this business actually runs Score: [ 1 2 3 4 5 ]
Evidence: __
RED FLAG CHECKLIST (TICK ANY THAT APPLIED)
[ ] Could not name a single person they developed
[ ] Vague on how long a performance problem went unaddressed
[ ] Every example ended well and none were their fault
[ ] Used "we" for every action and "they" for every failure
[ ] Talked about the team as a resource rather than as people
[ ] Asked no questions about the team they would be inheriting
[ ] Answers got shorter, not longer, when asked for specifics
SUMMARY
Total score: ______ / 30
Overall recommendation: [ ] Strong yes [ ] Yes [ ] No [ ] Strong no
Key strengths: __
Key concerns: __
Interviewer signature: __
Note: Every interviewer scores independently before the group talks, so the
loudest or most senior voice does not anchor the decision. Compare written
evidence first, opinions second.
What to Probe For (and Red Flags)
The questions open the door and the follow-ups do the work. A manager candidate who has genuinely done the job gets more specific under pressure; one who has not gets more abstract, and the shift is easy to hear once you are listening for it.
Signals worth chasing
Names real people and real timelines
Describes what they personally did, not what the team did
Knows where their own style does not work
The follow-ups that work
Give me an example of that from the last year
How long did it go on before you said something?
What did they say back?
Red flags
Cannot name a single person they developed
Every story ends well and none were their fault
Answers get shorter when you ask for specifics
Quiet positives
Asks about the team before asking about the title
Volunteers a mistake without being prompted
Says plainly when something was uncomfortable
The most valuable follow-up is some version of give me an example of that from the last year, asked every single time a candidate answers with a principle. It feels slightly rude the first few times you do it. It is also the fastest way to find the gap between people who can describe good management and people who have practiced it, which is enormous and invisible until you ask.
How to Run the Interview
Run it as a structured interview: same core questions for everyone, asked in the same order, scored on the same rubric. Structure is what keeps a manager interview from becoming a pleasant conversation between two experienced people who like each other, which is the default failure mode of this hire.
Step
What to do
Time
1. Define
Write down team size, decisions owned, and what the first ninety days must produce
Before posting
2. Prepare
Pick two or more questions from each of the five sets and commit to them
30 minutes
3. Screen
A short call on scope, scale of teams managed, and compensation expectations
20 to 30 min
4. Interview
Behavioral questions first, situational second, follow up until specifics run out
60 minutes
5. Score
Fill in the 1-to-5 rubric with an evidence line per competency, immediately
10 minutes
6. Verify
Reference checks that ask the previous employer about the specific claims made
2 to 3 calls
Score immediately after each interview while the answers are fresh, and never revise an earlier candidate's score after meeting a later one. If more than one person interviews, each scores alone before the group talks, which is also what makes a clean interview feedback step possible instead of a debate about who felt better about whom.
Promoting From Inside vs Hiring Outside
Both routes leave you carrying an unknown, and choosing well is mostly about deciding which unknown you can live with. Promoting removes the guesswork about character and leaves the management question open. Hiring outside answers the management question with claims you cannot verify from the inside.
Promoting from inside
You already know the work ethic, the standards, and how the person behaves under pressure, which removes most of the guesswork the interview exists to solve. What you do not know is whether they can manage, and that is exactly what an internal candidate has never been asked to demonstrate. Interview them with the same sets anyway, especially the underperformance one, and be honest that their answers will come from projects rather than direct reports. Ask specifically about holding a former peer to a standard, because that is where most internal promotions come apart in the first quarter.
Hiring from outside
You get demonstrated management experience and a fresh read on how the business runs, but you are buying claims you cannot verify from the inside. The behavioral set carries most of the load here: real people, real timelines, real outcomes, and a reference check that asks the previous employer about the specific claims. An outside manager also needs a heavier first ninety days, because they are learning the work, the people, and the business at once. Budget for that before you decide the outside candidate is the cheaper option.
