Tell me about a time you showed initiative by taking the lead on a team project.

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1st Answer Example
2nd Answer Example
Community Answers

Your interviewers want to see that you are confident enough to take the initiative when the opportunity arises. Most medical training programs don't provide formal leadership training, so your interviewers want to know that you are a natural leader. As you advance to the final year of your residency, you will lead teams of junior residents, and your interviewers will want to hear that you can lead others with success.

Describe any project or learning experience where you saw a chance to lead and took advantage of it. Talk about the success of the project and your biggest takeaway from the experience. If you have direct work experience where led others with success, be sure to talk about that experience with your interviewing team.

"Growing up and into my college years, I was a natural leader to my peers. This is evident in my years participating in team sports and being a captain of my teams. During my two years in lab research before medical school, I was quickly appointed the lead research assistant of our lab and was given the authority to guide others in their work on a day-to-day basis. The lab leadership quickly saw that I was a great communicator with a talent for setting expectations and leading by example on the job. I was very excited to lead our team of assistants in the lab, and they all took to my leadership style quickly."

"During medical school while working on a group project. One team member was frustrated that the project wasn't being completed as quickly as they had hoped. I took the initiative and helped to clearly designate team roles and keep us on an appropriate timetable to effectively finish the project."

Anonymous Answer

"Growing up through medical school, made me realize my leadership skills. Whenever a task was assigned to my team I was the first to start organizing tasks for each member, follow up on their work and make sure everything is done neatly before we present our work."

Marcie's Feedback

That's awesome! To make your answer more impactful, talk about a specific instance when you took the lead on a team project. Right now your response is somewhat vague; adding more details and specificity will make it much more memorable to the interviewer. Use the STAR method to talk the interviewer through the situation, your task/actions, and the end result. Nice job!

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Anonymous Answer

"While growing up I was considered a natural leader by my peers as evidenced by how excellently I led various teams. But what stood out was when I became head of a hospital in my community and I noticed an increase in the incidence of HIV, and many patients came late to the hospital with complications of hypertension and diabetes. I decided to carry out a community outreach activity, I trained community health workers and nurses and divided them into subgroups. We did free screening for HIV, diabetes, and hypertension. We targeted HIV, placed at risk, and gave free talks to them. Those identified with the illness were immediately placed on treatment. We saw a decrease of 4.5% in the incidence of HIV. I was very impressed by how we worked as a team to achieve this."

Marcie's Feedback

Excellent! You have provided a strong example of a time when you took the initiative on a project and successfully led it. What do you mean when you say that you became the 'head of a hospital'? Can you clarify what job title you had? How much had the incidence of HIV increased to spark your concern? How big is your team? Including some additional details will further strengthen your answer. Great job!

Anonymous Answer

"I strongly believe in teamwork and leadership as is evident from my journey, I took the initiative to start a free coaching center for underprivileged students who cannot afford to go to school to get an education. I would lead other members of my team to make a schedule for them, would arrange meetings to ask for their opinion, and with constant feedback, our institute results were improving."

Marcie's Feedback

Awesome! It's fantastic that you took the initiative to help others in this way. To build out your answer more, can you discuss why you decided to start the coaching center? What inspired you? Also, consider providing more details about how you got the center up and running, what its daily operations entailed, how your leadership skills enabled you to succeed, and how this initiative impacted the students. Great job!

Anonymous Answer

"During my second year of medical school, I was part of the leadership of my class. This meant being the spokesperson for my classmates when it came to expressing concerns to our professors or communicating schedule changes to my classmates and communicating important messages from our professors. Like a middle-man."

Jaymie's Feedback

You're off to a good start! This is a great opportunity for you to highlight your communication, problem-solving, collaboration, decision-making motivation, and delegation skills. Can you go into more detail and give examples of how you utilized these skills in that leadership role?