Tell me about a time you had to work with a difficult colleague or customer.

"I once had a colleague who was very negative and constantly complained during team meetings and projects. It was affecting the team's morale, and others began joining in. I felt like I had a good relationship with this colleague, so I asked her to have lunch with me one day. I asked her how things were going at home and work, and she shared some frustrations and problems. I was gentle but honest with her about how others perceived her and the impact she was having on the team. I let her know that as a senior employee on the team, others look up to her and often follow her lead and attitude. I wasn't sure how she would take it, but I had to have an open conversation with her and allow her to self-reflect and make changes before going to my manager. She appreciated me coming to her one-off and having the courage to have the tough conversation, and by talking about it openly and in a non-confrontation way, it did improve our team."

"I struggled with two employees during team projects and meetings. At first, I felt they were lazy because they never took the initiative and never spoke up on calls. I attended a course on personalities in the workplace and realized maybe they are just introverted and not always comfortable speaking up. I began inviting them to have virtual coffee chats biweekly and just spent time getting to know them. Through these calls, I confirmed they are very introverted and not lazy at all. Both had great ideas to share and were able to make suggestions on ways we could improve processes. They just needed encouragement and reassurance, and even though I was not in a leadership role, I did take on a mentoring role as I was senior on our team. I feel like it's easy to misunderstand others and label them as I did in this case as lazy when it's just a matter of getting to know someone and how to motivate and encourage them to collaborate."