Team Leader Job Interview Presentation

In this article we have questions and answers from our readers who needed some help on the tricky topic of interview presentations for a team leader role.

Liz Davis asked:

Hi, I have an interview for a Team Leader Role within my present company and I have to do a 15 min presentation on how I would lead a team of six in a new office. Just not sure where to start – any tips?

You are your audience

One fundamental mistake a lot of people make when doing presentations is presenting what you want to present – not presenting what your audience want. Let me explain…
Your audience want something off of you otherwise they wouldn’t be asking you to do this presentation, i.e. (my assumption) that you are the right person for this role. Ok, so what do you think they are looking for?

Break it down 

Once you’ve answered that question, try to break your presentation down into three stages…

1. What you believe they are looking for (unless they tell you this then you will have to make a judgement on this – but this will also be what they are looking to get out of you). Don’t worry if this part turns out to not tick all their boxes – they will be looking at you to determine if you are on the right wave length and if they can develop you to what you want.
2.  Demonstrate that you are the right person to do this role by answering each point as directly as possible. Don’t waffle, give facts where you can and keep it short and swift. Don’t labour on any points as this will make you run out of time and you could end up in a debate (a big NO NO in this situation as you are under a time constraint and you must control the presentation).
3. Summarize points 1 and 2, be brief and finish on the fact that you honestly believe you fit this role.

Advice:

Be confident – but not cocky (you must believe you can do this role!)
Be factual – not subjective (facts aren’t open to debate)
Finish within your time (otherwise they may cut you short and you’ll not have had time to sell yourself)
If you get any questions during the presentation politely answer that you may come on to answer that point in your presentation or alternatively you will pick it up at the end (this way you are controlling the presentation and controlling your time allowance)

Presentation Style

If you are going to use PowerPoint keep your slides brief, don’t put on your slides everything you (biggest NO NO there is!), use your slides as prompts to support what you are saying.

Answer thanks to Neil Tomlinson.

Anon asked:

I have a scary presentation for a job interview with the title of ‘What I will achieve in the first 100 days in this post’. The presentation is in two days and I haven’t got the job yet. Please could you help me?

Action plan

The secret is not to get too worried about the 100 days. This is just a bit of a smokescreen.
Think of the presentation more as “What are the three most important things that you would like to do in this job”

Give three things that you will do and illustrate them by giving examples of how you have done similar things in the past. Some of the connections may have to be a little obscure – particularly if you are going for a management position for the first time. This may be take a bit of a leap of faith. If you can make one of them to do with team building. This often goes down well.

Then when you have answered this question go on to answer the question about how you would tackle the first 100 days. Of these days, I would suggest that the first month, would be information gathering and observing – as well as doing the job. The second month would be to pull together a plan and to get management buy in to the plan. The last month or so would be putting the plan into action.
I hope this helps.

Answer thanks to Doctor.

Second Interview on leading a team

Kim asked:

The job I am going for is as a team leader for 12 collections agents with varying levels experience. I have a second interview next week and have to do a presentation. I have to present what I expect to achieve in my new role within the first three months and how I will achieve this. Any suggestions on what I should include or how best to present this would be welcome!

Address the weaknesses.

I’m not sure if this new job is within your current company, but if it is, you may know some of the current weaknesses in the company. You could talk around some of these and how they could be addressed within your team.

A good suggestion would be to spend the first 30 days in addressing what the problems are and the second 30 days in putting together a plan of how to deal with them. At the end of the 60 days you would be going to your boss and to the team to get buy in for your plan. Make sure that you include a good section about improving teamwork and motivation

Answer thanks to Charlie B.