Whichever way you go, use the same question sets. An internal candidate will answer from projects rather than direct reports, and that is fine as long as you score it honestly rather than filling the gap with what you already know about them. A well-run hiring process that includes internal applicants also tends to be the thing that keeps your best people from looking elsewhere first.
Fair, Legal, and Structured Interviewing
A fair interview, a legal interview, and an accurate interview are the same interview. Asking the same job-related questions of every candidate keeps you inside anti-discrimination rules, reduces bias, and produces better predictions at the same time. Federal guidance on structured interviews covers the mechanics in depth.
Ask about the job, not the person
Federal anti-discrimination law, enforced by the EEOC, prohibits basing a hiring decision on protected characteristics, and a question that probes one creates risk even when it is asked as small talk. Keep away from age, race, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy or family plans, disability, and genetic information. Manager interviews are unusually prone to this because they run long and turn conversational: two experienced people swapping war stories drift toward kids, hometowns, and how long someone has been in the business. Every question in the sets on this page is tied to the work of managing a team. This is general information, not legal advice.
Same core questions, every candidate
Asking each candidate the same core questions and scoring them against the same rubric is both fairer and more accurate. A structured interview predicts on-the-job performance substantially better than a free-flowing conversation, and it reduces the odds that a decision rests on rapport rather than evidence. This matters more for a manager than for any other hire, because a candidate who is good at conversation is a candidate who will interview well regardless of whether they can manage. Write the questions before you meet anyone, then hold yourself to them.
Score independently, then discuss
When more than one person interviews, each interviewer fills in the scorecard alone before the group talks. This prevents the most senior voice from anchoring everyone else, which is how good candidates get talked out of and weak ones get talked in. Compare the written evidence first and the opinions second. For an owner who is the only interviewer, the discipline still works: score right after the interview while the answers are fresh, and never adjust an earlier candidate’s score after meeting a later one.
Interview for your business, not a generic one
A manager for a six-person shop and a manager for a sixty-person department are different hires, so weight the sets to your reality. If the role exists because the owner has run out of hours, weight execution and decision making, because you are buying autonomy. If it exists because a team is struggling, weight underperformance and coaching. If the person will manage former peers, weight the behavioral set and ask directly about holding a peer to a standard. Decide what the first ninety days must produce, then interview for exactly that.
Structure Beats Conversation, Especially for This Hire
A structured interview, where every candidate answers the same questions scored against the same rubric, predicts on-the-job performance more reliably than a free-flowing conversation, and asking the same job-related questions of everyone also keeps you within the EEOC rules against basing decisions on protected characteristics. The effect is largest for roles where charm is easy to mistake for competence.
Keep every question tied to the work of managing a team, and watch the small talk traps about age, family, and origin, which manager interviews wander into more than most because they run long. A list of the questions employers cannot ask is worth reading before the first conversation. This is general information, not legal advice.
What Manager Pay Looks Like
There is no single manager occupation in federal wage data, so benchmark against the nearest classifications rather than a headline number. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), general and operations managers had a median annual wage of about $105,770, and first-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers had a median of about $69,500.
Classification
10th percentile
Median
90th percentile
General and operations managers
$50,090
$105,770
$253,390
Managers, all other
$74,300
$141,900
$238,270
First-line supervisors, office and admin support
$45,610
$69,500
$104,710
Read the Spread, Not the Median
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. The gap between the tenth and ninetieth percentile for general and operations managers is roughly fivefold, because the same title covers a shift lead over four people and an executive running a division. Anchor to the percentile that matches your actual scope, and write the compensation band into the job description before you start interviewing.
Decide the band before the first conversation, not after you have met someone you like. Manager compensation is where small businesses most often talk themselves into a number they cannot sustain, and a candidate who is a stretch on salary is also a candidate who will be evaluating you against other offers throughout the process.
Interviewing a Manager Without HR
At a large company this hire runs through coordinated panels with a recruiter keeping the scorecards straight. At a small business the owner runs the interview alone, usually for the first time, and the cost of getting it wrong is measured in the people who leave afterward. Here is how to make one person as rigorous as a hiring team.
