Describe your leadership style.
If a hiring manager asks you this question in an interview, they care about your leadership ability and are likely using it as a factor in deciding who to hire. Your example doesn't have to be direct leadership. You don't need to have managed or supervised people in a past job. Maybe in a few years, they plan on promoting you, or maybe they want someone who can lead by example and mentor newer people within a year or two.
You need to demonstrate that you're confident when leading and have done it before. Choose your most impressive leadership experience. It might be that you were a leader on a sports team, on a class project, or in a previous job. After you answer the question and describe your general leadership style, you may want to ask the hiring manager if they want you to go into more detail.
"I think my strengths as a leader include effective delegation and communication, so my leadership style takes advantage of those strengths. I always try to delegate tasks to whoever is best equipped to perform well at the task, and I try to communicate clearly about what needs to be done and why. That eliminates any back-and-forth and the need to re-do tasks. Taking more time to communicate effectively early in the process and delegating properly saves time as a project advances."
