What are some good questions to ask a higher level manager to help me determine alignment and personality fit?
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Anonymous
What does a successful person look like in this position? What are the opportunities in the position that stand out to you?
Rachel Ellerman
I would start with what is important to you and what your preferences are. Then create a set of questions to test if they match the manager's values/style. A mix of direct questions and scenarios might work great.
For example, if transparency is important to you, you ask "how do you share your vision and leadership's vision with your team?" or "do you support skip level meetings?" or "if a team member discusses a delay in a project update call, how do you react?"
Another suggestion is to use scenarios from your past when you DIDN'T see alignment and pose them to the new manager to see how they would respond. Change names to protect the innocent (or not so innocent).
Good luck!