Management Interview Question: Tell Me About a Time You Disagreed with a Subordinate

Once you’ve reached management level, there is a good chance you have enjoyed several years of work experience that the interviewer can ask you about. That is why management interviews often have a lot of behavioral questions.

As a manager, your leadership skills are going to be tested often, so you can expect some behavioral interview questions about your interaction with subordinates. Answer them carefully.

How to Answer

No matter how you traditionally manage, you need to make sure you sound like a fair and loving boss. You should not talk like you are wiser or more experienced. Instead, share a story about calm and measured disagreement, what you learned, and how the company benefitted. Or, if you caught an employee doing something illegal or slacking off, you can talk about that disagreement as well.

Try to call your subordinates something nicer too like “team members” or “staff.”

Bad Answer

“One time my subordinate came to me and refused to do a project. She and I had an argument in the middle of the workplace. Needless to say I fired her.”

This doesn’t really make you look like an outstanding boss. No story that ends with you getting your way just because you’re the boss is a good story.

Good Answer

“Often I would walk into my team member’s office and find that he was spending time on social networking sites instead of working. We had a discussion about the time he spent on his projects. It started as a disagreement, but I realized that he wasn’t wasting time for the purposes of wasting time. He was wasting time because he would get done extremely quickly and efficiently, and he would run out of projects and get bored. Rather than reprimand him, I started finding him more work to do, and he became one of our most productive employees.”

This is a disagreement, but only in the beginning. By the end of the story you have shared a tale that makes you look like someone that recognizes brilliance and communicates well with subordinates. These kinds of stories are much better for your employment chances.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Look for stories that make you look intelligent and fair.
• Stay away from sounding too dominant, but try not to sound weak either.
• Always remain positive.

Behavioral Interview Question: Describe a Time You Had to Present Complex Information in a Simplified Way

Behavioral interview questions do not always have exciting answers. Sometimes you simply need to tell a story that shows you have some idea what the interviewer is talking about. The goal is to impress the employer, but when you draw upon specific experiences, sometimes there are no interesting experiences to share. How you presented complex information is often one of these stories.

How to Answer

The story itself is not necessarily the way employers will learn about your simplification skills. The way you describe the story is. Start by sharing the complex information – and try to make it sound complex. Then, start explaining how you simplified it or presented it, and make it sound simple.

Bad Answer

“I gave a presentation once to a bunch of business professionals on our products, and they all appeared to understand the content of what I was sharing.”

Good Answer

“My company put me in charge of detailing the version 1.65 interface improvements and changes to the ICSMBSE server to a group of visiting project managers with little experience dealing with IMTU databases. I provided packets with charts and graphs to complement my presentation, and focus mostly on the how the product would be a beneficial solution to their needs while breaking down how the components worked at their more basic level rather than the intricate changes in technology”

You start by focusing on what was difficult, and end with the basics of how you simplified and presented the information. This shows the interviewer that you understand when something is technical, and you have an idea of how to simplify information for non-technical audiences.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Start by explaining how it was complicated.
• End by explaining how you simplified it and presented it.

15 Common Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions come in all shapes and sizes. You can be asked about anything in your past, and you need to come up with an example that both satisfies the question and answers it in such a way that you will impress the employer and improve your chances of finding a job. The best way to do this is to prepare for as many behavioral interview questions as possible beforehand. Only by preparing answers can you be certain that your response will satisfy both requirements.

Behavioral Interview Question Examples

• Describe your greatest professional regret.
• Describe a time that you made a mistake, and what you did afterward.
• Describe a situation where you had to make a critical decision.
• Describe a time where you disagreed with a supervisor.
• Describe a time where you were forced to hastily prioritize tasks.
• Describe a time that you had to deal with conflict.
• Tell me about a time you set a goal and how you achieved it.
• Give me an example of a time that you showed leadership.
• Describe a situation in which you had to use problem solving skills.
• Describe a time that you made a critical mistake.
• Tell me about a time that you gave outstanding customer service.
• Tell me about a time that you went above and beyond expectations.
• Describe a situation in which you had to be the mediator of a conflict.
• Tell me about a time you disagreed with a coworker.
• Give me an example of a time where you were coming close to a deadline and what occurred.

“Questions” May Be a Little Misleading

Behavioral interview questions are not exactly questions. They are more like mandatory requests. Still, the list above represent a small sample of the unlimited number of behavioral questions you can be asked at a job interview.

