How to answer behavioral interview questions with examples - FREE WORKSHOP!

All right. Welcome, welcome to the Ultimate Behavioral Interview Free Workshop. So I have been working with people about getting their stories set up for behavioral interviews for quite some time now. And I hear great feedback every day telling me how life-changing this has been for people when they show up for their interviews. So I decided today we're going to do a full training on this. With a whole bunch of examples. So I hope you're as excited as I am. Let's dive in. So you are in the right place if you struggle to convey your true value in interviews. You are also in the right place if you don't think you have any interesting stories to tell that are any good. This is what we're going to dive into today. By the end of today, you will understand what you need to do. Or maybe you blank when they ask you behavioral interview questions, or you're hoping that they're not going to ask you any of these questions because you don't know how to respond to them and you always get flustered when they ask. Or perhaps you keep getting passed over for jobs because you lack the skills of telling them how strong your work is through the power of your work stories. So maybe you know you're great at what you do, but you just have trouble communicating it to others. So that's what I'm going to teach you how to do today. And you love concrete examples and lots of them because that is what I have for you today, my friends. So let's dive in. So quick note, you are not in the right place if you are already nailing your interviews and you're getting every job that you go and interview for. You're also not in the right place if you are not currently interviewing at all or planning to go on any job interviews, or you get upset when after giving you 60 minutes of my best value-packed content, I make an offer to go deeper on this topic so that you can get faster, more personalized results. And then if you stay for the whole training, I'm going to give you the free bonus, which is going to include everything we go over today plus the fill-in-the-blank templates so that you can fill them out yourself for your own personalized career stories so you can tell them confidently in interviews. So quick note about me. Um, I have been in the career space for about 4 years now, uh, helping people get their dream jobs, nail interviews, ace their resumes, and the whole big picture of their career and really building a career they're proud of. I've been featured in some big publications including vault.com. Um, I was one of the top writers for 2018. Vault is a— maybe you heard of me through Vault. They're a prestigious website. They, they really cater to universities and help students who are graduating to get their dream jobs fast and as well as help people get jobs at the Big 4 firms such as Deloitte and CGI and some of the bigger, more well-known companies. So with that, I'm going to bring all the knowledge and skill that I have today to share with you some of my best tips for answering behavioral interview questions, which I think are the most impactful in interviews. So what you're going to get in this free workshop. First, we're going to talk about the secret sauce to nailing your interviews and why it works so well. Then we're going to talk about, we're going to dive into some very specific examples. I'm going to break them down step by step so you'll be very clear on how these questions could be answered in a really powerful, strong way. So first we're going to talk about, tell me about a time you had to make a difficult decision. We're going to dive into, tell me about a time you failed at work. We're going to talk about, tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult person. And then tell me about a time when you had a conflict at work or describe a time when you received criticism. So these questions come in many different formats. We're going to work on the answers today. So you're going to be completely confident when posed with one of these questions in the future. And there's more. We're going to talk about, tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. We're going to talk about, tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership skills. Then we're going to talk about how to come up with your own stories and specific questions to identify your best stories. So when you ask your brain a question, it can't help but answer it. I'm going to give your brain 25 really good questions to ask so that you can start coming up with the answers you need. So let's start with the proven secret sauce and why it works so well. So stories, you may have heard this strategy before, but we take it really deep and to a new level. So stories engage the brain on a subconscious level. And the reason why it's the proven secret sauce and why it works is because we can't help but remember the story that somebody told us, especially if it's a good story. Not only that, we retain 46% more information when it's told in the form of a story. And stories move hiring managers to action. In fact, stories can convince people to do anything. If it's a good story, it has all the elements of a good story. It's a really good persuasive, psychological, powerful tool to use when convincing anybody to do anything. So using the core story interview formula that I teach, you are in a league of your own when you figure out and master this. So for example, this is Carolyn and she sent me a note saying, I just want to thank you for the great content that you've provided. I meant to get back to you and tell you that I got a great job almost immediately when I started interviewing in the way that you suggest. So thank you. This was a big help. And I get countless stories like this every day. People saying, you know, the answering these questions in this different way was absolutely life-changing for me and I was able to either land a job, land a second interview, Any number of things happens. And plus you just feel more confident when you have something to talk about and you know how to communicate it. So first we're going to introduce the proven secret sauce formula and why it works. And we're going to be going over a ton of examples today. So get ready for that. So to introduce the formula, I'm going to use the example below. So say the example question is, Tell me about a time that you demonstrated leadership skills and abilities. So the first thing we do is we set the stage. We talk about the situation just so that the person listening has an idea of where to start. So setting the situation is like setting the stage just so people have an idea of what you are talking about. So for example, this is how we would set a situation up. I was transferred into a new department. at work. I was assigned a new team to lead. Before I was introduced to the team, the team was disgruntled and they had a low morale because the department was not staffed properly and turnover was high. There was a lot of office politics going on and people were unhappy. So this is