Behavioral Based Questions || Part 2

Question 1

Give me an example of a complex problem you solved with a simple solution. What made the problem complex? How do you know your solution addressed the problem?

Answer 1

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Question 2

Describe the most innovative thing you’ve done and why you thought it was innovative. Ask for one or two more examples to see if it’s a pattern of innovative thinking. What was the problem it was solving? What was innovative about it?

Answer 2

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Question 3

Tell me about a time when you were able to make something simpler for customers. What drove you to implement this change? What was the impact?

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Question 4

Describe a time when you influenced and drove new thinking and innovation out of your team. Give an example of how your approach led to a specific innovation.

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Question 5

Tell me about a time when you had a challenging problem or situation that the usual approach wouldn’t address. How did you select an alternative approach? What alternative approach(es) did you consider? What was the end result? What was the impact?

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Question 6

Tell me about a novel idea you had or decision you made that had a big impact on your business. What was novel about it?

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Question 7

Tell me about a time when you enabled your team/a team member to implement a significant change or improvement. What problem were you
trying to solve? How did you measure success? What was the end result/impact? (Manager)

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Question 8

Tell me about a time when you realized you needed a deeper level of subject matter expertise to do your job well. What did you do about it? What was the outcome? Is there anything you would have done differently?

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Question 9

Describe a time when you took on work outside of your comfort area. How did you identify what you needed to learn to be successful? How did you go about building expertise to meet your goal? Did you meet your goal?

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Question 10

Tell me about a time when you didn’t know what to do next or how to solve a challenging problem. How do you learn what you don’t know? What were the options you considered? How did you decide the best path forward? What was the outcome?

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Question 11

We all have things about ourselves we’d like to improve on at work. Give me an example of something that you’ve worked on to improve your overall work effectiveness. What resources did you identify to help you develop? What was the impact?

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Question 12

Give me an example of a time when you explored a new or unexpected area of an existing space. Why hadn’t this been explored already? Why did you move forward? What were the results or what was the impact?

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Question 13

Describe a time when someone on your team challenged you to think differently about a problem. What was the situation? How did you respond? What was the outcome?

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Question 14

Tell me about a time when you used external trends to improve your own company’s products or services. How did you keep up to date with external trends? How did you decide to apply them to your own company? What was the result?

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Question 15

Tell me about a time when you took on something significant outside your area of responsibility. Why was it important? What was the outcome?

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Question 16

Describe a time when you didn’t think you were going to meet a commitment you promised. How did you identify the risk and communicate it to
stakeholders? Is there anything you would do differently?

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Question 17

Give me an example of an initiative you undertook because you saw that it could benefit the whole company or your customers, but wasn’t within any
group’s individual responsibility so nothing was being done.

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Question 18

Tell me about a time when you made a hard decision to sacrifice short term gain for something that would create long term value for the business. What
was the outcome? Knowing what you know now, would you have done anything differently?

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Question 19

Describe a time when you had to transition a project you owned to a new owner. What steps did you take to make sure the transition went smoothly?
Tell me about a time that you chose to get involved in a project that you had already transitioned to somebody else. What was the situation? Why was it
important to get involved?

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Question 20

Tell me about a time when you saw a peer struggling and decided to step in and help. What was the situation? Why did you decide to step in? What
actions did you take?

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Question 21

Tell me about time when you were working on an initiative or goal and saw an opportunity to do something much bigger or better than the initial focus. Did you take that opportunity? Why or why not? What was the outcome?

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Question 22

Give me an example of how you have changed the direction or view of a specific function/department and helped them embrace a new way of thinking. Why was a change needed? What was the outcome?

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Question 23

Give me an example of a time you proposed a novel approach to a problem. What was the problem and why did it require a novel approach? Was your approach successful?

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Question 24

Tell me about a time when you drove adoption for your vision/ideas. How did you know your vision/idea was adopted by others? How did you drive adoption for your vision/ideas? How did you track adoption? Would you do anything differently?

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Question 25

Give me an example of an idea or vision you had which was adopted by global stakeholders. How did you drive adoption for your vision/ideas? How did you track adoption? Would you do anything differently?

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Question 26

Tell me about a time when you thought differently to improve a process that was working. What assumptions did you have to question? How did you evaluate if the change improved the process? Knowing what you know now, would you do anything differently?

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Question 27

Tell me about a time when you encouraged a team member or organization to take a big risk. How did you balance the risk against existing business goals? What was the outcome? What did you learn from this situation? (Manager)

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Question 28

Tell me about a time when you established a vision for a (team, product, initiative) when there wasn’t one. How did you gain buy-in and drive execution? What was the outcome? Would you have done anything differently? (Manager)

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Question 29

When have you been the one on a team to take the initiative to get a project or task back on track when others clearly weren’t engaged?

