Negativity Flashcards
What personal weakness has caused you the greatest difficulty in school or on the job?
Delegation
I have always found it hard to delegate to others as I like to be sure the level of work I produce is done to the highest quality and have feared that others may not be able to do the same and as a manager, it reflects on the department. There is also the time-element in training others to do the tasks I normally do which I previously thought would take too long in getting them up-to-scratch. However, since our company went through a process of re-organisation, I have been struggling to manage my workload and had to hand over some duties to my team. Initially, this was really difficult as I had to double-check and over-see everything and spend time in training them. However, it has now paid off and I have really reaped the benefits of learning to delegate. I have found it has a two-fold effect; my team members’ responsibility has been increased and this has definitely had an impact on a de-motivated team as they are now dealing with new challenges in their jobs and without doubt, it has eased my workload which means I can spend time on more managerial tasks rather than trying to do a lot of the administration as well.
Describe a time when you were not satisfied or pleased with your performance. What did you do about it?
Describe a situation when you dealt with someone who didn’t like you. How did you handle it?
Give an example of when you had to work with someone who was difficult to get along with
This question is seeking to find out about your interpersonal skills and how you deal with conflict which will allow the interviewer to assess how you interrelate with others and how you might fit in to the team.
Of course, this question is quite subjective as each person might find different qualities in someone irritating or difficult to work with so it is your ‘perception’ of a difficult colleague that the interviewer is interested in hearing about.
Your answer should demonstrate that you are empathic and try to see others’ opinions, yet are assertive enough to stand up for what you believe is right. You will need to show how you able to work successfully with someone despite the difficulties and seek a way of finding a resolution or compromise that works for both of you.
Example:
There isn’t a specific type of person whom I find it difficult to work with but I am a firm believer of fairness and open communication when faced with this situation. If someone is being difficult because they are shying away from responsibility, is quick to blame others or just hasn’t done their fair share of the work, then I do not have issues in addressing this. However, I think it is too easy to make assumptions about others and I have learnt that what is important is to give the other person a chance to voice their opinions or explain themselves before jumping in with why I think they are being difficult – there may be a valid reason that I am unaware of or sometimes it is simply a high-pressure situation that can raise stress levels temporarily. I feel that certain issues can be overlooked if they aren’t really that important but if I feel the situation has gone too far, I will try to resolve it through communicating with that individual to reach a mutual understanding.
Tell me about a mistake you made in the past.
What did you like and dislike about your previous role?
Why should we hire you over other candidates?
What’s your greatest achievement?
How do you handle stress?
Why haven’t you achieved more in your career?
Do not make yourself vulnerable by admitting that you feel you should have achieved more; instead focus on what you have achieved and talk proudly about your successes, therefore drawing attention away from what you cannot offer them. You should also talk about how you see your career plans developing over the next few years.
If though, there were legitimate reasons why have not achieved more in your career i.e. a long period of ill health, then you should explain this but also make it clear that you are now on-form, have been given the all-clear and ready to embrace new challenges.
Example:
I actually like the way my career has developed as I’ve been able to gain a wider perspective of the industry rather than having stayed doing the same role for a number of years. As I’ve progressed through my career, I have gained a great deal of sales and marketing experience through the opportunities I’ve had in each role. I have been responsible for a number of significant achievements; in my current role I successfully established and managed a new business arm specialising in the provision of telemarketing services bringing in an additional revenue of £1.5M per year. My excellent communication and negotiation skills have been the backbone of my success in winning high profile clients for the organisation, of which, I feel very proud. I feel ready for the next challenge and am confident I would be successful in this post.
How do you handle criticism?
keep objective about the criticism and deal with the facts only. The key is to show that that you can deal with the situation calmly and rationally, take ownership of the problem and have used it to improve your work. If you are in a leadership position, you will need to show that you are responsive to criticism by discussing it openly and are able to work towards finding a solution.I try to welcome constructive criticism as I am always striving to push myself to achieve high standards in my own work and feel it’s important to take on board feedback from others, especially those who may have a different perspective or possibly more experience than I do. I was recently asked to work on an Induction presentation for new starters, but since I have not had any experience of presenting before, I invited criticism from both my line manager and from a more experienced colleague. Whilst they were largely impressed with my work they certainly gave me constructive criticism on a number of different areas and this helped me to perfect my presentation. Since I always give out feedback forms at the end of my presentation, I take on board these comments and am able to decipher which of them are helpful in updating my presentation to make it as valuable as possible for new starters. Overall, I view criticism as a learning tool to continually improve.
What makes you angry?
I’m a calm and positive person by nature, and I believe this helps me a great deal in keeping my department running smoothly. I believe in communicating clearly what’s expected, getting peoples’ commitment to those goals, and then following up regularly to check progress. If, for any reason, things are going off-track, I want to know about it early and understand the problem. If there’s no good reason, then I’ll get impatient and take appropriate steps from there. But if you hire good people, motivate them to achieve high standards and then follow-up on a regular basis, it almost never gets to that state.
