How Would You Describe Your Management Style? (With 10 Sample Interview Answers)

Every organization is directed towards achieving a pre-determined objective called business goals and how the managers go about achieving these goals is called a Management Style.

The way a person works, organizes tasks, makes decisions, plans objectives, and directs the objectives determines his/her management style. A variety of management style that varies from organization to organization and individual to individual depending upon the size of business, the levels of management, the field of work, industry, cultural environment. 

So, when an employer asks a candidate to describe their management style then if want to know your perspective on the way of your working. These management styles are affected by various factors like staff’s skill level, company’s policies, economy, competitors, consumers, etc.

Types of Management Styles

Autocratic Management Style

This style of management follows superior to subordinate approach, which means management follows top to bottom approach, there lies an authoritative flow of instructions given from a boss to an employee. Superior makes all the decisions and holds all the power to assign tasks to the subordinates. The employees are not really allowed to share any ideas or come up with suggestions, they just have to follow the orders and complete the duties that have been assigned to them by their superiors. Superiors are the leaders.

“True leadership must have follower-ship. Management styles can vary, but even an autocrat needs people who believe and simply don’t follow from fear.” – James Robinson

This style is further divided into: –

• Authoritative management Style
• Persuasive Management Style
• Paternalistic Management Style

This type of management style helps in quick decision-making, and the roles of each and every individual is clearly defined in the company. When the orders come from just one manager, productivity increases and so does the effectiveness.

Democratic Management Style

In this type of management style, the superiors encourage their subordinates to share their opinions and give inputs and ideas for the betterment of the company. Although the final decision is made by the top-level management but the communication and the decision-making go both ways.

This kind of management style develops a healthy relationship between superiors and subordinates and encourages team spirit in the organization. The employee morale goes high as the manager asks for their opinion; they feel that they are an important part of the organization. Hence, this style leads to a deeper bond between the staff and the managers, and the work environment flourishes.

The team spirit builds, also the projects are led better and there are more innovative ideas to choose from that plays a great role in company’s success.

This style is further divided into: –

• Consultive Management Style
• Participative Management Style
• Collaborative Management Style
• Transformational Management Style
• Coaching Management Style

Laissez-faire Management Style

This management style is a mixture of hands-off leadership approach within the management. The subordinates are fully trusted in whatever duties they are assigned and their work. There is no supervision so that the employees do not feel that they are working under pressure, the employees have complete freedom over their work and they are bound to solve and learn from their own problems. The superiors only assist in the decision-making process if the employee asks them to. All superiors do is that they once assign the task and the rest all is up to the employees. This management style is best suited for companies with a skilled workforce, where the leadership is decentralized and the employees are more skilled than the superiors.

In leading the workforce, the employees feel trusted and satisfied with the job and perform better as they have complete control over their work. They just have to perform the duties delegated to them by making their own decision in the process. This way, employees can learn how to solve their own problems and handle their own conflicts without getting the top management involved. The employees are always highly motivated under this type of management style.

This style can be further divided into: –

• Delegative Management Style
• Visionary Management Style

These were some common and top management styles that are widely used in the field of management and other sectors of the business industry.

Sample Answers to “How would you describe your management style?”

Sample Answer 1

“My management style is mostly democratic. I feel that the employees feel that they are one of us when we ask them for their opinions and ideas. And most of the time the best idea comes from an employee’s mind that helps the company to grow. I personally love listening to thoughtful suggestions given by the employees as they always come up with some amazing innovative ideas. I think one can always choose the best option from a handful of ideas. Making the workforce feel motivated is the only way we can get the best work out of them. That is why I am a democratic leader.”

Sample Answer 2

“I would describe my management style as visionary. I always plan goals for each and every employee and I encourage them to meet those goals without any involvement. I love guiding my employee and adding suggestions if they need any, but I feel they can work better without having any superior constantly monitoring them. This way they feel important and are more responsible towards the organization.”

Sample Answer 3

“Being a digital marketer, I have come across working with various interns. I believe that an employee or an intern needs to get mentored at the beginning of each and every task they do. Through my training management style, I regularly make the employees learn how to perform certain tasks and how to enhance their performance level with each task. This helps them learn and work better for me.”

Sample Answer 4

“I believe each and every employee has some ideas and techniques to perform certain work and there is someone who is constantly reminding them of what they have to do, they feel pressured and hence the results that they give are not that effective. So, when I used to work with my marketing staff, I used to assign them their respective task and let them work. Hence, my management style is laissez-faire management style.”

Sample Answer 5

“I prefer coaching management style; the employees work better once they know what exactly they have to do. I take their suggestions over the plans giving them the freedom to share their ideas.”

Sample Answer 6

“In my opinion, time management is absent if I decide to take the opinion of every employee working in the organization. So, I prefer an autocratic management style when the company size is large. It is a quick way of decision-making and increases effectiveness and efficiency.”

Sample Answer 7

“I don’t really have one style of management. I keep switching between different styles of management depending upon the situations that arise in the company. For example, when I have to meet a deadline, I prefer the management style to be autocratic to avoid any delay and confusion. If the company needs suggestions in long-term planning, then I prefer a democratic style so that the company welcomes any ideas coming from the employees, and with some tasks where I feel they don’t need any supervision looking at their skills I prefer a laissez-faire management style.”

Sample Answer 8

“Switching between the democratic style and autocratic style is what works best for me. For making employees feel that we are a team I use a mixture of both of these styles. For immediate crisis situations, I prefer taking decisions by myself and believe that my employees trust me with my decisions.”

Sample Answer 9

“I used to follow autocratic management style, but now I have realized that the employees need to get the ideas in their mind out. I got know to know that my employees were too afraid to share their ideas with me, thinking that I am an autocratic leader. After knowing all that, I realized it is important to take feedbacks and suggestions from the employees to make them feel that we are a team.”

Sample Answer 10

“Since I have started using laissez-faire style of management, the productivity of my and my previous company is increased by 20%. The work environment under this style gets more fun and healthier. Everybody gets to do their own work without any interruption. Even the communication between the manager and the employees gets easier using this style of management”.

Conclusion

You can always figure out your management style by taking consults from your former staff members. To answer such questions in an interview, you can use the STAR method to describe your management style better using real-life examples. Make sure you answer it so that the employer gets a clear picture of where you fit in the most. Comment what you liked about this article and share.

Wish you luck for your interview!

References

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0024630197902545

https://search.proquest.com/openview/b9f20e493b27bc3eed78d550355aa8fe/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32264