20-minute presentation on how you would lead, resource and execute a high-performing team. Followed by a 20 minute Q and A. The main responsibility for the role is innovation, ensuring the team delivers concepts from the first idea through to product production. My current presentation covers the following: an outline of what the team should live by, followed by a process to keep the team motivated and deliver concepts through to approval. The motivation is key in the innovation world when you're often told no for a variety of reasons so I've made that a key outline in the presentation. The rest talks about the skill sets, budget and tooling required, with an explanation of how I would lead and what to expect within the first week. 

The remaining time will be used for leadership questions and going through roles and accountabilities of the team. 

My advice is not to be defensive in the interview. Instead, position it like this:

“I’ve already been trusted to keep the team moving, deliver results, and support day-to-day priorities. What I’m looking for now is the formal authority to take the team further.”

Focus your preparation on three areas:

• What you have already delivered while informally leading the team

• The small improvements you’ve introduced despite limited authority

• Your clear vision for the team if appointed manager

When they mention autonomy and innovation, acknowledge it positively. For example:

“I agree that the team needs to become more autonomous and innovative. Over the last year I’ve started building that by giving people more ownership, reviewing our tools and improving how we work. With the authority of the manager role, I’d be able to take that further in a structured way.”

Also, prepare a strong 30-60-90 day plan. That will show you’re not just asking for the promotion because you’ve been covering the role, but because you have a clear plan to lead the team forward.

If you want, post the main duties of the manager role and I’ll help you shape your best examples for the interview.

Richard

After advice from other members around the business, I have decided to apply for the manager position of my current team. I have informally led the team since our old manager left the team around 1 year ago and it has been vacant due to a hiring freeze. During this time, I've led most of our day-to-day activities and delivered at least 1 incredible project. The hiring manager even complimented me, saying I overachieved and that it would not have been possible without me.

When I told him I was applying, he said the team needed to be autonomous and better at innovating. However, I feel at this stage, I was not given the authority or budget to implement changes that a manager would. Instead, I've been focusing on small, subtle changes that improve our capabilities and team as a whole. This ranges from allowing team members to be more independent, reviewing our tooling and many other examples. I've always had a vision of where I would take the team but I've never had the chance to address it. He mentioned he thought that it would be too soon based on a lot of these things; however, he did agree to give me an interview.

If anyone has advice on how to navigate this in the interview or things to do, it would be greatly appreciated. For reference, I am currently considered a professional and was previously suggested for a promotion around a year ago to a senior position, but this has yet to happen.

Structure is so important in interviews, especially when English isn’t your first language. The aim is not to sound perfect, but to be clear, relevant and confident.

The SEAT method helps because it keeps your answer focused on the role, your strengths, your achievements and why you’re a good fit. As you said, preparation really does beat fluency.

Great advice, and thank you for sharing it.

Richard

The SEAT approach you mentioned works so well specifically because it takes control of the "tell me about yourself" question instead of just answering it. Most candidates ramble through their life story; you used it to steer the interviewer toward your strengths.

For anyone reading this who's in a similar position (non-native speaker, strong skills but struggling to "tell the story"):

• Don't focus on sounding more fluent,  focus on sounding more structured. That's what actually fixes the interview problem.

• Map your SEAT answer directly to the job description before the interview, not during it.

• Practice it out loud enough times that it feels conversational, not memorized.

That's the real lesson from this post,  preparation beats fluency every time.

Richard

Richard