Behavioral Interview Questions and Answers Examples from a REAL Google Hiring Manager

Summary

In this interview preparation video, a Google hiring manager and professional interview coach shares proven strategies for acing behavioral interview questions. The video covers five common types of questions, including conflict, adaptability, prioritization, communication, and values. Each section provides a response strategy, an ideal answer framework, and examples. The coach emphasizes the importance of aligning personal values with the company's, demonstrating flexibility, and effectively communicating with various stakeholders.

Takeaways

• 😀 The speaker is a Google hiring manager and professional interview coach with extensive experience.
• 🔍 The channel focuses on sharing effective interview tips to help viewers secure their dream jobs.
• 🗣️ The video covers five main types of behavioral interview questions and provides strategies for answering them.
• 💡 Behavioral questions aim to understand how candidates have responded to past workplace situations to predict future behavior.
• 🙅‍♀️ For conflict questions, avoid drama and speak poorly of no one; instead, demonstrate maturity in handling conflict.
• 🤝 Show the ability to create win-win situations that benefit all parties involved, not just internal teams.
• 🔄 Adaptability questions assess the candidate's willingness and ability to adapt work approaches to meet business needs.
• ⏳ Prioritization questions gauge how well candidates manage their time and effort to achieve company goals.
• 🗣️ Communication questions aim to identify candidates who are skilled at sharing ideas and collaborating effectively.
• 🏆 Values questions help companies hire individuals whose values align with the organization's culture and goals.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the 'Interview Prep Guru' channel?

The 'Interview Prep Guru' channel focuses on sharing the best interview tips to help viewers ace job interviews and land their dream jobs.

What types of companies have the interview coaching clients landed jobs at?

The interview coaching clients have landed jobs at big tech companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon.

What are the five main types of behavioral interview questions covered in the video?

The five main types of behavioral interview questions covered are conflict, adaptability, prioritization, communication, and values questions.

How does the speaker suggest handling conflict in a professional setting?

The speaker suggests handling conflict by avoiding drama, showing the ability to maturely handle conflict, and demonstrating the creation of win-win situations.

What is the key to answering behavioral interview questions correctly according to the video?

The key to answering behavioral interview questions correctly is to give context, explain what was done, and articulate what was learned and how one would handle a similar situation differently in the future.

How does the speaker demonstrate flexibility in the face of changes during an interview?

The speaker demonstrates flexibility by showing how they can adapt their approaches to meet evolving situations and connect the dots to drive positive change.

What strategy does the speaker use to show their ability to prioritize work?

The speaker shows their ability to prioritize work by tying their efforts back to the company's goals and explaining the trade-offs they made in their decision-making process.

Why is communication important in the workplace according to the video?

Communication is important in the workplace because employees spend more than half of their time communicating, and being effective at collaboration and communication is half of the job.

How does the speaker approach a situation where they need to communicate a company-wide change?

The speaker approaches communicating a company-wide change by mapping out key stakeholders, creating a communication strategy for each, and ensuring the message is delivered multiple times in different formats.

What does the speaker suggest as a strategy for answering values-based behavioral questions?

The speaker suggests knowing one's own values, aligning them with the company's values, and being honest and vulnerable when expressing them in response to values-based questions.

What is the 'secret proven formula' mentioned for structuring responses to behavioral questions?

The 'secret proven formula' refers to a future video content where the speaker will provide a detailed framework for structuring responses to behavioral questions, which includes knowing the strategy and learning the response framework.

Outlines

00:00

😀 Introduction to Interview Prep Guru

The speaker introduces themselves as a Google hiring manager and professional interview coach, emphasizing their extensive experience in interviewing candidates. They mention their coaching services, which cost $200 an hour, and highlight the success of their clients in landing jobs at top tech companies. The video's focus is on teaching viewers how to handle five common types of behavioral interview questions. The speaker outlines a strategy for answering conflict questions, emphasizing the importance of professionalism, maturity in handling conflict, and creating win-win situations. They provide an example of how to answer a conflict question by describing a real-life scenario involving a hardware prototype project where two engineering teams were in conflict, and how they resolved it by focusing on the user and involving both teams in a collaborative problem-solving session.

