Walk me through a time you set direction for a team. What did you do to make it something people could act on?

Anyone can write goals; the leadership work happens between the statement and someone's Tuesday morning — translating, involving the team, checking what actually landed. Asking how the direction became actionable exposes whether it ever lived anywhere outside the document.

• How did the people doing the work shape it?
• What call did someone make without you because the direction made it obvious?
• How did you notice when it stopped guiding decisions?

The team involved in shaping the direction rather than receiving it, goals framed as choices and trade-offs instead of slogans, a concrete decision someone else made correctly from it, and an adjustment when it went stale.

Direction that existed only in a document or kickoff meeting, team members who couldn't have repeated the goal a month later, or every subsequent decision still routed through the candidate personally.