We talk about interviewing.
And in that session, I talk a lot about storytelling and how you should keep it short and simple,
right?
You want to capture and keep their attention.
You want to have organization to your story, right?
All that good stuff you want to make them believe you.
You want to get them to care.
You ultimately want to get them to act and all that good stuff.
That formula is phenomenal for 80 to 90% of interview questions, especially the ones that
ask you about a specific situation.
Meaning I say, Hey Frank, tell me about this project here.
What was going on?
Okay.
Works great.
But when you get one of these, where it is off the page, so to speak, and they throw
you into the big blue ocean and you now have to choose a story.
Yeah.
You are at great risk of choosing a story that they will not like, okay.
Chances are, you will choose a story.
They will not like you have a greater chance of doing that.
I'm not trying to scare you here.
I'm going to give you the fix.
But I want you to know this is a different kind of question.
And what I think is always important when you get one of these.
And they're very odd.
They're obvious to know, because I was asked to choose something that is going to tell
them something about my behavior, not my accomplishments.
Okay.
Can we, I need you to write that down.
When I get a question about something where I'm given the opportunity to choose where
my response is going to tell them about my behavior, as opposed to my accomplishment,
I need to use a different formula.
The different formula you need to use is you need to share with them your philosophy.
Then I want you to share with them the process.
And then I want you to share with them the outcome.
Now I haven't given this an acronym yet.
PPO is kind of like, you know, the healthcare thing, anybody who wants to give me an acronym
and help me brand this thing out, give you a free coaching session or something.
No, there's the star technique.
That's out there.
Situation, task action result, and people tout it and they say, this is the best way
to answer behavioral interviewing questions.
And I think it's the absolute worst way to answer a behavioral interviewing question.
And I'll tell you why, because if I go right into the situation, I tell him what the task
was.
I tell them what my action was and I tell them what the outcome was.
And they don't like the story that I chose.
I lost the question.
Okay.
I lost it.
I gave myself no insurance that they are going to still love me, despite the fact that they
didn't like the story I chose.
So you can eliminate that by explaining your philosophy on something.
Because if your philosophy is in alignment with their philosophy, it doesn't matter what
story you choose.
Okay.
Let's be really specific.
So you know how to answer this question, but I wanted you to know, I wanted you to know
what was coming and why I want you to do it this way.
Okay.
Alright.
So number one, philosophy.
So that's great.
That's a great question.
You know, about a time that I disagreed with somebody.
I think, I think I've got a great story for you, but I, I I'd love to share my philosophy
about any disagreement because this is going to happen, right?
You're going to work in an environment.
So why are people disagreeing?
We have different approaches.
We have different goals.
We have different motivations.
We have different ways that we, we feel we might be able to develop a solution for something.
And any time I get in a disagreement with somebody, I think it's important.
The first thing is to recognize that I'm disagreeing.
And then the first thing that I do is I step back and I want to listen to their viewpoint,
right?
I want to understand w why they're saying what they're saying and where they're coming
from.
And I need to make sure that my mind is open.
So that's the first thing that I do.
And the second thing that I do is ultimately I asked myself the question, if we're disagreeing
about something, and we're doing this at work, we obviously want to come up with the best
solution for the company.
So we have to keep in mind and I have to remind myself, what is the ultimate goal that we're
trying to accomplish.
And then I look at what the person is saying, and I try to think about, okay, is there a
way where, where I'm coming from and where they're coming from can actually be combined
to come up with an even better.
So what would be the best solution for us, regardless of who's.
It is.
And hopefully it's something that we could combine to make it even better.
That's teamwork.
And that's the way that I look at it.
So there was this time when, okay.
I could say what I just said, role play it in less than 40 seconds.
Okay.
And there was this time when, and then the story right after you just got done telling
him, I think, and not, or I want to go with the best solution for the company.
And then you go in with the detailed example and the ultimate disagreement is when you,
you and somebody else initially did not see eye to eye.