where you'd explain the situation. So you were moved to a new team that had been floundering before you were assigned and you, your task was to make this team successful. So that's how you essentially set the stage. Then you talk about the actions that you took to make this happen. So this is where you would explain the specific actions that you took to ensure success. So talk about it in the form of I statements. So a mistake that some people make is they say we, and they say we because they want to sound like they're team-oriented and like they have, you know, a sense of that. It was all done as a team. But the truth is we want you to be the hero and the leader in the story. So just say I. So not only that, but you're the one interviewing so that your answer should describe your specific behaviors and no one else's should really come into play because they're not meeting with these other people and they don't know who these other people are. So it's really irrelevant. So you want to talk about it from an I standpoint. So for example, here's an example of the action. So first I scheduled one-on-one meetings with each team member. I really wanted to understand what their issues were. I wanted the team to be heard. I asked them a series of questions including what they thought I should do next, what the biggest challenge was that each team member was facing, as well as what they thought was really holding them back. I then followed up with everyone as a group. The most important thing that I took action quickly to repair the issues that were causing them the most stress and also gave them a free, um, free space to speak. So you can tell up to 3 actions that you took. This part of the answer is where you're going to spend the most time and it's going to be the meatiest, best part of the answer. This is when you're going to talk about how you got from point A to point B. Okay. So then you're going to talk about the result. And in this part of the answer, you want to share what happened in the end. You want to quantify this part with numbers and other business metrics if you possibly can, because that is always very powerful. Now it's not always possible to do it, but if you can, I want you to do that. That really puts the icing on the cake as far as these answers go. So even if the numbers are a little fuzzy or rough guesstimates, you're better off doing it than not doing it. So here's the example of the results statement. So the results of my leadership actions were that the morale was significantly improved after 90 days. It was apparent in the energy of the department and everyone was in much better spirits. So from these actions, the department's turnover rate was brought down from 40% annually to zero. Obviously, and I mean obviously, pick a story where the ending is going to be happy and the result was positive. So in some, in some cases it'll be like a time you made a mistake or the time you failed. And in those cases, the result doesn't always have to be positive. Then we talk about the learning. But if at all possible, you want to talk about positive stories that had positive results. Especially when it comes to leadership. And then if there is something that you can easily think of to add, you want to talk about interesting features. So this is where you tell the interviewer something special or memorable about the story so they can really stick in their mind. So for example, I think this example really demonstrates a servant leadership approach to getting business results. My team still talks about the turnover sometimes, and I'm proud of this example because even though I'm sure there were many ways to turn this failing team around, The actions that I took work best for the team in this situation. So interesting features are a bonus. They often can include a resource, a book, a technique that you use to get your result, and the goal should be made the interviewer say, hmm, that's very interesting. I'd like to learn more about servant leadership, for example. And that's the end. Whew. Okay. That was kind of a long explanation, but when you're telling the story, it will flow with a beginning, middle, and an end, and you won't have to explain everything you're doing when you're telling the story. So it should be about, 2 to 3, no more than 4 minutes long. So by now most people are thinking, wow, this is really useful info, but come on, Natalie, I can't remember all that in the middle of an interview. And I do understand why you would, you might have that thought, which is why I created this guide. So if you practice, which is what this is going to help you do, this will start to become second nature very quickly. And you don't have to remember everything. You just have to remember the most important Parts, the most powerful parts of the story. Okay. So a good story is always going to flow. It's going to have the beginning, middle, and an end, all following in a natural progression. So these, think of these things as little mini stories. The beginning is the situation where you set the stage and you give a person a very clear idea of what's going on. The middle is the meat, literally where the action happens, and the end is where you wrap it up and conclude it with a happy ending. be ending or an ending. So insert these parts into your story and you'll be off to the races. Another thing you can do is have a friend or anyone for that matter, ask you some of the questions in this training and practice the answers. So I call it the SARI formula. It stands for situation, action, result, interesting features. If you don't master this technique, I think you might be sorry. Okay. That was cheesy, but We're going to have some fun here, right? So you've probably heard of the SAR, the STAR, all that. But what I really do is go super in-depth and this is what I literally do is I coach people on their stories. So we're going to go through a ton of examples here today. But what I do with my clients is I will get on the phone with them and they will tell me their stories. We will flush them out and we'll make sure that they are super powerful, super intriguing, and super juicy so that any hiring manager really just wants to hire you right then and there. All right, so we're going to start out with, tell me about a time you failed at work. We're going to go through an example. So what's the psychology behind this question? What should you know about this? So it comes from the theory that your approach to failure defines your success. So successful people fail a lot. And this question is designed to see how you approach failure. How do you think about it? What's your attitude towards it? Are you bitter or are you eager to learn from it? So the framework is always going to be pretty much the same. Beginning, set the stage, middle, meat of the action, and how did it turn out? Conclusion. And are there anything interesting you want to talk about? Any interesting features you want to add? So what was the failure? Why did you see this particular thing as a failure? And we're going to go through an example