Do you consider yourself a patient person? How do you increase your patience level in challenging situations?
The interviewer would like to know if you consider yourself a patient individual, and can face ordinary workplace challenges with emotional maturity, confidence, and poise. Patience is indeed a virtue but can be challenging to maintain when situations challenge your temperament. Impatience can cause a lot of contagious stress and anxiety in the workplace and be a detriment to the situation at hand. If you have an example of a time when your calm presence stood out from others, relay this brief story. Exude confidence and emotional maturity while delivering your answer. Show the interviewer that you possess the ability to keep your cool in challenging conditions.
"I do consider myself a patient person. I would rate myself an eight out of ten for patience because I certainly have room to grow, but I do have a very long fuse. If I need a boost of patience in a challenging situation, I will take a step away, count to ten and then return to the situation. I recently read a book, The Power of Patience by M.J. Ryan which also gave me some excellent new methods for coping with stress."
"I was once working with a group that could not quite get along, and it tested my patience a bit because it prevented us from staying on track and focusing on the goals. I went above and beyond in helping the group get along by scheduling lunches as a team and helping to mediate situations when needed."
Community answers are written by other candidates practicing this set. Reading how others frame the same question is one of the fastest ways to sharpen your own.
Anonymous Answer
In the current supply chain environment, patience is a requirement. I'm often placed in an awkward position between customers completing their projects, and factories building products. I think, as with most stressful situations, they often seem worse than they are and it's important to keep perspective, plan contingencies, and keep lines of communication open. So, for example, we're delivering electrical components for __________ and the engineers are still iterating on the design but lead times are quite long. In that case, we have to be understanding of the iterative nature of design but also make sure we're communicating how those changes are impacting us and will impact project schedules so that we can work collectively to deliver the project successfully with as few revisions as possible.
Marcie's Feedback
Excellent! This is a strong answer that shows the need for patience in this profession. Your example is a good one too. Just make sure you're emphasizing how patient you are personally instead of your team or the process itself.
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