How do you handle stressful situations?
Every job has stressful situations. Deadlines are a common stress for newspaper editors. Another example might be dealing with a writer who is stubborn and not very open to change.
Talk about an example in which you were able to keep calm and identify an issue clearly despite highly emotional nature of the situation. Be detailed about the indicators that you can detect in yourself and others. Show how you were able to defuse the situation and end your response with a positive outcome.
"Whenever I feel stressed out, I tell myself to slow down and breathe. If I feel myself getting tense, or my heart starts racing, I know immediately that I'm stressed and I discreetly pinch myself in the leg to remind myself that I'm in control.
There was this one time that a writer was getting very short with me about the edits that I suggested. I could tell from the beginning because he was frowning and staring at the page, I noticed that's what he does when he's stressed out. He started yelling at me, but I didn't yell back. Instead I showed him compassion. In the end, we worked things out much faster that way, and we were able to meet the deadline."