of how This is told. So for example, a bad hiring decision. So this is one of mine. Um, so set the stage. I decided to hire someone and they didn't work out. So why was this a failure? Well, it costs money for the company and we knew, we, I knew we had to hire this person and train this person and to have them not work out after just a couple of months, I would consider that a fail. Right? So what did you do to try to fix it? Well, I owned up to the mistake. I saw clearly what we could have done after the fact, and I made sure to clearly articulate the red flags. So now I take a good look at the situation and ask the hard questions early on to avoid wasting time and resources on someone that wasn't going to make it long-term. So how did you proceed? This is where we talk about the action. I presented options and then I recommended the one that was best. So A, start the process to let the person go. B, try to keep training and working with the person in hopes that they would improve and become a strong employee. And interesting features. I learned about the characteristics and set apart the A players from the B players to the C players. And I now include a series of questions to ask candidates and I learned what to look for. And then this is where you really want to highlight the learning. So I'm now extra careful and I ask more specific questions both in the interview and when checking references. And I look for different things in interviews and I learned more about the hiring process than I ever have before. So this is a great example because this happens every day. People hire people and they don't work out, right? And this is nobody's fault, but we can always improve on it. So since this time I've actually learned a whole bunch of more things that I do in order to make sure I'm making the right decision. So we might give them a little quiz or a little test. We might ask them some different questions. So things like that. This is always a continuous learning experience, but the reason why it's a really good example is because we know that this happens all the time and companies are not going to blame the hiring manager. You're not going to get fired for hiring somebody that didn't work out. Obviously you didn't mean to. The only thing that you can do is learn from it and put specific things in place To prevent it from happening again so that you can improve your process every time you hire somebody. Okay. So for the most part in my career, I've had probably 90% good hires, but sometimes I've had bad hiring decisions and I've been responsible for making them. So that's just part of the game. That's just what happens when you're a hiring manager. So good example because everyone is going to basically understand that this happens. Okay. So example answer 2. So I've got another example of a failed, a failed, a time you failed at work. So this one was one that I helped my sister come up with. So my sister's in marketing. And so hers was a failed marketing campaign. So setting the stage, the marketing campaign was sent out to over 10,000 recipients with literally first name here instead of people's actual names. Not only that, but it was the entirely wrong message. So imagine getting an email that's, that said first name here. Immediately you're going to be like, oh, this is junk. This is for everybody. And you're not probably going to pay much attention to it. And it was the wrong message. So this was a failure because in her department it squandered an opportunity to reach a major milestone in the company's marketing plan. So what did you do to try to fix it? So first, owned her part in the mistake, saw what she could have done differently, regrouped and looked for where the breakdown of communication was and tried to salvage the campaign. But the emails had already gone out and they were not performing well. So how did she proceed? The action came up with a re-engagement campaign and held a meeting and had suggestions for the next time to improve on what had happened. What was the result? The re-engagement campaign helped the numbers a bit. It still wasn't optimal, but learning from the experience set them up for the next campaign, which they did, which ended up being the most successful campaign of the entire year. So sometimes a failure like this sets you back a bit and then springs you forward because you're more motivated to improve the situation. Are there any interesting features to add? An interesting feature here might be an insightful quote like, you can't fail if you don't give up, or you learn more from your failures than you do from your successes. So in this case, failures are a super rich experience. They mean character building, learning, and lots of growth. So don't shy away from taking— from talking about your failures. Embrace them, own them, and believe that they make you a better person. Because if you're going to be working anywhere where you have the opportunity to make decisions and make calls, It means that you're probably going to make some mistakes. You're probably going to fail a few times and that's okay. Companies have to let you fail so that you can succeed. So what did you learn? We learned to structure our meetings differently so we could make sure that we were all working towards the same result. We had a breakdown in communication that could have been avoided by asking better questions in meetings. And from now on, the first thing I'll be asking is, what's the outcome? Why are we committed to this outcome? What do we need to do to get there? So there you have it as a second example. So next up we're going to talk about, tell me about a conflict at work. So this one comes up a lot. So psychology behind it. The question's designed to see how you approach a stalemate, a draw, a situation where there's no clear move because you're at an impasse. They want to know how you're going to react, Where you're going to get the information, how you're going to decide, and how you're going to handle this, this disagreement. So the different opinion that someone else has is going to be— it's not going to be in control of what you do. So you have your opinion, they have their opinion. How did you communicate with that person to come to a solution? So communication is the number one skill that you're going to be able to demonstrate when you answer this question. So framework is pretty much the same as usual, and you want to tell a memorable, interesting story that includes the details to paint the picture. So that's what we're going to do next. So disagreement on software. So setting the stage, the team wanted to use Excel for tracking our event attendees, but I wanted to use a different software. It was something I'd used in the past that I found to be a great tool. The whole team was stuck on continuing to use Excel. I wanted to use the new solution because it was going to make things so much faster and easier during the event itself. So what did I do? I asked if they'd be willing to hear me out if I did a short presentation on the software and showed them a few of