When have you made a mistake delegating tasks to your team members?
This question concerns both your leadership skills and your communication skills. The saying "if you want to do something right, you have to do it yourself" is misguided, and suggests a lack of leadership experience. A more honest rephrasing would be, "It's too difficult for me to explain how to do something right, so I find it easier to just do it myself." So, your interviewer wants to know whether you are capable of effectively delegating to your teams while ensuring your communication is thorough, and enabling them to be self-managed in their work, ensuring a successful outcome.
"Earlier in my career, I didn't understand the importance of communication when delegating tasks. I assigned duties at random, instead of playing to my crew's strengths, just assuming everyone had the skills to complete any company-related task. Then, when the quality of the work wasn't as expected, I found myself feeling resentful towards those employees. Then, when discussing this with my mentor, they asked if I explained not only how to do the work, but why it was important, and how it fit into the big picture. I told him I didn't, and that I was trying to hurry and keep up the pace and that would've taken too long. They then asked me which took longer, explaining how to do the job right, or the rework involved later on. Message received. Unfortunately, the best lessons are often the hardest learned. Thankfully, that hasn't been an issue since."
Several of Teck Resources' job postings advertise that they are looking for candidates who are "able to create environments where accountabilities are clear and potential is developed, ensuring job expectations are clearly articulated and personnel are held accountable, coordinating work assignments, conducting training and proficiency development, mentoring and empowering staff throughout all functions." So, when answering this question, share how you break down the entire big picture of the work needing to be done by the team as a whole, and the part each individual has to play. Share how you inform them of not only how to do the job, and when it needs to be done, but also why that work is important and how it impacts the work performed by each member of the team, and the company as a whole. This approach makes them stakeholders, places the responsibility for the quality of their work in their hands, and ensures accountability.
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
Most often with new hires, it is difficult to predict their strengths and weaknesses in handling projects from various legal teams based only on their resume and past work experiences. Several years ago, I assigned two paralegals to translate evidentiary documents to be used in a patent lawsuit without checking to make sure that they understood the basic background of the case and its terminology. This resulted in additional time spent familiarizing them with the legal terminologies when it could have been better spent somewhere else. From then on, I try to find out their strengths and weaknesses and plan ahead to assign the same paralegals on ongoing cases to avoid such delays.
Marcie's Feedback
This is a strong response. You explain the situation, your role in it, the action you took, and what the end result was (STAR). Most importantly, you talk about the lesson you learned from your mistake so that you don't make it again. Good job!
Anonymous Answer
There was a time that I delegate a task to a coworker but didn't realize the person did not understand what I was saying. I later developed the habit of asking for responses from coworkers after I delegated a task to them.
Jaymie's Feedback
It's great to take ownership in a case like this, and it sounds like you did that and also implemented a safeguard to ensure the mistake didn't happen again.
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