05:01

🔄 Adaptability in the Face of Change

The speaker discusses the second type of behavioral question, focusing on adaptability. They stress the importance of demonstrating flexibility and the ability to connect the dots to meet business needs. The speaker shares a personal experience where they had to adapt to a change in their team's organizational structure. They adopted a three-pronged strategy: involving their team in the interview process of a new senior engineering leader, mapping team goals to the organizational strategy, and expressing support for the change. The speaker reflects on the learning from this experience, highlighting the importance of mapping changes to team goals and supporting the team through the transition. They also consider how they would handle a similar situation today, suggesting they would be more proactive in advocating for the team's needs.

10:02

📈 Prioritization and Delegation for Success

The speaker addresses prioritization questions, emphasizing the need to tie one's work to the company's goals and to discuss the trade-offs made during decision-making. They recount a situation where they managed three new product development projects simultaneously, each critical for entering new markets. When issues arose, the speaker had to prioritize, initially focusing on the nearest completion project but later delegating pricing tasks to an interested analyst, thus freeing up time to manage all projects effectively. The speaker's key learning was the power of creative problem-solving and delegation, which allowed all projects to be delivered on time, meeting the company's strategic goals. They also reflect on how they would approach a similar situation today, focusing on early delegation and maintaining capacity to avoid becoming a bottleneck.

15:04

🗣️ Effective Communication in Organizational Changes

The speaker tackles communication questions, underscoring the need to consider all stakeholders and to have a practiced approach to communication. They share an experience of communicating a significant organizational change to the company, which was met with stress and anxiety. The speaker prepared by identifying all affected stakeholders, developing a communication strategy for each group, and ensuring the message was delivered multiple times in various formats. They also involved team leaders in pre-announcement syncs and made themselves available for questions post-announcement. The presentation was well-received, and the speaker learned the value of stakeholder mapping and proactive communication. They reflect on how they would involve leaders earlier in the process today, leveraging their insights to improve communication strategies.

20:04

🎨 Aligning Personal and Company Values for Recognition

The speaker discusses values-based questions, highlighting the importance of knowing one's own values and aligning them with the company's. They share a story of creating a recognition program for the engineering team, inspired by a company value of adopting a growth mindset and their personal value of ensuring team members feel seen and heard. The speaker researched existing recognition programs, designed an engineering-specific awards program with a creative, Lego-designed trophy, and received positive feedback. They reflect on the challenge of open-ended projects and the importance of narrowing the solution space. The speaker also considers how they would ensure broader recognition for all team members in a similar situation today, emphasizing the value of one-on-one recognition in addition to peer-nominated awards.

25:06

🌟 Conclusion and Future Interview Tips

In conclusion, the speaker summarizes the strategies for answering the five common types of behavioral interview questions, emphasizing the importance of knowing the strategies and the response framework. They promise a future video that will reveal a proven formula for structuring responses to behavioral questions, enabling viewers to stand out in interviews. The speaker invites viewers to subscribe, engage with the content by commenting, and share their interview experiences using the tips provided. The overall message is one of support and preparation for job seekers, with an encouragement to continue learning and applying these strategies for successful interview outcomes.

Keywords

💡Behavioral Interview Questions

Behavioral interview questions are a type of interview query that asks candidates to describe their past experiences and actions in response to specific workplace situations. These questions aim to predict how candidates might act in future scenarios based on their past behavior. In the video, the speaker discusses various strategies for answering these questions effectively, emphasizing the importance of providing context, explaining actions, and sharing what was learned from past experiences.

💡Conflict Resolution

Conflict resolution refers to the process of addressing and managing disagreements or disputes within a team or workplace. The video highlights the importance of demonstrating the ability to handle conflict maturely and professionally. An example from the script involves managing a conflict between two engineering teams by focusing on the end-user and fostering a collaborative problem-solving session, which resulted in a win-win solution for all parties involved.