the features we could use right away and how it was going to save us time and keep us more organized. If after my demo they were still against it, then I was like, okay, cool, we'll, we'll use Excel. No problem. So they accepted. I presented the data. I showed them measurable ways it could help right away. I showed the team reliable resources and testimonials from people who would use the same software and they'd be using it for the same thing that we were using it for, for tracking attendees. And I suggested doing a quick test drive to let them try the software and see if they liked it. So that's the action and then the result. was after hearing the demo and trying it out, they really liked it. They agreed to give it a try. We still use the software today and we've expanded out to using it for a whole bunch of other things too, including setting our team goals and planning our sessions. So are there any interesting features to add? A key belief of mine is to let the best idea prevail no matter whose idea it is. So I like this because you could say, well, if it's, it could be the CEO's idea or it could be the receptionist's idea. It doesn't matter as long as it's the best idea that wins. Leave your titles at the door. So that's something that I like and that's how we operate in my company. What did you learn? So the main thing I learned was that the value of explaining something in a way that people understood, showing them really clearly what was in it for them, um, explaining it and communicating it was really the key to convincing them to go for it. So big learning experience here. Plus it was a win because everybody worked more efficiently and Gained the use of a great tool. All right, next. Tell me about a time you had to make a difficult decision. So psychology behind this, making decisions. The question is about how you had to make a decision when you didn't have all the information that you needed. And it may be just time-based, like you had to make the decision quickly. It was a really unclear decision. There was no manager for you to ask. You didn't know what to do. Basically, there was no way for you to be sure whether you were doing the right thing or not. So how did you decide? This is basically what they want to know. So a tough call on a flight booking. So one important note I wanted to give to you is this could have gone either way. This was my story and it ended up turning out well. So I told the story, but it could have gone horribly wrong as well. So Just keep that in mind, but I'm going to use this example because it turned out really well for me. So setting the stage, I was asked to book a flight for a candidate who was being flown in by our company for an interview. So we had to fly him from a different province. This was an obscure role that we weren't able to fill locally, so we needed to look elsewhere for candidates. So the day that they wanted this interview to happen was one, was the one day when everyone was available. And they'd already given me the day. They'd said, okay, it has to be on Thursday, this day. So when I checked the flights for this day, they were super expensive, more than I'd paid for a flight before. I tried to contact my manager, but he was out of town. He travels a lot and quite often he's not available. I knew that the flight prices were only going to go up as more seats were getting booked, so I had to make a decision. So the decision was a tough call to make because this is what I was thinking in my head. I was like, okay, I can try to make a reschedule work with the available time of 5 different people on a different day with a better flight price, or I could book the more expensive ticket on the appointed day and hope that they would be okay with the fact that I had to pay more for this ticket. So what did I do? Well, I booked the more expensive ticket. When my boss got back, I told him that first thing that I'd made that decision and that I booked the ticket. and how expensive it was. And when I told him, he at first said, oh my goodness, that's really expensive. He didn't seem very happy about it at first, but then I explained to him the context and he thought about it and he's like, yeah, okay, we needed to get that guy in for an interview. So you did make the right call. And then even, I think he said rescheduling all those people would have probably taken more time and money than, than the decision to make the call because the people that he was going to be interviewing with were some very high-level people and it was difficult to get time on their calendars. So for that reason it ended up working out. So the result from the action, to show that I was aware, I also let him know that I knew that the flight had gone over budget and I made some suggestions on how we could save on other areas of the hiring process to make things easier for the cost and even out the budget for the cost of the ticket. He appreciated that line of thinking and he said that that was good. And he even mentioned that on my review. He said, I appreciate that you were looking out for the budget and looking for other areas to cut. But did I make the right call? In the end, it depends on the company, the manager, and the situation. So the point is that I made a decision, whether it was the right decision or not. It was not possible for me to know at the time when I made the decision. I just had to make one. So the worst thing that could have happened was I did nothing. Like I could have just sat there and been like, oh well, I didn't know what to do, so I didn't do anything. It just Waited for my manager to get back and he didn't respond. And so I didn't know. So, and sometimes I've had staff do that and I'm just like, why didn't you just do something or ask somebody? Or if there is no one to ask, just do something. Because sometimes you just have to act and you can never know if it's right or not, right? Until you do it. So are there any interesting features to add? Well, airline prices are tricky. I did some research after this happened and I learned a few new tricks to get cheaper flights. That I would be happy to share with you if you ever needed flights booked. So this is kind of cool because it's showing value that you're bringing right away. It's like, well, this is what I learned. And if you ever need this, I'm your girl or guy, right? So what did you learn? It takes more courage to make a tough decision than to not make any decision at all. So that was the key in this situation. It was make a decision. And yes, it is tough. That's why it's called a difficult decision. All right. So next example. Tell me about a time you made a mistake at work. So psychology behind this. The question is designed to see your overall attitude towards when you screw up. What do you do when you make a mistake and how do you see mistakes? How do you deal with things when— excuse me. How do you deal with things when things don't go perfectly the way they're supposed to? Because let's face it, they don't, right? How do you take responsibility for failures and/or mistakes? So this is another example. So we're going to set the stage. 