How do you encourage ideas in others?
Your answer to this question will offer the interviewer a glimpse into your leadership style. They want to know how your interpersonal skills will complement their team. A huge part of the inspiration for the Siemens Finance Excellence Program was to create future leaders and innovators from within. Should they choose you for the program and be placed in a leadership position in their company once you've completed the program, you may be grooming the future leaders of Siemens. How you encourage the ideas of their future leaders will further contribute to their success.
Think about your leadership style - whether you inspire innovation in others by assigning tasks equitably, based on skill, preference, or randomly, determine your approach and speak to its merits. Describe the methods you used to incentivize: praise and recognition, competitions, or rewards/bonuses. The ability to promote a team member's strengths and avert exploiting weaknesses is integral to effective leadership. An employee that has a general sense of accomplishment will be more effective at their job. Avoid examples of bribery (such as bringing in donuts) or micromanaging. Inspiring innovation is key.
They will provide the chosen candidate with experience leading teams and executing complex projects in a transformational context to further strengthen your leadership abilities. Therefore, they're looking for outstanding leadership qualities with the vision to lead change.
"My outlook and active participation. I think active listening is the first step to encouraging the ideas of others. Having a critical outlook can be blinding when not disciplined. So it's important to hear and recognize the full merit of another person's ideas or vision before responding. If there is one thing that doesn't work about it, undisciplined people might just say, that won't work. I would ask, how we could make it work."
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