💡Adaptability

Adaptability in a workplace context refers to an individual's ability to adjust and respond effectively to changes in the work environment or job requirements. The video script mentions strategies for showcasing flexibility and the ability to connect the dots to meet evolving business needs. An example provided is the speaker's experience with organizational changes, where they took a proactive approach to ensure team members understood and supported the changes.

💡Prioritization

Prioritization is the act of arranging tasks or projects in order of importance or urgency. In the video, the speaker discusses the importance of tying one's work to the company's goals and making strategic decisions about which tasks to focus on. An example given is managing multiple projects and deciding to delegate certain tasks to free up time for higher-value work, ensuring that all projects were completed on time.

💡Communication

Communication in the context of the video refers to the ability to effectively share information, ideas, and updates with others in a way that facilitates collaboration and decision-making. The speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding different audiences and tailoring communication to meet their needs. A specific example is the speaker's approach to announcing an organizational change, where they mapped out communication strategies for various stakeholders and ensured the message was delivered clearly and empathetically.

💡Values Alignment

Values alignment means ensuring that an individual's personal values are in harmony with the values of the organization they are part of or seeking to join. The video script discusses the importance of self-awareness and the ability to articulate one's values in alignment with the company's. An example provided is the speaker's initiative to create a recognition program for an engineering team, which not only aligned with the company's growth mindset value but also with the speaker's personal value of ensuring team members feel seen and heard.

💡Stakeholder Mapping

Stakeholder mapping is a strategic process of identifying and analyzing all parties who have an interest or stake in a particular decision or change. In the video, the speaker uses stakeholder mapping to plan communication strategies for an organizational change, ensuring that all affected parties are informed and their concerns are addressed. This approach helps in managing expectations and facilitating a smooth transition.

💡Delegation

Delegation is the act of assigning tasks or responsibilities to others, typically to team members. The video script illustrates the power of delegation as a strategy for managing workload and preventing bottlenecks. The speaker shares a personal experience where delegating a time-consuming task allowed them to focus on higher-priority work, leading to successful project outcomes and the delegate's professional growth.

💡Growth Mindset

A growth mindset is a concept in psychology that refers to the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through dedication and hard work. In the video, the company value of adopting a growth mindset is mentioned, and the speaker aligns this with their personal values to create a recognition program that encourages feedback and growth opportunities for team members.

💡Recognition Program

A recognition program is a system within an organization that acknowledges and rewards employees for their achievements or contributions. The video script describes the speaker's initiative to develop an engineering-specific peer-nominated awards program to address a lack of recognition opportunities. This program not only aligned with the company's values but also demonstrated the speaker's creativity and problem-solving skills.

💡Handling Ambiguity

Handling ambiguity refers to the ability to manage and make decisions in situations where there is uncertainty or incomplete information. The video script touches on the speaker's approach to open-ended projects, where they had to narrow down the solution space to create a timely and effective recognition program. This showcases the speaker's judgment and creativity in dealing with ambiguous problems.

Highlights

Introduction to the Interview Prep Guru channel, aimed at helping job seekers prepare for interviews and land their dream jobs.

The channel is hosted by a Google hiring manager and professional interview coach with extensive experience.

The video covers five main types of behavioral interview questions and answers.

Behavioral interview questions are designed to understand how candidates have responded to past workplace situations.

The key to answering behavioral questions is to provide context, explain actions taken, and discuss what was learned.

Conflict questions are common and aim to assess a candidate's approach to resolving workplace disputes.

When answering conflict questions, it's important to avoid drama and speak professionally about the situation.

Adaptability questions assess a candidate's ability to adjust their work approaches to meet business needs.

Demonstrate flexibility and the ability to connect the dots in response to changes for adaptability questions.

Prioritization questions aim to understand how candidates manage their time and effort on important tasks.

Tie work back to company goals and explain trade-offs when answering prioritization questions.

Communication questions evaluate a candidate's ability to effectively share ideas and collaborate.

Show the ability to communicate with different audiences and share a personal communication framework.

Values questions help assess if a candidate's personal values align with the company's values.

Know your own values and be honest and vulnerable when discussing them in response to values questions.

A practice answer is provided for each type of behavioral question, demonstrating the application of the discussed strategies.

