#HRWinners_Ramadan2017

Interview behavioral questions

 Communication
Verbal:
 Tell us about a situation where your communication skills made a difference to a situation.
 Describe a time when you had to win someone over, who was reluctant or unresponsive.
 Describe a situation where you had to explain something complex to a colleague or a client.
Which problems did you encounter and how did you deal with them?
 What is the worst communication situation that you have experienced?
 How do you prepare for an important meeting?
 Demonstrate how you vary your communication approach according to the audience that you are
addressing.
 Describe a situation when you had to communicate a message to someone, knowing that you
were right and that they were wrong and reluctant to accept your point of view.
Listening
 Give us an example where your listening skills proved crucial to an outcome.
 Tell us about a time when you were asked to summarize complex points.
 Tell us about a time when you had trouble remaining focused on your audience. How did you
handle this?
 What place does empathy play in your work? Give an example where you needed to show
empathy.
 Describe a situation where you had to deal with an angry customer.
Written
 What type of writing have you done? Give examples. What makes you think that you are good at
it?
 How do you feel writing a report differs from preparing an oral presentation?
 What positive and negative feedback have you received about your writing skills? Give an
example where one of your reports was criticized.
 How do you plan the writing of a report?
 Conflict management
 Tell us about a time when you felt that conflict or differences were a positive driving force in your
organization. How did handle the conflict to optimise its benefit?
 Tell us about a time when you had to deal with a conflict within your team.
 Tell us about a situation where conflict led to a negative outcome. How did you handle the
situation and what did you learn from it?
 Give us an example where you were unable to deal with a difficult member of your team.
 Creativity and Innovation
 Tell us about a project or situation where you felt that the conventional approach would not be
suitable. How did you derive and manage a new approach? Which challenges did you face and
how did you address them?
 Tell us about a situation where you trusted your team to derive a new approach to an old
problem. How did you manage the process?
 Tell us about a time when you had to convince a senior colleague that change was necessary.
What made you think that your new approach would be better suited?

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#HRWinners_Ramadan2017
Interview behavioral questions

 Decisiveness
 What big decision did you make recently. How did you go about it?
 How did you reach the decision that you wanted to change your job?
 Give an example of a time when you had to delay a decision to reflect on the situation.
 What is the decision that you have put off the longest? Why?
 When is the last time that you have refused to make a decision?
 Give us an example of a situation where you had to make a decision without the input of key
players, but knowing that these key players would judge you on that decision (i.e. superior
unavailable at the time).
 Tell us about a time when you had to make a decision without knowledge of the full facts.
 Tell us about a situation where you made a decision that involuntarily impacted negatively on
others. How did you make that decision and how did you handle its consequences?
 Tell us about a decision that you made, which you knew would be unpopular with a group of
people. How did you handle the decision-making process and how did you manage expectations?
 Tell us about a situation where you made a decision too quickly and got it wrong. Why made you
take that decision?
 Delegation
 What type of responsibilities do you delegate? Give examples of projects where you made best
use of delegation.
 Give an example of a project or task that you felt compelled to complete on your own. What
stopped you from delegating?
 Give an example of a situation where you reluctantly delegated to a colleague. How did you feel
about it?
 Give an example where you delegated a task to the wrong person? How did you make that
decision at the time, what happened and what did you learn from it?
 How do you cope with having to go away from the office for long periods of time (i.e. holidays).
Explain how you would delegate responsibilities based on you current situation.
 External Awareness
 Describe through examples drawn from your experience how you measure and take account of
the impact of your decisions on external parties.
 Give an example where you underestimated the impact of your decisions on stakeholders
external to your organization.
 Flexibility
 Describe a situation where you had to change your approach half-way through a project or task
following new input into the project.
 Describe a situation where you started off thinking that your approach was the best, but needed
to alter your course during the implementation.
 Describe a situation where one of your projects suffered a setback due to an unexpected change
in circumstances.
 Describe a situation where you were asked to do something that you had never attempted
previously.
 Give us an example of a situation where your initial approach failed and you had to change tack.
 Describe your strongest and your weakest colleagues. How do you cope with such diversity of
personalities?
 If we gave you a new project to manage, how would you decide how to approach it?

