While it is sometimes easiest to simply pick up the slack for an underperforming teammate, your best strategy for this question is to describe a time in which you addressed the conflict head-on. The STAR (situation, task, action, result) method is a great way to provide the necessary background information and describe the steps you took to resolve the conflict. Also, be sure to demonstrate empathy and even compassion for your teammate. This will help to convince your interviewer that you are both a team player and a leader.

In addition to my work as a senior program manager, I often serve as a team facilitator for various affinity and focus groups at work. I was asked to help facilitate a group of experts on technology vendor management. They were asked to come together and define a series of best practices to help negotiate enterprise-level contracts.

The leader I was assigned to work with essentially viewed me as an administrative assistant. She would agree to take on various tasks during our meetings and then would assign them to me afterward. She was my superior in the company but did not have any sort of authority over me in this setting. Additionally, my role as a facilitator was to remain neutral and help the group properly navigate their work. It was not my role to do their work for them.

I set up a meeting with her and expressed my concern about her approach. I let her know I felt that she should be the one to handle the commitments she made to the team in the meeting. I explained my opinion that handing off the work to me was not in integrity with what she agreed to, and it was outside of my role as a facilitator. She thanked me for my honesty and my effort to reset expectations. She indicated she had never worked with a formal facilitator before and misunderstood my role.

I was grateful to her for her kindness and understanding. We were able to work together well going forward and the group ultimately met all of the goals they set out to accomplish. I believe that discussing conflicts like these with empathy and understanding sets the stage for a positive outcome. I use this approach in times of conflict and it continues to serve me well.