conflicts at work is inevitable so often in an interview you'll be asked how do you
handle conflict today I'm going to give you an example answer to that interview question so
that you can give an effective example answer in your own interview that shows that you can
handle conflict resolve it and clearly show how you do that so by the end of this video
you'll have the questions that you need to look out for in your interview how to structure your
answer and also a solid example answer and a ton of useful resources to help you pass your
interview if you're new to the channel welcome welcome I'm Amri Celeste an interview coach and
HR recruitment specialist I cover tough interview questions and answers on this channel if you want
to connect with me on social media then it's amri Celeste on LinkedIn and on Instagram as
well and don't forget to like And subscribe it's a huge help to the channel so first let's look
at what the question type is because then you'll know why the interviewer is asking so how do you
handle conflict is a behavioral interview question behavioral interview questions are questions about
your behaviors which might sound obvious but it can be difficult to work out when you're sitting
in an interview hearing the actual question so where is a situational interview question might
be tell me about a time when or a situation where something happened behavioral questions
are more about your character so how you work with others what your goals and aspirations are and how
you handle failure or difficulty so your answer tells the interviewer how you handle disagreements
difficult situations and similar and it also tells the interviewer your perspective on conflicts as
well as your ability to relay how you handle and resolve them so if you're being asked the question
it's not necessarily because there'll be conflict in the actual role they may just want to know how
you interact with others maybe groups of people if you'll be working in a team or it could be a kind
of role where you might be engaging with multiple people with varying different personalities which
can sometimes result in Conflict such as a manager of a team or a complaint handling role you could
be exposed to conflict in that kind of role too or HR Human Resources is a role where employees
may come to you with conflict related scenarios or queries that you need to look into or resolve
so anything similar to those types of roles might invite this type of interview question
now if you actually are going for an HR or human resources role you can check out my jobs in HR or
recruitment playlist here and look through those videos to get an idea of the questions for your
HR or recruitment interview so if you struggle with behavioral questions then you can check out
this video covering the top behavioral interview questions and answers there's tons of examples
in there and I'll also link that video in the description box below this video now you may
not be directly asked how do you handle conflict you might be asked how do you deal with conflict
how do you handle Conflict at work how would you resolve conflict with a co-worker tell me about
a time when you had a conflict at work you might be asked about dealing with difficult people at
work dealing with difficult co-workers so be prepared to answer similar sounding questions
because you can usually use the same answer or a very similar answer for all of them what not to do
when answering this question it's really important that you avoid giving answers that are too vague
or too generic for example saying I always try to be respectful and compromise you can include this
as part of your answer but it doesn't give the interviewer a concrete example of your conflict
resolution skills and definitely avoid saying I don't get into conflict it's one of the common
interview mistakes and as I said at the beginning of the video Conflict at work is inevitable it's
sometimes not your fault or caused by you but you still need to demonstrate how you
handle it if you ask this interview question so let's look at a strong example answer I believe
that open and honest communication is the key to resolving the vast majority of conflict if I've
encountered Conflict at work with a colleague I try to understand their perspective and address
any underlying concerns I also try to be open and find a compromise in a solution that works for
both of us even if I'm not 100 happy with it in the past first I found that setting aside time to
have a one-on-one discussion can be very effective and during any conversation I listen actively and
stay respectful even if I don't necessarily agree with the other person's point of view
now this is a short sweet simple answer it's not overly complex it's not long and it explains your
approach and explains what you would do in theory which is enough for some interviews I mentioned
earlier you can include that type of thing in your answer however if you watch my videos regularly
you're going to know where I'm going with it a lot of interviewers will want you to include an actual
example so the theory of how you resolve conflict will not be enough however well you articulate
it why because an example allows the interviewer insight into how you actually deal with a conflict
in real time in a real situation not a theory not this is how I would do that so now I'm going to
share an example answer that includes a specific scenario that you can use and bear in mind the
link of your answer as well so if you add on an example that would make your answer longer so
if you are doing that then you don't need to go into as much detail in that first section that I
just covered so here's the first part for how do you handle conflict I have a colleague who has a
very different communication style to me I'm quite responsive and prefer to keep everyone
looped into updates and changes while I'm working my colleague is more focused on powering through
work as opposed to emails or meetings to keep everyone in the loot along the way I was assigned
to work on a project with this colleague so I've specifically chosen a situation where you've
kind of snuck in that your communication style is responsive which basically means that you respond
quickly regularly and positively because in most jobs a responsive style is preferred over radio
silence or working in a silo which means kind of isolating yourself it demonstrates a collaborative
approach to working and and communication and if you're being asked this question it's likely
that the role you're interviewing for requires a collaborative style but you might have noticed
already I'm using the star method to structure this example what is the star method also known
as the star technique star stands for situation task action result the star method automatically
puts your answer into story format without you having to think about it and that is one way to
make your answer super memorable but also if you don't include things like the actions you took or
the ultimate result then interviewers can Mark you down if they're using a structured framework to
score your answers I've seen interviewers assess candidates against the actual star method and then
complain after the interview that the candidate didn't cover the situation task action and result
and they were waiting to hear it so far are you finding this helpful if you are then do click like
subscribe and leave a comment it's a huge help to the channel and it shows that this video will
show up for more people looking for this question and you can also buy me a coffee if you're getting
results that also helps to keep the channel going and there's a link in the description
below on how to do that so the next part of this answer is the task as part of this project our
team was responsible for presenting results to the client and we needed to make sure that all of the
deliverables in the project were completed on time I noticed that my colleague was not responding to
my emails or messages in a timely manner which was causing conflict within the team causing
delays and putting pressure on the team so in that section You're just showing the task part of the
star method so what needed to be done or solved or what you needed to do now if you do get tired of
feeling nervous and unsure during your interview then do join my interview Mastery Program it's
designed to address these concerns plus more like learning how to sell yourself feeling confident in
your interview and dealing with brain freeze and getting rid of interview nerves and anxiety so if
you do want recruiters to prioritize you there is a link to my interview Mastery Program in
the description box below this video so the next part of the star method is the action I decided
to set aside some time to have a conversation one-on-one with my colleague to address the
issue during the conversation I explained how their lack of communication was impacting the
project and the rest of the team I included the delays and the extra pressure as a result your
action especially when it comes to questions like how do you deal with conflict has always
got to center around communication particularly for interpersonal conflict such as personality
differences misunderstandings or competing goals so the last part of the star method is the result
my colleague apologized and explained that they were overwhelmed with other
responsibilities we were able to come up with a plan to cut down their workload to include
only essential tasks and spread anything else amongst the wider team ultimately the project
deliverables were completed on time and my colleague made an effort to improve their
communication going forward now if you thought that I was done with resources to help you pass
your interview you are sadly mistaken so here are the top 20 interview questions and answers
in this free guide that I have created for you it's free as I mentioned and you
can grab it in the description box below this video now if this was helpful and you haven't
already then do like and subscribe and leave a comment and I will see you in the next video