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
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 gonna 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 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 i'll give you a free coaching session
or something you know 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 them 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
all right 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 getting 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 the 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
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 ask 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 i 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 could actually be
combined to come up with an even better so what would be the best solution for us regardless of
whose it is and hopefully it's something that we can 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 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 the 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 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 we're disagreeing
so i want to make sure that i pause i'm open-minded i let them speak i listen to
their opinion that's a skill right i listen to them wait for being open-minded that's
amazing listening that's a skill that's amazing and then 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 and 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 at a disagreement 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
you