To succeed, your best bet is to plan out both answers to specific questions, like the ones above, as well as answers that satisfy some of the types of questions that you may encounter (for example, questions about leadership or decision making). Remember, any time you create an answer for a behavioral interview question, you should:

• Describe the situation.
• Remain positive.
• If asked about something negative, like a mistake, follow it up by what you have done since to ensure it does not happen again.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Prepare for behavioral interview questions.
• Try to come up with stock answers to unexpected questions.
• Always be positive and follow up on mistakes with what you have done to change.

Behavioral Interview Question: Give an Example of a Time You Were Creative

Behavioral interview questions are difficult to answer. You have to think back to your past and talk about story that is both relevant to the answer and makes you look like a great employee. Every behavioral interview question is somewhat difficult, because you have to make sure that the story you are taking the time to tell has some quality that makes the interviewer go “wow.”

They are also hard to write advice articles about. We don’t know your experiences. We can tell you what to do and what not to do, but we can’t craft an answer for you, because we have not had your experiences. Still, here’s our best shot.

How to Answer

Creativity occurs far more often in your personal life than your professional life. Despite that, you need to come up with an answer that relates to your professional life. Try to think of a time you were creative at work, because companies don’t care that you are a really good painter or an excellent sculptor. Also, remember that creativity can be defined in many different ways. Reorganizing the company or developing a unique strategic marketing plan are both examples of being creative. Make sure your answer doesn’t cause you to ramble.

Bad Answer

“Let’s see… Two months ago I remember I drew this really cool drawing. It was Winnie the Pooh getting his bum stuck in a honey pot, and getting so frustrated he punched Piglet in the gut. I also did it in color and put it on a shirt.”

Good Answer

“While working at SalesCompany, I developed a lead generalization email that generated an unheard of 37% response rate – well above the previous record of 12%, using a friendly tone that made the email prepare casual and personally written, despite being a template.”

That’s creativity, even if it may not seem like it, and it is related to the job you are applying for, so it impresses the employer.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Make sure you are talking about your professional life.
• Remember that creativity isn’t limited to art or writing.

3 Steps Towards Answering Negative Behavioral Questions

Perhaps the most difficult type of behavioral question to answer are those that ask you to say something negative about yourself, such as a weakness or a mistake or a period of poor judgment. You cannot pretend that you are perfect. If you do, the interviewer is going to find themself annoyed with you, and possibly distrust your other answers.

You need to give the interviewer an actual answer, and though you should never pick a negative that will drastically affect your employment (“I once stole ten million dollars”), even a small negative may harm your chances a little bit if supplied incorrectly. So when you are asked to say something negative about yourself, use the following three step process to answer the question and minimize the damage it does to your chances.

Step 1: Background

First you should set up the story for the interviewer without focusing on the negative aspects of your decision. For example “The company had recently gone through some layoffs, so I was placed in charge of the responsibilities of many of the open positions. While working on one of their projects, I was asked to…”

Step 2: Brief Mistake

Next, mention the mistake briefly, without focusing on your error or trying to defend yourself. If you picked a non-egregious error like you should have, it shouldn’t be too hard to simply mention it briefly, like “I did not realize the person the phone was a client, so I quickly hung up when they appeared to rude.”

Step 3: Minimize

The third step in any negative behavioral interview question is to make it appear as though the negative thing may not happen again if they give you employment. You do this by talking about what you have done since to ensure it does not happen again, such as “Since then, I have treated every unknown phone call like they may be a client, because you never know who is on the other end of the phone.”

Following these three steps will ensure that the mistakes you made will not seem as terrible to the interviewer, and since you explained what you have done since to minimize the damage, it is less likely the interviewer will hold these negative items against you.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Give non-negative background information.
• Briefly state the negative item.
• Follow it up with information that minimizes the damage.

7 Types of Behavioral Interview Categories

There is no comprehensive list of behavioral interview questions, because anything can be a behavioral interview question. “Describe a time where you really had to scratch your crotch in public but couldn’t” is a behavioral interview question. “Tell me about a time that you had spinach – not lettuce, but spinach – in your teeth and no one told you until later in the day…” is a behavioral interview question.

Because there are so many, you cannot prepare for every possible behavioral interview question the hiring manager may throw at you. What you can do, however, is prepare answers for types of interview questions; answers that will satisfy different types of questions provided they fall under these categories.