The video concludes with an invitation to subscribe for more interview tips and to share feedback on the content.

Transcripts

welcome to the interview prep guru where

i help you

get prepared get confident and get the

job

i'm a real google hiring manager and a

professional interview coach who has

spent thousands of hours

on the other side of the table i've

truly seen

and heard it all and this channel is all

about

sharing the best interview tips with you

so that you can ace that job interview

and land your dream job

my interview coaching clients 200 an

hour

to learn these proven interview tips

thanks to my coaching and their hard

work

many of them have landed their dream

jobs including jobs they never thought

they could get

at big tech companies like facebook

google

and amazon in this video i'll cover the

five main types of behavioral interview

questions and answers

these are questions that i regularly ask

in interviews including one question

that trips up almost everyone i'll teach

you a response strategy for each of

these questions

and then i'll give a short example of an

ideal answer

to a practice behavioral question in

case you aren't familiar with behavioral

interview questions

these are a type of interview question

that asks you about your past

experiences behavioral interview

questions are designed to learn how you

have responded to certain workplace

situations in the past

to get an idea of how you are likely to

respond to various workplace situations

in the future

the key to answering all behavioral

interview questions correctly

is to give context explain what you did

then tell me what you learned and how

you would do things differently if you

found yourself in the same situation in

the future

i will create a future video diving into

the specific framework for answering

these questions

but you can also see the framework in

action with all of the practice

behavioral interview

questions and answers in this video

let's get started with the first type of

behavioral question

the conflict question companies want to

hire people who understand that conflict

is normal and healthy and they want to

hire people who have

healthy approaches to understanding and

resolving conflict

this is why conflict questions are a

common behavioral

interview question the most important

strategy for answering a conflict

question

is to avoid drama this

is not real housewives and no one wants

you to spill any tea

during a job interview keep it

professional

and at all costs never speak poorly

about your manager

your company or your colleagues

my second strategy is to show that you

can maturely handle

conflict you'll want to demonstrate that

you understand that conflict is normal

and that it can be healthy you always

want to demonstrate that

you bring healthy approaches to

resolving conflict

my third strategy is to show that you

can create

win-win situations ideally in ways that

benefit

everyone involved not just the internal

team but also your users your customers

or your clients

i mean who wouldn't want to work with

someone who creates productive

positive and sustainable work

environments right

to summarize the strategy for conflict

questions

is to avoid drama to show that you can

maturely handle conflict

and to demonstrate that you create

win-win situations

now i will practice answering a conflict

question

using these three strategies the

question is

give me an example of a time you faced a

conflict while working on a team

how did you handle that absolutely

as part of my current role i manage

strategic projects that often involve

the development of new technologies and

products

that are critical to the company's

growth these projects often feature

tight deadlines and hard to predict

technical risk in a recent project we

were on a tight deadline to complete the

engineering design of a hardware

prototype

during one round of testing we found an

issue with the hardware functionality

the conflict arose because the

mechanical engineering team

blamed the electrical engineering team

for the failure and vice versa

we were at an impasse to find the

solution because we weren't sure

which of the two teams was best

positioned to solve the problem

this conflict was a major risk to our

project schedule

instead of letting the issue faster i

invited both teams to a problem-solving

session

i opened the session with an image of

our users

to re-center everyone on what we were

all working on

the product by taking the focus off of

the conflict and reminding the teams of

our responsibility to the users

their moods instantly thawed we spent

four hours redesigning the hardware

together

we came up with a creative design that

was easy and economical to manufacture

and it passed testing on the first

attempt we were able to meet the

original schedule

and all of the engineers that worked on

the solution were proud to have worked

on this innovative design

my greatest learning from this situation

was the recognition that

i played a key role in finding a win-win

for our

teams our business and our users simply

by reminding the teams

that our ultimate goal was to make great

products for our users

i had always taken for granted that this

was a key role on the team

but in this case it really saved our

project and it allowed us to turn a

failure

into an innovation while keeping team

morale high

today i keep this role in mind at all

times

and i ensure that the team is always

focused on the user which really helps

us focus on what matters

if i were faced with the same situation

today

i'd probably choose to call in just the

