Tell me about a time when you had to lead a team. What was your biggest success factor?
The interviewer would like to hear about a time that you led a team, with a positive outcome. The highlight for the interviewer the primary factors that made your leadership style a success. Your example could come from the workplace or perhaps a time when you led a group project during your post-secondary studies.
"Just last month I was asked to lead our day shift employees when my boss was away on sick leave. I took charge for two weeks, and the experience was quite positive! I believe the biggest success factor was that I tried to emulate his leadership style and did ask his help when I wasn't sure what to do. I feel this experience prepared me for a leadership role. I am excited to take on a team lead role again."
"Our company had a contest last month to see who could up-sell the most menu add-ons, and I was asked to be our team leader for the challenge. I enjoyed that responsibility, and we ended up winning the reward in the end because my team increased sales by the highest percentage."
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Anonymous Answer
Back in college, I lead a team that was charged with doing a story for the school paper, about the culinary department. I think that the biggest success factor was me encouraging the team to take as many photos as possible, so that we would have the perfect images to be shown in the article.
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! It sounds like you did a good job leading this team. Consider providing more details, however. For example, how exactly did you motivate your team to take lots of photos? Did you display leadership qualities like empathy, decisiveness, integrity, confidence, and honesty? How did you empower and inspire the people below you? Did you delegate? Were you an active listener and a strong communicator? The more details you can include that show why you're a strong leader, the better!
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