Behavioral Interview Question Categories

• Leadership

Leadership questions are common, especially for management jobs. Questions may involve “Describe a time you had to motivate an employee,” for example. Come up with examples of your leadership ahead so that you are prepared for leadership category questions.

• Negativity

Behavioral questions about what you didn’t like about people or the company are not uncommon. I tis a good idea to draft out answers ahead of time so that you don’t actually say something negative.

• Decision Making

Decision making behavioral questions are very common. You will be asked about both good and bad decisions. Prepare several answers for each, making sure to pick things that aren’t too negative.

• Professional Priorities

There will be questions about your greatest achievements or questions about what you consider a professional regret, etc. These questions are not only about your work history, but are also designed to gauge what you consider important in your professional life.

• Problem Solving

Problem solving behavioral questions are looking at the process you used to make a decision. The end result is not as important as the process used to get to that result. Questions may also include how you organize, since organization is a part of problem solving.

• Teamwork

Your ability to work as a team is important for almost any job. Teamwork questions are going to ask you about your history of working with others, how you worked independently, etc.

• Communication

Your ability to communicate effectively is important for the role. You may be asked behavioral questions that fall under this category as well.

Unlimited Questions, Fewer Categories

This is by no means a comprehensive list, but the vast majority of behavioral interview questions fall under these categories. If you can come up with answers that satisfy the types of questions that may come up under these categories, you should put yourself in a much better position to answer them effectively.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Prepare several answers for each category.
• Brainstorm questions on your own.

Tough Interview Question – Describe a Time You Faced an Ethical Dilemma

It’s tough to say who is truly a “moral” person. Morality is subjective, and everyone – even humanitarians, saints, philanthropists, unicorns and superheros – have skeletons in their closet that would make them appear immoral to a casual observer.

-          Have you ever smoked?

-          Have you ever kicked a puppy?

-          Have you ever ogled a bar patron?

-          Have you ever scratched yourself in public?

-          Have you ever broken the speed limit?

Depending on who you ask, these are unethical. They represent character flaws. Character flaws represent possible risk for the employer. So one popular behavioral job interview question is to hear you describe a time that you faced an ethical dilemma, in order to judge what your standards of morality are and if you have the ability to differentiate between right and wrong.

How to Answer

Like all other interview questions, you want your answer to be related to your professional career. This can, however, be somewhat dangerous, as you do not want to give away that an employer you worked for did anything unethical. This could reflect poorly on your work history. The first thing to imagine is if you faced an ethical dilemma in a job you held during high school or early college. If not, see if you can find an ethical dilemma that relates to your education, possibly the ability to cheat on a test (that you refused, of course).

Bad Answer

“At my last job I found out that my employer was using illegal tax write offs. They asked me to go along with it, and I did for a while in an effort to keep my job but ultimately I had to quit.”

This is an example of you making the wrong decision, and it shows that your previous employer probably does not qualify as a good part of your work history or a trustworthy reference.

Good Answer

“Back in high school I worked for this local grocery store. Someone had dumped over 2 dozen broken computer monitors in the parking lot. They would cost hundreds of dollars to legally dump, so the store manager asked me to wait until darkness and move the computer monitors to the local Goodwill so that they would be forced to pay for the dumping. I refused, and called the local trash services, notifying them of the illegal dumping on our property. They agreed to pick it up for free.”

Here you show that you are not only moral, but that you are also a problem solver. This is an example of how to successfully answer this question, and the job was long enough ago that it doesn’t reflect poorly on your future abilities.

Take Away Interview Tips

• Look for an answer in your distant professional past. Never use a recent employer.
• If nothing comes up, use a chance to cheat in school or something innocent.
• Always describe not only how you chose the moral route but also anything you did that makes you appear to be a problem solver (if applicable).

How Not to Answer a Behavioral Interview Question

Behavioral interview questions are some of the toughest interview questions to answer. They require you to think back to your experiences and come up with examples of how you have dealt with various common situations in the past, in order to show how you will deal with similar situations in the present.

Behavioral interviews are fraught with mistakes when you do not adequately prepare. Here are a variety of things not to say during your behavioral interview.

Common Behavioral Interview Answer Mistakes

• “I can’t think of any.”

There may be times that you cannot think of any specific instance, or you do not want to share the only answer you could remember. In these cases, never simply say you don’t have an example and try to move on to the next question. Instead, tell the interviewer that you cannot think of a specific instance but “… if I were to encounter that situation I would deal with it thusly.”