team leads for the two teams that were

in conflict

it happened that we were able to get to

a wonderful solution with both

teams present but it did take a lot of

time from the whole team and not

everyone participated

as heavily in that first session i

believe that we could have resolved the

immediate issue more quickly with the

small and focused group

and then we could have invited the

broader team in at just the right time

so they could all contribute

in their own ways okay let's talk

through what i did there

you notice that when i talked about the

conflict between the two engineering

teams i used

neutral professional language i didn't

take sides

and i focus on the fact that the

conflict was a risk to the project

rather than ruminating on the conflict

dynamics in detail

the interviewer doesn't need to know

that one of the engineers threatened to

quit

or that the mechanical engineering

manager was refusing to speak to the

electrical engineering manager

the interviewer just needs to know there

was a conflict and that i

resolved it no drama and it's clear that

i can maturely handle conflict

next you'll notice that when i discuss

the outcome i highlight the multiple

wins

the wins for the company the wins for

the project schedule

the wins for the individual team members

getting to work on something innovative

and the ultimate win for the user i

definitely showed that i

create win-win situations in the

workplace

after hearing this answer i want to hire

me so you should use these same

strategies as you practice your

responses to conflict questions

let's get started with the second type

of behavioral question

the adaptability question companies want

to hire people who have the ability to

connect the dots

and decide when to make changes to their

work approaches

so that they can achieve the optimal

outcomes for the business

these types of behavioral questions try

to assess your willingness

and ability to adapt your work to meet

the business needs

my first strategy for answering an

adaptability question

is to demonstrate your flexibility in

the face of changes happening around you

you need to show how you can be

responsive to a changing situation

and how you use your flexibility to

adapt your approaches

so that you can meet the needs of any

evolving situation

and look it's not enough to be willing

to change direction when someone tells

you to

you need to be analyzing the data and

the signals at all times

so that you can understand when a change

of direction is needed

companies want to hear not just that

you're flexible when they tell you to

make a change

but that you can be an agent of positive

change when it's needed

to summarize the strategies for

adaptability questions are to

demonstrate flexibility

and to explain how you connected the

dots

next i will practice answering an

adaptability question

the question is describe a time when

your team or company was undergoing some

change

how did you adapt in my most recent

company

we had really outgrown our organization

structure as the company had grown

really quickly

the leadership team decided that we

needed to add another senior engineering

leader to work alongside me

and share some of the loads so that we

could ensure that the engineering team

was focused

and that everyone on the team had the

right amount of management support

the engineers on my team were nervous

about the change so i took a

three-pronged

strategy to ensure that they could

better understand and be part of the

change

first i invited all of the candidates

for the role to meet with my team as

their final step in the interview

process

this would allow the team to understand

the candidates goals and experience and

it also turned out to be a big selling

point and attracted a great leader

second i mapped out our team's goals

back to the larger organizational

strategy

this reminded the team that these

changes were going to help us grow and

help us achieve our goals

lastly i made it clear that i supported

the change

and i was looking forward to having a

new leader to work with and to learn

from

in the end we hired an experienced

leader who actually leveled me up as

well as the entire engineering team

my greatest learning from this situation

was really the empowering feeling

that i could map this change back to the

team's goals in a way that would really

help them

understand and ultimately support the

change

seeing everyone on my team rally behind

the candidate that we ultimately hired

showed me that that my efforts really

helped bring them along and that they

had worked

if i were faced with the same problem

today i would

probably take my engagement a step

further i feel like i did a great job

reacting to the change that had been

decided above my level

but after i got involved i was surprised

how open the leadership team was to

hearing my feedback

i had known for some time that i was

overstretched and that we needed more

support for the team

but i had been nervous to raise my hand

and to ask for help

so in many ways i actually doubt that i

would face this situation today because

i probably would not have hesitated to

raise my hand and

actually be the one proactively pitching

the leadership team

on the need to hire an additional leader

to support the growth of the business

okay let's talk through what i did there

you noticed that i demonstrated a great

deal of leadership

humility and accountability in my

response

you might be asking yourself these

aren't really part of the formula you

gave me

but any time you can sprinkle hirable

characteristics into your response

