Describe a time you ended up leading people who didn't report to you and didn't have to listen. How did you get them moving?

Removing authority isolates the actual leadership: credibility, clarity, and follow-through are all that's left to work with. It travels well to early careers — project and student work counts — and how the group came to accept the candidate's lead says more than any title would.

• Why you — what made the others go along with it?
• Tell me about the person who was hardest to bring along.
• What did you do when someone didn't do their part?

Legitimacy earned through visible work — a plan others could follow, blockers cleared, first hand up for the worst task — resistance met with persuasion and adjustment, and delivery without ever borrowing someone else's authority.

"Leading" that was assigning tasks nobody had agreed to, escalation as the only tool for a lagging peer, or the group's outcome quietly retold with a single protagonist.