You are the owner, the hiring manager, and the only interviewer
At a large company a manager candidate runs a gauntlet of structured panels with a recruiter keeping the scorecards straight. At a small business the owner usually runs the whole thing alone, between everything else, and often has never hired a manager before. The sets above are built for exactly that: pick the competencies that match why this role exists, ask the same questions of everyone, and write the evidence down as you go. The goal is to make one person’s interview as rigorous as a full hiring team’s without the overhead of one.
This is the first person who will manage on your behalf
The hardest part of a first management hire is not the interview, it is the handover. A surprising number fail because the owner wrote a job description for someone with authority and then never actually gave it up. Before you interview, write down which decisions this person owns outright and which still come to you. Then ask candidates what they would escalate. If their answer and your list are far apart, you have learned something more useful than any behavioral question would have told you.
The interview is step one; the offer and the first ninety days are where it gets real
Once you choose someone, the work shifts from evaluating to hiring well: a clear offer, the new hire paperwork, and a structured start so the new manager begins running the team instead of guessing. FirstHR fits the people side of this for a small business: send the offer for e-signature, run the paperwork and onboarding workflow, assign the first-week tasks, and keep the signed documents and interview records on the employee profile. To be clear on scope, FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR.
If you want a deeper narrative treatment of the same problem, the companion guide to leadership questions for interviews works through the reasoning behind each competency, while this page is the printable kit. Both assume the same reader: the person doing the hiring, not the person preparing to answer.
From Interview to Onboarding
The interview is step one. Once you choose someone, the job becomes hiring well: a clear offer, the paperwork, and a first ninety days that transfers real authority rather than just a title. A written offer that states the scope of the role and a documented handover of which decisions the manager now owns are worth more than any amount of welcome messaging.
Write the questions first
Pick the sets that match why the role exists, and commit to asking the same core questions of every candidate before you meet anyone.
Score on the rubric
Fill in the 1-to-5 scorecard right after each interview with one line of evidence per competency, independently of any other interviewer.
Make the offer in writing
Confirm the scope of authority, the compensation, and the start date in writing, with e-signature so there is a clean record of what was agreed.
Structure the first ninety days
Give the new manager a written handover of which decisions they own, plus a first-week task list, so the authority transfers along with the title.
FirstHR connects the offer, the e-signature, the new hire paperwork, and the onboarding workflow in one place, and keeps the signed documents and interview records on the employee profile, so a small business can run hiring through to a structured first week from one system. Applicant tracking is coming soon to FirstHR. FirstHR is an onboarding and HR platform, not a payroll provider, so connect payroll separately.
If you have not written the role down yet, start there rather than with the questions, because the job description is where the scope of authority gets decided. Browse the hiring templates for a starting point, or adapt the supervisor job description if this is a first-line role over a small team.
Key Takeaways
Assess a manager on what happens to the people around them, not on their own record as an individual contributor.
Use behavioral questions about real past events; hypotheticals produce polished answers from anyone who has read about management.
Follow every principle with give me an example from the last year, and keep asking until the specifics run out.
The gap between noticing a performance problem and addressing it is the most reliable signal in the whole interview.
Score each competency 1 to 5 with a written line of evidence immediately, and leave it blank if you cannot write the evidence.
Keep every question tied to managing a team, because long conversational interviews drift toward protected topics.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best interview questions to ask a manager candidate?
The best manager interview questions ask for specific past behavior across five areas: people leadership, coaching and development, underperformance and hard conversations, execution and decision making, and behavioral or situational judgment. Strong examples include tell me about someone you developed and what changed, describe a performance problem you had to address and how long you waited before raising it, and tell me about a decision you made without enough information. Each of these forces a real person, a real timeline, and a real outcome. Avoid hypotheticals such as what would you do if someone missed deadlines, because every candidate answers those well from having read about management rather than practiced it. The single most useful follow-up in any manager interview is asking for an example from the last year.
