Interview Questions for Department Chairs & Directors
Leadership and Team Development
1. Which of the teams that you have established has been the best and why? What did the team achieve?
2. Please describe a major effort at instituting new or innovative changes in procedures or processes in which you played a significant role.
3. Can you please describe how you have developed leadership skills that will make you a strong clinical and academic chair/dean/director?
4. How would you describe your leadership philosophy and style?
5. What would you suppose your colleagues, particularly those who you have supervised, feel are your strengths and shortcomings?
6. Tell me about specific things you have done to build a team.
7. What will reference checks disclose to be the common perception among peers regarding how much of a team player you are (working cooperatively, building others' confidence and self-esteem)?
8. Describe the most difficult person with whom you have had to work.
9. When have you stood up to a boss?
10. Describe a successful collaborative effort that you have initiated (ask for details, such as people involved, issues raised and addressed, outcome).
11. Describe a collaborative effort that was not as successful as you had hoped. Tell me what you might have done differently to affect the outcome.
12. Can you give me an example when you were able to get very disparate groups to collaborate? (Again, ask for details, why were the groups disparate, what challenges were you able to overcome and how, etc.)
13. Tell me about a team you built that seemed to have the right players, but just couldn't seem to accomplish its goals. Why and what did you do about it?
14. How do you get people who do not want to work together to establish a common approach to a problem?
15. Tell me about a situation in which you were effective in facilitating change with an individual or with a group.
16. Describe a situation in which your attempts to facilitate change were unsuccessful. What were the most significant learnings you took away from the experience?
17. When have you been so firm people considered you stubborn and inflexible?
18. Please provide an example of a time that you had to modify your approach in working with a colleague or faculty member.
Performance and Talent Management
1. How do you identify and develop talent in your organization (faculty/residents/learners)? Give an example of when and how you have done this.
2. What systems do you have in place to ensure that your top performers remain engaged and successful?
3. Can you provide an example of how you reward achievements and top talent?
4. How do you go about establishing goals for performance?
5. How are your expectations communicated?
6. What specific methods do you use to follow-up on delegated tasks? How effective have your methods been?
7. What happens when people in your organization fail to perform?
8. Please provide an example of what you say or do when someone reporting to you has made a significant (serious, costly) mistake.
9. Please share an example of a time when you had to remove someone from their position or role. What did you do? How did you go about making the change?
Vision and Strategic Planning
1. Given what you know so far, what is your vision for this position? This department? How was the vision developed?
2. How do you communicate your vision?
3. In what specific ways have you changed an organization the most (in terms of direction, results, policies)?
4. In the past year, what specifically have you done in order to remain knowledgeable about trends, studies, and innovations in your field? In leadership/organizational development?
5. Please describe your experience in strategic planning, including successful and unsuccessful approaches.
6. How have you copied, created or applied best practice?
7. Please tell us about something that you have done that you consider truly creative.
8. What kinds of problems have people recently called on you to solve? Tell me what you have devised.
9. Tell me about a process improvement initiative in which you took the lead, and describe the approach, the challenge and the outcome.
10. Do people generally regard you as one who diligently pursues every detail or do you tend to do better at initiating a lot of things? Why?
Emotional Intelligence, Self-Awareness and Personal Attributes
1. Have you received any systematic or regular feedback (360 degree or otherwise) from direct reports, peers, supervisors, and if so, what did you learn?
2. What is one of the biggest mistakes you've made in the past ten years, and what did you learn from that?
3. In thinking about serving in this position, what would be your principle professional development needs and what are your plans to deal with them?
4. Please share an example of a challenging decision you have made recently.
5. When were you so frustrated you did not treat someone with respect?
6. How satisfied are you with your balance in life – the balance among work, wellness, community involvement, professional associates, hobbies, etc.?
7. When have you confronted unethical behavior or chosen to not say anything, in order to not rock the boat?
8. Tell me about a time when your superior made a decision with which you disagreed. What actions did you take and why?
9. Tell me about a work incident when you were totally honest, despite a potential risk or downside for the honesty.
10. What job duties would you like to avoid if at all possible?
11. In your position, how would you define doing a good job? On what basis was your definition determined?
12. What have you done that you are proud of?
13. Describe a time in which you weighed the pros and cons of a situation and decided not to take action, even though you were under pressure to do so?
14. What is the toughest decision you have ever had to make?
15. When you have been in difficult and crisis situations, which areas of your professional skills do you vow to work on further?
16. What makes you feel nervous or tense?
17. The last time you did not know what decision to make, what did you do?
18. When the pressure of work is high, where does your energy come from?
19. How do you deal with your stress? Recharge? Invest in yourself?
20. Everyone procrastinates at times. What are the kinds of things that you tend to put off?
Communication Skills
1. How do you communicate within your organization?
2. Describe the last time you put your "foot in your mouth"?
3. Can you tell me about a time you had to communicate an unpopular decision to an individual or group? Describe your approach and the outcome.
4. Tell me about a time when you had a project that required you to interact with different levels within the organization - people above and beneath you. How did you do this? What caused you the most problems in executing your tasks?
5. Tell me about a time when you had to gather information from many different sources and then create something with the information.
6. How important to you is communication and interaction with the staff?
7. How would you rate yourself in public speaking?
8. Please describe a situation in which your persuasion skills proved ineffective.
9. Please describe a situation in which your persuasion skills proved highly effective.
Commitment to Tripartite Mission
1. Provide examples of how your work has advanced the (clinical, research, education) mission of the department and school.
2. What role have you played in education? What have you learned from that?
3. How do you help junior faculty develop in their research? Teaching?
4. What are the major challenges faced by faculty today? What are you doing to address those challenges?
5. How could this department improve its commitment to the (clinical, research, education) mission?