please do i showed my flexibility

by talking about the many pronged

strategy i used to meet the team

where they were and i showed that i know

how to connect the dots

when the business grows the team grows

and that means we need more managers

overall this response hits the two main

strategies for the adaptability question

and it incorporates other great

characteristics of people

i'd want to hire so feel free to

introduce other characteristics as long

as you hit the two main strategies

as well let's get started with the next

type of behavioral question

the prioritization question companies

want to hire good problem solvers who

are

always working on the most important

problems

so these questions are meant to

understand how well you prioritize your

time

and your effort to ensure that the

company's top goals are achieved

the most important strategy for

answering a prioritization question

is to tie your work to the company's

goals

you need to demonstrate that you

understand how your work

drives the company's success because

this shows that you understand

how to think strategically about your

work

i mean who wouldn't want to hire someone

who is able to articulate how their work

drives the success of the company

right another way to demonstrate your

ability to think strategically as you

prioritize your work

is to discuss the trade-offs that you

had to make in your decision-making

process

explaining these trade-offs exposes your

assumptions

and your strategic thought process which

reinforces that you have an approach to

prioritization

that you can bring to this new company

to ensure that you're

always working on the most important

work

to summarize the two strategies for

prioritization questions

are first tie your work back to the

company's goals

and second explain the trade-offs

now i will practice answering a

prioritization question

the question is give me an example of a

time when you are working on multiple

projects

how did you handle that sure i was once

responsible for three different

new product development projects all of

which that were at different stages of

development

each of the projects had a strategic

importance to the company

because each of them allowed us to enter

into a new market

when things went as planned i was able

to manage the load of all three projects

at once

but anytime there was an issue on one of

the projects i would quickly become a

bottleneck

the first time that i realized i was a

bottleneck i sat down and looked at the

three projects

while all of them had strategic impact

to the company it was clear that when we

had multiple issues going on at once i

should have to prioritize one of the

projects

that was nearest to completion this

trade-off was great at helping with

prioritization but it was a painful

trade-off for everyone and it really

wasn't the optimal solution for the

company

i was also responsible for some of the

individual contributor work for each of

the projects

for example i was in charge of

establishing pricing for the products

i was able to find an analyst on the

team who had an interest in learning

pricing techniques

and they had the bandwidth to do the

work under my supervision

by training the analysts to take on the

pricing work i freed up much of my time

to focus on the highest value work

keeping all these projects on track and

whenever we had multiple issues

happening at once on multiple projects

we didn't have to choose one project or

the other now i have sufficient

bandwidth to help with all of the issues

on all of the projects

my greatest learning from this situation

was really the power of

creative problem solving i was

overwhelmed with too much work but

not everything on my plate was actually

the highest value work for me to do

so rather than sacrificing my focus as

the project manager

i found someone who was looking for a

growth opportunity and could take on one

of my most

time-consuming tasks they were able to

grow in their role

and they even earned a promotion and all

three of my projects were delivered on

time

which allowed the company to enter three

new strategic markets with three new

products

if i were faced with this same situation

today i would immediately look for ways

to delegate some of the individual

contributor work that i was doing

rather than my first attempt which was

trying to prioritize amongst three

critical strategic projects

in my projects that i own today i try to

have a regular sync with each team

member so i can learn more about their

interests and bandwidth

so that we can optimally balance work

across the team

and in particular i am vigilant about

ensuring that i have enough capacity

to ensure the strategic projects are

delivered on time

without me becoming a bottleneck okay

let's talk through what i did there

you notice that i immediately talked in

the context section

about how my work fits into the

company's goals

generally i suggest doing this in the

context when possible since it really

sets the stage for the rest of your

response

i described a sub-optimal solution only

working on the nearest term project when

there was an issue on any project

to highlight some trade-offs that i

faced and my ability to seek out a

better solution

lastly you'll notice that i created a

win-win situation through delegation of

the pricing work

and that is an expert move note that all

the strategies i'm teaching you can be

used on

any of these types of behavioral

questions but in order to make this

lesson bite-sized

i focus on the key strategies for each

type of behavioral question

if you see a chance to use a conflict

