Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a team member. How did you handle it?
The interviewer wants to know that you are faced with a conflict with a member of your team, that you will handle it professionally. The interviewer wants to hear any problem-solving skills that you utilize.
"In my previous role, I had a coworker who started working after me and would frequently talk about how the clinic was doing things incorrectly and then talk about how her previous employer did things in their clinic. It felt like she was constantly bashing our employer. Eventually, I spoke up and just told her that my previous employer also did things differently but that I felt that it was beneficial to learn things in different ways and that it was nice to know multiple ways to complete a task. After that, she seemed to keep her negative comments to a minimum and it was nicer to work with her."
Think about a time that you had a conflict with one of your teammates in a previous position. Talk about the actions that you took to resolve the conflict. If you have had any prior problem resolution or conflict resolution training, provide an overview of those pieces of training now and discuss how you utilize those training techniques when a conflict arises with a coworker.
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Anonymous Answer
In my first year at university, I was in a group team, and I had this one team member who took charge of being a team leader. He was two years ahead of me, so he had more experience than me. I noticed that he was dismissive of my suggestions in the team meeting. Whenever I would share my idea, he would be dismissive and not consider my idea or just move on with the next person. I saw this happening on two occasions. I knew something had to be done.
The action I took was
1.I spoke to him privately
2.Had an open communication
3.Give some examples of when it was happening
After speaking, he was shocked and apologized straightaway. From that day forward, he involved me more in the group meeting and considered my ideas more. We also had good friends in school and outside of work.
Would this be a good answer to this question?
Marcie's Feedback
Nice! You do a great job here of using the STAR method to respond in a logical, structured, and easy-to-understand manner, which the interviewer will appreciate. You might want to consider using an example of a more direct conflict like an outright disagreement, but if you don't have one like that to cite, this example definitely works too. Great job!
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