You don't want to come across either as a hothead or a wimp.

BEST ANSWER:    Give an answer that's suited to both your personality and the management style of the firm.  Here, the homework you've done about the company and its style can help in your choice of words.

Examples:  If you are a reserved person and/or the corporate culture is coolly professional:

"I'm an even-tempered and positive person by nature, and I believe this helps me a great deal in keeping my department running smoothly, harmoniously and with a genuine esprit de corps.  I believe in communicating clearly what's expected, getting people's commitment to those goals, and then following up continuously to check progress."

"If anyone or anything is going off track, I want to know about it early.  If, after that kind of open communication and follow up, someone isn't getting the job done, I'll want to know why.  If there's no good reason, then I'll get impatient and angry.and take appropriate steps from there.  But if you hire good people, motivate them to strive for excellence and then follow up constantly, it almost never gets to that state."

If you are feisty by nature and/or the position calls for a tough straw boss.

"You know what makes me angry?  People who (the fill in the blanks with the most objectionable traits for this type of position).people who don't pull their own weight, who are negative, people who lie.etc."

This question tests whether you've done any homework about the firm.  If you haven't, you lose.  If you have, you win big.

BEST ANSWER:   This question is your opportunity to hit the ball out of the park, thanks to the in-depth research you should do before any interview.

Best sources for researching your target company:  annual reports, the corporate newsletter, contacts you know at the company or its suppliers, advertisements, articles about the company in the trade press.

Start with the present and tell why you are well qualified for the position. Remember that the key to all successful interviewing is to match your qualifications to what the interviewer is looking for. In other words you must sell what the buyer is buying. This is the single most important strategy in job hunting.

So, before you answer this or any question it's imperative that you try to uncover your interviewer's greatest need, want, problem or goal.

To do so, make you take these two steps:

1.      Do all the homework you can before the interview to uncover this person's wants and needs (not the generalized needs of the industry or company)

2.      As early as you can in the interview, ask for a more complete description of what the position entails.  You might say: "I have a number of accomplishments I'd like to tell you about, but I want to make the best use of our time together and talk directly to your needs. To help me do, that, could you tell me more about the most important priorities of this position?  All I know is what I (heard from the recruiter, read in the classified ad, etc.)"

TRAPS:  These and other "proper role" questions are designed to test your understanding of your place in the bigger picture of your department, company, community and profession..as well as the proper role each of these entities should play in its bigger picture.

The question is most frequently asked by the most thoughtful individuals and companies.or by those concerned that you're coming from a place with a radically different corporate culture (such as from a big government bureaucracy to an aggressive small company).

The most frequent mistake executives make in answering is simply not being prepared (seeming as if they've never giving any of this a though.).or in phrasing an answer best suited to their prior organization's culture instead of the hiring company's.

BEST ANSWER:    Think of the most essential ingredients of success for each category above - your job title, your role as manager, your firm's role, etc.

Identify at least three but no more than six qualities you feel are most important to success in each role.  Then commit your response to memory.

Here, again, the more information you've already drawn out about the greatest wants and needs of the interviewer, and the more homework you've done to identify the culture of the firm, the more on-target your answer will be.