Behavioral Interviews for Managers/Leadership Positions

In behavioral interviews questions are designed to help you recall certain events in your recent past that require you to think and act decisively. As you answer each question you should carefully consider your responses so that you can focus on your actions rather than good intentions. For instance you can consider the following question:

Q: Think back of a time when you had to get a lot of things done in relatively shot time?. How did you organize and structure your activities in order to succeed?

Good intention Answer might be

I always organize, Good organization is so important, without it you just can’t get anything done. I have always done a good job organizing. All my friends tell me how good I am at it.

An ACTION answer might be

I remember a time when our whole team was facing a deadline that was a week away. Then without warning, our boss told us we had two business days to complete the project. After we moaned for few minutes. I suggested that we pull out our master planning chart. . On left side of the chart we listed each step of the project. Across the top we had the completion times and names of responsible parties. With all the people standing in front of the chart, we collectively decided that we could compress , what we could eliminate totally, and what would have to remain intact. I took on the role of recorder by standing up at the chart and leading the discussion. We accomplish a great deal by cutting out what amounted to dozens of “ nice to dos” but in the end were non essential . By pulling together we revised our timelines, achieved our objectives and completed our project nearly four hours before the revised date. While quoting this action plan you need to have real time such scenario in mind so that you can give detail orientation to the cross questions by the interview panel.

I am devoting ten questions. To make it easier for you to interpret your responses be sure to focus your answer on a past event that actually occurred in your life. Then use your answer to actually demonstrate what you actually did to solve that problem in hand. The more specific you are in describing your actions, the more easier it will be for you in later stage to identify your most efficient and least efficient answers to those behavioral questions which I will be sharing later.

Don’t describe your opinions and intentions in behavioral assessments

Question No 1: Think of a time when you had to make a tough decision when there was no company policy or eternal set of rules to guide you. Provide background information about the situation, describe how you made the decision and explain the outcome.

Question No 2: What types of decisions do you make on your own and what type of decisions d you make after consulting a higher authority? Give examples of each and describe how you handled them?

Question No 3: Describe a situation in which almost everyone was loss as how to solve a problem and you stepped in, took charge and solved problem. Describe what you did and indicate the outcome?

Question No 4: Think of an important goal you set in the past and explain how you determined its importance and what you did in a step by step manner to achieve it. Finally describe the outcome?

 Question No 5: Describe a situation in which a higher authority blocked your progress in achieving your objectives. Give background information Explain how you handled the obstacles and describe outcome?

Question No 6: How have you handled people who are difficult to get along with? Describe a situation in which you were efficient in getting such a person to cooperate and explain what did that made a difference?

Question No 7: Describe a time when you made a mistake that reflects your own need for improvement? Think of a specific situation Explain what you did and describe the outcome?

Question No 8 : Think of a situation in which you used creativity to solve a work-related problem or one with friends or family? Explain what you did and describe the outcome

Question No 9: Describe a time when you had to convey some unpleasant news to someone and then helped them deal with the reality of that news? Explain the circumstances? What you said how the other person reacted and what you did to help them deal with the situation

Question No 10: Describe a situation in which you held a minority opinion but were successful in changing the opinion of others who held the majority point of view Give background information, Explain what you did and then describe the outcome