I am already 'acting' in the role, and I know one of the two people who will be interviewing me. Is it safe to assume this is just a formality?

A The fact that you are already acting in the role should not lull you into a false sense of security as far as the interview is concerned.

Similarly the fact that you know one of the panel. You should treat this as you would an external interview and pull out all the stops.

Take the panel through your experience in the role, showing how involved you have been to date. In an internal role they know the success and failure of projects and the teams and projects you have been involved in. What they may not know is how you ran the team, how you delegated specific roles among the members of the team, how you monitored the progress of these tasks, how you motivated the team, how you dealt with conflict, failure or missed deadlines. You need to tell them what makes you an effective team l e a d e r .

What you are showing here is what you did to make this team effective.

In an internal interview the panel will know the rough outline. You need to add the behavioural brushstrokes that make the full picture of your capability.

Show the panel that you have achieved success in the past based on thinking and insight and learnt from the experience. The more you can show that logic is behind your actions, the more likely you are to be successful in the interview. And even if somebody else more qualified than you gets the job, your boss now has a better understanding of how valuable you are to the company.