3 hours before a new hire meeting. So we had a whole bunch of new hires. They were all set to meet for their training. Um, I realized that I forgot to invite our CEO to present. So the CEO always does a presentation on cultural culture, stock options, and kind of introduces them to the company. And when I emailed our CEO to say, oh, I forgot to invite you to this meeting where you're supposed to be presenting to the new hires, I got an auto response back saying that he was on vacation. It was unlikely he would even get my message, let alone show up to present to our large group of eager new employees. So there would be 20 people expecting to hear their new CEO speak and he was not going to make his appearance at all because I did not invite him. This was a big screw up, very clear, very obvious screw up. So not ashamed to admit that, just saying this is kind of what happened. So now we're going to talk about what I did. So the first thing, I owned up to the mistake. There was only really one thing to do. There was no excuses. It was just flat out, this is what happened. It was my fault and this is what I plan to do about it. So we set up a prerecorded presentation for the new hires to watch. It may have been slightly outdated, but it was certainly better than nothing. So the CEO had done this presentation before and it had been recorded. So we set that up for the new hires to watch. We let them know that the CEO would not be showing up and this is what we were going to do instead. Secondly, I let the new hires know about our miscommunication and assured them that we would do our best to set up another time to hear him speak and we would keep them posted on when that would be scheduled. So the results of the action, the CEO was happy that we found a plan B quickly and said that we'd do a remote meeting for everyone later on and not to worry, it was not a big deal. Whew. Okay. So I was not in huge trouble. Are there any interesting features to add? Well, an insightful comment on how you view mistakes or failures is always a bonus. So I chose this one. It's not a mistake, it's a lesson if you vow never to repeat it, or growth moments happen from mistakes. So this works well as a nice soundbite that they can easily remember. Mistakes and failures are rich with experience. They can demonstrate character building, learning, and lots of growth. So don't shy away from talking about mistakes and failures. Embrace them, own them, and believe that they make you a better person. So what did you learn? I learned that sometimes things are not a big deal unless you make them a big deal. So in my head I was going crazy. I was like, oh my goodness, how could you do this? I was beating myself up and in the end it wasn't that big of a deal. I was really surprised. Troy said, well, if this is the only thing that you dropped the ball on, then you're not doing too badly. And I was like, okay, thank you. But I still feel really bad about it. So I also learned that beating myself up about this was not useful, didn't help or didn't serve anybody. So the most I could do was take the lesson with me and not do it again, which I haven't. All right, next one. Tell me about a time you demonstrated leadership skills. So we kind of covered this one in the beginning, but this is a different example. So psychology behind it, what should you know? So they want to see how you directed someone or led a team. How did you step up when no one else would? So the best type of story here is one demonstrating when you took action and everyone else did not take action, or when people didn't know what to do, but you did something. If you don't have a story like that yet, that's fine. You can use a story of how you were thinking ahead, how you started doing something and others followed suit. At the end, we'll cover a whole bunch more questions you can ask yourself to come up with leadership stories. And don't worry, it doesn't mean that you have to have led a team of soldiers into battle to have a good leadership story. There's lots of options for how to tell one. So a few ideas. You showed someone else how to do something, train someone else successfully, delegated a task to someone. So that's leading somebody into doing something. You made a decision that no one else wanted to make and you moved forward with it confidently. You took responsibility for something that wasn't your responsibility, which takes guts and leadership skills. You owned up to something if you made a mistake instead of blaming another person or a circumstance. That's also a leadership quality. You put the people around you ahead of yourself. And that's a concept from Leaders Eat Last. And that is from Simon Sinek. Not sure if you've ever heard of him, but he's a pretty cool guy. So leadership starts with one person. And like I said, you don't have to have led a group of people or have done anything amazing to have demonstrated leadership qualities and skills. within yourself. You can talk about a time that you showed one of your friends how to do something that they didn't know how to do, or a time you made a quick decision and helped someone out in their time of need. Any of the above examples would work. The more that you can think of, the better. So this is one that I really like to use because it's really impactful. So first we set the stage. We were driving and we saw a motorcycle crash. On the side of the road. When we pulled over, we saw that someone was already calling 911, but other people were standing there not sure what to do or how to help. So this story is actually about my husband. He did this. So some people are really good in a crisis. They're really good to react to emergency situations and some people are not. So if you are one of these people and you have stepped up in a situation like this, it would be a great story to tell. If you haven't, that is completely fine. You have other stories to tell from your life. Trust me. We will get to those later and I'll give you more questions to dig those out. So what did he do? So this is talking about my husband. So he took action. He went over to the guy who was on the ground. He elevated his head and talked to him to keep him conscious until the paramedics arrived. Result of the actions. When the paramedics arrived, they told him to keep doing what he was doing as they were stopping traffic, clearing the scene so that they could take the guy to the hospital. So interesting features. The reaction in the situation comes from the flight or fight, fight or flight response. We all have that as humans. So I chose, or while my husband chose to fight, he chose to go in there and really, you know, do, do what was necessary. And he knew what to do somehow, where others may have chosen to flight. Both are understandable options. So some people would be like, okay, I'm leaving. I don't know what to do or how to help, or that he's already getting help. And some people would be like, okay, well, I got to get in there and help. Right? So these are 2 different