Have you ever encountered a time where being honest and straightforward was difficult? If so, how did you handle that situation?
In their value of trust, Smith & Nephew believes that being honest and straightforward in what they do and say is vital to building trust. At some point or another in your career, you've likely faced a situation where being upfront and honest was difficult based on a number of situations. In your example, your interviewer will be looking to hear what internal struggle you were facing and why you decided to be honest. Let them know of a positive outcome around the situation and that you were happy with the decision to be honest. Your interviewer will be looking to find out that you are a trustworthy and honest person, no matter the situation you are in.
"Early in my career, I was working as part of a large project team that was focused on implementing Six Sigma philosophies at several facilities. As part of the team, I was responsible for being the project secretary. In this role, I kept meeting notes, developed meeting itineraries, and scheduled our meetings out for the future. A few months into the program, I brought a good deal of paperwork home over the weekend to get notes typed up. Having things in a box in the garage over the weekend, my husband grabbed the box to take to the landfill with other garbage over the weekend. Realizing late Sunday night what had happened, I took the right path in communicating with my team that the meeting notes from our first few months had accidentally been thrown away and I explained what had happened. In a moment where not telling the truth and taking the blame would have been easy, taking the moral high ground showed my team that I was honest and could be trusted, even after an unfortunate mistake. Luckily, the collective team and I spend about 30 minutes of our next meeting recapping our notes from the first few months of our project."
"In my current role as a Quality Assurance Inspector in the manufacturing industry, the final products sold are in large part my responsibility and I take pride in that. I've gotten to know many of my coworkers on the production line very well and a couple of years ago, I had to report a colleague for neglect of duties due to several weeks of poorly assembled final units that were under his responsibility. The difficulty I encountered was reporting a colleague after several warnings for neglect of duties. We were friends, but ultimately the duties of my job were most important to me. After this incident, the employee was put on a performance improvement plan and required more diligent quality inspections. Just a few weeks into the plan, the colleague pulled me aside to thank me for helping set him straight in his work. A lack of focus due to things in his personal life were affecting his work and he took measures to ensure that it didn't happen anymore from there."
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