How do you tell if a candidate has really managed people?
Ask for specifics and watch what happens to the length of the answers. A candidate who has managed can talk for ten minutes about one difficult conversation, naming the person, the timeline, what was said, and what happened over the following month. A candidate who has not runs out of material in about ninety seconds and retreats to principles such as open door and lead by example. Two other tells are reliable. First, listen for whether the word I is doing any work: someone who says we for every action and they for every failure was near a team rather than running one. Second, ask how long a performance problem went unaddressed. Three weeks is normal, six months means the same pattern will arrive on your team.
What questions are illegal to ask in a manager interview?
Do not ask anything that probes a characteristic protected under federal law, which the EEOC enforces: age, race, color, religion, national origin, sex, pregnancy or family plans, disability, or genetic information. In practice that means avoiding how old are you, do you have or plan to have children, where are you originally from, what church do you attend, and any question about health conditions. Manager interviews are unusually exposed to this because they run long and turn into a conversation between two experienced people, which drifts naturally toward family and hometowns. You may ask whether the candidate can perform the essential functions of the job and whether they are legally authorized to work. Keeping every question tied to managing a team is the simplest protection. This is general information, not legal advice.
Should I promote from within or hire a manager from outside?
It depends on which unknown you would rather carry. Promoting from inside removes the guesswork about work ethic, standards, and behavior under pressure, but leaves the central question unanswered, because an internal candidate has usually never managed anyone. Hiring outside gives you demonstrated management experience and a fresh read on the business, but every claim is unverified and the first ninety days are heavier because the person is learning the work, the people, and the company at once. Interview internal candidates with the same question sets you use for outside ones, and expect their answers to come from projects rather than direct reports. Ask any internal candidate directly about holding a former peer to a standard, because that transition is where most internal promotions come apart.
How long should a manager interview be?
Plan on sixty minutes for a substantive interview, with a shorter screen before it and a second conversation after. That is enough to take two or three questions from each competency and still leave room to follow up, which is where the value is. Depth beats breadth in a manager interview: four questions asked with three follow-ups each will tell you more than twenty questions asked once. Leave ten minutes at the end for the candidate to ask their own questions, because what a manager asks about the team they would inherit is itself evidence. Most small businesses run two to three rounds in total, and scoring right after each conversation, while the answers are fresh, matters more than adding another round.
What is a manager interview scorecard?
A manager interview scorecard is a short rubric that rates a candidate from 1 to 5 on each competency, with a line of written evidence under every score. Typical areas are people leadership, coaching and development, handling underperformance, execution and decision making, behavioral evidence, and fit for how the business actually runs. The rule that makes it work is simple: if you cannot write the evidence line, the score is a guess and should stay blank. When more than one person interviews, each scores independently before the group talks, so the most senior voice does not anchor everyone else. A downloadable scorecard with a red flag checklist is included on this page alongside the question sets.
Are behavioral or situational questions better for hiring a manager?
Behavioral questions are the stronger predictor, so they should carry most of the interview. A behavioral question asks about a real past event, such as tell me about a conflict between two people on your team, and produces evidence you can probe. A situational question poses a hypothetical, such as what would you do if two people wanted the same project, and produces the answer any well-read candidate can give. Situational questions still earn a place in two situations: when a candidate lacks direct experience with a scenario that matters to you, and as a test of whether they ask a clarifying question before answering. A good structure is roughly five behavioral questions to four situational ones, with the behavioral set first.
How much does a manager cost to hire in the United States?
It depends heavily on the scope of the role, because there is no single manager occupation in federal wage data. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics survey (May 2025), general and operations managers had a median annual wage of about $105,770, with the tenth percentile near $50,090 and the ninetieth near $253,390. First-line supervisors of office and administrative support workers, a closer benchmark for a small business hiring its first manager over a small team, had a median of about $69,500. Total cost also includes payroll taxes, benefits, and the period before the new manager is running independently, which for an outside hire is typically the first ninety days.