strategy on a prioritization question

go for it as long as you've also covered

the two main strategies for

prioritization

questions as well let's get started with

the next type of behavioral question

the communication question companies

want to hire people who are

masters of communication because at the

end of the day

employees spend more than half of their

time communicating

whether it's sharing ideas or problem

solving or sharing

updates on their work being able to do

the job

is actually only half of the job the

other half

is being effective at collaboration and

communication

this is the strategy that most people

miss in their answer so pay attention

my first strategy for communication

questions

is to demonstrate that you are able to

think of everyone

who needs to be communicated with and

they are able to ensure that they get

the right information

delivered to them in a format they can

use at the right time

to enable all of them to make the right

decisions for their work

and to drive the company's goals

secondly

you want to convey that you have a

practiced approach to communicating and

collaborating with others

in your answers you want to come across

as someone who is comfortable

communicating in written

and verbal formats and for various

purposes

to summarize the strategies for the

communication question

are to demonstrate that you can

communicate to different audiences

and to share your communication

framework

now i will practice answering a

communication question

the question is tell me about a

successful presentation you gave

and why you think it was a hit i was

once responsible for giving an

organization-wide presentation

about a structure change we were making

to the company

organizational changes are always a

source of nerves and tension for team

members

and this org change came at a time when

the team was already under stress

due to some headwinds we were

experiencing in the business

i knew it was going to be extremely

important for me to communicate

effectively

on this change my first approach when

thinking about any communication is

always to map

out all of the key stakeholders that

need to learn about the change

to do this i wrote down all the groups

of people in the organization who were

affected by the change

even if in the slightest way for each of

them i put together a communication

strategy

that ensured they would hear about the

change at least three different times

in at least three different formats for

the stakeholders that were most

impacted by the change i put together

pre-announcement syncs with the leaders

of those teams

to ensure that the leaders were equipped

to answer follow-up questions

after we made the announcement on the

day of the announcement

i gave a presentation that emphasized

the reasons for the change

and how it could improve our chances of

tackling the business headwinds that we

were experiencing

i addressed key stakeholder concerns

that i had learned from the pre-work

with the leaders of those most

impacted teams immediately after the

presentation

i made myself and other leaders

available to answer group and individual

questions

and emails were sent to everyone in the

organization with details about the

change

the feedback from the teams was that the

presentation succeeded

at being timely and empathetic and that

they felt the change was a positive

change that they were welcoming for the

business

at the time i was surprised by how much

time i was spending in preparation for

this announcement

but the lack of issues after the

announcement more than covered the time

that i had put into making it go well

i learned a lot from this experience

about the power of stakeholder mapping

and of bringing key allies into the

conversation to ensure that

all major stakeholder concerns are being

addressed proactively

to this day i follow this framework for

communicating changes at every scale

whether it's a team change all the way

up to entire organization changes

if i were faced with the same situation

today i'd probably bring in the leaders

of the impacted teams

earlier they were such a valuable source

of insights

which ended up resulting in meaningfully

positive changes to the format

and delivery of the communications

having those insights earlier would have

saved time and energy

in preparation okay let's talk about

what i did there

you notice that i talk about

stakeholders which are synonymous with

audiences

so i clearly showed that i know the

importance of communicating to different

audiences

i also expressed my personal

communication framework

people need to hear things three

different times in three different

formats

which shows that i'm a seasoned and

practiced communicator

make sure you address both of these

strategies and your communication

answers as well let's get started with

the final type of behavioral question

the values question companies want to

hire people who have values that are

aligned to the organization

and they like to hire people who know

themselves well enough

to know and articulate their own

personal values

as a manager i like to understand my

team members values so that i know how

to properly motivate them

because of this i often ask these

values-based behavioral questions in my

interviews

let's get started with the final type of

behavioral question

the values question companies want to

hire people who have values that are

aligned to the organization

and they like to hire people who know

themselves well enough to know

and articulate their own personal values

as a manager

i like to understand my team members