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#HRWinners_Ramadan2017
Interview behavioral questions

 Independence
 When did you depart from the "party line" to accomplish your goal?
 Which decisions do you feel able to make on your own and which do you require senior support
to make?
 Describe a situation where you had a disagreement or an argument with a superior. How did you
handle it?
 When do you feel that it is justified for you to go against accepted principles or policy?
 Which constraints are imposed on you in your current job and how do you deal with these?
 When did you make a decision that wasn't yours to make?
 Describe a project or situation where you took a project to completion despite important
opposition.
 When have you gone beyond the limits of your authority in making a decision?
 Influencing
 Describe a situation where you were able to influence others on an important issue. What
approaches or strategies did you use?
 Describe a situation where you needed to influence different stakeholders who had different
agendas. What approaches or strategies did you use?
 Tell us about an idea that you manage to sell to your superior, which represented a challenge.
 What is your worst selling experience?
 Describe the project or idea that you were most satisfied to sell to your management.
 Describe a time where you failed to sell an idea that you knew was the right one.
 Integrity
 When have you had to lie to achieve your aims? Why did you do so? How do you feel you could
have achieved the same aim in a different way?
 Tell me about a time when you showed integrity and professionalism.
 Tell us about a time when someone asked you something that you objected to. How did you
handle the situation?
 Have you ever been asked to do something illegal, immoral or against your principles? What did
you do?
 What would you do if your boss asked you to do something illegal?
 Tell us about a situation where you had to remind a colleague of the meaning of "integrity".
 Leadership
 Tell us about a situation where you had to get a team to improve its performance. What were the
problems and how did you address them?
 Describe a situation where you had to drive a team through change. How did you achieve this?
 Describe a situation where you needed to inspire a team. What challenges did you meet and how
did you achieve your objectives?
 Tell us about a situation where you faced reluctance from your team to accept the direction that
you were setting.
 Describe a project or situation where you had to use different leadership styles to reach your
goal.
 Tell me about a time when you were less successful as a leader than you would have wanted to
be.

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#HRWinners_Ramadan2017
Interview behavioral questions

 Leveraging diversity
 Fosters an inclusive workplace where diversity and individual differences are valued and
leveraged to achieve the vision and mission of the organization.
 Give an example of a situation or project where a positive outcome depended on the work of
people from a wide range of backgrounds and ideas
 Tell us about a time when you included someone in your team or a project because you felt they
would bring something different to the team.
 Organizational Awareness
 Describe a project where you needed to involve input from other departments. How did you
identify that need and how did you ensure buy-in from the appropriate leaders and managers?
 Describe a time when you failed to engage at the right level in your organization. Why did you do
that and how did you handle the situation?
 Resilience and Tenacity
 Tell us about a situation where things deteriorated quickly. How did you react to recover from
that situation?
 Tell us about a project where you achieved success despite the odds being stacked against you.
How did you ensure that you pulled through?
 Give us an example of a situation where you knew that a project or task would place you under
great pressure. How did you plan your approach and remain motivated?
 Give us an example of a situation where you worked under pressure.
 Under what conditions do you work best and worst?
 Which recent project or situation has caused you the most stress? How did you deal with it?
 When is the last time that you were upset with yourself?
 What makes you frustrated or impatient at work?
 What is the biggest challenge that you have faced in your career. How did you overcome it?
 Tell us about a time when you successfully pushed one of your ideas despite strong opposition.
 Which course or topics have you found most difficult? How did you address the challenge?
 Risk-taking
 Tell us about risks that you have taken in your professional or personal life. How did you go
about making your decision?
 What is the biggest risk that you have taken? How did you handle the process?
 Describe one of your current or recently completed projects, setting out the risks involved. How
did you make decisions? How do you know that you made the correct decisions?
 What risks do you see in moving to this new post?
 Sensitivity to others/empathy
 What problem has one of your staff or colleagues brought to you recently? How did you assist
them?
 Tell us about an unpopular decision that you made recently? What thought-process did you
follow before making it? How did your colleagues/clients react and how did you deal with their
reaction?
 When is that last time that you had an argument with a colleague?
 When did you last upset someone?
 What steps do you take to understand your colleagues' personalities? Give an example where you
found it hard to adjust to one particular colleague.

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#HRWinners_Ramadan2017
Interview behavioral questions

 Teamwork
 Describe a situation in which you were a member of team. What did you do to positively
contribute to it?
 Tell us about a situation where you played an important role in a project as a member of the
team (not as a leader).
 How do you ensure that every member of the team is allowed to participate?
 Give us an example where you worked in a dysfunctional team. Why was it dysfunctional and
how did you attempt to change things?
 Give an example of a time when you had to deal with a conflict within your team. What did you
do to help resolve the situation?
 How do you build relationships with other members of your team?
 How do you bring difficult colleagues on board? Give us an example where you had to do this.
 Adaptability
 Which change of job did you find the most difficult to make?
 Tell us about the biggest change that you have had to deal with. How did you cope with it?
 Compliance
 How do you ensure compliance with policies in your area of responsibility?
 Tell us about a time when you went against company policy. Why did you do it and how did you
handle it?

Regards,, HRWinners 

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