In this instructional video, career coach Natalie Fisher walks viewers through answering the situational interview question, “Tell me about a time you had to convince executives or higher‑ups to prioritize your tasks.” She explains why employers ask this question—to assess a candidate’s ability to influence decision‑makers and keep projects moving. Fisher introduces the SARI (also known as STAR) framework—Situation, Action, Result, Interesting features—to structure a concise, compelling response. She then provides a detailed, step‑by‑step example from her own experience managing a large office build‑out where an executive sponsor repeatedly delayed critical decisions. She outlines the situation (stalled decisions on paint color), the actions taken (a deadline‑driven email with highlighted consequences and a follow‑up messenger reminder), the result (the executive scheduled a meeting and approved the decisions), and the interesting features/learned insights (clarity, visual emphasis, and polite persistence resolved the bottleneck). Fisher concludes with broader interview strategy advice, promotes her website and a free downloadable guide that includes the SARI formula breakdown, templates, and additional example questions, and invites viewers to submit future situational topics.
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Hi, my name is Natalie Fisher, and in this video we will answer the situational interview question, tell me about a time when you had to convince executives or perhaps higher-up people in the organization to prioritize Your tasks. So this is essentially a question in how did you persuade somebody or how did you convince somebody, but it's a little more specific. So in this video, we're going to cover a sneak peek into why they might ask this question, what to say when you're answering the question, and a concrete example of exactly how one might answer this question. So stay tuned. All right, so what's the truth about this question? What's the deal here? So the reason they might ask this is if the job entails getting things done that may be blocked by somebody, and they need to see that you're going to have the tools in your toolbox to handle that. So I worked in a position where I was constantly relying on people to make decisions, and it was quite challenging to get them to do it. So they want to see that you can. So here's how you're going to answer. We're going to use the SARI formula. So the SARI formula stands for situation, action, result, interesting features. So it could be STAR, so it could be situation, task, action, result. It's all the same thing and it's all awesome. It's all going to structure your story into a nice little neat package that you can deliver to the interviewer and they're going to be like, wow, cool. So let's get started. Your powerful story is going to start by setting the stage. It's going to start by explaining the exact situation that you're in and how you handled it. So I'm going to use an example here, and we're going to start with step 1, the situation. So setting the stage here, I was in a situation where I was working on a large office build-out project, and the executive sponsor on the project was really stalling on some of the decisions that were important to be made. And she told me that she really wanted to be involved in these decisions, but the meetings that we had kept getting postponed, and time to discuss with her was very limited. very challenging to get on the books. So that's setting the stage. That explains the situation very well. Step 2, action. What did you do here? So there was a couple of actions. One, I crafted an email with a timeline, and this had the deadlines for when the decisions needed to be made. And 2, it had the consequence of what would happen if the decisions did not get made by the deadline. I, for example, if she didn't decide on paint color for the walls, then they were just going to paint everything beige and we wouldn't be able to do anything about it because we missed the deadline. So I made sure to highlight these deadlines in the email, bright yellow, bold font. Then I checked with her on company Messenger, so I followed up after the email to say, hey, just wanted to make sure that you saw my email, that we need to get these decisions in by this So that shows the two actions clearly. Step three: What was the result here? So the result was she responded with, "Okay, please schedule a meeting for us tomorrow. My calendar is up to date, and bring the color samples, and we will decide on what works best, and we will then move forward with the rest of the timeline so we don't miss any deadlines. Please invite so and so, so and so to the meeting." Thank you. So that was the result. She saw everything out and very clear, and she thought, hmm, I better get moving on this. So step 4, interesting features. What did you learn here? What went well here? So example, what I found interesting about this was that something I found to be very frustrating at first just needed a bit of extra explanation and communication and clarity. So one of the facts Getting the facts out there on the table very clearly, it became a lot easier and we developed a way of communicating where we both got what we needed. So making everything super clear to her with yellow highlights and a lot of polite reminders was all that was needed to get the information to move forward. And there we have it. So thank you so much for watching. I'm Natalie Fisher, and remember, nailing the interview questions is good, but there's so much more to interviewing than just the questions. So what do you do if all you answer the questions— if you have more to it? You need an entire interview strategy if you want to land those job offers. That's what I help you with. My name is Natalie Fisher. You can visit nataliefisher.ca for more information. If you'd like to get started right away, you can click the link below and download my free guide. In the free guide, you are going to get instant access to the SARI formula breakdown plus an example. So we'll explain exactly why the SARI formula works so well, and you're going to get 10 concrete examples of common behavioral inter— situational interview questions answered. And you're also going to get fill-in-the-blank templates. So for everything that you wondered how to start, what to say. All you have to do is fill in your own stories and you'll be ready to go. And if you're still getting stuck, I've included 25 questions for you to ask yourself so that you can get unstuck with those— with coming up with those stories yourself, because I know that is challenging. And if you're still not sold on it, it comes in a beautifully designed workbook and it's specifically designed to help you prepare Prep for that interview you've got coming up. So thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time right here on Natalie TV. And if you have any situational interview questions you'd like me to answer, send them to me, and I will make a video for you because that's what I do. Bam!
