Behavioural interview questions: key things to consider

Behavioural interview questions are bound to come up in almost any job interview. To deal with them effectively, they need to be answered slightly differently to 'competency questions. As part of our Foundation Coaching programme, we spend a good chunk of time looking at interviews, different question types, and how to best answer them. Clarifying what a behavioural interview question is - and how to effectively answer them - is the subject of this week’s blog.

What is a behavioural interview question ?

A behavioural interview question is one designed to see how you have, or would, handle various workplace situations and scenarios. It’s less about your skills and achievements than a ‘competency’ based question. Rather, it’s more about how you utilise your ‘soft skills’ in nuanced way to handle situations that are perhaps ambiguous and that require tat, judgement and being guided by your values. Typically, the interviewer will paint a scenario in the future or ask about something that’s happened in the past and how you handled it.

What are some examples?

There are obviously any number of possible behavioural interview questions that could come up in an interview. In my experience as an Executive Recruiter and Career Coach, some common ones are:

• Tell me about a time when you had a significant disagreement with your supervisor or someone much more senior than you. How did you handle the situation?

• Tell me about a time when you were working on a deal and you realised that it was going to go badly off the rails. What did you do?

• How would you handle a conflict between two members of your team? What would you do?

How do you answer behavioural questions like these?

Perhaps the first step is to recognise that this is a behavioural question. The next is to think about what it is that the interviewer wants to hear in your answer.

To put some structure to it, use this framework:

1. Organising principles: Show that you question, listen and seek to understand what’s really going on. Think through the possible options that are available as solutions. Remain flexible in your approach and learn lessons.

2. Seek to understand the situation: Ask the parties concerned what’s going on. Gather more data. Let people know that you’ve listened and that they’ve been heard. Understand what the real situation is and how people have come to the position that they’re taking.

3. Ask team members what the solutions might be for the issue at hand. Run with those ideas and think them through to the conclusion. Offer your own alternatives, perhaps adding data or ideas that other people may not be aware of: “Have you considered this…..?”

4. Come to a resolution. If you’re leading the team, you can explain the course of action to be taken, acknowledging the input from team members. If you’re a subordinate, go with the leader’s decision and thank them for allowing you to air your concerns.

5. Finally, let the interviewer know about the lessons that you drew from that situation if it was in the past. 

Behavioural interview questions: what it looks like in practice

Imagine this is the question that’s been posed: Tell me about a time when you had a significant disagreement with your supervisor or someone much more senior than you.

This is one suggested way of approaching this question, which can easily be replicated to fit similar, but different questions:

Thank you. 

I did have such a situation last year. I was concerned that the proposed approach that the team was going to take on a particular deal wasn’t going to work.

I raised the concern I had with my direct report in a one to one conversation. 

I also asked why they were taking that approach and asked if there were some factors that I was unaware of.

My boss was friendly and open, and was kind enough to hear my thoughts and answer my question. They asked me if I had any additional insights that might be useful. I said that I had worked on a similar project just before this one and a member of the legal team had pointed out a critical legal point that we hadn’t taken into account. That legal distinction may be a factor in our deal. 

My direct report asked for more information and in the light of what we learnt from the legal team, we shifted our approach to the deal. 

The lesson that I took from that situation is that sometimes things are simply missed and drawing them to the attention of senior people in a polite and diplomatic way early on can save a good deal of time and effort. Handling the situation in this way also strengthened my relationship with my direct report.

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Behavioural interview questions are always likely to come up. Having a few good examples ready to hand will be a great way to prepare for your job interviews, to maximise your chances of success.

If you’re currently preparing for interviews or are in the midst of an interview cycle, and would benefit from a 15-minute coaching call, let’s talk. Click here to book a call.