What skills do you feel add the most value to your work as a program manager?

Remember to describe skills or talents you possess that will potentially leave a lasting impression on your interviewer and set you apart from your competition. The answer you provide to this question has the potential for high impact and is a perfect opportunity to brand yourself during an interview.

"I am formally trained and have years of experience in project management. That knowledge framework and wealth of experience are very helpful to me in my work as a program manager. However, my facilitation skills have added the most value to my work over the course of my career.

I am trained in a number of facilitation techniques including strategic planning and the development of high-performance teams. I leverage each of these bodies of knowledge regularly as a program manager. I know how to systematically identify the most valuable bodies of work, work with my stakeholders to develop vision and mission statements, break those down into goals, and then develop tactical plans to achieve them. I am adept at generating cohesion between senior stakeholders with conflicting needs and driving out plans that follow a well-defined value stream.

On the team front, I have a lot of experience in identifying dysfunction within teams and collaboratively developing plans to address and transcend it. I am able to teach others the attributes that great teams continually strive for, and I intuitively and empathetically assist teams during times of transformation.

These two skills combine to ensure that the programs I manage are well defined and tackled in the right way. I have received a lot of positive feedback over the years in this area and I am confident I would be able to apply this same skill set on a regular basis as a program manager within your company."