Hiring a leader is one of the highest-impact decisions a company can make. But what if you’re tasked with interviewing someone for a role you’ve never held yourself?
This is more common than most hiring managers admit. Whether you’re filling a new position, hiring in a technical area outside your experience, or building a leadership team at a higher level, not having domain knowledge can feel risky. But here’s the good news: you don’t need to be an expert to make a great hire. You just need the right lens.
How Can You Evaluate Leadership Without Technical Expertise?
Don’t try to fake fluency in a role you haven’t held. Instead, focus on what is in your lane: leadership.
Assess how the candidate:
- Builds and motivates high-performing teams
- Makes decisions under pressure
- Aligns their work to business goals
- Manages conflict and change
- Coaches and develops talent
Ask for detailed examples and outcomes. A strong leader should be able to explain how they drove impact, not just what they executed. You are not assessing whether they can do the job your way. You are assessing whether they can do the job the right way for the business.
Who Else Should Be Involved in the Interview?
You don’t need to evaluate every technical detail yourself. Bring in cross-functional voices to help round out the picture. Include:
- A peer in the same department or a related one
- A future direct report, if appropriate
- A strategic partner they’ll regularly interact with
Assign each stakeholder a focus area. One person might assess team-building ability. Another could dig into systems or processes. Together, you get a full 360-degree view. It also builds internal alignment, which helps make onboarding smoother after the hire.
Ask the Right Questions
With any job interview, the questions should be thoughtful to best show how this candidate will execute their role. As a leader, you already know the problems you need to solve, so ask interview questions that create dialogue on these problems to see how a candidate would solve them. Even in the instance of an interviewer not having done the role themselves, there are pivotal questions they can ask to determine the right fit, especially in a leadership capacity given leadership skillsets are transferable. Some examples:
- Share with me a time your team was in complete disarray; how did you go about handling it?
- How do you manage your employees when they disagree with you on a strategy?
- How would you manage tenured employees and new hires?
- How do you improve collaboration within the team?
- How do you keep your team inspired when going through a rough streak?
- Tell me about a time you’ve turned your team’s attitudes around to improve their work ethic and how.
You don’t need to have done the job to assess whether someone can lead it. With the right questions and the right team around the table, you can confidently identify leaders who align with your vision and drive your business forward.
Start your next leadership hire with confidence. Contact LaSalle Network today.