types of personalities. Either one, completely fine. My husband is the one who's good in a crisis. I'm the one who's good at coaching people. My husband's awful at coaching people. So what did you learn? I learned that when things happen, not everyone knows what to do. Calling the ambulance is the obvious first move, but beyond that, a lot of people panic. Everyone's different and reacts differently in times of high stress. So this is an example of leadership. He got in there and he, he was leading the scene. He was leading by example of what to do and he was giving directions to people to like get him a blanket, just get some water, go clear those cars over. Like he was, he was leading the scene in a crisis. So tell me about a time, next one, moving on here. Tell me about a time when you had to work with a difficult So psychology behind this one. This is a chance to showcase your diplomacy, how you speak to someone who's being difficult or challenging and how you reason with them. This happens all the time. So showing what tools you have to deal with these situations is really important to employers. They want to hear how you do this. They want to see that you don't get unnecessarily personal or caught up in workplace drama. They want to see that you deal with the situation and handle it diplomatically and are focused on the outcome that you want to get. So in the workplace, if we can avoid drama at all costs, this is the best thing you can show to someone in an interview. So talk about the key actions that you took. In the case of a conflict story, the focus should be on how it was resolved and how the disagreement was professional and productive. So disagreements are totally fine, but they shouldn't take up a whole bunch more time than they need to. So dealing with a lovely coworker who was not deadline oriented. So setting the stage. So I managed to create, um, I managed the creation of a new hire brochure. We were on a tight deadline as we needed to get the brochures to the printer in time for the career fair. As the project manager on this, I was responsible for making sure it was delivered on time. The designer assigned to the project, He was very good, but he was not deadline-oriented. He missed several deadlines that I had assigned to him before. When I talked to him about it, he panicked. So what did I do? First, I did empathize with him, acknowledged that the deadlines were difficult to meet, and explained to him what we needed and we needed the brochures ready and the importance of this. He calmed down and then he realized that I was there to help because I approached in a non-threatening way. He told me about his huge workload and how he felt like he was drowning and unable to do everything that was required. I suggested that we brainstorm a solution. So what was the result of your action? After brainstorming for a bit, we decided that work, that the work wasn't being evenly distributed and that it would help if his manager had a better understanding of how important and time-consuming this particular project was. We spoke to his manager together. She didn't realize that he had all this stuff going on and she became aware. She reassigned some of his projects to another designer and then this freed him up To work on our brochure. So the designer was able to focus on the brochure and meet the deadline. He apologized for his freakout and said he appreciated my help. He was able to think more clearly and he had someone on his side. The brochure was completed in time and we received numerous compliments on it. And that's it. So interesting features. I realized I didn't have to make another person wrong to get the result that we both wanted. What did I learn? I learned to go in with the aim to help the person in question, not to criticize or get annoyed with them, and to come from a place of understanding and offering to help. So I could also say that you can never go wrong with having compassion for somebody first before you assume that they're just lazy and not doing or not caring. So that's helped me in my life as well. Just, you can never go wrong with just having compassion and Coming from a place of compassion before you jump to a conclusion and think that they are lazy or not doing their work or pulling their weight. So there's usually, usually a good reason. All right, moving on. So next we're going to talk about how you would answer, describe a time when you received criticism. So sometimes people can find this really difficult to deal with, like receiving criticism for some people is really hard. And if you're one of those people, then this will be really valuable for you. So the psychology behind this. So like the mistake question, excuse me, like the mistake question, this illustrates your ability to learn. Being open to feedback is not easy for most people. They want to see that you can take the feedback in stride, analyze it, and make changes based upon the criticism, assuming that it makes sense. And that it's constructive. Good candidates don't take it personally at all, and the good answer will show emotional maturity, adaptability, and open-mindedness. They want to see that you not only take it in stride, but you also don't get defensive or blame other people. Rather, you just take it and either use it to improve or don't use it. If it's silly feedback, then you don't need to always implement everything that people tell you, but it's more about the way that you accept the feedback and the way that you communicate back to the person who gives it to you. All right, so example, feedback on family-friendly. So I've been in event management for a bit of my career and this is a story about some feedback that I received on an event that I put on. So setting the stage, I was responsible for a large staff event. At the end of the event, I sent out a survey to receive Feedback on how the event could be improved. So I was asking for this feedback, which shows that I was open to receiving it. So that's the first thing. I received some good feedback, which included some criticism. So a lot of people said it was great. We really love this and we love the food and you know everything was great. But some of the criticism was very specific, and it said that. There was not enough activities for kids and the kids were bored. So that was the feedback that I received and I could have construed that as negative feedback or I could have thought to myself, I could have thought a whole bunch of things. But what did I do? The feedback was appreciated and I agreed that this was in fact the case. The next time I got suggestions for kids' activities from people who, who had kids because I don't have any kids. So I recognized that I might not have done the best job of finding activities for kids this first time, planning an event that was for families. So the result of the action at the next event, which we had for families, we invited, we had a lot more kids' activities. So we had a bouncy castle, which was the biggest hit. It kept kids busy for hours. If we weren't, if it weren't for that