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Question 30

Every meeting has action items as a result, so how do you ensure you are managing the many tasks? How have you learned to move with agility from one task to another?

Answer 30

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Question 31

Tell us about a time when you had unrealistic expectations place upon you, and how did you manage through it?

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Question 32

Describe a time when you had many competing priorities (meetings, projects, etc), and describe how you moved with agility throughout the course of the day to ensure none of the balls were dropped.

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Question 33

What is your method to ensure that you are always aware of the goal(s), and are monitoring progress towards the goal(s)?

Answer 33

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Question 34

Tell us about a time when you had a plan in place, and it didn’t go as expected. How did you recalibrate/recover and move the goal forward?

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Question 35

What accomplishments are you most proud of from this past year?

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Question 36

Tell us about a time when a business change you were proposing had an impact on various parts of the organization. How did you ensure that you’d taken all factors into consideration?

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Question 37

When have you exceeded goals set by yourself and upper management, due to your thorough planning and organization?

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Question 38

Give us a recent example of a time that you were inventive or imaginative when solving a problem or responding to an opportunity.

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Question 39

Give us an example of a time when you had to adapt an innovative idea within the current business framework.

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Question 40

Tell us about a vision that you put together in a professional setting. Why did you select that vision and how did the vision impact your team overall?

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Question 41

How have you articulated or communicated a vision, and encouraged others to support and advance your vision?

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Question 42

Tell us about a time when you created a strategic plan and what internal and external resources you utilized. Once the plan was created, whom did you present it to and how did you go about getting buy-in?

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Question 43

Tell us about a time when you had to adapt your strategic plan to rapid market changes. How did you incorporate consideration of company strengths and weaknesses?

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Question 44

Tell us about a time when you solicited constructive feedback on your own performance. How did you specifically incorporate that feedback for a better business result?

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Question 45

Share a time when you stepped into a role or project without a roadmap - a situation in which you had to discover on your own what you didn’t know. How did you go about gathering the necessary information for success?

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Question 46

Tell us about a time when you used key business and financial indicators to monitor business progress and eventually ensure profitability?

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Question 47

Give an example of a decision you made based upon quantitative versus qualitative data?

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Question 48

Share a time when you had an unhappy customer/client and they expected you to resolve an issue quickly. How did you ensure you understood the issue, evaluated your options, and what steps did you take to resolve it?

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Question 49

Have you had a situation in which you had to make a decision quickly without consulting your manager or others? What process did you go through to make your decision? In that situation, was it the right decision?

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Question 50

Tell about a time when resources were scarce or unavailable, what creative steps did you take to meet your objectives?

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Question 51

Tell us about a time you had to balance efficiency versus effectiveness.

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Question 52

When have you been most proud of yourself for having the courage to try new things? What was the outcome?

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Question 53

Tell us about a time when you took a risk and it resulted in a negative outcome. What did you learn? Give an example of how you applied that learning.

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Question 54

During this past year, what information have you sought to improve how you perform your job?

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Question 55

When has your good judgment improved the bottom line?

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Question 56

Describe Timberland’s target consumer. Give us an example of your interaction with that consumer.

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Question 57

How do you ensure that you have a deep connection to your target consumer? ( grassroots, hands- on consumer interaction).

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Question 58

Give us an example of a success that you attribute to your deep connection to our consumer. Give an example of a miss that you had when your connection to the consumer wasn’t as strong.

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Question 59

Where are the hottest places to shop for consumers right now? How do you keep current on those trends?

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Question 60

The power of the brand is strong. When have you been most impressed with how the power of our brand influences purchasing decisions or consumer behavior?

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Question 61

Share with us an example of how you have had to revise a business plan to better respond to changing consumer interests

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Question 62

In terms of the Timberland brand, what is Timberland doing well and what are our opportunities for improvement?

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Question 63

Share with us an example of how you’ve had to drive a business initiative specific to a very localized market segment.

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Question 64

Give an example of how your knowledge of local news and politics impacted a decision you made.

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Question 65

When beginning a role in a new territory or region, what have you personally done to bring yourself up to speed on the consumer, customer and overall marketplace?

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Question 66

Tell us about your most successful team experience, and why do you define it as successful. What about an unsuccessful experience?

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Question 67

Tell us about a project in which you had to work on a cross-functional team (or in a matrix), how did you make that successful, and how has that been challenging?