values so that i know how to properly

motivate them

so i often ask these values based

behavioral questions in my interviews

the first strategy for a values question

is to know your own

values you'll want to be able to

demonstrate that you know your own

values and that your values are well

aligned to the company's values

to do this first you need to know your

values and then you'll want to do some

research into the company's values

assuming that these are both aligned you

should ensure that you answer values

questions in ways that express your own

values

but also tie back to the company's

values i'll show you how to do this in

the practice question

secondly these values questions usually

give you the opportunity to just be

yourself

to be expressive and open and vulnerable

and you should take the opportunity

remember interviewers are people too and

we want to feel excited to work with you

sharing a bit more about yourself will

really help us connect to you

to summarize the strategies for a values

question

are to know your values and to be honest

and vulnerable

next i will practice answering a values

question for you

the question is give me an example of a

time you were able to be creative with

your work

what was exciting or difficult about it

in my most recent role my boss asked me

to take on a nebulous project

to address a concern from the

engineering team that there weren't

enough opportunities for recognition

this request was of course

open-ended but it was clearly important

to ensure that everyone felt seen and

heard in the engineering team

one of our company values is to adopt a

growth mindset

which means that people need feedback to

know where they should grow

one of my personal values is to ensure

that the people who work around me

feel heard and seen so this project was

very aligned with my

values i did some research into how

other teams within the company

ensured that their team members had

opportunities for recognition

what i found out was that each of these

teams had peer nominated awards programs

that were quite successful

i decided to build out an engineering

specific peer nominated awards program

i got creative when it came to the

naming of the program which i modeled

after the grammy awards

and i also had fun designing the award

trophy i hired a lego artist to design

the trophy and if you know

anything about engineering you can

imagine that this trophy was a

big hit we received hundreds of

nominations in the first few months

and in our next employee survey we heard

clear feedback that the awards program

had successfully addressed the

recognition problem my boss was very

happy

one key learning for me was that

open-ended projects are both a blessing

and a curse

they're a blessing because you can be

creative they're a curse because you

might not be able to do them very

quickly if you get lost in the

open-ended nature of the problem

i knew that i needed to create a timely

solution to resolve the team's concerns

quickly

so i tried to narrow the solution space

to make it more manageable

nailing down the solution and awards

program gave me the opportunity to get

creative with the details including the

famed

lego trophy which ultimately drove the

high level of satisfaction and the

adoption of the program

if i were faced with the same problem

today i'd spend more time thinking about

how to ensure that

all team members could be recognized one

of my personal values is to help others

be seen and heard

and while the awards program was very

successful i always felt that some of

the quieter team members are still less

likely to be recognized or nominated so

over time i worked on a manager training

program that focused on one-on-one

recognition

to ensure that everyone in the

engineering team felt recognized and was

getting clear and actionable feedback

not just those that were being nominated

for the awards

okay let's talk through what i did there

you notice that i explicitly called out

both my values and the company values as

i was setting the context

and i was open and vulnerable throughout

the answer sharing ways that i could

have done better in my initial launch

you probably took note that i also

shared a bit about my way of handling

ambiguous problem props this is not one

of the values question strategies

but as we saw in the answer debrief to

the adaptability question

you can and should sprinkle in other

hirable characteristics

into your answers to behavioral

questions whenever you can

employers always want to hire people who

can handle ambiguity

and apply good judgment so sprinkling in

your approach to handling open-ended

situations will always help you stand

out

as long as you have also covered the two

main strategies

for the values question already today i

went through the best and proven

strategies for the five most common

types of behavioral questions

along with behavioral interview

questions and answers

you now know the ideal strategies for

answering these common behavioral

interview questions

in a future video i will give you the

secret proven formula for how to

structure your responses

this will give you the entire formula to

answer behavioral questions

first you need to know the strategy

which you do now and then

you can learn the response framework so

that you can handle any type of

behavioral question and stand out

against other candidates

who don't know the full formula

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and if you use these tips in your

interview prep drop a comment let me

know how your interviews go

best of luck and happy interview prep

you