feedback, we probably, I probably would have continued to do things the same way and not had that many things that kids like to do. So I think the last time I had a bocce ball set and some bubbles or something, and the kids kind of got bored with those quickly and then were kind of not really having anything to do. So the bouncy castle was a way better idea. And if someone hadn't have said that, if someone hadn't have said in the survey that the kids were bored, then I wouldn't have gone out of my way to find different activities that the kids would love, right? So this, this is how the feedback was really— constructive and really did make things better. Are there any interesting features to add? So without the criticism, you can't grow and you can't aim to keep everyone happy either, but you can aim to make sure everyone is heard. So there was a lot of feedback on that survey that I thought was silly. Like they said to me, well, I guess the feedback, there's always something to be taken from the feedback. Another part of the feedback said that there was, that there weren't enough selections for nonalcoholic drinks. Uh, they said that there was only, Um, that there was only like 2 or 3 things. And in my head I thought, that's not true. We had a whole bunch of stuff. We had juice, we had pop. But I guess the feedback that I needed to take from that was it wasn't communicated enough or it wasn't set out in a place where everybody could see it. So I could choose to take that or I could just be like, okay, well that person obviously didn't, wasn't paying attention. Maybe they didn't look. So it's all in how you interpret the feedback. So what did I learn? I learned that sometimes in order to consider all people, I need to consult with others and gather opinions. Especially if they have more experience with certain things than me. In this case, they had kids and I didn't, so they would have a better idea, or at least they'd have some really good suggestions on what would keep kids entertained and happy for longer than I would have on my own. And there we have it. So that's the end of that example. So we're coming to almost the tail end of our training here, and you might be thinking, okay, these examples are great, but how do I come up with my stories? So the answer to that, as I mentioned earlier, is you ask your own brain the right questions. So when you ask your brain a question, it can't help but answer. Your brain is like Google. You input a question and it's going to start generating answers. It might take a little while, but if you ask yourself, you come up with answers. It's just how your brain works. So if you're still stuck for coming up with your stories, I'm going to Read through in a minute, 25 questions that you can ask yourself to see what's under the water of that iceberg of yours when it comes to good examples in your story file. So what the interview— what the interviewer sees when they meet you is just the tip of the iceberg. All your goodness, all your good stories, all your value, all your experiences, all your skills, they're all underneath in that iceberg and we need to get them out and we need to show them to the employers, to the hiring managers, so that they can see how valuable you are, what you bring to the table, and why they want to hire you. So here are some questions that you can ask. So when did you change a process to make it work better? When did you train someone to do something that he or she didn't know how to do before you showed them? When did you get people who weren't cooperating, to collaborate together on something? When did you help a customer or outside salesperson save the day or anybody in your department? When did you help someone in finance or someone in HR, even if it was just with a small thing? When did you write a newsletter, a report, or a presentation or a marketing piece? Have you ever written an article or anything like that? When did you mention or when did you mentor someone who needed advice or help with something? When did you design a report that was smarter than the one it replaced or that filled a need that hadn't been filled before? When did you solve a tough process problem at work, simplifying it or something like, for example, you could reduce the amount of steps in a process, um, maybe making something a lot more simple and less confusing than it was before. When did you suggest a good idea and keep pushing it until it was finally put into place? When did you conduct a survey or gather opinions about the best way to proceed? Excuse me, the best way to proceed to get the goal that you wanted. When did you sell or help someone a product or service or a new idea to the management team or a concept working for somebody? Sorry, I'm going to say that one again. I got totally mixed up. When did you sell or help sell something? For example, a product or service, a new idea to the management team, or the concept of working for your company to a friend even. So we are selling all day long. Like we don't even realize that we're selling all day long. And you'll say, I don't know how to sell myself, but if you've ever convinced your friend that they need an iPhone, you have sold them on the idea of upgrading their phone. It's as simple as that. When did you fill a key role on a team that would have been When did you jump into a bad situation and fix it? When did you go ahead without any direction because there wasn't any direction available and figure out the right answer on your own? Okay, question 15. When did you represent your employer in a public setting, at an association meeting or at a trade show for instance, and how did you help to enhance its reputation? Maybe it was simply by having really good conversations with people at this event. When did you develop a piece of training or instructional information that helped people understand their work better? When did you save yourself or someone else the time or money by using things that were between your ears? And by that I mean your brain and different parts of your brain. When did you find a bug or a problem that no one else had spotted And either fix it yourself or get it fixed? When did you manage a project to see it completed, whether it was in your job description or not? When did you deal with an emergency or an unexpected situation and you were there at the right time and you did the right things? When did you get someone to talk about and allow for a resolution of a problem that had been hush-hush before you got there? Sometimes people don't talk to each other. I'm finding this a lot. Somebody might be mad at somebody else and somebody, maybe it takes you to come in and be like, hey, why don't you guys talk to each other about this? When did you serve as a conduit between people who should have been collaborating but were not? When did you come up with a better way to think about something or evaluate something, a better frame as we would say, or sell a perspective to the rest of your team? When did you advise your boss or someone else's boss on an idea? When did you