• Making Up a Story on the Fly

It is also a terrible idea to make up a story with no basis in truth. Your story may have inconsistencies, and you may not be able to relate a good example back to your initial point. Fake stories are easy to spot, because they are usually devoid of details that would otherwise be in more truthful stories.

• Telling an Unrelated Story

Another common problem during behavioral job interviews is when the applicant starts to tell a story that ends up being completely unrelated to the question. This often happens when you do not prepare. An employer will ask you a behavioral interview question such as “Describe a time where you disagreed with your boss” and you will start telling a story about how your supervisor once told you to take program the next set of code and you forgot because the computers were in the process of getting hacked by a bug that you didn’t even introduce but then the supervisor got a little upset so the two of you decided to have coffee and hug it out and funny story while you were getting coffee the waitress dropped off the check and the supervisor paid and … oh wait… where was I? What was the question again?

• Telling a Bad Story

Telling a bad story is like telling an unrelated story. By the time you have finished your answer, your job interviewer will stare at you, mouth agape, wondering why in the world you even bothered.

• Telling a Story that Makes You Look Incompetent

Of course, the final behavioral interview mistake to avoid is telling a story that doesn’t make you appear to be a model employee. Once again, this occurs usually due to lack of practice. Your job interviewer will ask you something like “Describe a time you disagreed with your boss” and you answer confidently with “This one time my boss told me to start working on the next software product and I thought it would be waste of time, so he and had a meeting to discuss the matter  and we ended up agreeing that it should be put on the shelf.” Hooray for you, you managed to talk your boss out of making you do work. Good luck getting a job with that answer.

Avoid These Behavioral Job Interview Mistakes

Clearly there are a number of different errors you can make while answering a behavioral job interview question. The best way to make sure you answer the question the right way is to practice. Think up great stories for every type of question, write them out and practice answering them. Only by doing so will you avoid these mistakes.

Take Away Interview tips

• Practice your behavioral interview answers.
• Don’t lie or avoid any questions.

Additional Links

• Sample Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers

Sample Behavioral Interview Question – Describe a Time You Made a Risky Decision

Behavioral interview questions should be some of the easiest questions to answer. Unlike other job interview questions where you are asked things you may not know the answer to (such as “What do you know about this company?), behavioral interview questions are about things that have already happened.

Yet behavioral questions are some of the toughest to answer. This is due to a number of different factors:

• You have to sit and think about a time where you encountered the situation.
• You have to describe in detail what may have been a simple event.
• You have to make sure that your answer is actually a good answer, and one that reflects well on your candidacy. .

All of these can make it very hard to answer each question. That is why interviewers ask them, and that is also why you need to practice behavioral interview questions so you can be prepared with a great answer any time an employer asks.

Behavioral Question #1: Describe a Time You Made a Risky Decision

From an employer perspective, this is a great question. You may fall into the trap of discussing something you should not have done at work. Don’t fall for it. When describing a risky decision always make sure that:

• Both options make you appear to be a great employee. For example, whether to put funds towards an online marketing campaign or a direct marketing campaign.
• You have a reason behind your decision. Make one up if you don’t. All risky decisions should have reasoning behind them, because the situation you are describing should be 100% business related. The risk should not be “will I get in trouble.” The risk should be “Was this the right use of our resources.”
• If the situation did not turn out well, mention the steps you undertook to fix them and/or what you learned from the experience that makes you a stronger employee.

The key is to avoid sounding like a poor worker with the decision you are describing. An example would be “This one time my boss told me to try to give one of my potential clients a 5% discount in order to save a deal that had gone south. But I felt that there was still a chance I could win the client for full price, and wanted to take that risk. In the end, I was able to win over the client for full cost.”

This may sound like a good answer. You took a risk, and you came out ahead. However, this can also be a risky answer, because you are essentially telling the employer that you disobeyed your boss, you said yourself that your potential client was going south (implying you were not doing a good job selling them on the product), and you almost lost potential business over what sounds like a small amount of money. Your best answer will be one that the risk was in time spent, and preferably one where you came out ahead.

Avoid any answer that makes it look the choices were “Will I get in trouble or will something great happen” and stick with answers that are “This option looked worthwhile, this option also looked worthwhile, I chose the latter option for these reasons…”

Take Away Interview Tips

• Practice answering behavioral interview questions.
• Make sure you are representing yourself well with your answer.