When a leadership opportunity presents itself, are you excited to jump in, or do you feel nervous?

Question

Rachelle Enns · Accepted Answer

"When a leadership opportunity presents itself, I am excited to jump in. I often listen to interviews with motivational business leaders such as Ed Mylett and Warren Buffet, where I learn a great deal about active leadership and integrity. As a result, I have learned to be a confident leader, whether in a formal setting or when an unexpected opportunity arises. (Situation) For example, when I worked for Company XYZ, my manager would travel a lot as she was responsible for three business units globally. (Task) I became the unofficial manager when she was away. Team members would come to me when a customer issue needed resolving, a sale needed closing, and even when a piece of tech needed troubleshooting. (Action) I readily took on the responsibility and made myself available for any questions or any roadblocks they faced. (Result) This situation taught me more about teamwork, communication, and task prioritization. (Closing Statement) When you hire me, you will see that I am an outgoing and confident person, and leadership comes naturally to me."

Rachelle Enns · Answer

The interviewer wants to see that you have the courage to jump into an unexpected leadership opportunity, even if you feel nervous. The goal of your response is to give the interviewer a clear idea of the way you approach opportunities to lead. Show the interviewer that you have the potential and desire to influence your co-workers positively.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

Avoid focusing on your lack of leadership experience. Most hiring companies look for leadership competency in candidates, no matter how entry-level the job title. Even if you are new to your career or have not yet reached a formal leadership position, you can still showcase your natural leadership qualities. Consider speaking about how you act as a leader in group projects at school or while playing a sport.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

Be prepared to highlight the leadership characteristics you have. These qualities might include being a clear communicator, showing empathy to others, setting thoughtful goals, or having the courage to speak up when others may not.

If possible, talk about when you took on a leadership role regardless of feeling excited or nervous. You can use the STAR framework (Situation, Task, Action, Result) to form your story-based example.

If you do not have a specific example of a time when you took on the role of a leader, consider discussing the ways you actively improve your leadership skills. Perhaps you read books on leadership, listen to podcasts from thought leaders, or engage a mentor to develop your leadership abilities.

Rachelle Enns · Answer

"I used to feel nervous when a leadership opportunity arose. However, today, I am much more confident and usually excited to jump in and lead. While attending university, I was part of many group projects. I would naturally fall into a leadership role within the group more than half the time. I believe this is because I am an active listener. I am also highly organized and easy to approach. I enjoyed being viewed as a leader and look forward to more opportunities for leadership in the future. To prepare for leadership in my career, I have been reading leadership books such as 'Good to Great,' by Jim Collins."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Excited, every leadership opportunity is a chance to develop and create new skill sets professionally. My supervisor recently sent an email to the team with a list of who has completed the necessary number of projects this year to meet our year-end performance objectives. Teams are subdivided by region, and I noticed that one person on my team hadn't met her goal yet. I met with her and volunteered to help her work on her projects to reach her goals."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I am excited and jump right in. Open communication is something I feel strongly about, and I saw room for improvement at my company. I stepped up and started a WhatsApp group with one person from each sales region to help increase communication across the sales force. I still lead this group, which has dramatically improved open discussion amongst the sales force."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I enjoy acting as a leader, whether it be formally or unexpectedly. I am an outgoing, confident person, and leadership comes naturally to me. I was involved in a rugby final when our captain became injured in the last 20 mins of the game. I stepped up and took charge of the team to reassure them we had to stick to the plan initially set out by our captain. I ran through what everyone needed to perform. I enjoyed taking on the responsibility as it taught me more about teamwork, communication, and prioritization. I felt a great reward for my teammates and me when we won the final."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I love taking on a leadership role and its responsibilities. I feel I have a good strong skill set, and when I was in a regional meeting, I had noticed that we needed to target a few more of our key accounts and have accurate/specific account plans to get an advantage over the competitor. I took it on myself to designate 2 accounts to each team member, ask for an account plan by the end of the week, and email this to myself and the manager."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I like to jump in!I have extensive knowledge about our CRM system known as Veeva/Salesforce. More than my colleagues and so I wanted to help with that. After all, this is the system that allows us to be successful in our call inputs. So I would always support my colleagues free willingly with how to input eg customers into the system which bettered their work and day. As a result of how well this worked, I opted to become the national CRM champion for the company. Based on my collaborations with my colleagues, the role was created for me and I was responsible for helping my colleagues on eg how to create virtual calls during covid."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Sure, when a leadership opportunity presents itself, I see it as an opportunity for growth and development. I take on challenges with enthusiasm. I volunteered to train my colleagues. Because my VP was busy traveling so much, I offered product training material for my fellow CS and he took me up on the offer."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Whenever I got an opportunity in leadership, I am always excited to take it up. Two of my own greatest strengths are significance and command.

There are many situations in my career where I took on leadership. One of the latest situations was when Covid-19 impacted the supplies and backorder increased to $ 4.6M. I took charge of the situation and quickly implemented best practices of state guidelines to prevent any Covid impact on site. I was able to build clarity on material availability and match demand."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I feel excited about the opportunity and jump right in. I naturally do this when I see something I can help with. When I see someone doing something wrong or confused, I automatically ask if I can help or if they would like a recommendation with that exercise. Luckily for me, this sometimes leads to a direct or indirect sale. There are also several events I organized for a fundraiser or profit where I enrolled the help of others to get the job done well. At the Healthplex, before all the social media craze, the General manager asked for someone to volunteer to give a fitness tip in the quarterly newsletter. I volunteered and turned it in to me and my trainers writing a weekly fitness tip emailed to the members."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I look forward to growth and learning opportunities so I tend to jump in even if I'm stretched thin. I was working as Project Manager for a new cross-functional engineering group. I noticed a significant amount of time being spent on creating, understanding, and revising engineering drawings. I pulled from my previous experience as a design engineer and recommended to my boss that we create a "Design Manual" to standardize our engineering drawings and establish best practices that are most relevant to our product and tool designs. I led a small cross-functional group to collaborate and put into place a design manual that significantly reduced the time required to produce and revise engineering drawings, and reduced the number of errors in submitted drawings."

Anonymous User · Answer

"Excited to jump on it! That is the way you learn--by doing. I am always raising my hand to get more into leadership and have stretch assignments that will push me to the next step. I also love leading and seeing others succeed, as that is a reflection of my own skills too."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I always feel excited, I am a natural leader and I feel it is one of my strengths. I am very good at building relationships with all levels of people in my organization, and I feel this makes for a very enjoyable but also productive environment to work in."

Anonymous User · Answer

"I'm always excited about jumping into leadership roles, as I view it as an opportunity to learn and grow as an individual. At __________ I was promoted to customer service team lead where I had the chance to mentor and help new hires learn our system and methods of business. As a servant leader, it is important to me to show my team I'm here to support them in their career and personal goals."

When a leadership opportunity presents itself, are you excited to jump in, or do you feel nervous?

How to Answer: When a leadership opportunity presents itself, are you excited to jump in, or do you feel nervous?

15. When a leadership opportunity presents itself, are you excited to jump in, or do you feel nervous?

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