How do you manage your stress in high-pressure situations?
Your interviewer is not only curious whether you can maintain your focus and stay productive in such situations, but also whether you allow your stress to govern your behavior, negatively impacting the morale of your team and their confidence in your abilities. Those who haven't yet learned to manage their stress are far more likely to suffer from task paralysis, or procrastination stemming from the insecurity that their approach to solving such problems may not be the best-laid plans. So, as you answer this question, they will study the messaging of your answers, as well as how consistent your body language is with the context of your narrative.
"I stay focused on what needs to be accomplished. I take my share as a stakeholder in the success of our teams seriously. Quite honestly, as strange as it may sound, if I let my stress get the better of me, and froze up or in any way let it impact my productivity, I think that would stress me out more. So, I just stay focused on what needs to get done, and objectify each obstacle, and quickly determine how to navigate each one, whether we climb over it, go around it, or take a detour. I think fast, take calculated and informed risks, and pride myself on being resourceful and decisive in such situations."
The confidence you have in your own abilities will reveal your level of experience. So, to successfully answer this question, simply align yourself with Zalando's recommended approach. What matters here is not whether your solutions in such situations are perfectly laid plans, but simplest and most decisive. "This is a race. Decisiveness breeds speed. We seek commitment, not consensus. Quick, adaptive execution of an imperfect plan beats slow execution of the perfect plan. Simple solutions scale quickly and are robust. Complicated ones are often a sign that we haven't understood the problem yet."
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