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Question 68

Tell us about a time when you brought out the best in someone on your team? How did you play to their strengths?

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Question 69

How do you balance business/professional coaching with ensuring that employees are personally motivated and engaged?

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Question 70

Tell us about a time you had to manage through personal issues with someone on your team?

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Question 71

Describe a time when you had an international audience or stakeholders from a different culture. What did you do to prepare for those interactions?

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Question 72

Have you had a time when you failed to recognize and adapt to cultural differences? What was the business and personal impact?

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Question 73

Think back to the most difficult time in your career when business was tough and morale was bad. How did you keep people motivated and excited and showing up to work everyday?

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Question 74

Describe a time when you had to reassign team responsibilities because you recognized strengths that weren’t being utilized or leveraged?

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Question 75

Tell about a time you’ve felt most proud about someone you mentored and groomed for improved performance.

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Question 76

Tell us about the most serious performance management issue you’ve had to deal with and resolve? Describe the process you followed and the final resolution. How did you balance that issue with your core responsibilities?

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Question 77

Describe a time when you’ve had a team member who was not being technically challenged in their role, and how did you keep that person engaged?

Answer 77

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Question 78

Give an example of the best hiring decision you’ve ever made. Describe the process and what steps you took to evaluate the needs for the role, talent gaps and eventually the candidates to make your decision?

Answer 78

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Question 79

Tell us about your worst hiring decision. In hindsight what went wrong?

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Question 80

What do you consistently look for in people? What works best for you when you are evaluating talent?

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Question 81

Tell us about a time when you had to work with multiple stakeholders, and you had to balance their varying agendas?

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Question 82

Tell us about a time when you felt very effective despite vague conditions & direction? Conversely, talk about a time you felt you were not effective due to the vagueness of the situation?

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Question 83

What do you feel are the biggest success factors in managing change? Give us an example of when you’ve done it?

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Question 84

People often resist change. What strategies have you used to overcome resistance and gain buy- in?

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Question 85

Describe a time when your organization underwent drastic and unexpected change. How did this affect you personally and professionally?

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Question 86

Describe a situation when your ability to stay calm under pressure was tested. What was the situation and how did you handle it?

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Question 87

When have you been most stressed at work? How did you know you were? Did others bring this to your attention? What did you do about it?

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Question 88

Have you had a situation in which clues in an individual’s body language indicated for you that you should change your approach or tact? What new approach did you take?

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Question 89

Give us an example of a time you had to vary your own personal style of communication in order to reach others. This means choosing the right message medium and using active listening.

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Question 90

Tell us about an interaction when you weren’t given all the information you needed to fully understand the message, and you had to actively solicit information. What types of questions did you ask? How did you ensure you understood the information or message by the end of the interaction?

Answer 90

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Question 91

Tell us about a time you walked away from a discussion/meeting/presentation not having a full understanding of the content. What should you have done differently?

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Question 92

How do you ensure your written communications convey meaning and substance accurately?

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Question 93

Give an example of a situation when you had to recap results and key points of a meeting/conversation in a written format. How did you ensure you transferred the information accurately?

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Question 94

Tell us about the last presentation you conducted. Explain your criteria for ensuring the audience understood your message? How did you incorporate technology?

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Question 95

Tell us about a presentation/speech that didn’t go well. What went wrong and what did you learn?

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Question 96

Share with us a time you had to put together a team meeting. How did you communicate the objectives? How did you follow up after the meeting?

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Question 97

Can you tell us about a time when you facilitated a discussion that got off track? How did you handle it?

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Question 98

When have you had to influence others through written communication?

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Question 99

Describe a situation that required you to lead with courage and conviction.

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Question 100

Tell about a time when business was poor and morale was low. How did you keep people motivated and engaged?

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Question 101

Tell us about a time you had to quickly build credibility with a team. What were the challenges and how did you overcome them?

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Question 102

Give us an example of when your reputation was a key factor in accomplishing a goal.

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Question 103

Tell us about a task you would not have accomplished without leveraging a critical relationship.

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Question 104

Describe a relationship you’ve maintained with colleagues outside your organization. What benefits have you gained from those relationships?

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Question 105

Tell us about a time you recognized an issue that might have derailed your project. How did you bring it to the attention of the team?

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Question 106

Tell us about a time it was difficult for you (you truly struggled) to put organizational agenda over a personal agenda.

Answer 106

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Question 107

Tell us about a time when your role required you to work across multiple business partners with different opinions or agendas, yet you had to ultimately build consensus and influence an outcome.

Answer 107

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