The real question: can you balance the needs of your team with the organisation’s objectives?
Whilst it may seem easy to answer on the surface, there’s actually one big hidden consideration to think about before selecting a story to follow up with. While a great many companies value teamwork, emotional intelligence and empathy in their people, the cold, hard truth is they do so because they think that helping and caring is of benefit to their bottom line.
The best answers stress that not only did you support a member of your team, but your support translated into higher performance for the company – or, at least didn’t negatively impact it.
Essentially, you want to show the interviewer that you’re nice…but nice in a way that balances empathy and productivity.
Right answer: ‘In my previous workplace, I was in charge of a team of six. During one project I noticed a member of the team was struggling with a research task, which meant the rest of the group had to pick up the slack. I took him out for a coffee and asked what was wrong. He explained that he was snowed under with some tasks from another project and also struggled with the research methods being asked of him. I spoke to the person heading up the other workstream and agreed to lessen the individual’s responsibilities, plus also sourced some extra help to guide the individual through the research methods he was struggling with. Together, these two things quickly improved his performance.