Tell me about a time there was a serious conflict on your team. How did you resolve it?
"My previous company went through a merger last year, and the amount of tension amongst the team was quite extreme. People did not know if they were going to lose their jobs, get their year-end bonus' and more. Everyone was sharp with each other, but I chose to take the kindness route. I was a friendly face through it all and kept a positive outlook. I know that I did my part to help the negativity."
"Two of my team members were in a feud over a process that they were both misinterpreting. Normally, I do not get involved in the smaller conflicts as I believe that grown adults can iron things out without mediation, for the most part. This event was different. I called a meeting between the three of us and let them know they were both incorrect. They were a bit embarrassed about the whole event and allowed me to re-train them in the process, the correct way."
"We have two content writers with very different styles. They are both very talented, but their techniques often don't work well within the same campaign. They were recently forced to work together on a significant campaign we had on the go. They ended up in a huge fight, insulting each others' writing style, and more. I jumped in and mediated the situation, complementing them on their methods, and suggesting ways that their techniques could complement each other. I think that seeing the possibilities through the eyes of an outsider was helpful to them and they delivered a fantastic product."
"We recently had two employees fighting over a customer. One associated insisted they greeted them first and the other insisted they did not poach. To solve the issue, I split the commission between the two of them. Neither was happy about the situation, but it made them more aware, moving forward, of the whereabouts of their customer."
"Salespeople can sometimes be a bit ego driven because we are competitive by nature. I had a couple of sales reps who were arguing over which territory a certain client belonged. The client had an office in each of their territories, so they both wanted the client. I suggested that the sales rep who had the company's HQ in their territory should take both offices. Problem solved!"
"We have a pretty cohesive faculty, so arguments don't happen in our team. If a situation between colleagues were to occur, I would be the mediator by nature. I am a calm person and can think outside the box when it comes to problem-solving."
When cooperating with groups of people from different backgrounds and various work styles, conflict is inevitable. Think of an example of when your team experienced a conflict. Be sure to highlight how you skillfully handled these conflict issues.
"One of the employees on my team was due to present at an industry conference, but he fell behind and couldn't put everything together in time. Everyone on our team was disappointed in his lack of commitment, and many people were upset with him. I was not scheduled to present, but I stepped in to cover for him. This situation meant I had to rearrange my schedule, cancel meetings and postpone a lunch event, but my company needed this presentation to be successful. I will always go above and beyond for my team, even when it isn't the most convenient."
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Anonymous Answer
For my current job, we have a project to build datorama dashboards to conduct marketing analysis and visualize campaign performance for each of our clients. The project involves working with a software engineer and a client success manager. They are very talented, but their techniques often didn't work well together. They had worked on this project for more than six months. They pushed the deadline several times, and both thought it was not their problem. So I jumped in, mediated the situation, sorted out issues, and suggested ways to work together.
First of all, I talked to the engineer and client success manager separately to understand their work. From our meeting, I learned that first, we had a template created by the datorama team for us, and we could make changes as needed and use it for replication. Second, for the client success manager, his work was put forward all the requirements for the dashboard, such as metrics he wants to present and the way they should look. For the engineer, his work was to implement these ideas and use javascript to build custom visualizations (like heatmap and pacing bars) that are not provided by the software. However, I noticed there was a gap between their work, and no one was actually responsible for the dashboard design, original data ingestion to the platform, and final data quality check of the dashboards. Besides, we only had one dashboard created. We needed to find a way to create a template of our own and replicate it for all other clients.
After that, I suggested we complete the template and conduct a data quality check within two weeks and then start the replication process. I found I can help with the dashboard design, the engineer can perform data ingestion, and the cs manager can perform the final data quality check. With my suggestions, I created the first draft of the dashboard. There were some problems coming up, but we successfully finished the template and first-round data quality checks in two weeks.
Then, I documented the replication process, and we shared the workload to replicate for all clients. We did several rounds of data quality checks to make sure all dashboards looked good and all data was correct.
One month after I joined the project, we finally rolled over these reports to our clients. I got a lot of compliments from the team for my initiative to solve the problem. And I even got rewarded at our all-hands meetings. I could go around knowing that everyone recognized my work in the cross-function team, and they trusted my ability to deliver and be reliable. This was a rewarding experience for me.
Rachelle's Feedback
Excellent answer! You do a very nice job bringing this story to life. It's evident how you took action to solve this issue, and you smoothed out many factors for your projects, your team, yourself, and your company. Well done!
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