And you came out with a third solution.
That was a blend of the two.
That is the ultimate story.
Why?
Number one, you were open-minded number two, you compromised or, or, or put the effort
in to work with that person to come up with a better solution.
And three, it also shows them that you're a team player.
Okay.
All three.
That is the ultimate answer.
So go back to the philosophy, right?
My philosophy is I recognize that we're in, we're disagreeing.
So want to make sure that I pause I'm open minded.
I let them speak.
I listened to their opinion.
That's a skill, right?
I listened to them with first being open minded.
That's amazing listening.
That's a skill.
That's amazing.
And okay, now I'm looking for a solution.
I'm not emotional about it.
I'm just thinking about what's best for the company.
And off you go philosophy.
Here's what my steps were right in.
Here's what the outcome was.
That's the result.
Now, hopefully, hopefully you have a combo solution that you did.
I'm guessing you work long enough.
You were out of this agreement with somebody where you came up with a solution that was
even better.
Okay.
Now you can't use that.
If they say, tell me about a time when you had to influence somebody.
Okay.
But you can alter what I just gave you to talk about.
Okay.
I recognize you can still use the same answer up until the part where you go to the example,
then you have to say, and I recognized that my solution was just was the right one based
on the goals after I had listened to the person.
And here's how I articulated my, my viewpoint.
And ultimately came up with the outcome and influenced that person to change their mind,
same story, right.
Or same structure, right.
Philosophy, process, or steps.
And then what the outcome was.
Okay.
So that, that's that one, the other one that you guys loved Hmm.
Was the leadership and management one.
So this is, this is, you know, what's your management style, what's your leadership style.
How would you define leadership?
Let's cover those.
Now, if we go back to my little thing about yeah.
Right.
Philosophy, process, and outcome.
Okay.
It, you think about most of you that are going to get asked, this question are going to be
in a leadership capacity, in a managerial role.
You better think team first.
Okay.
So my management style is, or how do I manage people is the first thing is I'm in charge
of a team or I'm responsible for a unit.
And so the first thing is I always have to make sure that whatever I'm doing in some
way is moving the entire team forward, right.
That the team, the team is moving in unison.
And that the sum of the parts is greater right than the individuals.
So that's the first thing that I focus on.
So in order to do that, I make sure that my processes and protocols are in place and that,
and that they're there in order to enhance our ability to produce.
But in order for us to be operating efficiently, I have to think team first request to hold
up the cards a bit longer.
When you show them, you guys got to replace, you could, you could, you could slow them
down.
You support the individuals, right?
So I think team first, but in working the team to its highest, I have to support the
individuals, which means I have to get to know each one of them.
Okay.
I have to get to know each one of them.
I have to understand their operating procedures, what their goals and aspirations are, how
I can help facilitate that in, in, in the protocols of, of working well as a team, right?
And the processes that we've set.
But some people, they need a little Pat on the back.
Some people need a little kick in the butt, right?
Everybody's a little different.
And as a, as a leader, you gotta take the time to listen to your people, to get to know
them, and then to adjust your operating style, not special treatment wise, just making sure
that you are interacting with their person in the way that is going to ultimately raise
performance, right.
Leaders by if you want to go off the definition they raise performance and they inspire confidence.
So as somebody is going to do something, either they inspire confidence to do something that
they otherwise wouldn't do, or to go at it with more vigor and more confidence, even
if they were going to do it anyway.
So, so ultimately that's, that's my management style is making sure that the protocols are
in place for the team and then supporting the individuals, right.
I literally on an individual basis based on their behaviors, their goals and what they,
what they're interested in and how they perform best and getting them to work in, in unison,
because that's what I think leaders do leaders build more leaders.
They don't build more followers, right.
They raise the performance and they inspire confidence.
So you can, you can wrap all that up, however you want, but philosophy right.
Process.
And here's what I do.
[inaudible].