Have you ever experienced a time when a person or group were disruptive during a training session? If so, how did you handle that situation?
It's incumbent upon the consultants of Korn Ferry to foster an environment of growth and positive change. Diffusing adversity and resistance to change before building a more collaborative team environment is part of the job. Your interviewer needs to establish how skilled you are at overcoming such challenges. The examples you offer will help them determine how well-suited you are for this role.
"Coming from the manufacturing industry in a leadership position, I've led team meetings, company town hall meetings, and conducted training for my staff. During all of these things, I have witnessed people not paying attention, talking to others or just plain being disrespectful to me and to others. Recently, in a training for my team, one of my employees kept asking why the company was wasting money on paying for people to sit through a training that wasn't going to benefit anybody. After brushing him off twice, I took the liberty of calling him out on the third time he questioned the training. To the entire team, I asked who saw the training as being beneficial and every person in the room beside the man raised their hands. I then explained why the organization, myself as their leader, and the other employees saw it as important. I casually moved along with the training and not another word was said."
"During my time of providing education to staff and speaking in front of groups, I've encountered situations where people start side conversations or sit on their phone and don't pay attention. One great tip that I was given was to move around the room as the presenter to force people to adjust their focus to me. I've noticed that this helps a person or group not paying attention to recenter on me. Another tactic I use to prevent outside distraction is varying methods of presentation through video, audio or guest speakers whenever possible."
Describe a situation where you implemented tools to help move training along while engaging those who were disinterested, obstinate, or disruptive. Detail how you handled it, what the outcome was, and your takeaways. If you haven't dealt with this situation directly, put thought into how you'd handle it.
Avoid examples that might come across as negative in any regard. In most instances, such adversity comes from a place of fear. Strategy, empathy, and objectivity are what you should aim to convey.
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