👊 Interview Question | A Time When You Disagreed with Your Boss (+ Example)

Well, hello there. I'm Natalie, and I'm back with another video. Your career lifeguard and author of Get Any Job You Want. Today we've got a powerful story to tell, and we need to learn how to tell it for a job interview. Now that story is, tell me about a time when you disagreed with your boss. Specifically, when you're asked to tell a story about a time when you disagreed with your boss, how do you respond? Do you have a story ready or do you have to think about it? Let's find out. What you're going to learn in this video: 4 basic points to consider when answering this question, what your conflict style is, and a deep dive into one concrete example of a disagreement. And just for fun, one bad example. So stay tuned. 4 key points to remember. As I always say, this answer should come in the form of a story with details. That's how people remember you. That's how people get to know you. And that's what captivates people when they speak to you. The story should be around 30 to 60 seconds long, not much longer than a minute and a half, or you could just start rambling and not know when to stop. When telling your story, always be respectful of the boss character in the story. Use a nice tone and put him or her in a respectful light when telling the story. The real thing that they want to know is how do you handle a conflict? Everyone has their own unique way of handling conflict. What's yours? We'll get more into this in just a minute. At the end of the day, they are the boss with ultimately the ability to fire you in most cases. So even though bosses make mistakes too, the story should reflect that you respect authority. If you're in a job where you have a boss, the truth is you need to respect it. Respect that person's authority, even though sometimes it can be hard, and even though that person is only human and they can be wrong. A good boss will listen to your suggestions, and if you disagree with him or her, they'll want to know more and they'll be interested in why. Let's talk about you before we go into any answering. Ask yourself, how do you handle conflict? Do you get very stressed out and confront it head-on, or do you shy away from it and try to ignore it and pretend it's not there? Do you just go along with what the boss wants even though you disagree? Or do you push forward until you can make change happen? What's your ideal way of solving a disagreement? Now that we've hopefully unpacked a little bit about you, let's get into a real example. Your answer needs to reflect you and your true beliefs and your true experiences and personality. Bringing yourself to the interview is the only true way you can find the best fit for you in your career. That said, I'm going to give you an example so that you know what we're working with here. So example, manager or big boss man or woman wants you to plan a big staff event and it's going to cost a lot of money for the company. They want to do it on a Sunday. You know that people are with their families on a Sunday and a lot of people are likely not going to show up to this event. Therefore, you know that the money won't be best spent and that the goals for this event probably won't be achieved because of the date. But how do you tell your boss this? So you might suggest to move the event to Friday afternoon or Saturday. Here are a few ways you can approach this with your boss. You probably already thought of this, but we could host the event on a Friday or Saturday instead. You can gauge a good reaction when you put it out there like that. Or another way is, have you thought of hosting the event on a Friday or Saturday instead? And the third way is, I was hoping to better understand why the event is going to take place Is there a reason we haven't considered hosting the event on another day? This is a very innocent and very careful way to approach the disagreement. And finally, this is my favorite way, if it applies. At my last company, we did this event on a Friday and we found that we had a lot better attendance than when we did it on a Sunday. Would you be open to doing it on a Friday? The boss may give you a very good reason as to why they chose Sunday for the event, a reason that maybe you weren't aware of. Perhaps there is no reason and it's just a plain old bad idea. Whatever the case, you need to voice your concerns and you need to bring them up. That's what they're looking for when you want to answer this question. They want to know that you know how to approach the situation. With approaching them with your concern and suggestion in a kind manner, you've now done what you need to do. If they still say no, then you can have a little back and forth, but don't take it too far. They are the boss. I've seen people stand up to authority repeatedly in their careers. Even in the most high-level positions, and they always end up getting fired. It's sad because they're very good at their job and they didn't want to be fired. If you're someone who's not very good at approaching a disagreement with your boss, then perhaps you should be starting your own business. And the answer to this question using this example would sound like this. Tell a story of the event, then tell how you approach the disagreement, and Then tell the end result. Then you're done. Right, and I almost forgot about the bad example. So the bad example is pretty simple, and it would just simply say, I've never had a disagreement with my boss ever. If you are absolutely stumped and you've got nothing, you could say, I could tell you about a time when I disagreed with one of my coworkers. Would that work? This may be easier for you to find a concrete story to tell. I understand it's difficult to construct a story, especially if you're not prepared. And there you have it. Good example, some back and forth, some general guidelines. Always remember, if you take nothing away from this video, tell a story with specifics and details. That makes you interesting, memorable, and relevant. Now I'd love to hear from you. How do you feel about this question? Can you think of a disagreement you've had with your boss, or do you have trouble thinking of one? If you'd like to go deeper with me, head on over to asknataliefisher.com or click the link below to get started. When you sign up, you'll receive the free toolkit and weekly updates with exclusive information that I share through email. So head on over and get started now. Do you know of one person who could benefit from this info? If so, you know what to do. And remember, the current system isn't perfect. It's kind of messed up, I think. But you can outsmart it, and I'm here to prove to you that you have what it takes, and I've got you covered. See you next week, and I can't wait.