feel like you were really alive and successful in your job? Every time you've had that feeling, there is at least one great example story there. So all these questions, I want you to go through each one and think about what comes up for your brain. Just get a piece of paper and just start writing things down. So even me going through this again, all these stories are coming up for me and they're new stories, ones that I haven't even written down. So if you're going to be in the top 1% of candidates that gets the job offers that you already know you need to get, your stories need to be strong, impactful, meaningful, and move people to action. So stories are going to connect to people on a very deep human level. And if you want to go deeper with this, here's what I'm going to present to you. So I have the Ultimate Behavioral Interview Guide, And this guide has 50 example answers. So you get immediate access to this guide and you get 50 more, and there's more than 50 from a wide range of industries so that you can deliver your own stories with unshakable confidence and win your interviews— interviewers over in an hour or however much time you have in the interview. So this is what it looks like. It's a PDF guide. You download it. It's 228 pages long. It's got 50 examples for you to draw inspiration from to win your interviewer over. And they're just like the ones that we went over today on this training. They're all different. So when you, when you purchase the guide, you don't just get those 50 example answers, you get a whole bunch more as well. So you also learn the number one mistake made by 90% of interview candidates when answering behavioral questions. This one mistake can guarantee that the person won't get hired. You're going to learn how to choose the right stories to tell in each situation so that you can keep the interviewers wanting more, even if you don't have any good stories to tell or you think you have too many stories and you can't decide. You're also going to get 2 psychological tactics that less experienced candidates can use to make an interviewer always choose them over another candidate who has more experience. Experience. You're also going to learn the 3 things that inexperienced candidates do that instantly tell an interviewer that they are not confident enough for the job. This ruins their chances of being hired, and I'll teach you what to do instead. So you're also going to get how to craft a killer career story that stops your interviewer cold. Find the right trigger words that will pinch your interviewer and make Her hang on your every word. So I've read a lot of career books and bought a lot of courses, and honestly, it wasn't until I did this one thing that it all started to happen for me. So I share the single most powerful thing you can do to connect with your interviewers and why almost no candidates do it. So here's just a few words from a couple of the people who have used this guide. So this is Jonathan Santos. He said, I've been laid off from work unexpectedly, trying to find work, but was failing at my interviews. I now have a job working for a major financial company in the world. Natalie's guide has definitely helped me ace my interview. The guide has a lot of questions and tips that are very useful in different questions that may arise during the course of the hiring process. It also makes you self-sufficient as it teaches you how to respond during interviews with the correct Format. I will surely recommend this to anyone who wishes to land their dream job. I did through this guide. And then we have Mary Lou, who is actually a career coach. She says, "This guide is brilliant. Thank you. I really appreciate you making this available. I do career coaching and often try to make these points with candidates, but you've put it together very nicely. It's very pertinent to today's market and expresses everything very clearly. I look forward to your." following articles. So it just warmed my heart that career coaches around the world are using this guide and these principles in order to teach their students how to ace, nail their job interviews. So it works, my friends, it really does. And so here's a few other people. I used your material to get a second round of interviews at Google. So this particular candidate did not want to share his identity because he didn't want his employer or other people to maybe see him online. But this guide is that powerful that it helped him get a second round of interviews at Google. And then we've got Ezra. She has been one of my students in the past. She attended one of my other trainings, but she said she got 6 interviews over the space of 2 weeks and landed 4 job offers and that her biggest issue was trying to figure out where she wanted to work. So I just love that one. And then Amanda, she said she purchased it and she said she's the kind of person who blanks when it comes to remembering good work stories and she realized this doesn't help her confidence. So the lessons here have helped her feel much more confident when she goes in for the interview. So how much does it cost? So you can get immediate access to this guide for $49. And it's got the 50 examples plus everything else that I told you about. And I'm also going to include some bonuses. So when you buy before the end of the day today, you're also going to get the secondary PDF, 6 Stories to Nail an Interview. So with the 50 examples, you're going to get 6 stories and these are just the, the categories of which you want to focus on. So if you're like, oh my goodness, there's so many behavioral interview questions, I don't know which ones to go with. Start with or where to focus first. This is going to tell you that you want to have at the very least 6 core stories nailed. Okay? And you can use those interchangeably during the interview and they're going to ask you the questions and you're going to be able to respond with one of these 6 stories. So this is the foundation. And then I also want to offer you, when you buy before the end of the day today, full point-by-point interview checklist. So you're going to get this so you can print this out. You can have it all ready and be completely set for your interview. So to purchase now, simply go to the link listed here on the screen or click the link below this video. I can't wait for you to get started working on these powerful stories. And as well, if you are interested in one-on-one coaching with me where we dig into the stories and personally review your own stories, I will give you an opportunity to get signed up for a one-on-one coaching call with me as well. So if you're interested in getting started, click the link below this video, purchase your guide to get the bonuses before the end of the day today, before midnight tonight, and I will give you an opportunity to also get on a one-on-one call with me where we can go through And talk about your specific situation. So it's been super fun doing this training, and I hope to see you on the other side. Go ahead and grab the guide. All right, have a good day. Bye.