70 Tough Behavioral Interview Questions

 70 Tough Behavioral Interview Questions ,How To Effectively Prepare For A Behavioral Interview

Ability to work under pressure

• Describe a time when you were faced with a stressful situation that demonstrated your ability to cope under pressure.
• Give us an example of where you had to deal with a difficult client or customer. How did you handle the situation?
• Tell us about a specific time in which you managed to remain calm and composed in a stressful situation.

Adaptability and change

• Describe a time where a major change was implemented at work. How did you adapt to this change?
• Tell us about a time that you had to adapt to a difficult situation.
• Describe a situation when you had to learn something new in a short amount of time. How did you handle it?
• Tell us about a situation in which you were required to adjust to changes over which you had little control.

Communication and interpersonal skills

• Describe a situation in which you were able to use persuasion to successfully convince someone of your point of view.
• Tell us about a time when you had to make an important presentation.
• Describe a time where you had to create an important written document.
• Give us an example of a time when you successfully motivated others.
• Tell us about a time when you had to present complex information. How did you ensure that the other person understood?
• Tell us me about a time in which you had to use your written communication skills in order to get an important point across.
• Give an example of a time when you made a stupid mistake because you did not listen carefully to what was being said.
• Describe a situation when you had to negotiate with a key stakeholder. What was the outcome?
• Give us an example of where when you communicated with a person in written or verbal form but it was not effective. What did you learn from this? What did do next time that made it more effective?

Customer Service

• Give a specific example of a time when you had to address an irate customer. What was the problem and what did you do? What was the outcome?
• Tell us about a time where you went out of your way for a customer. What did you do and what was the response?
• Describe a situation where you had to tailor your approach for a customer in order to provide exceptional customer service.

Decision-making

• Tell us about the most difficult decision you have had to make.
• Tell us about a time when you had to analyze information and then make a recommendation. What decision did you come to?
• Give us an example of a time when you had to make a quick decision with limited information available.  What decision making process did you take and what alternatives did you consider?

Goal setting

• Give us an example of a time when you set a goal and achieved it successfully.
• Describe a time where you tried to accomplish a goal but failed. What did you learn from it?

Integrity

• Give me a specific example of a time when you had to conform to a policy with which you did not personally agree with.
• Describe a time when you identified that a certain policy or procedure was not been adhered to at work. What did you do and what was the outcome?
• Tell us about a time when you took responsibility for an error and were held personally accountable.
• Tell us about a specific time when you had to handle a difficult problem which involved ethical issues.

Initiative

• Tell us about a specific time when you had to go above and beyond the call of duty in order to get a job done.
• Give us an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.
  Describe a time when you anticipated potential problems and developed preventive measures.
• Describe a time when you came up with a creative solution to a problem at work.
• Tell us about a suggestion you made to improve internal process. What was the result?
• Describe a time where one of your ideas was implemented by management.
• Tell us about an innovation that you have introduced into an organization.  How did you implement it and what was your approach?
• Tell us about a time when you identified a small problem and prevented it from becoming a big problem.

Judgement, logic and problem solving

• Give us a specific example of a time when you used logic and reasoning skills in solving a problem.Give us an example of when you showed initiative and took the lead.
• Tell us about a time when you missed an obvious solution to a problem.
• Tell us about a time when you used facts and reason to persuade someone to accept your recommendation.
• Give us an example of a time when you used your fact finding skills to solve a problem

Leadership

• Can you give me an example of how you were able to motivate and retain people within your team by appealing to their individual interests?
• Tell us about a time when you used your leadership ability to gain support for something which had strong opposition.
• Tell me about a time when you delegated a project effectively
• Tell me about a time when you were forced to make an unpopular decision.
• Describe a situation where you had to keep subordinates informed about information which affects their jobs.
• Tell us about a time where a staff member’s performance was below expectations. What did you do to address the situation?
• Give an example of a time in which you felt you were required to build motivation in your co-workers or subordinates at work.
• Tell us about a specific development plan that you created and carried out with one or more of your employees. What was the specific situation? What was the outcome?
• Tell us about a time when you had to take disciplinary action with someone you supervised.
• Describe a situation where you have had to discipline a staff member about their performance. How did you do this without de – motivating them and have their performance drop further?

Managing conflict

• Tell us about a time you were required to work alongside a co-worker even though you did not get along with the co-worker on a personal level.
• Tell us about a time where you disagreed with your manager on a certain point. What did you do?
• Tell us about a situation in which you had to separate the person from the issue when working to resolve issues
• Tell me about a situation when you found it difficult to build rapport and a good business relationship with a client/manager/colleague?  How did you overcome that?  What skills did you use?

Teamwork

• Describe a time where someone in your team was not pulling his or her weight. What did you do to ensure the workload was spread evenly amongst the team?
• Tell us about a time where you worked in a competitive environment. What was your position in the team?  
• Tell us about the most difficult person that you have ever had to work with. How did you manage to work with them?
• Describe a time when you had to reach a compromise at work with one of your team members over a certain point.
• Give an example of how you have been successful at empowering a group of people in accomplishing a task.
• Tell us about a time that you had to work in a team that did not initially get along. What happened? What role did you take? What was the result?
• Tell us about a time when you had to adapt to a wide variety of people by accepting and understanding different backgrounds or perspectives.
• Tell us about a particularly complex project you worked on. What was your contribution to the project and what was the final result?

Time management skills

• Tell us about a time when you had to manage competing deadlines and you were required to prioritize your tasks.
• Describe a time when you have several clients, customers or co-workers placing multiple demands on you simultaneously.  How did you respond in this situation?
• Give us an example of where you managed competing professional and personal priorities and maintained a healthy work life balance.
• Describe a situation where you were required to act on important issues from multiple sources – what process did you follow to make the choice of which issues you would address?

Senior Management

• Tell me about a situation where you discovered a business practice or policy was negatively affecting profitability.
• Describe a situation where you learned about the practices and decisions made by different functional units within the business.
• Considering the business partnerships you have built both inside and outside the company, describe a situation where things did not go as you had planned. Why was this the case and what did you do to rectify the situation?
• How have you demonstrated in your roles an ability to push through challenging situations and build an achievement-oriented culture? Please provide an example.
• Describe a situation where you have actively had to drive change quickly through the business. How have you done this and kept your team focused on the “main game”?
• Describe a situation where you have received negative feedback about your personal style, how did you respond and what did you do?

at 1/28/2011